Does corporate ESG news impact firm productivity?

Joseph Arthur, Francis Bilson Darku and Abena Fosua Owusu

Finance Research Letters, 2025, vol. 75, issue C

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between ESG and firm productivity, addressing how ESG news impacts productivity across operational and financial dimensions. Using Truvalue Lab's AI-generated ESG score data, we analyze how near- and long-term ESG news scores influence key productivity indicators such as sales generation, operating costs (SG&A), and labor costs. We find that non-financial firms with positive ESG news scores experience reduced productivity, as ESG news improves sales, decreases operating costs, and increases labor costs. These findings highlight how ESG influences various operational and financial aspects of firm productivity.

Keywords: ESG news; Firm productivity; Truvalue lab; AI-generated ESG news score (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G10 G30 M14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325001485
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:finlet:v:75:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325001485

DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.106883

Access Statistics for this article

Finance Research Letters is currently edited by R. Gençay

More articles in Finance Research Letters from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().