Fintech empowers enterprises to practice ESG: The role of political background of executives

Bei Liu, Ziyi Chen, Ying Wang and Xiaolong Sun

Energy Economics, 2025, vol. 142, issue C

Abstract: How Fintech promotes sustainable corporate development is an important topic nowadays, and it is significant to explore the environmental, social and governance (ESG) enhancing effect of Fintech. This paper explores the impact and mechanism of Fintech on corporate ESG performance based on the data of listed companies in China from 2011 to 2022. The results show that Fintech can significantly improve corporate ESG performance, and instrumental variable regression and robustness methods prove the reliability of the findings. And both the breadth of coverage and the depth of use of Fintech can improve the ESG performance of local firms. Mechanism analysis reveals that breaking down information barriers, optimizing investment structure, and stimulating green innovation are key channels of action for Fintech to enhance corporate ESG. Executives with political backgrounds are more likely to capitalize on Fintech developments to improve corporate ESG practices, and the moderating effect of political backgrounds is particularly pronounced in firms dominated by male and highly educated executives. In addition, Fintech can improve the environmental and social performance of energy firms effectively, whereas in non-energy firms, Fintech tends to improve their corporate governance performance.

Keywords: Fintech; ESG; Information barrier; Investment structure; Political background of executives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:142:y:2025:i:c:s0140988325000064

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2025.108183

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