How does environmental performance feedback affect corporate environmental investment? The moderating role of environmental regulation

The research on how environmental performance feedback (EPF) affect corporate environmental investment (EI) is in infancy. We divide EPF into positive and negative EPF and examine the effects on EI. We further study the moderating roles of environmental regulation. By using panel data of listed manufacturing companies in China, we find positive EPF negatively affects EI, whereas negative EPF positively affects EI. Mandatory environmental regulation strengthens the relationship between negative EPF and EI, while voluntary environmental regulation weakens the relationship between negative EPF and EI. Furthermore, we find the impact of EPF on EI is heterogeneous.