How Firm’s Commitment to ESG Drives Green and Low-Carbon Transition: A Longitudinal Case Study from Hang Lung Properties

Jixun Liu (), Stephen Lau, Shenyi Shirley Liu and Yingde Hu
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Jixun Liu: School of Management, Zhejiang Shuren University, Hangzhou 310015, China
Stephen Lau: School of Law, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Shenyi Shirley Liu: Business School, Hangzhou City University, Hangzhou 310015, China
Yingde Hu: School of Management, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310023, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-21

Abstract: Sustainability in business is a subject of growing interest to investors, stakeholders, and companies for overcoming uncertainty. However, it is also questioned with “is this business approach is finance worthy”, how does a firm’s commitment to ESG translate into tangible outcomes that benefit investors? In this paper, textual analysis is applied to the 10-year sustainability report from 2012 to 2021 released by Hang Lung Properties (HLP) to empirically explore its ESG (environmental, social, and governance)-related strategy, initiatives, actions, and outcomes. Employed with a “commitment-action-outcomes” framework, this firm-based longitudinal case study on ESG investigates how HLP deploys and implements corporate sustainability activities, in order to increase its profits as well as stock returns. Our empirical evidence indicates that the firm’s ESG commitment leads to its green and low-carbon transition. Further, it identifies three key enablers of ESG commitment—ESG integration and evolvement, high-intensity ESG effort, and technological innovation—that can spur low-carbon transition and achieve long-term value. This paper contributes to the literature in the following ways. Firstly, it sheds light on the effectiveness of ESG commitments in promoting sustainable business practices. Secondly, it enriches the understanding to build an enterprise’s resilience and self-reliance via ESG initiatives in the face of uncertainty. Lastly, it makes an important methodological contribution by constructing a new employed textual analysis for the ESG research domain.

Keywords: sustainability; ESG strategy; technological innovation; low-carbon transition; long-term value (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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