IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pacfin/v92y2025ics0927538x25001246.html

Beyond greenwashing: How does firm-level biodiversity disclosure affect corporate sustainability strategy?

Author

Listed:
  • He, Feng
  • Wei, Chunyang
  • Lucey, Brian
  • Hao, Jing

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of firm-level biodiversity disclosure on corporate sustainability strategy. Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2022, we find that a higher level of firm-level biodiversity disclosure is associated with a reduction in corporate green washing tendency, which is measured by the ESG report textual similarity. This effect is mainly achieved through reduction in information asymmetry and the promotion of green transition. Cross-sectional heterogeneity test reveals that the impact is more pronounced in firms with lower media coverage, firms in non-heavy-polluting industries, firms with weaker environmental regulations pressure, and firms with lower managerial myopia. Further analysis shows that increased firm-level biodiversity disclosure also enhances the tone of ESG reports and alleviate corporate financing constraints. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the economic impacts of environmental disclosure and expands the literature on the determinants of corporate sustainability strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • He, Feng & Wei, Chunyang & Lucey, Brian & Hao, Jing, 2025. "Beyond greenwashing: How does firm-level biodiversity disclosure affect corporate sustainability strategy?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:92:y:2025:i:c:s0927538x25001246
    DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102787
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927538X25001246
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102787?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhang, Xiu-e & Li, Na, 2024. "Management myopia and corporate innovation in China: Focus on the moderating role of equity incentives," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    2. Zhao, Yinghan & Qu, Xiaoyu & Lucey, Brian, 2025. "Managerial myopia and biodiversity alignment- evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    3. Bai, Caiquan & Yao, Di & Xue, Qihang, 2025. "Does artificial intelligence suppress firms' greenwashing behavior? Evidence from robot adoption in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    4. Michelon, Giovanna & Rodrigue, Michelle & Trevisan, Elisabetta, 2020. "The marketization of a social movement: Activists, shareholders and CSR disclosure," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    5. Tan, Ruipeng & Cai, Qijun & Pan, Lulu, 2024. "Faking for fortune: Emissions trading schemes and corporate greenwashing in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    6. Hao, Jing & Lu, Yue & Zhang, Jing & Bai, Hengyu & Wu, Ji (George), 2024. "Does provincial gambling culture affect corporate innovation? Evidence from China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    7. Asimakopoulos, Panagiotis & Asimakopoulos, Stylianos & Li, Xinyu, 2023. "The role of environmental, social, and governance rating on corporate debt structure," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    8. A. Garel & A. Petit-Romec & Z. Sautner & A. Wagner, 2024. "Do investors care about biodiversity?," Post-Print hal-04649052, HAL.
    9. Hutton, Amy P. & Marcus, Alan J. & Tehranian, Hassan, 2009. "Opaque financial reports, R2, and crash risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 67-86, October.
    10. Rizwan Ali & Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez & Beatriz Aibar‐Guzmán & Ramiz ur Rehman, 2024. "Is biodiversity disclosure emerging as a key topic on the agenda of institutional investors?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 2116-2142, March.
    11. Hao, Jing, 2023. "Retail investor attention and corporate innovation in the big data era," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    12. Fabrizio Zerbini, 2017. "CSR Initiatives as Market Signals: A Review and Research Agenda," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 1-23, November.
    13. Zhang, Guanglong, 2023. "Regulatory-driven corporate greenwashing: Evidence from “low-carbon city” pilot policy in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    14. repec:eme:aaaj00:aaaj-07-2013-1393 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Xue, Xingnan & Hu, Nan, 2023. "Economic policy uncertainty and imitation behaviors of corporate social responsibility practices: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    16. Alexander Bassen & Daniel Buchholz & Kerstin Lopatta & Anna R. Rudolf, 2024. "Biodiversity management and stock price crash risk," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 4788-4805, July.
    17. Linda Thorne & Lois S. Mahoney & Giacomo Manetti, 2014. "Motivations for issuing standalone CSR reports: a survey of Canadian firms," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 27(4), pages 686-714, April.
    18. Richard L Daft & Juhani Sormunen & Don Parks, 1988. "Chief executive scanning, environmental characteristics, and company performance: An empirical study," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(2), pages 123-139, March.
    19. Olivier Boiral, 2016. "Accounting for the Unaccountable: Biodiversity Reporting and Impression Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(4), pages 751-768, June.
    20. Hu, Shuo & Wang, Ailun & Du, Kerui, 2023. "Environmental tax reform and greenwashing: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    21. He, Feng & Duan, Lin & Cao, Yi & Wen, Shuyang, 2024. "Green credit policy and corporate climate risk exposure," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    22. Kevin Koh & Heather Li & Yen H. Tong, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and stakeholder engagement: Evidence from the quantity and quality of CSR disclosures," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 504-517, March.
    23. Ole-Kristian Hope & Danqi Hu & Hai Lu, 2016. "The benefits of specific risk-factor disclosures," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1005-1045, December.
    24. Wu, Wenfeng & Firth, Michael & Rui, Oliver M., 2014. "Trust and the provision of trade credit," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 146-159.
    25. Christopher Marquis & Michael W. Toffel & Yanhua Zhou, 2016. "Scrutiny, Norms, and Selective Disclosure: A Global Study of Greenwashing," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(2), pages 483-504, April.
    26. Shen, Lihua & Zhou, Jianan, 2024. "The role of biodiversity and energy transition in shaping the next techno-economic era," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    27. Alexandre Garel & Arthur Romec & Zacharias Sautner & Alexander F Wagner, 2024. "Do investors care about biodiversity?," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 28(4), pages 1151-1186.
    28. Linda Thorne & Lois S. Mahoney & Giacomo Manetti, 2014. "Motivations for issuing standalone CSR reports: a survey of Canadian firms," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 27(4), pages 686-714, April.
    29. Katie Kedward & Josh Ryan-Collins & Hugues Chenet, 2023. "Biodiversity loss and climate change interactions: financial stability implications for central banks and financial supervisors," Post-Print hal-04272244, HAL.
    30. Adamolekun, Gbenga, 2024. "Firm biodiversity risk, climate vulnerabilities, and bankruptcy risk," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    31. Yu, Ellen Pei-yi & Luu, Bac Van & Chen, Catherine Huirong, 2020. "Greenwashing in environmental, social and governance disclosures," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    32. Chantziaras, Antonios & Dedoulis, Emmanouil & Grougiou, Vassiliki & Leventis, Stergios, 2020. "The impact of religiosity and corruption on CSR reporting: The case of U.S. banks," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 362-374.
    33. Wu, Di & Sun, Qian & Zhang, Wenyu & Xu, Guanghua & Chan, Kam C. & Qin, Jie, 2024. "Does information content of a corporate social responsibility report matter for stock mispricing? Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PB).
    34. He, Feng & Hao, Jing & Lucey, Brian, 2024. "Effects of climate risk on corporate green innovation cycles," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    35. Tian, Ye & Chen, Heng, 2025. "Eco-innovation under pressure: How biodiversity risks shape corporate sustainability strategies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    36. Lee, Michael T. & Raschke, Robyn L., 2023. "Stakeholder legitimacy in firm greening and financial performance: What about greenwashing temptations?☆," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PB).
    37. Hu, Xinwen & Hua, Renhai & Liu, Qingfu & Wang, Chuanjie, 2023. "The green fog: Environmental rating disagreement and corporate greenwashing," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    38. repec:eme:aaaj00:aaaj-03-2016-2490 is not listed on IDEAS
    39. repec:hal:journl:hal-04699553 is not listed on IDEAS
    40. Liao, Feimei & Sun, Yinghao & Xu, Shulin, 2023. "Financial report comment letters and greenwashing in environmental, social and governance disclosures: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PB).
    41. Thang Ngoc Bach & Khanh Hoang & Thanh Le, 2025. "Biodiversity risk and firm performance: Evidence from US firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 1113-1132, January.
    42. Shivaram Rajgopal & Prasanna Tantri, 2023. "Does a Government Mandate Crowd Out Voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility? Evidence from India," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 61(1), pages 415-447, March.
    43. Alkhawaja, Abdallah & Hu, Fang & Johl, Shireenjit & Nadarajah, Sivathaasan, 2023. "Board gender diversity, quotas, and ESG disclosure: Global evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    44. Liang, Quanxi & Li, Qiumei & Lu, Meiting & Shan, Yaowen & Wang, Peipei, 2024. "Peer effects on corporate environmental protection: Competition, information cascades or career concerns?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    45. Xue, Xingnan & Wang, Liwen & Hu, Nan, 2024. "Economic policy uncertainty and corporate social responsibility disclosure similarity: Evidence from China," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(5).
    46. Jiang, Yuan & Wang, Xiaomei & Wang, Wenting & Yu, Xiaohan, 2025. "Impact of government attention guided by environmental policies on green technology innovation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    47. Katie Kedward & Josh Ryan-Collins & Hugues Chenet, 2023. "Biodiversity loss and climate change interactions: financial stability implications for central banks and financial supervisors," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 763-781, July.
    48. He, Feng & Guo, Xinyao & Yue, Pengpeng, 2024. "Media coverage and corporate ESG performance: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    49. Fan Xia & Jiaying Chen & Xue Yang & Xiaoliang Li & Bing Zhang, 2023. "Financial constraints and corporate greenwashing strategies in China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1770-1781, July.
    50. Li, Wei-An & Du, Hanyu & He, Feng, 2025. "Mandatory corporate ESG disclosure and default risk – Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    51. Shuili Du & Kun Yu, 2021. "Do Corporate Social Responsibility Reports Convey Value Relevant Information? Evidence from Report Readability and Tone," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(2), pages 253-274, August.
    52. Chia-Wei Chen & Christos Pantzalis & Jung Chul Park, 2013. "Press Coverage And Stock Price Deviation From Fundamental Value," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 36(2), pages 175-214, June.
    53. Brian J. Bushee & John E. Core & Wayne Guay & Sophia J.W. Hamm, 2010. "The Role of the Business Press as an Information Intermediary," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 48(1), pages 1-19, March.
    54. Liang, Chao & Yang, Jinyu & Shen, Lihua & Dong, Dayong, 2024. "The role of biodiversity risk in stock price crashes," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 67(PA).
    55. Lu Zhang & Yuan George Shan & Millicent Chang, 2021. "Can CSR Disclosure Protect Firm Reputation During Financial Restatements?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(1), pages 157-184, September.
    56. Liu, Jianlei & Uchida, Konari & Bao, Chenyu, 2024. "Environmental regulation, corporate environmental disclosure, and firm performance: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    57. Ma, Feng & Wu, Hanlin & Zeng, Qing, 2024. "Biodiversity and stock returns," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PA).
    58. Beat Reber & Agnes Gold & Stefan Gold, 2022. "ESG Disclosure and Idiosyncratic Risk in Initial Public Offerings," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(3), pages 867-886, September.
    59. Nepal, Rabindra & Deng, Youyi & Dong, Kangyin & Goutte, Stéphane, 2025. "Does executive gender diversity culture inhibit corporate greenwashing behavior? The effect of informal institutions," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    60. Xingnan Xue & Liwen Wang & Nan Hu, 2024. "Economic policy uncertainty and corporate social responsibility disclosure similarity: Evidence from China," Post-Print hal-04699217, HAL.
    61. Hao, Jing & Sun, Ran & Gong, Xu & Zhu, Xiaoyu (Ross), 2025. "ESG and stock price crash risk revisited: Evidence from mandatory ESG disclosure policy in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    62. Ralph Adler & Mansi Mansi & Rakesh Pandey, 2018. "Biodiversity and threatened species reporting by the top Fortune Global companies," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 31(3), pages 787-825, March.
    63. He, Feng & Liu, Guanchun & Hao, Jing & Li, Youwei, 2023. "CSR performance and firm idiosyncratic risk in a data-rich environment: The role of retail investor attention," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    64. He, Feng & Chen, Longxuan & Lucey, Brian M., 2024. "Chinese corporate biodiversity exposure," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    65. Abeer Mohamed Hassan & Lee Roberts & Jill Atkins, 2020. "Exploring factors relating to extinction disclosures: What motivates companies to report on biodiversity and species protection?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1419-1436, March.
    66. Ahmad, Muhammad Farooq & Karpuz, Ahmet, 2024. "Beyond climate change risk: Biodiversity and corporate cash holdings," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    67. Feng He & Hanyu Du & Youwei Li & Jing Hao, 2025. "Make it Right: Regulatory Intervention in Managers’ Misconduct and Corporate Risk," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 202(1), pages 73-95, November.
    68. Flammer, Caroline & Giroux, Thomas & Heal, Geoffrey M., 2025. "Biodiversity finance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, AnChao & Saqib, Abdul, 2025. "How entrepreneurship drives ESG performance: The roles of data assetization and financing constraints," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Di Tommaso, Caterina & Foglia, Matteo & Pacelli, Vincenzo, 2025. "The impact of biodiversity score on the European firm’s performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    2. Li, Jun & Jin, Yihang & Zhou, Peng, 2025. "Do banks price firms' biodiversity risk? Evidence from the Kunming declaration," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    3. Zhang, Jinlong & Zhang, Wei & E, Jiyue, 2025. "The impact of biodiversity regulation on audit pricing − A quasi-natural experiment based on the Green Shield Program," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    4. Almaghrabi, Khadija S. & Ben-Amar, Walid & Kong, Ziyu, 2025. "Biodiversity risk and firms’ access to trade credit," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    5. Tran, Thanh Tat & Hoang, Khanh & Ngo, Thanh & Nguyen, Thang Xuan & Tran, Hien Thi Thu, 2025. "How does biodiversity risk exposure affect corporate regulatory intensity?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(PB).
    6. Lang, Qiaoqi & Li, Chenyu & Wen, Lixuan & Wu, Hanlin, 2025. "Biodiversity risk and agricultural futures markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    7. Yin, Libo & Zhu, Xiaoye & Li, Jingtian, 2025. "Does exposure to biodiversity risk drive firms’ digital transformation?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    8. He, Feng & Duan, Lin & Lucey, Brian & Hao, Jing, 2025. "Biodiversity risk or climate risk? Which factor affects corporate ESG rating divergence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 104(PA).
    9. Xiong, Jiacai & Yang, Zelin & Wang, Qing Sophie, 2025. "Can non-punitive regulation curb corporate greenwashing?Evidence from a word embedding model," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    10. Li, Yulei & Hu, Shiyang & Zhu, Bo, 2025. "Does ecology protection conflict with corporate development? Evidence from biodiversity and corporate total factor productivity in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    11. Liu, Guangrui & Fang, Ying & Qian, Hao & Ding, Zhigang & Zhang, Alex & Zhang, Songlin, 2025. "Incentive or catering effect of environmental subsidies? Evidence from ESG reports on greenwashing," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    12. Pi, Tianlei & Jiao, Linke & Zhou, Yuhan & Shi, Jin, 2025. "Can biodiversity risk improve firm ESG performance? Empirical evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    13. Li, Weiping & Mao, Zhuowei & Ren, Xiaohang & Liang, Jing, 2025. "Retail investor attention: Guardian of corporate ESG integrity or catalyst for greenwashing?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    14. Yang, Guang & Li, Yu, 2025. "Research on biodiversity risk and corporate short-term debt for long-term use under disclosure regulation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    15. Cosma, Simona & Cosma, Stefano & Pennetta, Daniela & Rimo, Giuseppe, 2025. "Does biodiversity matter for firm value?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    16. Zhang, Min & Chen, Guorong & Deng, Jing, 2025. "Does biodiversity attention affect risk spillover in the AFHF sectors?—Evidence from Chinese stock markets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    17. Song, Zenglu & Lu, Jinjing & Xu, Xinkuo, 2025. "Virtue over Deception: Confucian Culture and Corporate Greenwashing Behavior," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1569-1591.
    18. Yang, Zhonghai & Song, Pingting & Xu, Meng, 2025. "Nearer means better? CSRC proximity and ESG greenwashing," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    19. Xiao, Zhongyi & Shum, Wai Yan & Lai, Fujun & Xiang, Cheng, 2025. "How do firms respond to divergent ESG ratings? The perspective of green innovation," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    20. Zhou, Yang & Lucey, Brian M. & He, Feng, 2025. "Dividend payouts and biodiversity risk — Chinese evidence," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:92:y:2025:i:c:s0927538x25001246. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/pacfin .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.