过程、结果维度的环境治理与企业财务绩效

目前国内外对于环境治理与企业财务绩效之间关系的研究,结论不一致且不能有效比较,可能是由于没有区分环境治理的不同维度,而高成本的环境治理过程与环境治理结果之间的关系尚不明确。本文基于2009—2017年A股公司年报手工搜集企业环境治理数据,基于权衡理论、自然资源理论和TLGT效应等,检验了环境治理过程和结果与企业财务绩效之间的非线性关系。结果发现:环境治理过程正向影响环境治理结果,而环境治理过程和结果两个维度都与企业财务绩效呈U型关系,较差的环境治理过程和结果均负向影响财务绩效,而较好的环境治理过程和结果均正向影响财务绩效,并且环境治理结果在环境治理过程和企业财务绩效之间发挥非线性中介作用。进一步检验发现,过程维度的环境治理仅通过成本效应路径影响财务绩效,而结果维度的环境治理同时通过成本效应路径和差异化效应路径影响财务绩效。本文基于中国的制度背景将环境治理划分为治理过程和治理结果两个维度,为企业环境治理与财务绩效之间的关系提供了经验证据,并对促进中国企业环境治理提供了一定启示。

Process and Outcome Dimensions of Environmental Governance and Corporate Financial Performance

Existing studies on corporate environmental governance are confused in terms of concept adoption,and many studies only focus on the single dimension of concepts,thus many research conclusions can't be compared effectively.We hand-collect the corporate environmental governance data from the annual reports of A-share companies between 2009 and 2017.Based on the trade-off theory,natural-resource-based view and“Too-Little-of-a-Good-Thing”(TLGT)effects,we examine the non-linear relationship between the processes and outcomes of environmental governance and corporate financial performance.We find that the environmental governance processes positively affect environmental governance outcomes,and both the environmental governance processes and outcomes have a U-shaped relationship with corporate financial performance,indicating that poor environmental governance processes and outcomes have negative impacts on financial performance,while superior environmental governance processes and outcomes have positive impacts on financial performance.The results also show that the positive or negative impacts of environmental governance processes on corporate financial performance depends on the level of environmental governance processes,and the positive or negative impacts of environmental governance outcomes on corporate financial performance also depends on the level of environmental governance outcomes.In addition,we find that environmental governance outcomes act as a mediator variable for the relationship between environmental governance processes and financial performance.That is to say,environmental governance processes affect the financial performance by influencing the environmental governance outcomes.These findings are robust to addressing endogeneity through the instrumental variable,to reclassifying the environmental governance dimensions and to using alternative proxies for the environmental governance processes.Finally,further study shows that both environmental governance processes and outcomes affect financial performance by influencing the cost competitive advantage,these two influence mechanisms are the cost effect path.While only environmental governance outcomes affect financial performance by influencing the differentiation competitive advantage,this influence mechanism is the differentiation effect path.Our findings have some contributions,firstly,this paper provides reference for the follow-up research in this field in terms of the concept definition and dimension division of environmental governance.Previous literatures mostly focus on a single dimension of environmental governance,ignored its multidimensional characteristics.This paper divides environmental governance into process and outcome dimensions,and comprehensively considers the influence mechanisms of different dimensions of environmental governance on financial performance,so as to make the analysis framework more comprehensive.The second contribution is the innovation of data measurement method.This paper collects data on corporate environmental governance by hand,and quantifies the processes and outcomes of environmental governance properly by using content analysis method,so as to clearly distinguish the efforts in the processes of environmental governance and the final performance of environmental governance outcomes.The quantitative methods of these indicators can also provide meaningful references for external environmental regulation and supervision.Thirdly,this paper enriches the relevant literature on the relationship between corporate environmental governance and financial performance.Based on the nonlinear contingency perspective and the TLGT effect(Too-Little-of-a-Good-Thing),this paper provides nonlinear evidence for the study of the relationship between environmental governance and financial performance,thus helping to understand the conflicting conclusions on the relationship between related environmental governance and financial performance.What's more,this paper provides policy implications for promoting corporate environmental governance in China.