Government Environmental Audit and Corporate Green Governance

Companies are the main force in practicing green governance and building an ecological civilization. How to rely on external regulatory pressure to drive companies to upgrade their green governance is the key to promoting sustained improvement in the quality of the ecological environment. This paper explores the impact of government environmental audit on corporate green governance using a fixed effects model based on the research sample of Chinese A-share listed companies in heavily polluted industry. Government environmental audit has a significant facilitating effect on corporate green governance. Mechanism tests show that government environmental audit enhances the level of corporate green governance through local governments’ enhanced enforcement of environmental regulations. Additionally, the higher the degree of top management team heterogeneity, the greater the facilitating effect of government environmental audit on corporate green governance. Further research finds that the positive impact of government environmental audit on corporate green governance is more significant in the sample with shorter official tenure and higher internal control quality.