Corporate environmental responsibility and environmental non-governmental organizations in China

Abstract

In China, environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) play an important supervisory role to address ecological issues together with government regulation and enterprise implementation. This study examines the effect of ENGO presence on corporate environmental responsibility (CER) performance, along with internal factors as covariate variables. With a sample of 677 enterprises, it operationalizes the independent variable in terms of the number of ENGOs within certain distances from each enterprise, and the dependent variable based on the corporate social responsibility report using the specific criteria in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sustainability reporting guidelines. The results of Tobit regression analyses indicate that ENGO presence is conducive to CER performance, and asset size, power concentration, and industry type also make differences. The findings suggest that ENGOs are helpful in solving environment issues by bridging the gap between private and public sectors. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.