Impact of media attention on corporate green innovation: What is the role of dual environmental regulation?

Ning Chen, Nan Yan, Henglang Xie and Yifan Ou

International Review of Financial Analysis, 2024, vol. 96, issue PA

Abstract: This study explores the intricate interplay between media attention, dual environmental regulation, and corporate green innovation quality using a comprehensive dataset of Chinese A-share listed companies. Thus, our rigorous empirical analysis reveals that media visibility significantly affects corporate environmental sustainability efforts, with formal and informal environmental regulations moderating its impact. Media attention acts as a powerful catalyst for green innovation during growth and mature stages of a company's lifecycle; however, its effect diminishes during recessions. We determine significant heterogeneity across industry types and ownership structures. Non-high-polluting industries and non-state-owned enterprises show stronger positive responses to media scrutiny in their green innovation efforts than high-polluting sectors and state-owned enterprises. Furthermore, formal environmental regulations amplify the positive effect of media attention on green innovation, suggesting a synergistic potential that encourages companies to exceed baseline environmental standards. In contrast, while having no direct impact on green innovation, informal environmental regulation significantly moderates the relationship between media attention and innovation quality. These findings add to the literature on environmental innovation by demonstrating the conditional effectiveness of media attention and the critical role of regulatory frameworks in fostering sustainable corporate practices across industries and ownership contexts, with implications for policymakers, corporate strategists, and environmental advocates.

Keywords: Corporate green innovation; Media attention; Environmental regulation; Corporate sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L51 M14 Q55 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105752192400485X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:finana:v:96:y:2024:i:pa:s105752192400485x

DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2024.103553

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Financial Analysis is currently edited by B.M. Lucey

More articles in International Review of Financial Analysis from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().