Search Results (1,218)

Green technology innovation (GTI) is an important way for enterprises to promote technological progress and enhance their market competitiveness. As investment in R and D and innovation is a high-risk, long-term investment project with high sensitivity to relevant policies, increases or drastic fluctuations in economic policy uncertainty (EPU) may have a strong impact on technological innovation. Therefore, it is necessary to examine how EPU affects GTI. In contrast to studies that have focused on the impacts of EPU on GTI in developed countries or state-owned firms in China, this study uses the mediating effect panel fixed effect model to investigate the impacts of EPU on corporate GTI and its mechanisms, based on data from China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share private manufacturing listed companies from 2013 to 2022. The results indicate that an increase in EPU has a positive impact on the GTI of private enterprises and that the impact is stronger in companies with multiple major shareholders, those purchasing directors’ and officers’ liability insurance, and those with stricter environmental regulations. This conclusion remains valid after robustness checks and instrumental variable tests. Mechanism tests reveal that the increase in EPU indirectly promotes GTI by forcing private enterprises to avoid short-sighted management tendencies, increase risk-taking levels, boost environmental protection investments, and strengthen internal controls. For example, EPU will lead to increased investment in green protection, meaning that private companies are more willing to promote green transformation and market competitiveness through innovative activities. These findings provide a reference for the Chinese government to formulate targeted environmental regulation policies and financing policies to guide the green transformation of businesses; they also provide insights for enterprises in other developing countries to cope with economic policy risks and promote green technological advancement. Full article

This study investigates the impact of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance on the green technological innovation (GTI) of Chinese A-share-listed companies, using data from 2009 to 2022. The findings indicate that strong ESG performance significantly enhances GTI, with this effect being more pronounced in state-owned firms and non-high-tech sectors, demonstrating heterogeneity across firm types. Mechanism analysis reveals that ESG performance facilitates GTI by mitigating financing constraints and boosting R&D investments. Moreover, the study identifies a non-linear relationship, wherein the effect of ESG on GTI varies with firm size and environmental regulation intensity, as confirmed through a threshold model. This study not only deepens the theoretical framework linking corporate ESG performance with GTI but also uncovers the practical mechanisms through which ESG performance drives GTI, providing both practical insights and theoretical foundations for governments to formulate corporate green transition policies. Full article

The carbon emissions trading (CET) policy is a crucial market-based environmental regulatory policy for managing corporate carbon emissions, thereby assisting China in achieving its carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals. This study examines whether such a policy can boost corporate environmental performance. Based on China’s CET pilot as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper employs the difference-in-differences method and difference-in-difference-in-differences method to analyze the data of listed companies in the pilot regions from 2010 to 2020. Findings show that the policy of CET has a significant positive influence on firms’ environmental performance. Notably, while high-pollution companies benefit substantially, the effect is relatively weaker compared to others. Mechanism analysis shows that the policy drives improvements through enhanced environmental management and green innovation, and government environmental subsidies promote the effect of CET on environmental performance. In addition, the impact is more pronounced in state-owned, large-scale, and power industry companies; companies in regions with strong environmental regulations; and with high executive green awareness. These findings provide some insights for refining China’s CET framework and enhancing environmental outcomes. Full article

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of corporate governance on ESG performance in large publicly listed firms in Indonesia from 2016 to 2023. The study adopts both stakeholder-agency theory and resource dependency theory to explore the relationship between sustainability assurance, board governance characteristics, and the extent of ESG performance. Fixed effects regression controlling both industry and year fixed effects is used to measure the relationship between sustainability assurance, corporate governance characteristics, and ESG performance. We find a positive significant relationship between assurance sustainability reports and ESG performance. Additionally, we also document a positive association between sustainability committees and ESG performance. Adopting the Big Four auditors as a moderating variable, we find a positive relationship between gender-diverse boards and firms audited by the Big Four auditors and sustainability performance. This result suggests that firms with gender-diverse boards audited by the Big Four auditors enhance sustainability performance. Additional robustness tests using GMM estimation, conducted to address endogeneity concerns, corroborated the main test results. Full article

Purpose: This study examines the role of board gender diversity in shaping corporate financial decisions, particularly in terms of debt structure and risk management. Focusing on the Tehran Stock Exchange, it explores how female representation on boards influences long-term and short-term leverage decisions, focusing on the moderating effect of board compensation. Design/Methodology: Utilising a quantitative ex post facto design, the study analyses data from 114 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange between 2017 and 2021. Multivariate regression techniques, including year- and industry-fixed effects, are employed to investigate the relationship between board gender diversity, debt structure, and risk-taking behaviour. Findings: The results reveal a significant negative relationship between female board representation and long-term debt, suggesting that companies with more female directors tend to adopt more conservative debt structures, thereby reducing risk. Additionally, the findings demonstrate that board compensation moderates this relationship by curbing managerial risk-taking, further improving financial decision-making. Originality/Value: This research provides novel insights into the intersection of board gender diversity and risk management in financial decision-making, particularly in the context of a developing economy like Iran. It also offers practical implications for firms seeking to optimise their debt structures while maintaining sound risk management practices. Full article

This study investigates the impact of local government debt levels on the behavior of individual firms, which is crucial for understanding the systemic risks associated with local government debt and fostering economic vitality. Using data from publicly listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges between 2013 and 2022, this study empirically examines the effect of local government debt on corporate innovation quality. The findings demonstrate that local government debt expansion has a significant negative impact on corporate innovation quality. The negative impact remains robust across endogeneity tests and multiple robustness checks. Channel analysis indicates that as local government debt increases, innovation subsidies and procurement funding led toward firms’ decline, while both tax and non-tax revenue demands indicated firm increases. This resource reallocation contributes to the observed decline in corporate innovation quality. Further heterogeneity analysis reveals that regions with lower levels of government intervention and fiscal pressure exhibit a smaller negative effect of local government debt on innovation quality. Finally, examining the economic outcomes reveals that the decline in innovation quality, resulting from current local debt expansion, significantly reduces total factor productivity and firm value in the subsequent year, posing challenges for sustainable corporate development. Full article

Driven by positive accounting, agency, and political and economic theories, this study examines the relationship between research and development (R&D) intensity and earnings management for listed pharmaceutical companies in the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) between 2008 and 2021. Employing panel regression methods, the results reveal a positive association between R&D investment and earnings manipulation. Specifically, after two or three R&D delays, the association survived. Moreover, firm size negatively affects earnings management, showing that larger firms have less tendencies to conduct earning manipulation. Furthermore, financial leverage and earnings management are strongly connected, showing that firms may utilize earnings management to avoid credit covenants. The findings emphasize distortions in R&D reporting and profit management within Jordan’s financial reporting practices. Enhancing the accuracy of R&D investment disclosures, minimizing profit manipulation, and fostering greater transparency are crucial. Jordan’s regulators should improve capitalization standards, transparency, auditing, and shareholder activism. Full article

With the strategic background of accelerating the transformation of the low-carbon economy in China, how to better help the new energy automobile industry realize green and high-quality development under the goal of “dual-carbon” with the strengthening of science and technology has become one of the most important issues nowadays, and it is of great significance to explore the relationship between financial technology (fintech) and the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of the new energy automobile (NEV) industry. Using panel data from NEV companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets between 2011 and 2022, this study applies text mining techniques to construct a fintech index and analyze the transmission mechanisms through which fintech influences ESG performance. The findings show that fintech directly improves ESG outcomes for NEV companies, a result that remains robust across a series of validation tests. The analysis reveals that fintech reduces financing constraints and enhances corporate environmental information disclosure, which in turn drives better ESG performance. Furthermore, the impact of fintech is particularly pronounced in state-owned enterprises, large-scale firms, and technologically advanced NEV companies, as evidenced by heterogeneity analysis. This study provides empirical insights into fintech’s role in advancing sustainable development in the NEV sector, offering guidance for policymakers and industry stakeholders aiming to align technological progress with environmental and social governance objectives. Full article

In the era of artificial intelligence (AI), economic efficiency has an obvious role to play, but “non-economic benefits” have gradually become the focus of corporate attention; thus, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) has become a mainstream investment strategy. This paper empirically examines the impact of corporate application of AI technology on corporate ESG performance using a sample of 4858 listed companies in China from 2007 to 2022. The study finds that: (1) corporate application of AI technology can significantly enhance corporate ESG performance, and this conclusion still holds after a series of endogeneity treatments and robustness tests; (2) mechanism analysis shows that the degree of corporate digitalization has a positive moderating effect in the process of AI technology affecting corporate ESG performance. The channel analysis shows that the application of AI technology can enhance environmental (E) performance by strengthening corporate green technology innovation, social (S) performance by improving corporate philanthropic responsibility, and overall ESG performance with the above two sub-items as the main aspects. However, AI technology also weakens the effectiveness of corporate internal control, which leads to a decline in corporate governance (G) performance; (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that AI technology promotes ESG more significantly in more competitive industries and tech-nology-intensive firms, and more significantly in the eastern and central regions than in the western and northeastern regions, and that large- and medium-sized firms are similarly superior to small-sized firms, while medium-sized firms have more room for upward mobility than large-sized firms, which embody a higher promotion effect than large enterprises. This paper provides theoretical evidence that enterprises apply AI technology to improve ESG performance and empirical support around investing in ESG practices and promoting ESG development. Full article

In the context of increasing carbon emissions and strengthening regulatory measures, an increasing number of stakeholders are paying more attention to corporate carbon information. To further explore the relationship between the quality of carbon information disclosure and enterprise value, this study uses a sample of companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2013 to 2021. The aim is to investigate the link between the quality of carbon information disclosure and enterprise value, while also analyzing the role of green innovation in this relationship. The empirical results show that the quality of carbon information disclosure can significantly enhance enterprise value, with green innovation playing a mediating role in this effect. After robustness checks, including replacing the measurement variables and addressing endogeneity issues, the conclusions remain valid. Further analysis reveals that the effect of carbon information disclosure quality on enhancing enterprise value is more pronounced in non-high-pollution industries, non-state-owned enterprises, and firms located in eastern regions. This study provides valuable insights for future policy optimization related to carbon information disclosure and the promotion of low-carbon development in enterprises. Full article

As environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues become increasingly important, ESG ratings have become a significant factor influencing audit fees for businesses. However, ESG ratings are typically assessed by multiple agencies or rating firms and, due to differences in evaluation criteria, methodologies, and data sources, the ratings provided by different institutions may vary considerably. Therefore, research on the impact of discrepancies in ESG ratings on audit fees is of great significance. This paper examines this phenomenon by analyzing a sample of Chinese listed companies from 2015 to 2022, yielding 3056 observational values through various methodologies. The study employs two-way fixed effects methods. The findings indicate that discrepancies in ESG ratings significantly elevate enterprises’ audit expenses, with operating risk and analyst earnings forecast errors serving as intermediary factors. Additionally, media attention intensifies these effects by increasing corporate disclosure, intensifying regulatory pressure, and heightening reputational risks for the company, and the positive impact of ESG rating discrepancies on audit fees is more significant when the “Big 4” accounting firms are involved in the audit. The research offers insights for enterprises, auditors, and regulatory bodies, contributing to the enhanced implementation of the ESG concept and fostering sustainable enterprise development. Full article

As global attention to the issue of climate change grows, the concepts of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, proposed by China, have increasingly gained traction. In this international context, digital technology and green development are closely interwoven, carving out a distinct path for countries worldwide to achieve carbon emission reduction goals. This study empirically explores the mechanism of how digital transformation impacted the carbon emissions of Chinese A-share listed manufacturing enterprises from 2007 to 2021. The results indicate a significant inverted U-shaped nonlinear connection between digital transformation and carbon emissions within manufacturing enterprises. Green technology innovation, which is among the crucial driving forces for sustainable development, can act as a mediating factor. External environmental regulations positively moderate the relationship between digital transformation and carbon emissions in manufacturing firms. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis reveals that the nonlinear impact of digital transformation on carbon emissions in manufacturing enterprises is particularly significant in western regions, non-resource-based cities, light industry sectors, and large-scale enterprises. This paper innovatively verifies, at the micro level, the inverted U-shaped impact of digital transformation on carbon emissions in manufacturing enterprises, as well as its underlying mechanism. It provides theoretical support and practical guidance for the effective implementation of carbon emission reduction in the manufacturing sector. Meanwhile, it also offers valuable insights for manufacturing enterprises to formulate strategies that take both digital development and sustainable development into account, thereby contributing to the achievement of sustainable development. Full article

This research aims to examine the drivers of earnings quality (EQ) in emerging stock markets. By testing the impact of firm attributes and ownership structures on the level of earnings quality. The research followed a mixed-method approach (qualitative and quantitative) and was conducted based on a sample of 75 listed firms in Egypt as an emerging market from 2015 to 2022. The results of the research found that each firm attribute has a mixed impact on earning quality, such as firm size (positive on persistence and no impact on consistency) and ROA (U-shape on persistence and consistency). In addition, ownership structures uniquely and dynamically impact earnings, following positive, U-shape, and N-shape. This research sheds light on the drivers of the earnings quality (firm attributes and ownership structures) in the Egyptian-listed firms and helps policymakers implement appropriate corporate governance mechanisms. Our findings in Egypt can motivate future research to further investigate the most relevant factors that explain variations in earning persistence and consistency as a dimension of financial reporting quality in other emerging markets. Full article

Based on resource orchestration theory, this paper examines the influence of data-intelligence empowerment on enterprise knowledge recombinant capabilities empirically, using A-share-listed high-technology enterprises from 2012 to 2021 as research examples. Research shows that data-intelligence empowerment can promote both enterprise knowledge recombinant reuse capability and knowledge recombinant creation capability. Furthermore, knowledge depth diversification acts as a mediator between data-intelligence empowerment and knowledge recombinant reuse capability, and knowledge breadth diversification plays a mediating role between data-intelligence empowerment and knowledge recombinant creation capability. The heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the data-intelligence empowerment has a more promotive impact on knowledge recombinant reuse capability in non-state-owned enterprises and eastern region enterprises, and there is a promotion effect on the knowledge recombinant creation capability across enterprises with different ownership structures and regions. This study provides theoretical guidance as well as practical references for enterprises to take advantage of digital intelligence technology to empower themselves, match internal and external resources and capabilities, and ultimately accomplish sustainable recombinant innovation. Full article

Innovation and productivity improvements are essential drivers of economic growth, social stability, and sustainable development. As a high-risk, long-term activity, innovation requires external support, especially from the financial sector. In response, governments have introduced various financial support policies, yet their effectiveness remains debatable. Using panel data from Chinese listed firms between 2006 and 2022, we examined the impact of an innovation-oriented financial support initiative in China—the Technology and Finance Integration (TFI) pilot—on firm innovation and total factor productivity (TFP). This quasi-natural experiment effectively alleviated endogeneity and helped us establish the causality. Our results show that TFI significantly enhances both the quantity and quality of firms’ innovation, as well as TFP. Furthermore, we found that the policy effects are more pronounced in firms with higher perceived uncertainty, in private firms, and in those located in regions with advanced financial development. Improved liquidity conditions, increased R&D investment, and better asset allocation constitute plausible mechanisms for interpreting our results. Theoretically, this paper complements the research on the nexus between financial support and innovation activity, shedding light on the underlying mechanisms. Practically, our findings provide valuable insights for the formulation of financial policies to promote innovation, particularly in developing countries that lack sufficient R&D incentives and effective market mechanisms to drive technical upgrading and productivity growth. Full article