The impacts of green media coverage on corporate sustainability behaviours: green innovation and disclosure

Abstract

With a focus on the press-media, this thesis examines the impacts of green media coverage on two key aspects of firm behaviour. First, the impact on a firm’s green innovation and secondly, its willingness for and its degree of green disclosure. Green media coverage is media coverage that relates specifically to a firm’s environmental activities. Green innovation refers to all aspects of a firm’s innovation related to developing green products via green processes, including energy saving, pollution management, waste recycling, product design, and environmental management (Chen et al. 2006). Green disclosure refers to information that is made available about a firm’s environmental activities and performance (Brammer & Pavelin 2006; Clarkson et al. 2008). Understanding the role of the media in motivating green innovation and green disclosure is important for two reasons: one, green innovation and green disclosure play important roles in combating climate change towards building a more sustainable economy, and two, the media is a powerful force in the market because media coverage is the main source of information for the public. This thesis understands the media as a stakeholder. This thesis positions itself within the disciplines of accounting and finance and makes a contribution to those disciplines. This thesis contributes to the literature on the influence of the media on corporate behaviours by specifically focusing on green media coverage. This thesis finds that green media coverage documents a positive effect on a firm’s sustainable behaviours, namely, green innovation and green disclosure, through the media’s roles as an information intermediary and in corporate governance. These findings extend the existing studies regarding the media’s positive impacts on corporate behaviours. Furthermore, this thesis explores the drivers of corporate sustainable behaviours, green innovation and green disclosure, extending the scope to include the influence of green media. Media coverage triggers stakeholder and institutional pressure on firms, motivating them to enhance their sustainability practices. Additionally, this thesis provides empirical evidence of how green media coverage exerts its influence on corporate sustainable behaviours, utilising information asymmetry theory, agency theory, shareholder theory and institutional theory to explain these findings, thereby contributing existing research. Lastly, this thesis extends the investigation of green innovation and green disclosure to some specific emerging economies, which has important implications for emerging economies more broadly.

Date of Thesis submission	2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Supervisor	Stella Huiying Wu (Supervisor), Meg Smith (Supervisor) & Jiaxing You (Supervisor)