建立可持續發展的未來：企業 ESG 活動對企業績效的影響

Abstract

Corporate ESG investment activities have become an important source for firms to build competitive advantages. Unlike traditional CSR investments, ESG is a new way of investment on environmental, social and governance that emphasizes sustainable development. However, existing studies have shown conflicting and inconsistent views about the relationship between ESG activities and corporate performance. Moreover, because ESG activities involve multiple stakeholders and information disclosure, and the internal digital and financial capabilities of firms can influence these processes, very few studies have systematically investigated these boundary conditions.

This dissertation aims to address the aforementioned research gaps by refining the concept of corporate ESG activities, considering multiple performance criteria, and introducing digital capabilities and financial capabilities as important contingent factors. Based on signaling theory, this study develops a model that refines corporate ESG activities to strategic ESG activities and tactic ESG activities, which link to firm financial and innovation performances. Moreover, building on strategic fit theory, the study identifies digital capabilities and financial capabilities as important moderating variables. An analysis of a large longitudinal dataset of 2733 firms listed in Shenzhen and Shanghai stock market between 2014 and 2021 provides strong support for the hypotheses. As such, this dissertation contributes to the extant literature in three significant ways:

First, the dissertation uncovers two structural aspects of corporate ESG activities by introducing the concept of strategic ESG activities and tactic ESG activities and examines their differential impacts on firm performance. A review of ESG research and corporate ESG activities indicate that firms embark on both activities that require long-term and significant resource investment, and activities that focus on short-term results. Because the signals released by these approaches are differentially fitted to different stakeholders, depending on the performance criteria in question, they will engender distinctive effects. In this regard, drawing on signaling theory, this dissertation refines corporate ESG activities into strategic ESG activities and tactical ESG activities. This conceptualization deepens the theoretical understanding of ESG investment, and provides microscopic suggestions for managers to strategically formulate ESG investment practices.

Second, the dissertation enriches the performance criteria of ESG investment by identifying and simultaneously examining ESG impact on financial and innovation performances. Prior research usually takes a firm’s financial performance as the single evaluation criterion when considering the impact of ESG, but overlooks its potential effect on innovation performance. Therefore, in juxtaposition with financial performance, this dissertation introduces innovation performance as another important evaluation criterion to systematically assess the impact of ESG activities. The findings show that strategic ESG activities positively contribute to innovation performance, but suppress financial performance. Conversely, tactical ESG activities exhibit a negative impact on innovation performance, but improve financial performance. These results enrich the existing ESG evaluation system, and provide suggestions for managers to accurately consider and grasp the differential impacts of ESG practices.

Third, the dissertation develops a capability-based contingent view of corporate ESG investment model by theorizing digital capabilities and financial capabilities as important boundary conditions. Strategic ESG activities and tactical ESG activities embody two different paths for companies to achieve sustainable development, but these paths will be strengthened or weakened by a firm’s capabilities. Building on strategic fit theory, this study proposes digital capabilities and financial capabilities as important contingent factors. The findings show that the digital capabilities and financial capabilities play enabling roles, and when strategic ESG activities and tactical ESG activities form the best fit with corporate capabilities, they are more conducive to the improvement of financial and innovation performances. These results provide a comprehensive overview of corporate ESG investment and offer valuable insights on what firms want to do and what they can do.

Date of Award	20 Jan 2025
Original language	Chinese (Traditional)
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Juan Julie LI (Supervisor)