Government subsidies and corporate environmental investments: a resource-based perspective

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the mechanism of the role of government subsidies on corporate environmental investment and explore how specific characteristics of firms affect corporate environmental responsibility.Design/methodology/approachThis paper examines the relationship between government subsidies and corporate environmental investment and models with a sample of 78,854 industries. The authors measure the corporate environmental investment by the natural logarithm of the volume of waste gas treatment facilities.FindingsThe results show the positive effect of government subsidies on corporate environmental investment. In addition, state ownership positively regulates the relationship between government and corporations, but the relationship between them is negatively regulated by the slack resources.Practical implicationsWhen people are increasingly concerned about corporate social and environmental responsibility, clarifying the link between government subsidies and corporate environmental investments can help policymakers formulate policies and allocate limited resources.Originality/valueThis study uses the resource-based view as a theoretical framework to reveal the mechanism of action between government subsidies and corporate environmental responsibility, enriching the previous literature that explores the issue based on the legitimacy perspective.

Can Government Environmental Attention Improve Corporate Carbon Emission Reduction Performance?—Evidence from China A-Share Listed Companies with High-Energy-Consumption

“…CEP i,t = µ 0 + µ 1 GEA i,t + µ 2 Media i,t + µ 3 Controls i,t + ∑ Year + ∑ Industry + ε i,t (9) We use the natural logarithm of the total number of times Company i is covered by online media plus 1 (Media_1) as an indicator for media attention, obtaining data from the CNRDS database.…”

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Corporate Social Responsibility and Green Technology Innovation: The Moderating Role of Stakeholders

“…To maintain a sustainable competitive advantage, companies need to actively pay attention to government policy guidance on environmental management, take the initiative to assume social and environmental responsibilities, and obtain the maximum possible government environmental subsidies to promote GTI [37]. Firms that receive government environmental subsidies are inclined to undertake environmental transformations [38]. Environmental protection subsidies can convey the government's emphasis on environmental protection to the world, encourage enterprises to increase their participation in social responsibility, and guide the overall market environment to attract green talent and undertake green innovation.…”