From Green Strategic Orientation to Carbon Information Disclosure: A Statistical Indirect Pathway Through Reported Green-Transformation Intensity

Corporate carbon information disclosure is shaped not only by external regulatory and stakeholder pressures but also by firms’ internal strategic orientation and the prominence of environmental transformation in organizational reporting. Using 31,625 firm-year observations from Chinese A-share listed firms between 2016 and 2024, this study examines the association between green strategic orientation (GSO) and carbon information disclosure (CID) and evaluates reported green-transformation intensity (RGTI) as a statistical indirect pathway. GSO is measured using an author-constructed seven-item index based on firm-level environmental disclosure indicators. RGTI is constructed from database-provided annual-report frequencies of green-transformation-related terms and is assessed against contemporaneous and one-year-ahead green investment obtained from a separate CSMAR green-investment database. The empirical analysis employs firm and year fixed effects, firm-clustered standard errors, and a three-wave design using GSO at t − 2, RGTI at t − 1, and CID at t. The results show that GSO is positively associated with CID. A one-standard-deviation increase in GSO is associated with an approximately 4.7-percentage-point increase in the disclosure index, equivalent to about 16.5% of its sample mean. The three-wave analysis identifies a positive and statistically significant indirect association through RGTI, although its economic magnitude is modest, accounting for approximately 8.0% of the total association. The findings remain robust to alternative measures of GSO and CID, fractional-response estimation, industry-year fixed effects, controls for general reporting propensity, and one-year-ahead disclosure specifications. Industry-based estimates indicate a weaker GSO–CID association among heavy-polluting firms, although this pattern is not reproduced when pollution exposure is measured using firm-level carbon intensity. Overall, the findings link internal environmental strategy and reported organizational attention to corporate carbon transparency while indicating that most of the GSO–CID association operates through channels beyond the measured indirect pathway.