How to improve environmental performance of heavily polluting companies in China? A cross-level configurational approach

Heavy-polluting companies disclose environmental information voluntarily or passively. However, few studies have focused on which corporate internal characteristics affect the motivation of environmental information disclose (EID) in the process of improving environmental performance, and how the combination of multi-factor affects environmental performance. In view of the causal complexity of environmental performance, our adopt fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). The heavy-polluting enterprises in the manufacturing industry of China Shanghai A-Stock Exchange are used to analyze. The results show that the signal transmit-strategy and legitimacy-cognitive driven pattern can improve corporate environmental performance. The combination of market competition and EID is a key factor leading to differences in corporate environmental performance. The research conclusions contribute to exploring the path to improve environmental performance from the configuration lens, as well as the inducements of environmental performance differences.