Corporate climate-risk disclosures and financial resilience: a conceptual framework for firms in emerging economies

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13 (Climate Action) calls for urgent action to address climate change and strengthen organisational resilience to climate-related risks. This conceptual study explores the role of corporate climate-risk disclosures (CCRDs) in strengthening firms’ financial resilience in institutionally constrained and climate-vulnerable emerging economies. Specifically, it constructs a theory-based conceptual model showing how climate-risk disclosures are translated into financial resilience through shaping effects of internal risk-management capability (IRM) and green innovation (GI), and conditioning effects of regulatory compliance intensity, ESG integration, and digital transformation. Drawing on Institutional Theory, Legitimacy Theory, the Resource-Based View, and Dynamic Capabilities Theory, the study integrates insights from accounting, finance, sustainability, and organisational resilience research to explain how disclosures translate into adaptive capabilities and resilience. The framework proposes that high-quality climate-risk disclosures enhance financial resilience by reducing information asymmetry, strengthening stakeholder confidence, supporting adaptive decision-making, and enabling firms to convert climate-related information into governance, innovation, and risk-management capabilities. These relationships are relevant in institutionally constrained emerging economies, where governance quality, regulatory enforcement, and organisational capability determine whether disclosures produce substantive adaptation or symbolic compliance. The study advances climate disclosure research by viewing disclosure as the first step in capability building for financial resilience.