Digital Transformation of Enterprises, Operating Cash Flow and Environmental Information Disclosure

Abstract

This paper takes Shanghai-Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2020 as a research sample to explore the impact of digital transformation of enterprises on environmental information disclosure and its internal mechanism. The research results show that the digital transformation of enterprises can significantly suppress the level of environmental information disclosure and from the perspective of the action path, the digitalization of enterprises is suppressed by reducing the cash flow of operating activities. Considering financing constraints and executive equity incentive, we found that the financing constraints strengthen the inhibitory effect of enterprise digital transformation on environmental information disclosure, and the executive equity incentive weakens the inhibitory effect of enterprise digital transformation on environmental information disclosure. Finally, the results of the heterogeneity analysis show that enterprise digitization has a more obvious environmental information disclosure suppression effect in the samples which are state-owned and with a low level of marketization. The research in this paper expands the existing literature on the driving factors of environmental information disclosure and the value effect of enterprise digital transformation, questions the traditional view that enterprise digitalization enhances the level of environmental information disclosure, and provides an empirical basis for further deepening the research of enterprise environmental information disclosure in the digital situation.