Turn a Blind Eye: The Effect of Sharing a Surname Among Executives on Environmental Information Disclosure

Amid growing environmental challenges, this study uses executive surname data from A-share listed firms (2008–2020) to construct a same-surname ties index and examine its impact on corporate environmental information disclosure quality. Results show that same-surname ties among executives significantly reduce disclosure quality, a finding robust to endogeneity tests. Mechanistically, shared surname identity fosters mutual accommodation among top executives and weakens internal oversight over environmental reporting, which drives the deterioration of disclosure quality. This adverse effect is stronger for less common surnames, and is most pronounced in non-state-owned firms, firms with CEO duality, and those with high equity concentration. The paper provides novel insights into the governance implications of same-surname ties within China’s distinctive cultural context from a sustainable development perspective.