Search Results (25)

Against the backdrop of increasingly severe global environmental issues, the manner in which enterprises conduct R&D investment, influenced by both government environmental policies and their own pollution levels, has become a prominent research topic. This paper employs the bilateral random frontier model of information game (SFA2tier) to analyze the influence levels and determining factors of government and market enterprises. The findings reveal that enterprises exert a stronger influence than the government, with the latter able to enhance R&D investment by 5.50% through its own influence. The disparity in influence levels between government and enterprises regarding R&D investment is significant and varies according to regional economic development levels and administrative hierarchies. Key determining factors include government subsidies, the nature of enterprise ownership, and enterprise size. The research results not only enrich relevant theories concerning the relationship between environmental policies and enterprise R&D investment but also provide valuable insights for the government to formulate more effective environmental policies and for enterprises to develop R&D strategies. Full article

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure plays a pivotal role in mitigating “blue” (labor standard) and “green” (environmental standard) trade barriers, optimizing the foreign trade ecosystem, fostering sustainable development of export-oriented enterprises, and advancing societal welfare objectives—all critical to maintaining high-quality social order in China. Grounded in institutional and strategic management theories, this study systematically investigates the effects of CSR disclosure on corporate export performance, focusing on mediating and moderating mechanisms, and conducts rigorous empirical testing using comprehensive firm-level CSR disclosure data from Chinese listed companies. The results reveal the following key findings: (1) CSR disclosure positively influences corporate exports; (2) enterprise financing capacity and innovation output serve as dual mediating mechanisms, through which CSR disclosure enhances export performance by improving access to external capital and stimulating product/service innovation; (3) environmental regulations amplify the export-promoting effect of CSR disclosure, indicating that institutional environmental constraints incentivize firms to leverage disclosure as a strategic response to global sustainability demands; (4) heterogeneity analysis reveals that large enterprises derive the strongest export benefits from CSR disclosure, followed by medium-sized and small enterprises; and (5) private enterprises exhibit significantly greater export gains from CSR disclosure compared to state-owned enterprises. These results underscore the context-specific and multi-dimensional nature of CSR disclosure’s impact on exports, highlighting how firm size and ownership structure shape the efficacy of disclosure strategies in global markets. This study contributes to both academic literature on corporate sustainability and practical policy by demonstrating how strategic CSR disclosure can serve as a tool for overcoming institutional barriers and enhancing international competitiveness. Full article

Under the background of green development and brand building, this article aims to explore the relationship between environmental regulation on corporate brand value and the mediating effect of green innovation, which can help enterprises build a synergistic mechanism between brand building and green development, and step into a benign track of high-quality development. Based on institutional theory and resource-based theory, this paper takes the 106 listed companies on the 2018–2022 consecutive list of China’s 500 Most Valuable Brands as a sample and constructs a two-way fixed-effects model to test the impact of heterogeneous environmental regulations on green innovation and corporate brand value. The empirical results showed that: (1) Command-based environmental regulation exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with brand value, as it compels enterprises to adopt environmental governance in the short term but gradually erodes productive resources and triggers negative environmental and reputational effects over the long term; market-based environmental regulation demonstrates a U-shaped relationship with brand value: while it crowds out production funds and shifts costs to consumers in the short term, the government’s “resource compensation” effects ultimately outweigh “compliance cost” pressures in the long run; (2) green innovation plays a partial mediating role in the impact of command-based environmental regulation on corporate brand value; (3) the impact of environmental regulations on corporate brand value is heterogeneous in terms of the nature of corporate ownership, life cycle, and location. The above findings provide a useful reference for the government to use environmental regulation tools flexibly, optimally adjust the environmental regulatory mechanism, and promote corporate brand building and green development. Full article

Common institutional ownership, as a pivotal link of equity interconnection among diverse enterprises and a vital medium of information dissemination, possesses enhanced motivation and capability of decision-making in the course of business operation and development. This paper examines the effect of common institutional ownership on corporate leverage manipulation by applying panel data analysis method based on a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2021. We find that firms with high levels of common institutional ownership significantly reduce leverage manipulation. We also find that common institutional ownership can significantly reduce corporate leverage manipulation by improving internal capital management capabilities and external audit environment. At the same time, we find that the synergistic governance effect of common institutional equity has heterogeneity in the aspects of capacity utilization rate, equity nature, leverage manipulation motivation, and macro industry environment. These conclusions collectively highlight the important role of institutional cross-holdings in enhancing internal management levels and facilitating information transmission within the same industry. They also demonstrate that, under circumstances where internal agency problems are prominent, financial stress is high, and external risks are increasing, institutional cross-holdings play a supervisory and mitigating role in corporate financial management. This can not only contribute to the existing literature on the factors that positively constrain corporate leverage manipulation and the economic implications of common institutional ownership, but also has implications for how to enhance corporate governance and promote high-quality economic development in China’s context. Full article

The mining industry is indispensable for development, and in developing countries like Ghana, it drives economic growth by generating revenue and creating job opportunities for millions of people. Nonetheless, irresponsible mining results in the deprivation of people’s right to surface land, predominantly held under customary land tenure, with agriculture as the mainstay of livelihood. Mining activities have extensive repercussions for the land tenure system, resulting in the displacement of people, the loss of land rights, and reduced control and access to land. All these impact the economic, environmental, and social conditions of the people in the community. This systematic literature review thoroughly analyzes the impact of mining on land rights in Ghana, revealing complex dynamics, challenges, and possible remedies. To achieve this, 183 of an initial pool of 495 academic journals, research papers, books, reports, policies, and legal documents were critically reviewed. This research reveals the challenges faced by mining-induced communities because of the displacement which has resulted in the loss of ancestral lands and disruption to community life. The displacement is also coupled with economic disparities and social tension. Furthermore, the ripple effects of environmental degradation, such as deforestation, water pollution, noise, and air pollution, have dire consequences on land use and ownership, particularly for communities dependent on natural resources. This review brings to light various responses and effective strategies to mitigate the negative impacts of mining on land tenure in Ghana. These include community engagement strategies, corporate social responsibility initiatives, and legal reforms. This study reveals that mining compensation depends on the duration of the mining lease, therefore implying that the expropriated parties have reversionary interests in their lands. The procedure for giving the land back to the owner is not explicitly outlined in the law. This underscores the need for a review of the law governing mining, sustainable mining practices, and environmental management to safeguard the land tenure system. This review enlightens policymakers, researchers, mining enterprises, and local communities regarding the intricacies of this convergence, offering a foundation for well-informed decision making. It underscores the crucial importance of upholding sustainable development, social fairness, and responsible resource management within the framework of Ghana’s diverse land tenure traditions. Full article

The advent of new digital technologies has catalyzed a disruptive technological revolution, fostering significant industrial changes and advancing the green transformation of the economy and society. This paper investigates the influence of digitization on the green transformation of agribusiness firms, focusing on agriculture-related companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets from 2013 to 2021. Employing fixed-effect and mediated-effect models, the study examines the mechanisms through which digitization impacts these enterprises. The findings indicate that the relationship between digitization and green transformation in agribusiness is non-linear; a certain threshold of digitization must be achieved before it positively affects green transformation. The effect of digitization on green transformation varies according to the nature of business ownership, company size, supply chain flexibility, and regional environmental regulations. The study reveals that digitization influences green transformation through several mechanisms that promote economies of scale, technological innovation, and structural adjustments. While economies of scale derived from digitization do not directly support green transformation, they facilitate technological innovation and structural adjustments that enhance green initiatives in agribusiness. Full article

Against the background of the increasing financialization of manufacturing enterprises, whether green financial policies can inhibit the financialization of manufacturing enterprises is a major practical issue worth exploring. It can help government departments to guide the sustainable development of the real economy of enterprises, effectively curbing the trend of over-financialization of enterprises, thus preventing potential systemic risks and safeguarding the sustainable development of the economy. Because the green credit guidelines function as a more mature development of green financial policies, this paper takes Chinese A-share listed companies from 2005 to 2022 as the research sample, adopts the propensity score matching and double difference method, and constructs a quasi-natural experiment with the “Green Credit Guidelines” as the policy shock to analyze the multiple impact effects of green financial policies on the financialization of manufacturing enterprises. The results of the study show that (1) green finance policy has a significant inhibiting effect on the financialization of manufacturing enterprises; (2) due to the different motives of manufacturing enterprises in holding financial assets, green finance policy has a more significant inhibiting effect on the long-term financialization of “substitution”; (3) state-owned enterprises (SOEs) bear more social responsibilities and have credit advantages. Green finance policy has a more obvious inhibiting effect on the financialization of non-state-owned manufacturing enterprises; (4) major shareholders can play a better supervisory role in enterprises with high equity concentrations, so green finance policy has a more significant inhibiting effect on the financialization of manufacturing enterprises with low equity concentrations; (5) financing constraints have a masking effect in green finance policy and enterprise financialization. Based on this, this paper puts forward the following targeted recommendations. For the governmental level: first, to establish a sound manufacturing credit system; second, to focus on enterprise-financing constraints. For the enterprise level: first, to optimize the asset structure to promote transformation; second, to deepen the mixed ownership reform of state-owned enterprises. Full article

This article takes the supply-side structural reform launched in 2016 as a quasi-natural experiment and uses the “DID” method to analyze the relationship between the policy effects of supply-side reform and the labor income share. Firstly, the basic conclusion is that the “supply-side reform policy” can reduce the labor income share of enterprises in the “six major industries”. The correctness of the benchmark regression results was verified through a series of robustness tests. The results of the main regression were validated based on three different heterogeneity analysis perspectives: firm ownership, firm region, and government intervention. Secondly, two mediation mechanisms were examined, and the results showed that increasing operating income can positively enhance the “supply-side structural reform” in reducing the labor share of income in all enterprises, while increasing R&D investment can negatively enhance the effect of the “supply-side structural reform” on the reduction of the labor share of income in all enterprises. The heterogeneity of the two intermediary effects indicates that state-owned enterprises and private enterprises have different performances. The research results of this article indicate that the “supply-side reform policy” can effectively reduce the labor income share of target enterprises, reduce the proportion of excess employees, and enhance the vitality of target enterprises. The policy suggestion is to continue promoting supply-side structural reform, a policy which is in line with the requirements of the high-quality and sustainable development of Chinese enterprises. Full article

The issue of corporate rent-seeking, which stems from the misuse of authority, remains a critical concern for the international community. Drawing on agency theory and resource dependence theory, this study explores the relationship between corporate digitalization strategies (DSs) and corporate rent-seeking. We test our theoretical hypotheses by utilizing panel data encompassing Chinese A-share listed companies from 2004 to 2021. Our findings suggest that corporate DSs have a significant negative influence on rent-seeking. Several robustness tests support this conclusion. Moreover, our analysis indicates that a DS is particularly effective in curtailing rent-seeking behaviors within state-owned enterprises (SOEs) compared with their non-state-owned counterparts. However, contrary to our hypothesis, a DS is less effective in suppressing corporate rent-seeking among firms where the executive team has legal backgrounds. These findings suggest that top managers, especially within SOEs, should prioritize the early formulation of digital transformation strategies to reduce rent-seeking behavior. Additionally, when implementing digital transformation, firms should carefully integrate members with legal backgrounds into their executive teams and strengthen ethical education and supervision for executives with legal expertise. Full article

ESG (environmental, social, and governance) performance increasingly influences enterprise valuation. While researchers debate about the precise nature of this influence, most assume a positive linear relationship. This study introduces a novel ESG responsibility performance metric utilizing a regulated intermediary model using representative data synthesized from leading ESG rating agencies in China. It investigates the pathways of this influence and examines the mediating effects of corporate reputation, stakeholder engagement, and regulatory compliance. The findings reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between ESG performance and enterprise value, moderated significantly by financing constraints. These findings remain robust after accounting for potential endogeneity using instrumental variables. Heterogeneity analysis highlights that this inverted U-shaped relationship depends on the industry characteristics and ownership structures, particularly noticeable in non-polluting and non-state-owned enterprises. Moreover, enhanced ESG performance correlates with a reduced cost of equity financing, thereby augmenting enterprise value. Financial institutions might consider employing innovative financial instruments to diversify their enterprise financing channels and effectively bolster ESG-focused enterprises. Full article

This paper investigates the effect of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance on the enterprise value of heavily polluting listed companies in China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets. The study found that ESG performance helps to improve the corporate value of heavily polluting listed companies, and ESG performance has an impact mechanism effect on the corporate value of heavily polluting listed companies through green technology innovation, financing costs, and internal control; the analysis of heterogeneity is conducted from three different perspectives: resource endowment, ownership nature, and overseas background of senior executives. At the same time, the interaction term ESG × EPU is employed to examine the regulatory effect of economic policy uncertainty Non-state-owned enterprises can enhance their enterprise value more effectively by improving their ESG performance based on the research findings. The ESG performance of heavy polluting enterprises in non-resource-based cities has a more obvious role in promoting corporate value; in companies where executives have overseas backgrounds, ESG performance is more conducive to the improvement of corporate value. The empirical evidence derived from the research findings rationalizes the connection between the of ESG performance and enterprise value in industries with high levels of pollution, as well as the pathway of impact. Full article

How to help enterprises reduce pollution and transform into environmentally friendly enterprises through financial channels is an important issue that needs to be urgently addressed. This study constructs a quasi-natural experiment based on the implementation of the 2012 Green Credit Guidelines and evaluates the impact of green credit policy on green transformation in high-pollution enterprises from the aspect of green innovation. The research results found the following: (1) After the implementation of green credit policy, the quantity and quality of green innovation in high-pollution enterprises have significantly improved. (2) To avoid the inaccuracy of research conclusions caused by differences in sample characteristics, this study used the PSM-DID model to verify the promoting effect of green credit policy on the green transformation of high-pollution enterprises. (3) Furthermore, this study analyzed the impact of differences in the ownership nature of enterprises and regional financial development levels on the green transformation of high-pollution enterprises under green credit policy. The results show that green credit policy has a stronger impact on the green innovation of state-owned high-pollution enterprises and high-pollution enterprises in underdeveloped financial areas. The findings of this study provide an important reference for the reform of green finance of government departments. Full article

This article describes China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a quasi-natural experiment based on samples from the World Bank database, China Customs database, and China Industrial Enterprise Database from 2000 to 2007 and uses the difference-in-difference (DID) method to investigate the effect of trade policy uncertainty (TPU) on China’s agricultural exports. The study found that, first, a decline in TPU significantly increases the export volume of Chinese agricultural firms. Second, the decline in TPU significantly boosts companies engaged in general trade. Regarding export destination countries, the decline in TPU significantly promotes the agricultural firms whose export destination countries are developing countries. Regarding firms’ ownership, the promotion of agricultural exports by non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) and Hong Kong-, Macao- and Taiwan-funded enterprises is even more pronounced. Third, the decline in TPU promotes the export of Chinese agricultural firms by alleviating their financing constraints. The study provides new explanations for changes in China’s agricultural exports and enriches research on the evaluation of TPU effects. Full article

Present-day supply-side structural reform in China places an abundance of emphasis on environmental protection. In this paper, we re-measure the upstreamness of Chinese enterprises in global value chains as described by Ni Hongfu (2022). Subsequently, the impact of environmental regulations on the global value chain position of Chinese firms is studied in depth, using the cleaner production standards promulgated and implemented by the Chinese government in 2003 as a quasi-natural experiment, taking a time-varying difference-in-differences (DID) approach. The data sources employed include the Cleaner Production Standard Implementation Industry Directory, the World Input–Output Database (WIOD), the China Industrial Enterprise Database, and the China Customs Import and Export Database. This research discovered the following: First, adopting cleaner production standards significantly improves Chinese enterprises’ positions in the global value chain—a conclusion that holds up to a number of robustness tests. Second, in terms of firm size, capital intensity, ownership characteristics, and government subsidies, there exists a noticeable heterogeneity in the promotion of the adoption of cleaner production standards for the improvement of Chinese enterprises’ global value chain position. Third, the implementation of cleaner production standards stimulates the upgrading of Chinese enterprises’ global value chain position, primarily through the entry and exit impacts, product-switching effect, and innovation compensation effect. The following proposals for policy can be implemented in light of the findings of this paper: “upstream prevention” strategies in the development of future environmental protection and trade policies should be advocated; nuanced and stratified environmental policies should be meticulously constructed; a mix of policies should be employed to bolster the institutional support for green environmental regulations; the integration of environmental governance into the evaluation framework should be emphasized; the creation of an innovation-oriented environmental governance system should be expedited. In conclusion, the findings of this research provide empirical evidence on the role of environmental regulations in coordinating ecological development and strengthening the position of Chinese enterprises in global value chains, which may assist other developing nations in making the transition to a path of high-quality growth. Full article

High-quality development of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is of great significance to the transformation of the dynamic energy of the Chinese economy in the new development stage and the improvement of quality and efficiency. To this end, we selected 32 evaluation indicators based on three perspectives: social responsibility, effectiveness and efficiency, and independent innovation. Then, we applied the fixed-base efficacy coefficient method and the longitudinal and horizontal pull-out gearing method to obtain the indexes for measuring the level of high-quality development of SOEs by linear weighting. On this basis, a model constructed by an integrated machine learning algorithm was used to explore the impact of changes in the ownership structure of SOEs on the level of high-quality development of enterprises. The study shows that (1) the overall development quality of SOEs has been on an upward trend since 2008, among which the quality of competitive SOEs has been on an upward trend, while the performance of public welfare SOEs is slightly less; (2) the property rights reform of SOEs introduces the shareholding ratio of the largest non-state shareholder and the level of high-quality development as a sine function, keeping the nature of state property rights unchanged, while maintaining the ratio in the range of 25.2–50%; (3) the relationship between the ratio of the share capital of the employee stock ownership plan to the total share capital and the level of high-quality development of SOEs is increasing, then decreasing, and then stabilizing, the ratio is maintained at about 5%, and the marginal effect of the employees’ motivation on the improvement of the quality of enterprise development is stronger; (4) the implementation of an employee stock ownership plan by SOEs more than twice a year can play a positive role in improving the quality of enterprise development. This can provide theoretical guidance for measuring the level of high-quality development of SOEs, reforming the ownership structure of SOEs, and promoting the process of high-quality macroeconomic development. Full article