Influence of green innovation on disclosure quality: Mediating role of media attention

The importance of green innovation has been underlined by the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). This study examines the data from Chinese listed companies for the years from 2003 to 2019 to investigate the effect of corporate green innovation behavior on information disclosure decisions, thereby clarifying how the outcomes of green innovation influence internal corporate decision-making. The results indicate that green innovation motivates companies to disclose high-quality information. In addition, after considering potential endogenous interferences and performing several robustness tests, this study obtains consistent results. It also reveals that media attention is a crucial mechanism that enables green innovation to enhance the quality of information disclosure. The effect of green innovation on disclosure quality also exhibits industry heterogeneity. Therefore, the guiding of media attention and policies on the basis of industry characteristics is also a key component in the development of green innovation.