Abstract
It is still controversial whether environmental information disclosure (EID) can alleviate firms’ financing constraints. Existing studies have not addressed the issue of whether internal control can address the financing constraint in the context of institutional weaknesses and managerial opportunism of environmental information disclosure quality (EIDQ). Therefore, through constructing multiple linear regression analysis, we empirically studied the impact of EIDQ on the financing constraint of Chinese firms and the moderating effect of internal controls on the above relationship. The findings showed that (1) improving EIDQ could significantly alleviate the financing constraint problem of enterprises, and the mitigation effect is more significant among non-state enterprises; (2) the quality of internal control helps to strengthen the mitigation effect of EIDQ on the financing constraint; and (3) further research found that the mitigation effect of EIDQ on financing constraints was more significant in a sample with a high degree of marketization, stricter government regulation, and non-political affiliation among non-state-owned enterprises. This study provides new ideas for promoting institutional optimization of EID and the development of green finance.
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Data availability
The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Notes
The Evaluation Report on Environmental Responsibility Information Disclosure of Chinese Listed Companies (2020) is a report released by the China Environmental Journalists Association and Beijing University of Chemical Technology for the ninth consecutive year.
Rankins ESG Ratings (RKS) is an authoritative third-party social responsibility rating agency in China that has developed an evaluation system for social responsibility reports of Chinese listed companies. The environmental dimension of the rating system includes scores for 11 environmentally critical issues such as climate change, wastewater emissions, toxic and hazardous gas emissions, hazardous solid waste, tailings, sludge from wastewater treatment, packaging materials, green financial products, low carbon products, the environmental impact of activities, and environmental impact of the supply chain.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Lei Chen, Dongxiang Gou, and Xiangsong Meng performed material preparation, data collection, and analysis. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Xiangsong Meng and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Meng, X., Chen, L. & Gou, D. The impact of corporate environmental disclosure quality on financing constraints: the moderating role of internal control. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 33455–33474 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24510-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24510-7