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Environmental accounting and performance: empirical evidence from China

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Abstract

Environmental problems have become global issues in recent years. This has influenced some countries, including China, to enact environmental accounting disclosure decrees. To fill the literature gap, this study sought to assess the link among environmental accounting information disclosure (EAID), environmental performance index (EPI), board attributes, and profitability of publicly traded mining companies in China. Using a sample of fifty-one out of the sixty-six companies in the mining sector, the authors utilized secondary data from 2000 to 2020 and utilized the Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG) estimation for the long-run analysis. The CCEMG estimator was employed because it deals with possible cross-sectional dependencies, heteroscedasticity, serial correlation, and endogeneity, thereby freeing the results from these issues. The findings revealed a mixed conclusion between board attributes and EAID. Moreover, the findings posit that both EADI and EPI have a positive slope connection with the profitability of the mining firms. Our findings offer a detailed understanding to stakeholders and highlight the beneficial impact on how environmental accounting can influence ecological and financial performance in the mining industry. Finally, the current study stimulates more theoretical and empirical work on environmental accounting and performance in the mining sector.

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Data were extracted from the CSMAR database, IFIND data base, Sample Company’s Annual Reports, and Chinese Ministry of Ecological Protection website.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Finance and Economics, Jiangsu University, 301 Xuefu Road, Zhenjiang, 212013, People’s Republic of China

    Andrew Osei Agyemang, Kong Yusheng, Angelina Kissiwaa Twum & Emmanuel Caesar Ayamba

  2. School of Business, SDD – University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, Wa, Ghana

    Andrew Osei Agyemang

  3. Institute of Industrial Economics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, People’s Republic of China

    Bless Kofi Edziah

  4. Economics Department, Bolgatanga Technical University, Bolgatanga, Ghana

    Emmanuel Caesar Ayamba

Authors
  1. Andrew Osei Agyemang
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  2. Kong Yusheng
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  3. Angelina Kissiwaa Twum
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  4. Bless Kofi Edziah
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  5. Emmanuel Caesar Ayamba
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Contributions

[AOA, KY, and AKT] contributed to conceptualization, [AOA] contributed to data curation, [AOA and AKT, BKE] contributed to methodology, [AOA] contributed to formal analysis and discussion, writing of original draft, [AOA, AKT BKE, and ECA] contributed to reviewing and editing, [KY] contributed to supervision.

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Correspondence to Andrew Osei Agyemang.

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Agyemang, A.O., Yusheng, K., Twum, A.K. et al. Environmental accounting and performance: empirical evidence from China. Environ Dev Sustain 26, 3687–3712 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-022-02853-y

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