PONE-D-24-16029Does Environmental Management System Certification Keep Enterprises Out of Trouble? Evidence From Stock Price Crash RiskPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Qiao,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Khanh Hoang, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The authors examine whether the existence of Environmental Management System Certification, as indicated by the possesion of ISO14001, reduces significantly market risk for the companies involved.

While the authors do not provide their data for verification tests (they instead state that 'The data underlying the results presented in the study are available from the Chinese email address binbinqin2021@163.com', they perform the analysis by using generally accepted and estebalished methods.

1. The study does not use anything new in terms of dependent variables, as they use the dated Chen et al 2001 study variables DUPOL and NCSKEW (that the authors just rename in this study DUP and NCSK).

2. The authors mislabel the measures as 'volatility', while in the original Chen(2001) study it is referred as 'idiosyncratic risk'. The authors refer these variables as first used by Wang ('follows the approach used by Wang et al (Wang et al., 2021; Duan and Lin, 2021)'), while this is not correct, as they do not provide any reference for Wang 2011 study (only for Wang 2023, where actually different measures are used and idiosyncratic risk is not examined), while Duan and Lin(2021) are valid references. We notice that volatility can be captured simply by the standard deviation or variance, and the sytematic risk could be simply measured by beta or that the authors could use in their robustness tests, so as to examine the consistency of their results. It is also suggested that they they remove the Wang 2021 reference, or (if there is this paper) to correctly site it and include it in their reference section as it is missing.They should also name the source (Chen, 2001) of equations 3 and 4.

3. The robustness tests are well presented and discussed. On the contrary a. Introduction, b. literature review and c.hypothesis tested are poorly written, as they should have referencing in every phrase written, which is missing, and they lack coherence and essence. These parts look as if been copied or paraphrased by wikipedia or a book. I would suggest complete rewriting of these parts on the following directions: First, the introduction must be entirely rewritten by focusing on the contribution of the study, in the light of past literature review and the context of the country. Should be also smaller, and every phrase should contain reference to existing study prefereably of the last 5 years. Second, literature review provides seemingly irrelevant references. This part should provide a dense and well delivered and well documented (references on major studies) discussion on studies that are in the area of the study, idiosyncratic risk and ISO14001/EMS and not on the characteristics of the market. Research hypothesis should connect the study with a major theory. The references by Zaman (2021) and Mosgaard (2022) are difficult to be linked with the findings of this study or with the hypothesis H1 (paragraph 3.1) as the authors do not test disclosure nor announcements. Paragraph 3.2 (H2) lacks also entirely logical flow, docummentation and connection to existing theories, must be entirely rewritten, while also paragraph 3.3 (H3) has just one study reference! It must be rewritten, also.

4. Similarly authors should rewrite Research Findings and Conclusion (Paragraph 7) and connect their findings to other studies to CLEARLY show the contribution of the study.

Overall, the empirical part is at good level, but the other parts are poorly written and must be rewritten based on the above mentioned.

References (to be added)

Chen, J., Hong, H., & Stein, J. C. (2001). Forecasting crashes: Trading volume, past returns, and conditional skewness in stock prices. Journal of financial Economics, 61(3), 345-381.

Reviewer #2: Dear Authors,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript titled "Does Environmental Management System Certification Keep Enterprises Out of Trouble? Evidence From Stock Price Crash Risk" to PLOS ONE. After a careful review, I find that the paper is well-written and presents an important study on the impact of Environmental Management System (EMS) certification on stock price crash risk. However, I would like to request a few minor revisions to enhance the clarity and comprehensiveness of the manuscript.

Similarity with Previous Work: The current manuscript appears to have significant similarities with another paper you have published. Please provide a detailed comparison between the current study and your previous work. Clearly delineate the new contributions and findings presented in this manuscript compared to the earlier publication (e.g., Qiao, Liu, & Qin, 2023).

Differences Between EMS Certification and Environmental Regulation: The manuscript would benefit from a clearer distinction between EMS certification and other forms of environmental regulation. Please elaborate on how EMS certification, as a voluntary and participatory mechanism, differs from mandatory environmental regulations and its unique significance in influencing stock price crash risk (e.g., Boiral, 2007; King, Lenox, & Terlaak, 2005).

New Significance of Findings: Emphasize the new significance of your findings in the context of existing literature. Highlight how your study advances the understanding of the economic consequences of EMS certification and its role as an environmental governance and information transfer tool (e.g., González-Benito & González-Benito, 2008; Jiang, 2020).

These revisions will help to provide a clearer context for your findings and their implications. I look forward to your revised manuscript.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Konstantinos Vergos

Reviewer #2: No

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PONE-D-24-16029R1Does Environmental Management System Certification Keep Enterprises Out of Trouble? Evidence From Stock Price Crash RiskPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Qiao,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Sep 16 2024 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Khanh Hoang, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The authors addressed many of the issues mentioned in the review of the previously submitted version.

Introduction is significantly better, and alterations on the text provide references to major papers.

However, despite these improvements, Hypothesis 2 and Hypothesis 3 (paragraphs 3.2 and 3.3, respectively) lack connection to major theories. Either the authors have, therefore, to delete these paragraphs, or they should connect them with major theories.

Apart from the above mentioned, while I believe that the study would benefit from more robustness tests, I do feel that it would still be accepted, under the condition that Hypotheses 2 and 3 will be amended or deleted (Hypothesis 1, on the contrast is perfectly fine).

Reviewer #2: The authors have made significant revisions to the manuscript titled "Does Environmental Management System Certification Keep Enterprises Out of Trouble? Evidence From Stock Price Crash Risk" to address the reviewers' comments and meet the publication's requirements. Key changes include:

Terminology and References: Corrected the terminology to align with Chen (2001) and properly cited relevant studies, removing incorrect references.

Introduction, Literature Review, and Hypotheses: Rewritten to improve coherence, add references to recent studies, and link hypotheses to major theories.

Research Findings and Conclusion: Revised to clearly show the study's contribution and connect findings to existing research.

Robustness Tests: Added new robustness tests using standard deviation and beta to measure volatility and systematic risk.

Comparative Analysis: Provided a detailed comparison between the current study and previous work to highlight new contributions, particularly regarding the 2015 Environmental Protection Law and the mediating role of media coverage.

Clarification on EMS Certification: Elaborated on the differences between EMS certification and mandatory environmental regulations, supported by relevant literature.

Significance of Findings: Emphasized the new significance of the findings in advancing the understanding of EMS certification's economic consequences.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

**********

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

PONE-D-24-16029R2Does Environmental Management System Certification Keep Enterprises Out of Trouble? Evidence From Stock Price Crash RiskPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Qiao,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Oct 24 2024 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Khanh Hoang, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

Additional Editor Comments:

I have completed the evaluation of the revised manuscript based on the recommendations of the two reviewers and my own judgement. Reviewer 2 suggested acceptance after Revision 1, while Reviewer 1 satisfies with the revision 2. In general, I agree to the reviewers, but I would like the authors to revise a bit more in Section 7.

Section 7 should focus on the conclusion and implications of the research rather than summarizing findings. Therefore, the section should be named "Conclusion and implications". Please shorten the summary of findings, then focus more on the implications of the research. Research limitations should also be discussed.

Lastly. the numbering in the Section 7 is not appropriate. I suggest drop the numbering within Section 7.1 and 7.2 and present them as the paragraph.

After the authors revise this, the manuscript can be accepted for publication.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

**********

2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The authors made the amendments, especially regarging the hypotheses.

Threfore, I am happy to suggest the acceptance of the paper.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

**********

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Does Environmental Management System Certification Keep Enterprises Out of Trouble? Evidence From Stock Price Crash Risk

PONE-D-24-16029R3

Dear Dr. Qiao,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Khanh Hoang, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: