公共压力、社会声誉、内部治理与企业环境信息披露——来自中国制造业上市公司的证据

Public Pressure, Social Reputation, Inside Governance and Firm Environmental Information Disclosure: the Evidence from Chinese Listed Manufacturing Firms

如何通过制度安排和内在激励促使企业充分地披露环境信息是保护生态环境、遏制生态危机的重要举措。本文以中国制造业上市公司2006-2009年的数据为样本,研究了企业环境信息披露的现状和决定因素。我们发现,企业选择披露环境信息的比例和水平逐年提高,但披露内容具有选择性和应对性,对污染物的排放后果、法律诉讼以及可能面临的或有负债等负面信息披露不足;来自环保部门、政府的公共压力或政治成本,以及企业品牌声誉的内在激励,显著地影响企业选择披露环境信息的概率和水平;来自银行债权人的监督、企业的两权分离度也在一定程度上影响企业是否选择披露环境信息的概率,但对环境信息披露水平的影响不显著。

How to make listed firms in China fully disclose envi- ronmental information to protect the ecological environment and prevent ecological crises from happening through institutional arrangements and intrinsic motivation is becoming more and more important today in the case of China＇s rapid economic development. However, previous studies pay little attention on this line of research. Based on organizational legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory, this article examines the impact of public pressure, firm rep- utation and inside governance on the probability and level of corpo- rate environmental information disclosure. By using data from 871 listed manufacturing industry companies from 2006 to 2009, we find that firms disclosure environmental information are increas- ing year after year, and that operated in environmentally sensitive industries, have higher state ownership, have higher brand reputa- tion tend to make environmental information disclosure and have a higher level of environmental information disclosure. Firms that rely more on bank loans or with higher separation between control rights and cash flow rights tend to make environmental informa- tion disclosure. But they are not more likely to disclosure a higher level of environmental information. Consistent with organizational legitimacy theory, our results suggest that increasing political cost and firm reputation benefit play important role in making firm to disclosure environmental information adequately. To some extent, consistent with stakeholder theory, our results suggest that pressure from stakeholders such as creditors and inside governance is helpful for listed firms to make a decision to disclosure environmental information, but has nothing to do with the level or quality of disclosure of environmental information.