Green Finance Reform and Corporate ESG Performance: Mechanisms, Empirical Evidence, and Future Research Directions

Green finance reform represents a crucial institutional mechanism designed to channel financial resources toward supporting the transition to a green economy and ensuring long-term sustainable development. Concurrently, corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance serves as a fundamental indicator of a firm's operational sustainability and resilience in the contemporary business landscape. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the existing literature concerning the intersection of green finance reform and corporate ESG performance, subsequently developing a robust analytical framework that systematically links policy instruments, corporate strategic responses, and ultimate ESG outcomes. A critical synthesis of previous empirical studies reveals five primary channels through which green finance reform advances corporate ESG initiatives: alleviating financing constraints, stimulating green technological innovation, reinforcing institutional discipline, establishing robust corporate reputation systems, and integrating digital finance solutions. Despite these advancements, current scholarship exhibits several notable limitations, including the persistent irregularity of ESG measurement indicators, insufficient analytical differentiation among various policy instruments, incomplete identification of underlying micro-level transmission mechanisms, inadequate scholarly attention to the phenomenon of ESG greenwashing, and a lack of comprehensive international comparative analyses. To address these critical gaps, future research trajectories should prioritize the rigorous examination of diverse ESG indicators and their long-term dynamic effects on corporate value. Furthermore, subsequent investigations must explore firm-level heterogeneity, the transformative role of emerging digital technologies, and the implications of symbolic ESG disclosure practices to foster a more sustainable global economic paradigm.