Impact of media attention on environmental performance in China

After the acidic copper-contained sewage incident of Zijin Mining Co. Ltd, environmental protection is a concern by society and the Chinese government. The corporate environmental performance is necessary to be improved. Among external factors, this study explores the mechanism of media attention. This study examines the impact of media attention on corporate environmental performance with the exogenous shock of the Environmental Protection Law of 2015 in China using the A-share listed firms from 2011 to 2018. The results show that media attention significantly improves corporate environmental performance. There is a substitution effect between implementing the 2015 Environmental Protection Law and the media attention on corporate environmental performance. Moreover, such a substitution effect is more significant for firms with high-quality internal control and firms with a low degree of industry competitiveness. This study's results have some important implications for motivating firms to take environmental responsibility and filling in the existing literature.