Nedospasova Olga P.

Introduction. The question of the way, companies can improve their financial performance, while simultaneously fulfilling environmental obligations and achieving long-term sustainable development has become the center of attention in the current research in the field of sustainable development. Objective: using the example of Chinese companies to reveal the relationship between corporate environmental responsibility and financial performance, and to substantiate the role of corporate environmental strategy as an analyzed relationship moderator.

Materials and methods. Desk research of publications; the data used in the empirical analysis are taken from the Wind and CSMAR databases, annual reports of Chinese listed companies, ESG, and corporate social responsibility reports. The research approach is to conduct an empirical analysis of data on Chinese listed companies for the period from 2013 to 2022 (5529 observations) using a regression model.

Results. The analysis verifies that corporate environmental responsibility has a positive impact on financial performance, and this positive impact has a significant lag effect. Besides, compared to non-state-owned enterprises, the improvement in financial performance from the fulfillment of environmental responsibilities by state-owned enterprises is more rapid. Compared with the central and western regions of China, the promotion effect of fulfilling environmental responsibility on financial performance of the listed companies in the eastern region is the most significant. This study demonstrated that proactive environmental strategy plays a moderating role between the analyzed  factors.

Discussion. This study introduces for the first time a moderating variable into the basic theoretical framework of the past: “corporate environmental strategy”, which expands the analytical scope of the traditional theoretical model and enables us to study it from a more in-depth and updated perspective. The study has essential theoretical and practical implications for deep understanding the relationship between corporate environmental responsibility and financial performance. The obtained results and conclusions are expected to be of interest not only to the direct subjects of the research – Chinese companies and government, but also to the Russian readers of this journal, who are interested in studying foreign experiences and the prospects of their application in the Russian economy.

Purpose. The purpose of the offered research consists in justification of the choice of system of indicators of assessment of innovative potential adapted to municipal units the Tomsk agglomeration. Methods. As methods of carrying out a research is enclosed to use methods of the correlation analysis. Results. It is revealed that it is possible to carry subjectivity and insufficient accuracy at the choice of indicators to shortcomings of the techniques of assessment of innovative potential which are available now; average degree of accuracy of estimates when using quantitative indices owing to imperfection of statistical information; lack of comparability of the used indicators presented in absolute units; opacity of an algorithm of calculation; the conditional nature of interpretation of the received results; not reliability of expert estimates; insufficient justification of application of weight coefficients; not full coverage of components of innovative capacity of social and economic system; lack of universal character of assessment of innovative capacity of social and economic systems of various level, etc. It is defined that for assessment of innovative capacity of the territory use of broad system of indicators can cause some difficulties in interpretation of the final result. In this regard at the initial stage of assessment of innovative capacity of concrete municipal unit it is necessary to make selection of the most significant indicators by means of carrying out the correlation analysis. Besides, it is expedient to use group of indicators on the blocks reflecting separate aspects of innovative processes. The conclusion is drawn that it is expedient to exclude a number of indicators owing to weak correlation with productive indicators from the basic system of indicators created for assessment of innovative capacity of municipal units of the Tomsk agglomeration. Scientific novelty. The scientific and practical novelty of a research consists in formation and justification of system of indicators of assessment of innovative capacity of the social and economic system adapted to municipal level.