Firms' Preferences for Environmental, Social, and Governance Policies: Evidence From Small and Medium Enterprises in Hong Kong

Wai‐Fung Lam, Lin Nie and Edward KF Chan

Business Strategy and the Environment, 2025, vol. 34, issue 2, 2207-2221

Abstract: Though large corporations have made significant strides in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) integration, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face challenges due to limited resources and incentives. This study explores the preferences and priorities of SMEs in Hong Kong—a major financial hub with over 340,000 SMEs—regarding ESG policy instruments, addressing a critical gap in current scholarship that often overlooks the perspectives of regulatees. Utilizing a conjoint experiment, this research assesses SMEs' preferences for ESG policies with varying levels of specificity in ESG aspects. We find that SMEs generally favor some form of ESG regulation over none; preferences vary across policy fields and subsectors. The findings indicate that understanding SMEs' preferences is necessary to design effective policy tools that encourage ESG adoption. By focusing on regulatees' perceptions, this research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of ESG policy design, offering valuable insights for policymakers aiming to enhance corporate sustainability across diverse business sectors.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.4100

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:34:y:2025:i:2:p:2207-2221

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://onlinelibrary ... 1002/(ISSN)1099-0836

Access Statistics for this article

Business Strategy and the Environment is currently edited by Richard Welford

More articles in Business Strategy and the Environment from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().