We examine whether chief executive officer compensation aligned with stakeholders' interests is associated with enhanced corporate carbon transparency. Using an international sample obtained from the CDP, we find that corporate carbon transparency—as measured by both the propensity to voluntarily disclose carbon information and the quality and comprehensiveness of the disclosure—is greater when managers' compensation contracts are better aligned with stakeholder interests. Further analyses indicate that this positive relationship is stronger in countries or regions with a code law legal system, with an inefficient rule of law, that show strong social norms toward climate change, that feature collectivist societies, and that have a long-term orientation. These findings indicate that the stakeholder agency problem of voluntary carbon disclosure can be addressed through executive incentives that are aligned with stakeholders' interests.

We analyze the relationship between financial transparency and carbon transparency based on the ethical and opportunistic perspectives. Our sample comprises 10,341 firm-year observations from firms in 55 countries or regions in the CDP (previously the Carbon Disclosure Project) during the period 2003–2015. We measure carbon transparency based on both managerial propensity to publicly disclose carbon information and the level and comprehensiveness of the voluntary carbon disclosure. We operationalize financial transparency based on firms' earnings management (EM). We find that our carbon transparency proxies are negatively associated with EM. These results are consistent with the ethical perspective, which suggests that carbon transparency complements financial transparency rather than substitutes for it. Furthermore, we find that the complementary relationship between carbon transparency and financial transparency is dependent on a country's stakeholder orientation, collectivism in the national culture, the presence of an emissions trading scheme, and regulatory governance.

With increasing emphasis being placed on corporate social responsibility, the number of companies furnishing corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports is increasing. This study investigates the impact of abnormal positive tone in CSR reports on analysts’ earnings forecast bias. The textual analysis of CSR reports of Chinese listed companies between 2006 and 2016 reveals that an abnormal positive tone significantly and positively relates to an optimistic bias in analysts’ forecasts. This effect is pronounced among companies with poor financial transparency and those operating in regions where culture is stakeholder-oriented. Further analysis confirms that the poorer the company’s CSR performance, the more it tends to mislead analysts using an abnormal positive tone in its CSR report. Based on these findings, this study suggests that firms may greenwash using an abnormally positive tone in their CSR reports.

Chinese merchant groups are commercial organizations that have developed over thousands of years. Given the importance of private firms to China’s sustainable development, this study investigates the impact of the traditional Chinese concept of merchant groups on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and cost of debt, using Chinese private listed firms during 2008–2020. We measure merchant group culture based on the company’s geographic location. Ordinary least squares regression models are used to test the hypotheses. According to the results, the CSR performance of firms from five traditional Chinese merchant groups is better than non-members. A positive relationship exists between the strength of merchant group culture and CSR performance; this relationship is stronger among merchant group companies. The closer the culture to CSR values, the better the CSR performance, which is negatively related to the cost of debt. The findings are in line with the peer effect theory. Therefore, the study provides evidence that it is essential to consider the traditional Chinese merchant group culture for firms’ CSR strategies beyond formal financial and regulatory factors in China. This study is a first step in exploring the impact of merchant group culture in China on CSR performance and the economic application of this relationship.

Corporate carbon management in the hospitality and tourism industry is gaining prominence, yet limited attention has been directed to the issue of carbon greenwashing (CG), wherein corporations mislead stakeholders by overstating their sustainability practices. Such misrepresentation undermines global decarbonization efforts. Grounded in costly signaling theory, this study investigates the relationship between CEO social status and CG tendencies in the hospitality and tourism industry. Using comprehensive data from the Carbon Disclosure Project, our study discovers a notable relationship between CEO social standing and a corporation’s propensity to engage in CG, which is moderated by institutional influences such as environmental norms, judicial systems and accounting standards. Our findings advance the literature on carbon management, business ethics, and social psychology, and provide implications for reducing misleading claims of sustainability, thereby promoting genuine environmental action and allowing decarbonization initiatives to progress.