Operational Efficiency and Debt Cost: The Mediating Effect of Carbon Information Disclosure in Chinese Listed Companies

Guangyang Wang, Junwei Bai, Jian Xing, Jianfei Shen (), Erli Dan, Xinyuan Zheng, Ludan Zhang, Peng Liu and Renchi Feng
Additional contact information
Guangyang Wang: State Grid Materials Co., Ltd., Beijing 100120, China
Junwei Bai: State Grid Materials Co., Ltd., Beijing 100120, China
Jian Xing: State Grid Materials Co., Ltd., Beijing 100120, China
Jianfei Shen: Economics and Management Department, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Erli Dan: Economics and Management Department, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Xinyuan Zheng: Economics and Management Department, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Ludan Zhang: Economics and Management Department, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Peng Liu: Economics and Management Department, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Renchi Feng: Economics and Management Department, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 2, 1-18

Abstract: Voluntary corporate carbon information disclosure not only meets the carbon information needs of investors, but also enhances the legitimacy of organizations. Building a green image may increase the public consumption of products and be conducive to reducing the cost of debt. As a part of creditors’ assessment of debtors’ solvency, operational efficiency is the basic factor of debt cost reduction. By constructing the correlation between carbon information disclosure and operational efficiency, this paper attempts to test the mediating effect of carbon information disclosure in the relationship between operational efficiency and debt cost, so as to increase the understanding of the mechanism of action between carbon information disclosure and debt cost. Stepwise regression method and Bootstrap statistical method were used to test. The results show that the higher the operational efficiency, the lower the debt cost; the carbon information disclosure of enterprises in low-carbon industries has a significant partial mediating effect on the relationship between operational efficiency and debt cost while that of carbon-intensive industries is not significant. It verifies that the operating efficiency of low-carbon industry can affect the cost of debt through carbon information disclosure, and finds a significant correlation between carbon information disclosure and operating efficiency. This study broadens ways for enterprises in low-carbon industries to reduce debt costs, highlights the role of operational efficiency in various industries, and reveals favorable evidence in the positive value of carbon disclosure in low-carbon industries which in essence can better reflect the enthusiasm of enterprises in their own financing or the restrictive channels of enterprise carbon performance evaluation. This has implications for the research on how to promote the link between carbon information disclosure and debt cost of enterprises in high-carbon industries, which will help enterprises in the future to make carbon information transparency or voluntarily disclose carbon information. It is of great significance for regional and industrial enterprises to choose the disclosure system of voluntary or mandatory carbon information disclosure.

Keywords: operational efficiency; total assets turnover; debt cost; carbon information disclosure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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