How ESG Contribute to the High-Quality Development of State-Owned Enterprise in China: A Multi-Stage fsQCA Method

Guangfan Sun (), Changwei Guo (), Junchen Ye, Chaoran Ji, Nuo Xu and Hanqi Li
Additional contact information
Guangfan Sun: School of Business, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
Changwei Guo: School of Business, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
Junchen Ye: School of Business, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
Chaoran Ji: School of Finance, Jilin University of Finance and Economics, Changchun 130117, China
Nuo Xu: School of Literature and Law, Zhengzhou Technology and Business University, Zhengzhou 451400, China
Hanqi Li: Department of Geography & Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 23, 1-18

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to explore what configurations of dimensions corresponding to environmental, social responsibility, governance (ESG) and firm contextual factors can lead to the high-quality development of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). A configuration analysis framework with six conditions including environmental, social responsibility, and governance (ESG), innovation intensity, capital structure, and firm size was constructed. Moreover, the multi-stage qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) approach was conducted on a sample of 692 annual observations of SOEs from 2017 to 2019. Findings suggested that three equifinal patterns can produce the high-quality development of SOEs, which are resource and capability prominent pattern, sustainability driven pattern, responsibility and growth balanced pattern, respectively. Each pattern is a conjunctural combination of different ESG and firm conditions. The number of resource and capability prominent pattern decreased in the third year, while the proportion of sustainability driven pattern increased, in which the environmental dimension played a core role rather than the social dimension. Different ESG dimensions and firm conditions have both complementary and substitutive relationships, but firm size is a common condition in all configurations. This study provided a holistic empirical explanation of how ESG leads to sustainability issues in SOEs.

Keywords: ESG; state-owned enterprise; high-quality development; configurational analysis; fsQCA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/23/15993/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/23/15993/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:23:p:15993-:d:989132

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().