Reading from the same page: how does industry-specific information disclosure affect green innovation in heavily polluting firms?
利用中国行业特定信息披露指南作为准自然实验，研究发现该指南通过外部监督和同行压力显著促进重污染企业绿色创新，且效果在要求披露具体指标和重点监控企业中更强，但受盈利压力削弱。
Encouraging green innovation within businesses is crucial for achieving sustainable growth. Utilising China’s industry-specific information disclosure guidelines as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper examines the impact of industry-specific disclosure on green innovation in heavily polluting enterprises (HPEs). The results show that the guidelines have a significant positive impact on green innovation in HPEs, which can be attributed to monitoring pressure from external scrutiny and peer pressure from industry counterparts. Moreover, this positive impact is more pronounced in cases where the guidelines require listed companies to disclose specific metrics and in firms designated as key heavily polluting entities, but it is attenuated by earnings pressure. These results suggest that non-environmental regulation can effectively promote green innovation in HPEs by leveraging external pressure mechanisms, offering valuable insights for regulatory reforms and corporate green transitions in emerging economies.