Inside the black box of ESG-related terms in corporate site visits and ESG ratings improvement*

Songlian Tang, Chengchi Liu, Fei Su and Pengcheng Zhu

Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting & Economics, 2025, vol. 32, issue 5, 925-947

Abstract: In this study, we investigate the influence of ESG-related terms during corporate site visits (CSV) on firms’ ESG ratings improvement. Based on the unique dataset on corporate site visits in Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China and textual analysis techniques, we document that ESG-related terms during corporate site visits positively influence firms’ ESG ratings improvement. Mechanism analysis indicates that discussing ESG issues during corporate site visits will engage in more ESG activities to achieve ESG ratings improvement. The positive effect of ESG-related terms during site visits on ESG performance is more pronounced for firms with more euphemism usage during site visits, for firms with more managerial shareholdings and higher intangible intensity, and for firms with below-average ESG performance.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/16081625.2025.2489459

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Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting & Economics is currently edited by Yin-Wong Cheung, Hong Hwang, Jeong-Bon Kim, Shu-Hsing Li and Suresh Radhakrishnan

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