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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Confucianism, Long-term Orientation
and Corporate Environmental Protection
Investment: Evidence from China
1
School of Business, Hohai University, Changzhou, Jiangsu 213022, China
Submission date: 2024-02-22
Final revision date: 2024-04-11
Acceptance date: 2024-04-18
Online publication date: 2024-10-02
Publication date: 2025-01-28
Corresponding author
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2025;34(3):2187-2196
KEYWORDS
Confucianismcorporate environmental protection investmentlong-term orientationcorporate social responsibility
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Environmental protection investment is crucial to achieving an environment-friendly society. This
study explores the influence and mechanism of Confucianism on corporate environmental protection
investment (EPI) from a long-term-oriented perspective. Calculating the density of Confucian academies
in prefecture-level cities and using data on Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2020, this
study finds that Confucianism plays a considerable role in promoting corporate environmental protection
investment by stimulating corporations to assume social responsibility and ameliorate corporate
accounting information quality. The positivity of Confucianism shows strong robustness. Further analysis
shows that when environmental regulation is weak or industry competition is fierce, Confucian cultural
values have a more positive influence on EPI. This study provides empirical evidence on incentivizing
corporate environmental responsibility and comprehensive green transformation of economic and social
development during the sustainable development phase.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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