Unraveling the synergy of environmental information disclosure quality and tone on corporate green innovation: based on text mining technology

Purpose This paper aims to explore how different textual features of environmental information disclosure (EID) individually and synthetically affect corporate green innovation (CGI) from the comprehensive perspective of information quality and tone. Design/methodology/approach Chinese A-share listed manufacturing enterprises from 2010 to 2022 are research objects. Based on constructing the evaluation framework of EID quality with more fine-grained evaluation methods and capturing intonation features by applying text mining technologies, this study uses the Poisson regression model to investigate the influence mechanism of EID textual features on CGI. Findings The results indicate that both the quality and tone of EID have positive influences on CGI. There exists a positive interactive effect between EID quality and tone in promoting CGI. Mechanism tests demonstrate that EID can affect CGI through stakeholders’ resource effects, including increasing environmental subsidies, easing financing constraints and enhancing green reputation. Government environmental penalties can weaken the positive effects of EID textual features on CGI. The relationship between EID and CGI is distinct concerning whether enterprises are heavily polluted. Originality/value First, this study innovatively investigates the synergy of EID quality and tone on CGI from the view of information decision-making usefulness and reveals the influence mechanism of EID textual features on CGI from the perspective of stakeholders’ resource effect, which can advance the understanding of the signaling roles of EID textual features. Second, the proposed novel fine-grained measurement of EID quality with text mining technologies of this paper can improve the accuracy and specificity compared with the traditional discrete scoring method.