The impact of corporate environmental responsibility on financial performance-based on Chinese listed companies

In recent years, environmental protection issues have come under the spotlight. This paper constructs a corporate environmental responsibility evaluation index and examines the impact of environmental responsibility performance on financial performance in China based on the information of A-share listed companies disclosed in the Company Annual Report and Social Responsibility Report from 2008 to 2017. The empirical results show that: (1) without considering the quality of environmental information, fulfilling environmental responsibility can significantly improve the corporate financial performance; (2) after incorporating the quality of environmental responsibility performance and classifying corporations into subgroups by region and attribute, the fulfillment of environmental responsibility has a significant positive impact on the corporate financial performance in the sample of eastern region and non-state-holding companies, with a lag effect, while it has a negative impact in the sample of central region. The research above politically suggests that the Chinese government should establish a long-term management mechanism to encourage companies to fulfill their environmental responsibilities, improve the evaluation system of corporate environmental responsibility performance quality, as well as provide matching financial support or other compensation, thereby realize the sound and sustainable development of companies and the society.

Automated summary

The study finds that fulfilling environmental responsibility can significantly improve corporate financial performance, but it is necessary to consider factors such as environmental information quality, region, and ownership type. The government should establish a long-term management mechanism to encourage corporate environmental responsibility, improve evaluation systems, and provide financial support.