Business ethics versus corporate corruption risk and CO2 emission disclosure: the moderating role of green innovation

Purpose This study aimed to examine the impact of business ethics and corruption risk on CO2 emissions disclosure in international companies and to understand how green innovation moderates this relationship. Design/methodology/approach A multiple-panel data regression analysis was used on a sample of 489 companies from the Group of 20 (G20) countries between 2020 and 2023. We applied the fixed effects approach as the optimal and most appropriate model for our main regression. Furthermore, as a robustness test and to control for potential endogeneity issues, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the study data, using the Generalized Method of Moments method, and tested the effect of industry affiliation on this type of disclosure. Findings The results show that all the explanatory variables in the study model significantly influence CO2 emissions disclosure. Moreover, the findings prove a significant moderating effect of green innovation on the relationship between business ethics, corruption risk and CO2 emissions disclosure. Practical implications This study provides empirical evidence of the moderating role of green innovation in the relationship between business ethics, corruption risk and CO2 emissions disclosure in international companies, a little-studied topic. Thus, to understand this emerging concept, this study fills this gap and makes practical and theoretical contributions to the existing literature. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the combined effect of corruption risk and business ethics within international companies, as previous literature has mainly focused on corporate social responsibility or corruption at the national level.