Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Performance and Firm Value: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Firms

Yiqun Duan, Fan Yang and Lin Xiong ()
Additional contact information
Yiqun Duan: School of Management Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 211544, China
Fan Yang: School of Management Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 211544, China
Lin Xiong: School of Economics and Management, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan 523820, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 17, 1-24

Abstract: In an era of great skepticism and distrust, companies’ ESG performances are under ever-increasing scrutiny. Stakeholders are urging companies to integrate ESG goals into their business strategic plans, practices, and value chains. Drawing upon a sample of publicly listed manufacturing companies in China from 2009 to 2021, this study aims to investigate the relationships between ESG performance and corporate values, especially the mediating role of financing constraints and the moderating effect of R&D investment intensity. Findings show that the ESG performance of manufacturing companies has a significant positive effect on corporate value. Financing constraints play a partial intermediary role between ESG performance and enterprise values. R&D investment intensity negatively moderates the relationship between ESG performance and manufacturing companies’ enterprise values. The heterogeneity study indicates that the beneficial impact of ESG performance on company value is particularly pronounced in the eastern region of China, non-state-owned companies, and heavily polluting industrial enterprises. Our findings provide important practical implications for a range of stakeholders, such as enterprises and investors, and enrich our current understanding of ESG research.

Keywords: ESG performance; corporate value; financing constraints; mediating effect; R&D investment intensity; moderating effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/12858/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/12858/ (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:15:y:2023:i:17:p:12858-:d:1224957

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 ().