IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reveco/v103y2025ics1059056025006501.html

Environmental information disclosure and corporate green technological innovation in China — Considering the moderating effect of financing constraints and public attention

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Yuanchao
  • Li, Lingjun
  • Huang, Xinlei
  • Chai, Yongdong
  • Ji, Ying

Abstract

Environmental information disclosure (EID) can compel companies to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction and enable other stakeholders to monitor corporate business operations in a timely manner. This study employed panel OLS models, fixed-effect models, and instrumental variable methods to investigate the impact of EID on green technological innovation from a micro perspective. The findings revealed that: (1) there was a U-shaped relationship between corporate EID and green technological innovation; (2) financing constraints could lead companies to abandon certain research and development efforts in technological innovation, negatively moderating the influence of EID on green technological innovation, while heightened public concern for ecological issues encouraged companies to prioritize environmental governance, positively moderating its influence; (3) high-tech demanding companies encountered greater challenges in leveraging EID to promote green technological innovation than low-tech demanding firms; (4) state-owned enterprises (SOEs) placed greater emphasis on the improvements in green technological innovation compared to non-SOEs.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Yuanchao & Li, Lingjun & Huang, Xinlei & Chai, Yongdong & Ji, Ying, 2025. "Environmental information disclosure and corporate green technological innovation in China — Considering the moderating effect of financing constraints and public attention," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:103:y:2025:i:c:s1059056025006501
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2025.104487
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056025006501
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.iref.2025.104487?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. Martin Freedman & Dennis M Patten, 2004. "Evidence on the pernicious effect of financial report environmental disclosure," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 27-41, March.
    2. Blacconiere, Walter G. & Patten, Dennis M., 1994. "Environmental disclosures, regulatory costs, and changes in firm value," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 357-377, November.
    3. Acharya, Viral & Xu, Zhaoxia, 2017. "Financial dependence and innovation: The case of public versus private firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 223-243.
    4. Chen, Yinying & Yin, Liang & Hu, Shiyang & Li, Xiang, 2025. "Biodiversity conservation and corporate environmental information disclosure: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    5. Yang, Junhua & Li, Ying & Zheng, Yu & Zhu, Mengqi & Shahab, Yasir & Ye, Chengang, 2025. "External audit quality and green innovation: Does environmental information disclosure matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    6. Michael Greenstone & Rema Hanna, 2014. "Environmental Regulations, Air and Water Pollution, and Infant Mortality in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(10), pages 3038-3072, October.
    7. Faucheux, Sylvie & Nicolai, Isabelle, 1998. "Environmental technological change and governance in sustainable development policy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 243-256, December.
    8. Domenico Buccella & Luciano Fanti & Luca Gori, 2024. "A Note on R&D Innovation with Socially Responsible Firms," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 10(1), pages 329-345, March.
    9. Philippe Aghion & Antoine Dechezleprêtre & David Hémous & Ralf Martin & John Van Reenen, 2016. "Carbon Taxes, Path Dependency, and Directed Technical Change: Evidence from the Auto Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(1), pages 1-51.
    10. Zhijie Han & Yuwei Wang, 2023. "Does high-speed rail promote corporate green innovation?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(20), pages 2971-2977, November.
    11. 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).
    12. Yuriy Gorodnichenko & Monika Schnitzer, 2013. "Financial Constraints And Innovation: Why Poor Countries Don'T Catch Up," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 11(5), pages 1115-1152, October.
    13. Tanveer, Arifa & Zeng, Shihong & Zaman, Rashid & Scagnelli, Simone, 2024. "World Trade Organization (WTO) trade policy reviews and green technology adoption: Global evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    14. Feng, Chao & Cheng, Xi & Luo, Jiaxing & Zheng, Hao & Wang, Miao, 2025. "Can corporate site visits by institutional investors improve the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure? Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    15. Charles J. Hadlock & Joshua R. Pierce, 2010. "New Evidence on Measuring Financial Constraints: Moving Beyond the KZ Index," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(5), pages 1909-1940.
    16. Gustavo Grullon, 2004. "Advertising, Breadth of Ownership, and Liquidity," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 17(2), pages 439-461.
    17. Zan, Haocheng & Jiang, Kailin & Ma, Jing, 2024. "Social trust, green finance, and enterprise innovation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    18. Paramati, Sudharshan Reddy & Shahzad, Umer & Doğan, Buhari, 2022. "The role of environmental technology for energy demand and energy efficiency: Evidence from OECD countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    19. Jonghyuk Bae & Natalya Khimich & Sungsoo Kim & Emanuel Zur, 2023. "Can Green Investments Increase Your Green? Evidence from Social Hedge Fund Activists," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 187(4), pages 781-801, November.
    20. Liu, YuXin & Lei, Ping & He, DaYi, 2024. "Endogenous green technology progress, green transition and carbon emissions," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 69-82.
    21. Xiwen Yin & Dingqing Wang & Jingjing Lu & Lei Liu, 2023. "Does green credit policy promote corporate green innovation? Evidence from China," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 3187-3215, October.
    22. Jiang, Yahan & Wang, Cai & Li, Sha & Wan, Jing, 2022. "Do institutional investors' corporate site visits improve ESG performance? Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    23. Eun-Hee Kim & Thomas P. Lyon, 2015. "Greenwash vs. Brownwash: Exaggeration and Undue Modesty in Corporate Sustainability Disclosure," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(3), pages 705-723, June.
    24. Albertina Paula Monteiro & Catarina Cepêda & Francisco Barbosa, 2023. "Environmental Information Disclosure and Profitability: The Environmental Certification Influence," CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, in: Irene Guia Arraiano & Belén Díaz & Mara Del Baldo & René Schmidpeter & Samuel O. Idowu (ed.), Corporate Social Responsibility in a Dynamic Global Environment, pages 381-396, Springer.
    25. Allen Blackman & Zhengyan Li & Antung A. Liu, 2018. "Efficacy of Command-and-Control and Market-Based Environmental Regulation in Developing Countries," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 10(1), pages 381-404, October.
    26. García-Quevedo, José & Segarra-Blasco, Agustí & Teruel, Mercedes, 2018. "Financial constraints and the failure of innovation projects," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 127-140.
    27. Foulon, Jerome & Lanoie, Paul & Laplante, Benoit, 2002. "Incentives for Pollution Control: Regulation or Information?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 169-187, July.
    28. Anis Maaloul & Daniel Zéghal & Walid Ben Amar & Sari Mansour, 2023. "The Effect of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Performance and Disclosure on Cost of Debt: The Mediating Effect of Corporate Reputation," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(1), pages 1-18, February.
    29. Ghisetti, Claudia & Quatraro, Francesco, 2017. "Green Technologies and Environmental Productivity: A Cross-sectoral Analysis of Direct and Indirect Effects in Italian Regions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 1-13.
    30. Wiseman, Joanne, 1982. "An evaluation of environmental disclosures made in corporate annual reports," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 53-63, January.
    31. Michael E. Porter, 1991. "Towards a dynamic theory of strategy," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(S2), pages 95-117, December.
    32. Karla Johnstone & Chan Li & Kathleen Hertz Rupley, 2011. "Changes in Corporate Governance Associated with the Revelation of Internal Control Material Weaknesses and Their Subsequent Remediation," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 331-383, March.
    33. Xu, Bin & Lin, Boqiang, 2025. "How does green credit effectively promote green technology innovation?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    34. Matthias Fabian Gregersen Trischler & Jason Li-Ying, 2023. "Digital business model innovation: toward construct clarity and future research directions," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 3-32, January.
    35. Yueyang Zhao & Jinzhou Mao & Yueshan Li, 2022. "Local governments’ environmental emphasis and corporate green innovation: evidence from China," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(4), pages 2577-2603, November.
    36. Hua Cheng & Yinhong Yu & Shiyu Zhang, 2024. "Subsidies, green innovation, and the sustainable performance: evidence from heavy-polluting enterprises in China," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 14(1), pages 102-116, March.
    37. Zhang, Huiming & Wan, Dayu & Sun, Chuanwang & Wu, Kai & Lin, Caixia, 2023. "Does political inspection promote corporate green innovation?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    38. Shu Hu & Chen Zhang & Yuanpu Ji & Chao Zhang, 2024. "Does environmental information disclosure tone affect corporate green innovation in China? Based on the institutional perspective," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(5), pages 12239-12282, May.
    39. Paul Cox & Patricia Wicks, 2011. "Institutional Interest in Corporate Responsibility: Portfolio Evidence and Ethical Explanation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(1), pages 143-165, September.
    40. Maoyan She & Die Hu & Zhiwei Wang & Xuan Zhao, 2023. "Does religious atmosphere promote corporate green innovation performance? Evidence from China," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(4), pages 1506-1531, October.
    41. Robyn Moroney & Carolyn Windsor & Yong Ting Aw, 2012. "Evidence of assurance enhancing the quality of voluntary environmental disclosures: an empirical analysis," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 52(3), pages 903-939, September.
    42. Miao, Chenglin & Fang, Debin & Sun, Liyan & Luo, Qiaoling, 2017. "Natural resources utilization efficiency under the influence of green technological innovation," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 153-161.
    43. Zhengxia He & Changshuai Cao & Chao Feng, 2022. "Media Attention, Environmental Information Disclosure and Corporate Green Technology Innovations in China’s Heavily Polluting Industries," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(14), pages 3939-3952, November.
    44. Zhang, Guoxing & Deng, Nana & Mou, Haizhen & Zhang, Zhe George & Chen, Xiaofeng, 2019. "The impact of the policy and behavior of public participation on environmental governance performance: Empirical analysis based on provincial panel data in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 1347-1354.
    45. Al-Tuwaijri, Sulaiman A. & Christensen, Theodore E. & Hughes, K. II, 2004. "The relations among environmental disclosure, environmental performance, and economic performance: a simultaneous equations approach," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(5-6), pages 447-471.
    46. Clarkson, Peter M. & Li, Yue & Richardson, Gordon D. & Vasvari, Florin P., 2008. "Revisiting the relation between environmental performance and environmental disclosure: An empirical analysis," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(4-5), pages 303-327.
    47. Battese, G E & Coelli, T J, 1995. "A Model for Technical Inefficiency Effects in a Stochastic Frontier Production Function for Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 325-332.
    48. Denis Cormier & Michel Magnan, 2015. "The Economic Relevance of Environmental Disclosure and its Impact on Corporate Legitimacy: An Empirical Investigation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(6), pages 431-450, September.
    49. Lv, Yan & Wang, Fan & Liu, Guoliang & Ren, Ruixue, 2024. "The impact of environmental court construction on the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PC).
    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. Jiang, Yaohui & Zhang, Xuanhao, 2026. "Product life cycle environmental regulation and corporate carbon emissions: Quasi-natural experiment from extended producer responsibility system," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(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. Charles H. Cho & Jonathan Maurice & Emmanuelle Nègre & Marie-Anne Verdier, 2016. "Is environmental disclosure good for the environment? A meta-analysis and research agenda," Post-Print halshs-01369422, HAL.
    2. 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).
    3. Song, Zhihui & Jia, Qinmin & He, Zexiu, 2025. "Green credit guidelines and corporate financialization: Evidence from heavily polluting enterprises in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    4. My Hanh Doan & Remmer Sassen, 2020. "The relationship between environmental performance and environmental disclosure: A meta‐analysis," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 24(5), pages 1140-1157, October.
    5. Fatemi, Ali & Glaum, Martin & Kaiser, Stefanie, 2018. "ESG performance and firm value: The moderating role of disclosure," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 45-64.
    6. Linyan Fan & Sheng Yao, 2022. "Analyst Site Visits and Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-21, December.
    7. Béatrice Allirol & Pascal Dumontier, 2015. "Divulgations environnementales : quel référentiel pour quelles fins ?," Post-Print hal-01188541, HAL.
    8. Michelon, Giovanna & Pilonato, Silvia & Ricceri, Federica, 2015. "CSR reporting practices and the quality of disclosure: An empirical analysis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 59-78.
    9. Xiaohua Meng & Saixing Zeng & Xuemei Xie & Hailiang Zou, 2019. "Beyond symbolic and substantive: Strategic disclosure of corporate environmental information in China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 403-417, February.
    10. Huang Mei-jiao, 2025. "How Green Mindful Leadership Drives Employee Green Creativity: The Role of Employee Resilience, Green Identity, and Workplace Digitalization," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(3), pages 21582440251, August.
    11. Varsha Sehgal & Naval Garg & Jagvinder Singh, 2023. "Impact of sustainability reporting and performance on organization legitimacy," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 14(1), pages 143-153, March.
    12. Xie, Guanghua & Chen, Lin & Chen, Xichan, 2021. "The role of short selling threat in corporate environmental disclosure strategies: Evidence from China," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    13. Steven F. Cahan & Charl De Villiers & Debra C. Jeter & Vic Naiker & Chris J. Van Staden, 2016. "Are CSR Disclosures Value Relevant? Cross-Country Evidence," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 579-611, September.
    14. Hanne Knight & Phil Megicks & Sheela Agarwal & M.A.A.M. Leenders, 2019. "Firm resources and the development of environmental sustainability among small and medium‐sized enterprises: Evidence from the Australian wine industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 25-39, January.
    15. Yang Stephanie Liu & Xiaoyan Zhou & Jessica Yang & Andreas Hoepner, 2016. "Corporate Carbon Emission and Financial Performance: Does Carbon Disclosure Mediate the Relationship in the UK?," ICMA Centre Discussion Papers in Finance icma-dp2016-03, Henley Business School, University of Reading.
    16. Denis Cormier & Pascale Lapointe-Antunes & Michel Magnan, 2015. "Does corporate governance enhance the appreciation of mandatory environmental disclosure by financial markets?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 19(4), pages 897-925, November.
    17. Jean-Noël Chauvey & Sophie Giordano-Spring & Charles Cho & Dennis Patten, 2015. "The Normativity and Legitimacy of CSR Disclosure: Evidence from France," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(4), pages 789-803, September.
    18. Liu, Xinghe & Xu, Huifeng & Lu, Meiting, 2021. "Do auditors respond to stringent environmental regulation? Evidence from China’s new environmental protection law," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 54-67.
    19. Fonseka, Mohan & Rajapakse, Theja & Richardson, Grant, 2019. "The effect of environmental information disclosure and energy product type on the cost of debt: Evidence from energy firms in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 159-182.
    20. Mumtaheena Anwar & Sohanur Rahman & Md. Nurul Kabir, 2021. "Does national carbon pricing policy affect voluntary environmental disclosures? A global evidence," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(2), pages 211-244, April.

    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:reveco:v:103:y:2025:i:c:s1059056025006501. 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/inca/620165 .

    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.