Bridging the Gap to Sustainability: How Culture and Context Shape Green Transparency in Chinese Firms

Yuan Zhang ()
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Yuan Zhang: Business School, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 3, 1-23

Abstract: Green transparency motivates organizations to decrease environmental hazard emissions, improve ecological safeguarding behavior, and increase environmental performance. However, the current literature ignores the cultural and organizational factors behind green transparency behavior, which cannot answer stakeholders how to reduce barriers to green transparency to achieve sustainable goals. This study collected data from 207 Chinese companies listed on three stock exchanges (Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen) through an online survey to unfold the interplay between green transparency and contextual and organizational factors. The collected data were analyzed using PLS-SEM. The analysis revealed that environmental regulations, digitalization, innovation, and gender diversity significantly affect organizational sustainability culture. The findings also revealed that all these factors directly affect the green transparency of Chinese companies. Furthermore, mediation analysis revealed that organizational sustainability culture mediates the relationship between green transparency and all other study constructs. Short-term training programs regarding sustainability, mutual group discussion without gender discrimination, and supporting the use of digital tools may significantly develop a sustainability culture in the company and can improve firms’ green transparency.

Keywords: green transparency; sustainability culture; environmental disclosure; digitalization and innovation; environmental regulations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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