The Path and Mechanism of Business Strategy Influencing the Strategic ESG Behavior: Evidence from Chinese Enterprises

Xiangjin Wang, Zongqi Li, You Wu, He Song and Xiao Miao

Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, 2025, vol. 61, issue 15, 4656-4673

Abstract: Using data on listed firms in China, this paper examines the effect of business strategy on strategic environmental, social and governance (ESG) behavior. We find that firms with a more aggressive business strategy proactively making strategic choices regarding consistency between corporate ESG words and actions. This tendency is more significant among private firms, and media attention exacerbates the effect. Moreover, business strategy affects the inconsistency between ESG words and actions through various means such as strengthening investor sentiment, increasing green technology innovation investment, and triggering agency risk. Additionally, the exposure of illegitimate strategic ESG behavior may lead to public opinion crises and higher business uncertainty, causing a severe financial disciplinary effect. This paper integrates corporate ESG practices into an innovative analytical framework, offering valuable insights from the corporate strategy perspective to deepen the understanding of corporate ESG behavior.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/1540496X.2025.2513352 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:mes:emfitr:v:61:y:2025:i:15:p:4656-4673

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/MREE20

DOI: 10.1080/1540496X.2025.2513352

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Emerging Markets Finance and Trade from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().