ESG performance and corporate technology innovation: Evidence from China

Xiangyang Yang, Zijun Li, Zhaoxuan Qiu, Jinmin Wang and Bei Liu

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2024, vol. 206, issue C

Abstract: With the concept of sustainable development and innovation-driven development strategy proposed in China, as well as the promotion of the concept of ESG, which takes into account both economic and social benefits, it is of great theoretical and practical significance to study how ESG empowers both internal management and external investors, and ultimately enhances corporate technological innovation (CTI). This paper takes Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2021 as the research object, and tries to study the impact of ESG performance on CTI and its mechanism based on the perspective of innovation process. It is found that: (1) ESG performance can effectively promote the intensity of R&D investment, innovation output and quality of enterprises, and this conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests. (2) The innovation incentive effect of ESG performance is more obvious in enterprises in traditional industries, manufacturing industries and heavy pollution industries; (3) ESG performance mainly affects CTI through alleviating enterprise financing constraints, improving enterprise market expectations and gathering high-end research talents. The above findings have important implications for optimizing corporate ESG disclosure mechanisms and promoting CTI through process optimization.

Keywords: ESG performance; Technological innovation; Innovation process; Financing constraints (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162524003160
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:tefoso:v:206:y:2024:i:c:s0040162524003160

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123520

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().