Gu Chunxia, Shen Meixia
School of Economics and Management, Shanghai Maritime University, China.
Heliyon. 2024 Nov 28;10(23):e40779. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e40779. eCollection 2024 Dec 15.
The quality of corporate environmental information disclosure is concerned by all sectors of society. Using data on Chinese listed A-share companies in heavy polluting industries from 2015 to 2022, this study examines whether the "quantity" and "quality" dimensions of corporate environmental information disclosure have peer effects in the same region. Further, it compares the mechanism and economic consequences of the "real green" and "fake green" behaviors. The empirical results show that environmental information disclosure has peer effect in both "quantity" and "quality", and the "real green" behavior and "fake green" behavior also exist. Two underlying mechanisms are identified: social learning and competitive imitation mechanisms. Further analysis reveals that the peer effect of "Real green" behavior is derived from the competitive imitation mechanism, and that of "Fake green" behavior is derived from the social learning mechanism. Overall, the peer effect of environmental information disclosure quality weakens the green innovation ability. Further, shows that the peer effect of "Real green" behavior has a positive U-shaped impact on green innovation. Research attention and environmental regulation play a certain role in regulating the peer effect on the quality of environmental information disclosure.
企业环境信息披露质量受到社会各界关注。本研究利用2015年至2022年中国重污染行业A股上市公司的数据，考察企业环境信息披露的“数量”和“质量”维度在同一地区是否存在 peer效应。此外，比较了“真绿”和“假绿”行为的作用机制和经济后果。实证结果表明，环境信息披露在“数量”和“质量”上均存在peer效应，且“真绿”行为和“假绿”行为也存在。识别出两个潜在机制：社会学习机制和竞争性模仿机制。进一步分析表明，“真绿”行为的peer效应源于竞争性模仿机制，“假绿”行为的peer效应源于社会学习机制。总体而言，环境信息披露质量的peer效应削弱了绿色创新能力。此外，研究表明“真绿”行为的peer效应对绿色创新具有正向U型影响。研究关注度和环境规制在调节环境信息披露质量的peer效应方面发挥了一定作用。
