| Environmental protection in the new era has become a major realistic problem affecting China’s high-quality development and global sustainable development.Our country has been attaching greater importance to environmental issues,elevating environmental protection to a political level and issuing a series of laws and regulations on environmental protection.As a cell in the economic system,enterprises play an important role in the process of economic model transformation,but also assume greater responsibility for environmental protection.Environmental management information disclosure is an effective way to urge enterprises to fulfill their environmental responsibility.However,on the one hand,there are data showing that many listed companies still have serious environmental protection problems and have been notified and punished by relevant national departments,but such information has not been disclosed in their environmental reports,social responsibility reports and other reports.This phenomenon causes me to pay attention to the motivation of enterprise environmental management information disclosure.On the other hand,with the promulgation of a series of laws and regulations,the rudiment of the supervision system of environmental information disclosure in China has been basically formed,and the academic and practical fields are very concerned about the economic consequences of environmental information disclosure.Previous studies on environmental information disclosure mainly focus on the disclosure of environment results,and there are few studies on the internal aspects of enterprises,that is,the efforts made by enterprises in environmental management.The level of environmental management information disclosure is an important reflection of the environmental management control activities of listed companies,and also an important basis for investors to evaluate the environmental management ability of listed companies.Therefore,based on the requirements of corporate environmental credit evaluation system on corporate environmental management,and referring to the Sustainable Development Reporting Guide(G3)of global Reporting Initiative and relevant expressions of environmental management key points in environmental protection practices of various countries,the thesis focuses on the internal environmental management perspective of enterprises.In detail,it includes of whether the enterprise has the environmental protection consciousness and form the correct ideas,whether the enterprise can combine enterprise industry characteristics and their own situation to set up the relevant environmental protection system,whether the enterprise sets up the relevant environmental protection organization structure and equips with the relevant management personnel,and whether the enterprise makes enough environmental protection propaganda and guidance work to the enterprise internal staff and the public.In general,the environmental management information disclosure index system is constructed from three aspects: environmental awareness and concept,environmental protection system and organization,environmental protection publicity and training.According to the descriptive statistics of enterprise environmental management information disclosure index,the level of disclosure among enterprises has obvious heterogeneity.Then,what factors affect the level of corporate environmental information disclosure? Based on the relevant research on the determinants of environmental information disclosure,the thesis will explore the determinants of environmental management information disclosure from four aspects,including the basic characteristics of the company,the characteristics of corporate governance,the intensity of environmental supervision and the characteristics of senior executives.Whether the enterprises that strengthen environmental management resources and improve the level of environmental management information disclosure for stakeholders to have a better understanding of their position in terms of environmental responsibility,efforts and achievements,can get government subsidies,improve earnings value relevance,and realize better performance? The thesis will conduct an empirical study on the economic consequences of environmental management information disclosure on government subsidies,earnings value relevance and firm performance.The empirical results show that:(1)Most of the listed companies in my country’s A-share manufacturing industry have disclosed environmental management information and there is a trend showing increase year by year;(2)The company’s basic characteristics,governance characteristics,the intensity of environmental protection supervision and executives’ personal traits affect environmental management information differently.In terms of the basic characteristics of the company,the larger the company’s assets,the longer the listing period,the better the financial status,and the higher the complexity of operations,the higher the level of corporate environmental management information disclosure.In terms of corporate governance characteristics,when the corporate is a state-owned enterprise,or has a large board of directors,or audited by the top ten accounting firms,the level of corporate environmental management information disclosure is higher,However,the integration of two roles will inhibit corporate environmental management information disclosure.In terms of the intensity of environmental supervision,when the company is in a heavy pollution industry,its level of environmental management information disclosure is higher.In terms of executives’ personal traits,the higher proportion of executives with overseas background,the higher level of corporate environmental management information disclosure.Further research found that the "13th Five-Year Plan for Ecological Environment Protection" has created more significant incentives for heavy pollution industries and key pollution companies,and promoted companies to disclose environmental management information;(3)The level of environmental management information disclosure can increase government subsidies,and this impact is more significant in private companies and industries with higher market competition.Finally,the high quality of corporate internal control can promote the effect of environmental management information disclosure on government subsidies;(4)The higher the level of environmental management information disclosure,the higher earnings value relevance.This relationship has a high contact of media and investors’ attention.Analyst attention,research report attention,and whether state-owned holdings all have an impact on the positive correlation between environmental management information disclosure and earnings value relevance.Institutional investor shareholding plays a part of the intermediary role in this positive correlation;(5)The level of environmental management information disclosure can promote the development of long-term market performance of enterprises,and this promotion is more prominent in enterprises with strong market competition and high marketization.Disclosure of environmental management information helps to increase institutional investors’ shareholding,which in turn improves the company’s long-term market performance.In addition,environmental protection investment can promote the impact of environmental management information disclosure on the company’s long-term market performance,and this relation just holds in firms with higher proportion of executives with overseas background.In summary,the results of this thesis show that the majority of companies would disclose environmental management information,and the degree of disclosure is affected by basic characteristics,governance characteristics,and supervision intensity.Furthermore,disclose environmental management information will have a positive effect on government subsidies,surplus value relevance,and corporate performance.This study not only supplements and enriches the literature on the determinants and economic consequences of corporate environmental management information disclosure,but also provides a beneficial supplement to the research on environment-society-governance(ESG).This thesis also expands the related research on the influence of executive heterogeneity on firm decision-making behavior.In addition,this study provides relevant theoretical and practical reference for promoting enterprises to disclose more detailed environmental management information,reduce externalities of enterprises,enhance corporate social responsibility and promote sustainable development under the context of "sustainable development" strategy. |
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