ESG information disclosure is regarded as a systematic and comprehensive way of releasing corporate non-financial responsibilities such as ecological environmental responsibilities,social responsibilities,and corporate governance responsibilities to the stakeholders. More and more listed companies have taken ESG information disclosure as an important means of establishing their green corporate image and gaining momentum for achieving high green innovation performance,and how the companies can improve green innovation performance through ESG information disclosure motivation has attracted attention from the research field. Many scholars have found that internal factors such as corporate financial performance,values,risks,and investment evaluation,and external factors like pressure from governmental environment regulation,public environmental concern,and consumers' green consumption intentions,have a great impact on the corporate motivation to disclose ESG information to outsiders. ESG information disclosure is beneficial for corporate reputation management,exerting green spillover effects and value transmission effects to generate altruistic social value. However,there is still controversy about whether ESG information disclosure motivation can positively affect green innovation. Some scholars argue that corporate ESG information disclosure motivation is restricted by macro policy and institutional factors and may have no significant impact on green innovation performance; besides,the impact mechanism of ESG report information disclosure motivation upon corporate green image is still unclear and remains an unsolved “black box” for the present researchers. Therefore,it is of significance to have a comprehensive understanding on the correlation between ESG information disclosure motivation,green image and green innovation and thus know how to help companies promote green development.
Following the motivation theory,the signal transmission theory and the environmental psychological value-belief-norm theory,this study constructs a conceptual model of the relationship among the dual motivations of corporate ESG report information disclosure,green image,green value cognition,and green innovation performance,taking green image as a mediating variable and green value cognition as a moderating variable,to explore the impact mechanism of ESG information disclosure motivation upon green innovation performance. It divides the motivators of corporate ESG information disclosure into egoistic ones and altruistic ones,in which the egoistic motivators mainly refer to those generated by the corporates to meet the needs of self-growth reputation,resource needs,etc. ,while the altruistic motivators mean those generated by the corporates to meet the needs of social responsibility and social value realization. The study adopts the questionnaire survey method of 254 samples from the listed companies that have released ESG reports between 2018 and 2022 and finds that ESG information disclosure motivators,no matter egoistic ones or altruistic ones,both have a significant positive impact upon corporate green innovation performance; green image plays a mediating role in the relationship between ESG information disclosure motivation and green innovation performance; and the top managers' green value cognition positively adjusts ESG information disclosure motivation and green innovation performance. This study also discovers that ESG information disclosure motivation can help companies solve the problems of information asymmetry and agency conflicts,convey environmental,social and governance information to stakeholders,and meet the corporate green development needs. The more attention corporates have paid to ESG information disclosure motivation,the higher the green innovation performance they are likely to achieve.
In summary,by adopting the environmental psychological value-belief-norm theory,this study expands the field of interdisciplinary theoretical research and enriches theoretical research perspectives; it uncovers the impact mechanism “black box” of ESG information disclosure upon green innovation performance,discusses the role and significance of green image construction from multiple dimensions,and provides basic theoretical support for improving the self-utility and social utility of corporate green image,enhancing the top managers' green image awareness,and thus improving the corporate green innovation performance.
In order to gain continuous momentum for improving green innovation performance,the companies should actively promote ESG information disclosure motivation,improve corporate green image and the top managers' green value awareness. Besides,in the current context of China's comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development,the government should strongly enforce the corporate ESG information disclosure laws,insistently strengthen the supervision and technical guidance on ESG information disclosure,and stimulate corporates' enthusiasm for their ESG information disclosure by providing green subsidies and other preferable policies.