Do Lenders Applaud Corporate Environmental Performance? Evidence from Chinese Private-Owned Firms

This study extends previous literature on the association between corporate social responsibility and corporate financial behavior by investigating the influence of corporate environmental performance on the cost of debt. Using a sample of Chinese private-owned firms, we document strong and consiste...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Authors: Du, Xingqiang (Author) ; Weng, Jianying (Author) ; Zeng, Quan (Author) ; Chang, Yingying (Author) ; Pei, Hongmei (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2017
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 2017, Volume: 143, Issue: 1, Pages: 179-207
Further subjects:B The interest rate on debt
B Internal Control
B Corporate Environmental Performance
B Lenders
B Chinese private-owned firms
Online Access: Volltext (JSTOR)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:This study extends previous literature on the association between corporate social responsibility and corporate financial behavior by investigating the influence of corporate environmental performance on the cost of debt. Using a sample of Chinese private-owned firms, we document strong and consistent evidence to show that corporate environmental performance is significantly negatively associated with the interest rate on debt—the proxy for the cost of debt. The findings suggest that lenders applaud better environmental performance. Moreover, internal control attenuates the negative association between corporate environmental performance and the interest rate on debt, implying substitutive effects between corporate environmental performance and internal control on the reduction of interest rates on debt. The results are robust to various sensitivity tests and are still valid after controlling for the potential endogeneity between corporate environmental performance and the interest rate on debt.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2758-2