How religious norms influence firms' environmental innovation? Evidence from China

Religious norms, as one of the informal institutions, influence firms' responsibility for protecting the natural environment and motivate them to invest in environmental innovation. Based on informal institution theory, we construct a model between religious norms and firms' environmental innovation. To unlock their mechanism, we examined the mediating role of environmental ethics, as well as the moderating role of media attention and industrial competitiveness. The research sample selected 1066 listed Chinese firms from 2014 to 2022 involved in polluting industries. The results indicate that religious norms can positively affect firms' environmental innovation, and environmental ethics play a mediating role between religious norms and firms' environmental innovation. Media attention can strengthen the impact of religious norms on firms' environmental ethics, while intense industrial competitiveness can weaken the incentive effect of environmental ethics on firms' environmental innovation. This article provides key insights of relevance to the literature on informal institutions and communication studies. Moreover, the findings assist managers with religious beliefs in planning reasonable environmental innovation pathways.