: With the international community’s increasing concern for social and environmental problems, the fulfilment and disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been advocated and promoted across the world. Forestry companies, which are particularly sensitive to environmental and social issues, are increasingly developing and improving their levels of CSR disclosure. However, information on emerging country contexts is still lacking. To fill this gap, this study focuses on Chinese forestry companies’ CSR disclosure and introduces new disclosure indices through content analysis of annual reports by listed companies between 2011–2015. It then builds a correlation analysis of the factors influencing these companies’ disclosure indices in order to gain a better understanding of the current situation for CSR implementation by forestry companies in emerging economies like China. Although context-specific, our findings can provide a reference for researchers and policy makers, and promote sustainable development via improved CSR disclosure by forestry companies, especially in developing regions.

With the development of ecological paradigm coupled with the relentless implementation of myriad environmental policies in China, the rapid development of carbon emission trading and carbon trading market has had a vital impact on the financial performance of enterprises at the microlevel. This study has sampled the A-share listed companies in China, from 2009 to 2018, and adopted the difference-in-difference (DID) method to investigate the effect of the carbon emission trading on corporate financial performance from the microlevel. Evidence showed that the implementation of carbon emission trading effectively improved the total asset-liability ratio of enterprises, though it reduced the value of the current capital market. Moreover, in the regions under strict legal environment, the enhancement effect of the total asset-liability ratio was more obvious, whereas in the regions under loose legal environment, the reduction effect of the value of the capital market was more obvious. Further analysis showed that the implementation of carbon emission trading could not promote Chinese enterprises to increase R&D investment. Hence the implementation of carbon emission trading has improved the level of non-business income of enterprises incorporated into the trading system, but its impact on the investment income of enterprises was not significant.

With economic globalization and the diffusion of corporate social responsibility (CSR), firms are increasingly moving from using reactive to more proactive strategies in their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies. Wood-based panel processing enterprises, which are particularly sensitive to environmental and social issues, are increasingly developing their CSR strategies. Previous research on environmental protection and responsibility in this industry focused mainly on single aspects, such as the control of volatile noxious gases, while neglecting comprehensive social environmental responsibility strategies, especially in emerging economies. This article adopts a case study approach that analyzes the main CSR strategies of four leading Chinese wood-based panel processing enterprises. The study provides a reference for similar enterprises in China and other developing economies on CSR/ESG strategies. Even though context specific, our findings can provide further impetus for research and discussion on other emerging economies that share similar institutional characteristics.