Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure and Earnings Management in China: Ethical Behaviour or Opportunism Motivation?

China has entered a new stage of high-quality economic development, which puts forward in-depth requirements for environmental protection. Companies in heavily polluting industries are required to disclose information. Fulfilling responsibilities and disclosing this information may be either responsible moral act or an opportunistic act. Taking listed companies China’s from 2009 2020 as sample, study examines the consequences enterprise disclosure (EID) earnings management (EM) perspective, external representation ‘ethical behaviour’ ‘opportunism motivations’ EID considers effects internal competency operating environment volatility. Findings include: (1) can restrain EM support motivation EID. (2) Compared with ‘soft disclosure’ information, effect ‘hard on is more obvious. (3) Greater strengthen governance role EID, while greater uncertainty weakens mechanism. (4) enterprises mature period, state-owned, western regions, low public concern areas show inhibitory EM. Furthermore, its moralistic tendencies obvious compared growth recession periods, non-state-owned, eastern those high concerns.