Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management最新文献

This study explores how the relationship between board gender diversity and corporate environmental decoupling is moderated by board characteristics. Based on US listed companies in environmentally non-sensitive industries for the period 2011–2021, our results highlight that female directors tend to mitigate environmental decoupling. However, this effect is strengthened in boards with longer tenure and greater ESG experience but remains insignificant in boards with higher independence. Our findings highlight the interconnectedness of board characteristics, showing that analyzing board gender diversity in isolation may yield biased conclusions. These findings will help policymakers and professional organizations refine future recommendations and assist firms in developing effective strategies regarding board gender diversity, board tenure, and board ESG experience.

The study explores the impact of digital financial inclusion on sustainable industrialization in sub-Saharan Africa, using panel data from 36 sub-Saharan African countries between 2000 and 2023. The results show that digital inclusion improves access to finance, stimulates industrial innovation, and promotes the integration of marginalized groups into formal economic circuits. Econometric analysis, using robust methods such as fixed effects, GMM, and Kinky least squares, confirms a significant positive effect of financial digitization on sustainable industrialization. However, this effect varies according to the level of technological development, institutional quality, and access to digital infrastructures. The study identifies two main transmission channels for this effect: innovation and access to financing, which explain 30% and 22% of the total effect, respectively. A quantile analysis also reveals that the impact of digital financial inclusion is more pronounced in segments that are better equipped technologically. Finally, recommendations are made for strengthening digital infrastructure, promoting green finance, and integrating financial inclusion policies into sustainable industrialization strategies.

The transition to clean energy is central to achieving global sustainability goals; however, it is increasingly shaped by the complex interplay of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors and macroeconomic risks. While prior research has examined various determinants of clean energy investment, limited attention has been paid to the distinct role of ESG uncertainty in influencing market dynamics. In a context of evolving regulatory frameworks, shifting investor priorities, and heightened geopolitical tensions, this study investigates how ESG uncertainty, in conjunction with macro-risks, economic policy uncertainty, geopolitical risk, financial market volatility, oil price volatility, and climate policy uncertainty, affects clean energy markets, alongside the stabilising roles of green bonds and carbon pricing. Using monthly data from January 2015 to September 2024, the Kernel-based Regularised Least Squares approach is employed to capture nonlinear and heterogeneous effects. The results reveal that ESG uncertainty, economic policy uncertainty, and geopolitical risk consistently weaken clean energy markets, deterring investment and amplifying volatility. Conversely, green bonds and carbon pricing mechanisms act as critical stabilisers, reducing uncertainty and promoting sustainable capital flows. Interestingly, climate policy uncertainty and oil price volatility, while disruptive in the short term, generate long-term opportunities for renewable energy expansion. The findings highlight the importance of strengthening ESG disclosure frameworks, ensuring policy consistency, expanding green bond markets, reinforcing carbon pricing mechanisms, and promoting international cooperation. By addressing this gap, the study contributes valuable insights for investors, policymakers, and researchers seeking to navigate uncertainty and accelerate the clean energy transition.

This study investigates why financially constrained Chinese firms continue to engage in substantial philanthropic giving and whether such donations yield financial and sustainability-related benefits. Positioned at the intersection of corporate social responsibility (CSR), financing constraints, and sustainable development, it examines the link between charitable contributions, firm performance, and financial constraints within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 8 and SDG 17. Drawing on the resource-based view and strategic charitable giving theory, the analysis uses panel data from 3856 Chinese A-share listed firms (2019–2023). Fixed Effects regression models are employed to assess the direct and moderating effects of financial constraints, while correlated random effects, alternative performance measures, and control substitutions provide robustness checks; endogeneity concerns are addressed through generalized method of moments estimation. Findings highlight that philanthropic donations enhance firm performance, but this effect weakens under financial constraints, which themselves directly reduce performance. These findings underscore the need for firms to strategically balance social commitments with financial limitations. By highlighting the moderating role of financial constraints in the donation–performance nexus, this study contributes novel empirical evidence from an emerging economy, enriching CSR research on strategic philanthropy and SDG-oriented business strategies.

The financial implications of corporate environmental responsibility (CER) remain a subject of considerable debate, with empirical evidence often yielding mixed results. This ambiguity suggests that the relationship is contingent upon broader contextual factors, particularly the institutional environment. Grounded in a dual framework of stakeholder theory and institutional theory, this article investigates the joint effect of firm-level CER and country-level environmental policy stringency (EPS) on the cost of debt for European firms. Using a sample of 2025 listed firms from 18 European countries from 2017 to 2021, our analysis employs fixed effects, structural equation, and multilevel models. The findings reveal that higher CER significantly reduces a firm's cost of debt. More importantly, national environmental policy serves as a critical mechanism that both directly lowers debt costs and indirectly amplifies the financial benefits of CER by encouraging firms to improve their environmental performance. This research contributes by demonstrating the synergistic interplay between micro-level corporate actions and macro-level regulatory pressures, offering robust evidence that cohesive environmental strategies at both corporate and governmental levels yield tangible financial advantages.

This paper investigates whether and to what extent corporate sustainability policies attract shareholder activism—and whether such attention is general or selectively targeted. While sustainability initiatives are typically viewed as signals of legitimacy and ethical commitment, we argue that they may also heighten stakeholder expectations and intensify scrutiny of internal governance practices. Drawing on signaling theory, we conceptualize sustainability policies as external signals of stakeholder-oriented values that may invite greater activist attention when misaligned with governance mechanisms. Using a longitudinal dataset of Fortune 250 US firms from 2011 to 2019, we find that sustainability policies do not generate a broad increase in shareholder activism. Instead, they channel activist focus toward symbolically salient governance issues, particularly CEO compensation. This targeted attention is amplified in firms with strong reputational capital, where inconsistencies between sustainability rhetoric and internal practices are more visible and normatively charged. By shifting the focus from whether sustainability invites activism to where that activism is directed, this study offers new insights into the selective nature of shareholder responses to sustainability signaling.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) activism, defined as chief executive officers publicly engaging with contentious sociopolitical issues, can evoke mixed stakeholder reactions and even harm a corporate reputation. Although the business-relatedness of CEO activism has been highlighted as important, evidence of its impact on stakeholders remains inconclusive. To address this, the present study examines CEO activism in conjunction with another substantial moral signal: CEO moral behavior. Drawing on attribution theory, our empirical studies demonstrate that the business-relatedness of CEO activism reduces perceptions of a self-serving motive—but only when the CEO's morality is not questioned. When the CEO's morality is questioned in their private life, business-relatedness instead heightens perceptions of self-serving motives. This attribution spills over to evaluations of the organization: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are perceived as less genuine, ultimately harming corporate reputation. This study offers new insights into the attribution of CEO activism motives within the context of CEO morality and CSR.