Research On The Impact Of Environmental Information Disclosure On Corporate Financial Performance

In an era featuring high-quality development,ecological conservation remains a key issue in China’s sustainable development,and realizing mutually beneficial ties between the environment and economy is of great importance to enhance the quality of China’s economic growth.As an economic body,enterprises are responsible for coordinating the environment with economic growth in line with the development theme in this era.In this regard,China has put forward requirements for enterprises on environmental governance and issued environmental information disclosure measures,which ask enterprises to disclose their environmental governance and other information during production and operation.In this context,this thesis focuses on the impact of environmental disclosure on the economic interests of businesses,especially those in high-polluting industries,which are paid high expectations for environmental protection by the people and the country.Based on the combined theoretical framework consisted of sustainable development theory,basis theory of environmental protection,cost effect,compensation for innovation effect,public reputation theory as well as information asymmetry theory,this thesis explores the impact of environmental disclosure of high polluting enterprises on their financial performance,and studies the mediating effect of green technological innovation and the regulating effect of ownership property are further discussed to enhance the quality of research on the relationship between environmental disclosure and financial performance,and to offer fresh evidence on this topic,thereby enriching the current understanding of the subject matter.Therefore,this thesis examines the relevant research literature and analyzes the relevant theoretical framework conditions.The study employs panel data of 525 listed enterprises operating in heavily polluting industries as the sample period from 2013 to 2021 and proposes its hypotheses based on the theory of sustainable development,cost effect,and compensation for innovation effect,the study proposes research hypotheses.The study also employs the individual-time bidirectional fixed effect method to examine the impact of environmental disclosure on corporate financial performance and the underlying mechanisms that drive this relationship.Furthermore,the study expands the analysis on the differences in the impact of environmental disclosure on corporate financial performance across enterprises of different sizes and regions.The findings of this study reveal the following: Firstly,the environmental disclosure of enterprises operating in heavily polluting industries has a positive U-shaped impact on their financial performance.Specifically,when the level of environmental disclosure reaches a critical value of 0.483 or higher,it positively promotes the financial performance of these enterprises.Secondly,the study finds that green technology innovation mediates the relationship between corporate environmental disclosure and financial performance.The positive U-shaped impact of environmental disclosure on corporate financial performance is partially explained by the mediating effect of green technology innovation,which accounts for 23.16% of the total effect.Thirdly,the study finds that the nature of corporate ownership positively moderates the U-shaped relationship between environmental disclosure and financial performance.Specifically,the impact of environmental disclosure on financial performance is more significant for state-owned enterprises than for non-state-owned enterprises.Fourthly,the researches reveals that company size and regional differences have varying impacts on the relationship between environmental disclosure and financial performance.Environmental statements have a greater positive U-shaped impact on the financial development of large enterprises and enterprises in Eastern China.The study shows that company size and regional differences have different impacts on the relationship between environmental disclosure and financial performance.Environmental statements have a greater positive impact on the financial development of large enterprises and enterprises in Eastern China.In light of these findings,enterprises should actively disclose high-quality environmental information,leverage the intermediary role of green technology innovation,rationally utilize their equity nature,and obtain superior resources to improve their financial performance and achieve long-term development.The government,on the other hand,should moderately regulate the disclosure of environmental information by enterprises,regulate the investment environment for industries with high environmental impact,improve the quality and initiative of the disclosure of business environmental information,and promote the sustainable development of the environmental economy,thereby facilitating high-quality economic development at the national level.