Impact of Environmental, Social, and Governance Activities on the Financial Performance of Indian Health Care Sector Firms: Using Competition as a Moderator

Bhakti Agarwal, Rahul Singh Gautam, Pooja Jain, Shailesh Rastogi, Venkata Mrudula Bhimavarapu () and Saumya Singh
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Bhakti Agarwal: Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune 412115, India
Rahul Singh Gautam: Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune 412115, India
Pooja Jain: Amity Business School, Amity University, Gwalior 474020, India
Shailesh Rastogi: Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune 412115, India
Venkata Mrudula Bhimavarapu: Symbiosis School of Banking and Finance, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune 412115, India
Saumya Singh: Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune 412115, India

JRFM, 2023, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-11

Abstract: Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities have become essential and viable activities of corporations because of the increase in concern for environmental, social, and governance issues. The motive of this research is to measure the effect of ESG on the financial performance (FP) of healthcare corporations using the market-to-book value (MTB) ratio as a proxy of FP. A sample of 33 pharma companies in India from 2011 to 2020 has been considered. The study relies on the panel data method to assess the association between ESG and FP. The potential moderating role of competition has also been studied to simplify their relationship in this framework. The finding of this study is that there is a significant negative association between ESG and FP, and it is also found that when competition is used as a moderator, it results in a significantly positive impact on the ESG and FP of healthcare companies. This study increases the understanding of the association between ESG and FP and helps corporations to formulate corporate strategies and stakeholders to make investment decisions. The originality of this study is that it addresses the impact of competition on ESG and FP of the healthcare industry and will become foundational literature for future studies.

Keywords: ESG; financial performance; competition; healthcare; corporate governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C E F2 F3 G (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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