Research on the impact of green mergers and acquisitions of heavily polluting enterprises on the quality of environmental information disclosure: empirical evidence from listed companies in China

Abstract Green mergers and acquisitions are an important means for heavily polluting enterprises to achieve green transformation. Previous studies have yielded inconsistent conclusions regarding the relationship between green mergers and acquisitions and the level of corporate environmental management, possibly due to the omission of considering the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure. Therefore, based on a sample of 908 observations of heavily polluting listed companies on the A-share market of Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2019, Utilizing a fixed-effects model, this study empirically examines the relationship between green mergers and acquisitions and the quality of environmental information disclosure and further explores the boundary effects of government environmental regulation and property rights on this relationship. The results show that green mergers and acquisitions of heavily polluting enterprises have a significantly positive impact on the environmental information disclosure quality of acquiring firms, and government environmental regulation positively moderates the relationship between green mergers and acquisitions and environmental information disclosure quality. Through subgroup analysis based on different property rights, it is found that compared to non-state-owned enterprises, state-owned enterprises exhibit a stronger positive relationship between green mergers and acquisitions and the quality of environmental information disclosure. This study has further enriched the relevant literature on green M&A and environmental information disclosure, provided new ideas for heavy polluting enterprises to achieve green transformation, and provided a reference for the government and enterprises to take countermeasures and suggestions.