Nexus Between Corporate Sustainability Reporting and Risk Mitigation: Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms

Waqas Haider (), Fayaz Hussain Tunio, Muhammad Usman Arshad () and Paulo Ferreira
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Waqas Haider: School of Finance, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing 100081, China
Fayaz Hussain Tunio: Department of Law, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University of Law, Karachi 75600, Pakistan
Muhammad Usman Arshad: Department of Commerce, University of Gujrat, Gujrat 50700, Pakistan

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 4, 1-32

Abstract: This study examines how corporate sustainability reporting affects the corporate risk-taking of Chinese firms based on a sample size of 5356 companies for the period 2011–2023. We examined the overall impact of CSR on CRT, as well as the individual impact of CSR subcomponents such as environmental (CESR), social (CSSR), and governance (CGSR). We further examined how this relationship is affected by moderating variables such as employees’ education and financial flexibility. We used the PCSE technique for cross-sectional dependence and heteroscedasticity in our analysis. But to ensure robustness and address the potential endogeneity, we used the 2SLS and two-step system GMM dynamic panel methods. This study also checks the mechanism analysis and heterogeneity analysis based on revenue growth and firm sizes, respectively. The results states that CSR and its subcomponents (CESR, CSSR, and CGSR) reduce the CRT of the Chinese companies, and this reducing impact becomes stronger when moderated by the employees’ education and financial flexibility of the firms. These results show why sustainability reporting and practices are important for reducing CRT. This research underscores the need for firms to adopt sustainable corporate governance frameworks and highlights the pivotal role of organizational factors in reinforcing the risk-reducing benefits of sustainability initiatives.

Keywords: corporate sustainability reporting; corporate risk-taking; financial flexibility; employees’ education (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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