Substantive Supply Chain ESG Disclosure and Green Management Innovation: A Systems Governance Perspective from Chinese Listed Firms

In corporate green transformation, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) responsibilities in the upstream supply chain are critical components of corporate governance, and disclosure enables outsiders to observe corporate governance practices. This study examines the association between substantive supply chain ESG disclosure (SSD) and green management innovation (GMI), and whether this association varies with three executive characteristics: environmental background, CEO gender, and managerial overconfidence. Using text from the ESG reports of Chinese firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets from 2016 to 2024, we employed the large language model DeepSeek to perform sentence-level identification, distinguishing between substantive and rhetorical content in supply chain ESG statements, and aggregated the results to construct a substantive disclosure index. Results show that SSD is positively associated with GMI. This association is stronger in firms with more executives with an environmental background and those led by female CEOs, and weaker in firms with greater managerial overconfidence. This study expands the measurement tools used in disclosure research. The findings also suggest that firms should shift their disclosure focus toward verifiable commitments and provide a new perspective and basis for regulatory evaluation to move from “whether disclosure occurs” to “whether substantive disclosure occurs”.