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Taking the green credit policy in 2012 as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper has investigated the impact of green credit policy on Chinese firms' green strategy choices by using the panel data of A-share listed firms from 2008 to 2019. The results reveal that green credit improves firms' green innovation overall. In terms of time, the green-washing behavior of listed firms will increase significantly in the early stage of the implementation of green credit policy, but as time goes by, such green behavior of firms will be detected, which in turn will motivate firms to improve green innovation. Furthermore, the green credit policy has a more significant effect on green innovation of firms in localities under high environmental regulation, economically developed regions, and without other alternative financing channels. Firms located in regions with economically underdeveloped and low environmental regulation are more inclined to adopt the behavior of green-washing environmental information. Besides, after the implementation of the green credit policy, green innovation can improve corporate financial, environmental, and social performance, while green-washing behavior will damage corporate financial, environmental, and social performance. Our findings contribute to the literature on green credit policy, corporate green innovation, and environmental information disclosure, and also provide policy implications for improving the quality of green credit policy in the future., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Green finance is not just a global trend, but it has become an important channel for industrialized countries to achieve sustainable growth. However, few studies have discussed the environmental governance effects of green finance from the micro-firm level. Based on the data of Chinese A-share listed firms in heavily polluting industries, we, combining with property rights and environmental regulation, empirically research the influence of green finance on corporate environmental responsibility (CER) performance. Results indicate that green finance has a significant negative effect on the environmental responsibility of heavily polluting firms. The result remains after a series of robustness tests. In addition, property rights and environmental regulation play a moderating role in the above relationship. The negative impact of green finance on CER is stronger in private firms and firms in areas with low environmental regulation intensity. Moreover, we observe that green finance decreases the CER performance of heavily polluting firms by increasing financing constraints, reducing environmental investment, and diminishing technological innovation. This study identifies the external factors that influence CER and also provides implications and theoretical support for the government to improve the setting and the implementation of green finance policy in the future., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study examines the impact of financial redundancy on corporate social responsibility (CSR) based on a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2020. The results indicate that financial redundancy has a significant positive effect on CSR. However, financially redundant resources are not balanced in terms of how they encourage firms to undertake different dimensions of social responsibility; specifically, firms actively take social responsibility toward shareholders and the public but take less responsibility for employees and the environment. The incentive for firms with financially redundant resources to promote CSR initiatives is attributable to their high level of social awareness and pursuit of reputation. Consistent with their motives, our economic consequence analysis reveals that the incremental effect of CSR driven by financial redundancy improves corporate reputation but has no enhancement effect on corporate performance. Finally, our extended analysis reveals that the relative impact of financial redundancy on CSR depends on several organizational variables that influence a firm's preferences for CSR investments. The positive impact of financial redundancy on CSR is stronger among firms with high managerial career concerns and firms in regions with high market competition. This research provides a necessary structure for future CSR studies to follow. By delving deeply into the relationship between financial redundancy and CSR, it enables scholars to better address the critical management question of whether wealthy firms do more good for society compared to those that are less wealthy., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 He, Gan and Zhong.)