Does Public Environmental Attentions Improve Corporate Sustainability? - The Mediating Role of Corporate Environmental Responsibility

With the increasingly serious pollution problem, environmental protection issues are also attracting the public's attention. This article selects Chinese manufacturing listed companies from 2013 to 2021 as research samples to examine the impact of public environmental attention on corporate sustainability, as well as the impact mechanism and heterogeneity between the two. The results indicate that, firstly, public environmental attention promotes corporate sustainability, environmental regulations promote corporate sustainability, and the impact of public environmental attention on corporate sustainability is positively moderated by environmental regulations. Secondly, public environmental attention promotes the sustainability of enterprises through enhancing corporate environmental responsibility. Finally, further research has indicated that there are differences in the impact of public environmental attentions on corporate sustainability based on the heterogeneity of scale, region, and ownership of enterprises. In large non-state-owned listed companies, as well as in the eastern and coastal regions, public environmental attentions are more related to corporate sustainability.