Corporate Environmental Responsibility in Polluting Industries: Does Religion Matter?

Abstract

本文基于手工搜集的、2008-2010年期间污染行业的A股上市公司环境责任与佛教的相关数据，实证分析了中国佛教是否、以及如何影响公司的环境绩效。研究发现，佛教与公司环境绩效显著正相关，但法律环境调和了佛教与公司环境绩效之间的正相关关系。这一研究，为宗教与社会责任行为、特别是环境责任提供了重要的经验证据支持。Using a sample of Chinese listed firms in polluting industries for the period of 2008–2010, we empirically investigate whether and how Buddhism, China’s most influential religion, affects corporate environmental responsibility (CER). In this study, we measure Buddhist variables as the number of Buddhist monasteries within a certain radius around Chinese listed firms’ registered addresses. In addition, we hand-collect corporate environmental disclosure scores based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sustainability reporting guidelines. Using hand-collected Buddhism data and corporate environmental disclosure scores, we provide strong and robust evidence that Buddhism is significantly positively associated with CER. This finding is consistent with the following view: Buddhism can serve as social norms to evoke the consciousness of social responsibility, and thereof strengthen CER. Our findings also reveal that the positive association between Buddhism and CER is attenuated for firms with higher law enforcement index. The results are robust to various measures of Buddhism and a variety of sensitivity tests.http://news.xmu.edu.cn/s/13/t/542/20/94/info139412.ht

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