Religious Culture and Corporate Environmental Responsibility Performance: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

Religious Culture and Corporate Environmental Responsibility Performance: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Religious Culture and Corporate Environmental Responsibility Performance: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies Liang Bowen, Cui Yuqing This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6703647/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Culture has a profound impact on enterprises’ environmental awareness. As the core of Chinese religious culture, how does Taoism affect the environmental responsibility performance of Chinese enterprises? This study explores the impact of Taoism on the performance of Chinese enterprises’ environmental responsibility from environmental ethics and self-depletion. To answer this question, we conducted an empirical test using a sample of Chinese A-share listed enterprises from 2010 to 2020. The results show that Taoism is beneficial for improving Chinese enterprises’ environmental responsibility performance. In terms of the mechanism, from the macro perspective, Taoism improves the environmental responsibility performance of Chinese enterprises by promoting the development of digital inclusive finance. At the micro level, Taoism promotes the environmental responsibility performance of Chinese enterprises by improving their internal control quality. This may be the first study on the impact of environmental responsibility performance from the perspective of Taoism. Cultural Studies Microeconomics Chinese Corporate environmental responsibility Digital inclusive finance Internal Control Religious Culture Taoism Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6703647","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":459065245,"identity":"17b42073-fa65-47a1-bfa8-8e7cf103dc8d","order_by":0,"name":"Liang Bowen","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"the University of Sydney","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Liang","middleName":"","lastName":"Bowen","suffix":""},{"id":459065644,"identity":"cc2123f8-10c0-4b18-983c-91ddee89a6a4","order_by":1,"name":"Cui Yuqing","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA6ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBAC/gbGBiAlwcDA3tj44IOBjR1BLRIHYFp4Dh82nFGQlkxQi4EDXLNbmjDPh0NgE/BrkUhuk+Yps8iTj+AxY7YxOMDMwH746Ab8WhKBWs5JFBve7jF7nGNwh4+BJy3tBkEtvG0SiRvnnDE3zjF4xswgwWNGpJYZOWbSFgaHGRsIaomAapkvkZYmzUCMFokzD5st55yTSNwACuQeg7RkNkJ+4W9Pf3jjTVld4vx2YFT++GNjx89++BheLUDAIsHABnThASiXjYByEGD+AFIm30CE0lEwCkbBKBiZAACDgUu1e5V07AAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Aba Teachers University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Cui","middleName":"","lastName":"Yuqing","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-05-20 04:38:43","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6703647/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6703647/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":83278418,"identity":"c90c06b4-59fd-4e13-ac15-413f0dfacf07","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-22 09:43:02","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":441885,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6703647/v1_covered_621fef8e-c41e-4c3d-bbac-1957f7f2f533.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReligious Culture and Corporate Environmental Responsibility Performance: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"University of Sydney","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Chinese, Corporate environmental responsibility, Digital inclusive finance, Internal Control, Religious Culture, Taoism","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6703647/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6703647/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eCulture has a profound impact on enterprises\u0026rsquo; environmental awareness. 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