Fei Xu, XinZhu Liu, Qian Liu, XiaoYang Zhu and DuanMing Zhou
Considering the greenwashing risk of symbolic environmental management, this study aims to distinguish the motivation for environmental investment growth (EIG) from the corporate…
Abstract
Purpose
Considering the greenwashing risk of symbolic environmental management, this study aims to distinguish the motivation for environmental investment growth (EIG) from the corporate cost stickiness and anti-stickiness perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach
This study analyzes the impact of substantive and symbolic environmental management on cost stickiness. Subsequently, competing hypotheses are proposed. Finally, empirical tests are conducted on Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2019.
Findings
EIG significantly improves enterprises’ cost stickiness. The cost of high EIG enterprises does not decrease significantly with a decline in income compared to other enterprises, which is consistent with the motivation for substantive environmental management. Enterprises with high asset specificity and optimistic management expectations show more obvious substantive environmental management. Government and public environmental concerns cause more pronounced substantive environmental management.
Practical implications
An evaluation of corporate environmental responsibility should take into account both what the company has disclosed and what it has actually done.
Social implications
Governments and the public should have a comprehensive understanding of corporate environmental management. They need to strengthen their ability to recognize symbolic environmental management and support substantive environmental management.
Originality/value
Fundamental to the evaluation of corporate environmental responsibility, this study distinguishes the motivations for corporate EIG disclosures from the cost stickiness perspective to avoid the risk of greenwashing. Hypotheses on the impact of substantive and symbolic environmental management on cost stickiness are presented. This study verifies the substantive environmental management characteristics of listed Chinese companies.
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On the background of China’s turn to a market economy and a consumer-driven society, the purpose of this paper is to recount the fortunes of the age-old religion of the Naxi…
Abstract
Purpose
On the background of China’s turn to a market economy and a consumer-driven society, the purpose of this paper is to recount the fortunes of the age-old religion of the Naxi people and their farmer-priests, the dongba.
Design/methodology/approach
Detailed ethnography, including participant observation, the collection of life histories and interviews.
Findings
The might of the tourist industry dominates the changes in the profession of the dongba priests, from a faith-based practice to a tourist-driven service; aided by a confluence of interests of relevant stakeholders: the Chinese state, the provincial governments, the Naxi elite. At the core is the transformation, in Chinese terms, from a superstitious religion to culture heritage.
Research limitations/implications
Like all case studies and common to ethnographic-based research, the small scale of the research poses questions of generalizability.
Practical implications
Shedding light on a little known aspect of the world’s largest economy is of high relevance to business and management scholars.
Social implications
The transformation of the dongba demonstrates how major societal changes that happen within a couple of decades affect a society and its economy and a central career track within it.
Originality/value
The case study testifies to the encounter of a major modern industry: tourism, with an archaic religion in a remote corner of China, and the transformation of the latter as result.
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Weihua Liu, Xinyun Liu and Tsan-Ming Choi
This study aims to explore the impact of supply chain quality event (SCQE) announcements on enterprises’ stock market value.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the impact of supply chain quality event (SCQE) announcements on enterprises’ stock market value.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts the event study approach and analyzes the changes in shareholder value of companies listed in China based on data from 118 SCQE announcements. In the event study, the market, market-adjusted and Carhart four-factor models are used to estimate abnormal stock market returns, and a cross-sectional regression model is performed to examine the effects of SCQE announcements on enterprises’ stock market value.
Findings
SCQE announcements have a negative impact on shareholder value. From the perspective of the supply chain network structure, the market reacts more negatively to SCQE announcements issued by the enterprises with higher supply chain concentration. From the perspective of companies’ characteristics, announcements that do not reflect the establishment of supply chain quality cooperation have a more negative effect on stock market value, which indicates that the supply chain network structure and firm-level characteristic can moderate the market reaction.
Practical implications
The findings demonstrate a quantitative evaluation of how SCQE announcements affect the stock market value of listed companies and provide guidance for managers to enhance the value of SCQE announcements.
Originality/value
This study fills the research gap on the impact of SCQE announcements on stock market value by using secondary data and first explores the relationship between SCQE announcements and stock market value from the perspective of supply chain network. Furthermore, this study contributes to the literature on SCQE using an empirical study in China.
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This paper aims to analyse how both Lin’s birthplace identity and his Christian identity contributed to his fruitful public career and to ascertain which identity became the most…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyse how both Lin’s birthplace identity and his Christian identity contributed to his fruitful public career and to ascertain which identity became the most significant.
Design/methodology/approach
Archival research is the main method used in this paper. The most important archives drawn from are the Daniel Tse Collection in the Special Collection and Archives of the Hong Kong Baptist University Library. Oral history has also been used in this paper to uncover more material that has not yet been discussed in existing scholarly works.
Findings
This paper argues that although Lin’s birthplace identity and social networks helped him to start his business career in Nam Pak Hong and develop into a leader in the local Chaozhou communities, these factors were insufficient to his becoming a respectable member of the Chinese elite in post-war Hong Kong. He became well known not because of his leading position in local Chaozhou communities or any great achievement he had obtained in business but because of his contribution to the development of Christian education. These achievements earned him a reputation as a “Christian educator”. Thus Lin’s Christian identity became more important than his birthplace identity in contributing to his successful public career.
Originality/value
This paper has value in showing how Christian influences interacted with various cultural factors in early Hong Kong. It also offers insights into Lin’s life and motivations as well as the history of the institutions he contributed to/founded. It not only furthers our understanding of the Chinese Christian business elite in early Hong Kong but also provides us with insights when further studying this group of people in other British colonies in Asia.
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Abstract
Purpose
Sharing and disseminating debunking information are critical to correcting rumours and controlling disease when dealing with public health crises. This study investigates the factors that influence social media users' debunking information sharing behaviour from the perspective of persuasion. The authors examined the effects of argument adequacy, emotional polarity, and debunker's identity on debunking information sharing behaviour and investigated the moderating effects of rumour content and target.
Design/methodology/approach
The model was tested using 150 COVID-19-related rumours and 2,349 original debunking posts on Sina Weibo.
Findings
First, debunking information that contains adequate arguments is more likely to be reposted only when the uncertainty of the rumour content is high. Second, using neutral sentiment as a reference, debunking information containing negative sentiment is shared more often regardless of whether the government is the rumour target, and information containing positive sentiment is more likely to be shared only when the rumour target is the government. Finally, debunking information published by government-type accounts is reposted more often and is enhanced when the rumour target is the government.
Originality/value
The study provides a systematic framework for analysing the behaviour of sharing debunking information among social media users. Specifically, it expands the understanding of the factors that influence debunking information sharing behaviour by examining the effects of persuasive cues on debunking information sharing behaviour and the heterogeneity of these effects across various rumour contexts.