Corporate uncertainty perception, innovation resilience and environmental performance: evidence from Chinese listed companies

The twin crises of growing global environmental problems and frequent economic policy uncertainty have received widespread attention. However, the existing literature is limited to the impact of uncertainty on corporate environmental protection at the macro level and remains controversial. Based on the subjective perception perspective of firms, this paper explores the impact of corporate uncertainty perception on corporate environmental performance (EP) and the role of innovation resilience as a mechanism in it, using data from Chinese listed companies between 2007 and 2018. The study finds that uncertainty perception positively affects EP, which remains consistent even after conducting endogeneity and robustness tests. Heterogeneity tests reveal uncertainty perception’s stronger positive impact on EP among firms in eastern and central provinces, in maturity or decline stages, and with a focus on capital or technology. The mechanism analysis reveals that innovation resilience plays a positive moderating role in the relationship between uncertainty perception and EP. This paper addresses the controversy over the relationship between uncertainty and EP from corporate subjective perception perspective, improves the innovation resilience measure, enriches the mechanism of uncertainty perception’s role on EP, and expands the scope of application for strategic growth theory and resilience theory in organizational management.