Using Chinese listed companies as research setting, this paper constructs a measure of corporate competing culture through textual analysis on firms’ management discussion and analysis disclosures, and examines the impact of corporate competing culture on environmental investment. The results show that competing culture has a significant and positive impact on firms’ environmental investment, and the results remain robust to a battery of robustness tests. Moreover, the mediating analysis indicates that competing culture promotes corporate environmental investment through enhancing firms’ internal control (...) quality. Furthermore, the heterogeneity results show that the positive impact of corporate competing culture on environmental investment is more pronounced in firms with larger size, stronger corporate governance, in high-polluting industry, and located in less developed regions. Our findings shed light on the importance of corporate competing culture and provide practical implications for corporate sustainable development. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound psychological and behavioral impact on people around the world. Consumer purchase behaviors have thus changed greatly, and consumer services companies need to adjust their business models to adapt to this change. From the perspective of consumer psychology, this paper explores the impact of consumer purchase behavior changes over the course of the pandemic on the business model design of consumer services companies using a representative survey of 1,742 individuals. Our results show that changes (...) in consumer purchase behavior have a significant impact on the design of consumer services firms’ business models. Specifically, changes in consumers’ purchase object, motive, and timeframe are more likely to spark a novelty-centered business model design, whereas changes in purchase method tend to inspire an efficiency-centered one. Our findings provide a theoretical reference for consumer services companies in designing business models when faced with unexpected crises. (shrink)

Addressing the productivity challenge of climate technology (ClimTECH) firms and avoiding the “green trap” is crucial for decoupling economic growth from carbon emissions and achieving sustainable development. This study uses the establishment of green finance reform and innovation pilot zones as a quasi-natural experiment and employs a difference-in-differences model to explore the impact of green finance policies on the total factor productivity (TFP) of ClimTECH firms and its spillover effects. The results show that (1) Green finance policies significantly increase TFP, (...) especially in state-owned firms, firms that actively disclose environmental information, firms led by long-tenure CEOs, and those in regions with strong intellectual property protection. (2) The channel analysis shows that green finance policies enhance firms' TFP by easing financing constraints, encouraging green technology improvements, and improving capital allocation efficiency. (3) The spillover effect analysis shows that the TFP increase driven by green finance policies not only enhances firm value but also stimulates local green innovation and reduces regional carbon emissions. This research offers theoretical insights and policy implications for strengthening green finance frameworks and enhancing the environmental responsibility of ClimTECH firms. (shrink)