Research On The Effect And Mechanism Of Corporate Environmental Responsibility On Corporate Performance In China’s Iron And Steel Industry

China is the world’s largest industrial manufacturing country and energy consumer.The steel industry occupies an important position in China’s national economy,with the characteristics of high energy consumption,high pollution and high emissions.Facing the current increasingly severe environmental problems and the pressure from the government,the public and other stakeholders,studying how to motivate steel companies to actively fulfill their environmental responsibilities and practice green production methods is the key to achieving sustainable development of the company.This article aims to explore the impact of environmental responsibility of Chinese steel companies on corporate performance and the impact mechanism,and propose policy recommendations that promote companies to actively perform environmental responsibilities and improve corporate performance.The main research contents and innovations are as follows:(1)Adopting multiple theoretical perspectives,combing the relevant research on corporate environmental responsibility,combined with stakeholder theory and institutional theory,defining the concept and connotation of corporate environmental responsibility,and constructing a theoretical model of the impact of corporate environmental responsibility on corporate performance.Explain the theoretical basis provided by the relationship between corporate environmental responsibility and economic performance.Furthermore,combing the evolution and development of environmental policies in China’s steel industry,analyzing the pollution discharge situation and governance status of China’s steel industry,and providing a richer practical basis for explaining the relationship between corporate environmental responsibility and economic performance.(2)Based on the panel data of large and medium-sized iron and steel enterprises of the China Iron and Steel Association from 2009 to 2017,the undesired SBM super-efficiency model is used to quantify corporate environmental responsibility,and on this basis,the impact of corporate environmental responsibility on corporate economic performance is empirically analyzed,And discuss its heterogeneity effect from two dimensions of regional heterogeneity and enterprise ownership heterogeneity.The empirical results show that:First,the impact of China’s large and medium-sized steel companies’environmental responsibility on corporate economic performance presents an"inverted U-shaped" relationship,and the impact has a lagging effect.Second,the heterogeneity test results show that compared with the eastern region,the environmental responsibility of steel enterprises in the central and western regions has a greater impact on economic performance;State owned enterprises pay more attention to environmental responsibility than private enterprises,and have a greater impact on economic performance.(3)Selecting green reputation,green employment and green innovation as the intermediary variables,empirically test the transmission mechanism of corporate environmental responsibility affecting economic performance,and further,considering the heterogeneity of enterprises,in-depth exploration of the intermediary effect of corporate environmental responsibility on economic performance difference.The empirical results show that:First,green reputation,green employment and green innovation have a significant mediating effect in the impact of corporate environmental responsibility on economic performance.Among them,green employment has a negative inhibitory effect in the intermediary effect,and green reputation and green innovation have a positive incentive effect.Second,the heterogeneity test results show that the mediating effect of corporate environmental responsibility on economic performance between corporate green reputation,green employment,and green innovation is regional heterogeneity and ownership heterogeneity.Green employment has a negative inhibitory effect,and green reputation and green innovation have a positive incentive effect.(4)Based on the perspective of energy management,taking the energy management system as the research object,using the double difference method to empirically test the policy effect of corporate environmental responsibility on corporate performance.The empirical analysis results show that:First,the implementation of an energy management system by a company has a positive impact on corporate performance.Among them,the impact of economic performance is significantly greater than that of environmental performance.Second,the heterogeneity test results show that the implementation of energy management systems by enterprises and state-owned enterprises in the eastern region has a greater impact on corporate performance.