IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v51y2023ics1544612322006250.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Institutional ownership heterogeneity and ESG performance: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Yizhi
  • Lin, Yongjia
  • Fu, Xiaoqing
  • Chen, Songhe

Abstract

This paper examines whether institutional investors affect the environment, social, and governance (ESG) performance of Chinese-listed companies. We show that institutional ownership is significantly and positively related to corporate ESG performance. We further classify institutional investors into four different types, based on investment horizons and business relationships, and find that the positive relationship between institutional ownership and ESG performance is mainly driven by long-term pressure-insensitive institutional investors and short-term pressure-sensitive institutional investors. Further evidence suggests that such an association is especially evident among firms in regions with high levels of economic development and marketization.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Yizhi & Lin, Yongjia & Fu, Xiaoqing & Chen, Songhe, 2023. "Institutional ownership heterogeneity and ESG performance: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:51:y:2023:i:c:s1544612322006250
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2022.103448
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612322006250
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2022.103448?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ioannis Oikonomou & Chao Yin & Lei Zhao, 2020. "Investment horizon and corporate social performance: the virtuous circle of long-term institutional ownership and responsible firm conduct," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(1), pages 14-40, January.
    2. Chen, Tao & Dong, Hui & Lin, Chen, 2020. "Institutional shareholders and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 483-504.
    3. Erhemjamts, Otgontsetseg & Huang, Kershen, 2019. "Institutional ownership horizon, corporate social responsibility and shareholder value," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 61-79.
    4. Xuemin (Sterling) Yan & Zhe Zhang, 2009. "Institutional Investors and Equity Returns: Are Short-term Institutions Better Informed?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(2), pages 893-924, February.
    5. Borghesi, Richard & Houston, Joel F. & Naranjo, Andy, 2014. "Corporate socially responsible investments: CEO altruism, reputation, and shareholder interests," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 164-181.
    6. Larcker, David F. & Rusticus, Tjomme O., 2010. "On the use of instrumental variables in accounting research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 186-205, April.
    7. Gaspar, Jose-Miguel & Massa, Massimo & Matos, Pedro, 2005. "Shareholder investment horizons and the market for corporate control," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1), pages 135-165, April.
    8. Qian Sun & Wilson H. S. Tong & Jing Tong, 2002. "How Does Government Ownership Affect Firm Performance? Evidence from China's Privatization Experience," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1&2), pages 1-27.
    9. Lin, Yongjia & Fu, Xiaoqing & Fu, Xiaolan, 2021. "Varieties in state capitalism and corporate innovation: Evidence from an emerging economy," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    10. Fu, Xiaoqing (Maggie) & Lin, Yongjia & Zhang, Yang, 2020. "Responsible investing in the gaming industry," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    11. Samuel Drempetic & Christian Klein & Bernhard Zwergel, 2020. "The Influence of Firm Size on the ESG Score: Corporate Sustainability Ratings Under Review," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(2), pages 333-360, November.
    12. Du, Julan & Lu, Yi & Tao, Zhigang, 2008. "Economic institutions and FDI location choice: Evidence from US multinationals in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 412-429, September.
    13. Deng, Xin & Kang, Jun-koo & Low, Buen Sin, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility and stakeholder value maximization: Evidence from mergers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 87-109.
    14. Rui Albuquerque & Yrjo Koskinen & Shuai Yang & Chendi Zhang, 2020. "Resiliency of Environmental and Social Stocks: An Analysis of the Exogenous COVID-19 Market Crash," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(3), pages 593-621.
    15. Brickley, James A. & Lease, Ronald C. & Smith, Clifford Jr., 1988. "Ownership structure and voting on antitakeover amendments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1-2), pages 267-291, January.
    16. Fateh Saci & Sajjad Jasimuddin, 2021. "Does the research done by the institutional investors affect the cost of equity capital?," Post-Print halshs-03617379, HAL.
    17. Cornett, Marcia Millon & Marcus, Alan J. & Saunders, Anthony & Tehranian, Hassan, 2007. "The impact of institutional ownership on corporate operating performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1771-1794, June.
    18. Dan Zhang & Shiguang Ma & Xiaofei Pan, 2021. "Institutional investors, controlling shareholders and CEO pay‐performance relationship: evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(1), pages 467-498, March.
    19. Harford, Jarrad & Kecskés, Ambrus & Mansi, Sattar, 2018. "Do long-term investors improve corporate decision making?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 424-452.
    20. Qian Sun & Wilson H. S. Tong & Jing Tong, 2002. "How Does Government Ownership Affect Firm Performance? Evidence from China’s Privatization Experience," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1‐2), pages 1-27.
    21. El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Kwok, Chuck C.Y. & Mishra, Dev R., 2011. "Does corporate social responsibility affect the cost of capital?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 2388-2406, September.
    22. Kim, Hyun-Dong & Kim, Taeyeon & Kim, Yura & Park, Kwangwoo, 2019. "Do long-term institutional investors promote corporate social responsibility activities?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 256-269.
    23. Dyck, Alexander & Lins, Karl V. & Roth, Lukas & Wagner, Hannes F., 2019. "Do institutional investors drive corporate social responsibility? International evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(3), pages 693-714.
    24. Zhe Li & Ping Wang & Tianlong Wu, 2021. "Do foreign institutional investors drive corporate social responsibility? Evidence from listed firms in China," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1-2), pages 338-373, January.
    25. Lin, Yongjia Rebecca & Fu, Xiaoqing Maggie, 2017. "Does institutional ownership influence firm performance? Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 17-57.
    26. Broadstock, David C. & Chan, Kalok & Cheng, Louis T.W. & Wang, Xiaowei, 2021. "The role of ESG performance during times of financial crisis: Evidence from COVID-19 in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    27. Dhaliwal, Dan & Judd, J. Scott & Serfling, Matthew & Shaikh, Sarah, 2016. "Customer concentration risk and the cost of equity capital," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 23-48.
    28. Chen, Xia & Harford, Jarrad & Li, Kai, 2007. "Monitoring: Which institutions matter?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 279-305, November.
    29. Chen, Yonghuai & Li, Tao & Zeng, Qing & Zhu, Bo, 2023. "Effect of ESG performance on the cost of equity capital: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 348-364.
    30. Cornett, Marcia Millon & Erhemjamts, Otgontsetseg & Tehranian, Hassan, 2016. "Greed or good deeds: An examination of the relation between corporate social responsibility and the financial performance of U.S. commercial banks around the financial crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 137-159.
    31. Saci, Fateh & Jasimuddin, Sajjad M., 2021. "Does the research done by the institutional investors affect the cost of equity capital?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    32. Panicker, Vidya Sukumara & Mitra, Sumit & Upadhyayula, Rajesh Srinivas, 2019. "Institutional investors and international investments in emerging economy firms: A behavioral risk perspective," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 322-334.
    33. Cella, Cristina, 2020. "Institutional investors and corporate investment," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    34. Yi, Jingtao & Wang, Chengqi & Kafouros, Mario, 2013. "The effects of innovative capabilities on exporting: Do institutional forces matter?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 392-406.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Di Song & Canyu Xu & Zewei Fu & Chao Yang, 2023. "How Does a Regulatory Minority Shareholder Influence the ESG Performance? A Quasi-Natural Experiment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-22, April.
    2. Liliana Rivera & Norma Ortiz & Gabriel Moreno & Iliana Páez-Gabriunas, 2023. "The Effect of Company Ownership on the Environmental Practices in the Supply Chain: An Empirical Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-24, August.
    3. Huang, Jun & Han, Feifei & Li, Yun, 2023. "Government as major customer: The effects of government procurement on corporate environmental, social, and governance performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    4. Yiqun Duan & Fan Yang & Lin Xiong, 2023. "Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Performance and Firm Value: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-24, August.
    5. Wang, Kai & Chen, Xi & Wang, Chenye, 2023. "The impact of sustainable development planning in resource-based cities on corporate ESG–Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    6. Jiajia Liu & Zhenzhen Ge & Yahan Wang, 2024. "Role of environmental, social, and governance rating data in predicting financial risk and risk management," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 260-273, January.
    7. Yunfu Zhu & Haoling Yang & Ma Zhong, 2023. "Do ESG Ratings of Chinese Firms Converge or Diverge? A Comparative Analysis Based on Multiple Domestic and International Ratings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-17, August.
    8. Lipeng Sun & Nur Ashikin Mohd Saat, 2023. "How Does Intelligent Manufacturing Affect the ESG Performance of Manufacturing Firms? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-20, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Safiullah, Md & Alam, Md Samsul & Islam, Md Shahidul, 2022. "Do all institutional investors care about corporate carbon emissions?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    2. Gillan, Stuart L. & Koch, Andrew & Starks, Laura T., 2021. "Firms and social responsibility: A review of ESG and CSR research in corporate finance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    3. Cheng, Xin & (Helen) Wang, He & Wang, Xianjue, 2022. "Common institutional ownership and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    4. Jinchi Liu & Xiong Xiong & Ya Gao & Jin Zhang, 2023. "The impact of institutional investors on ESG: Evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(S2), pages 2801-2826, June.
    5. Hans B. Christensen & Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz, 2021. "Mandatory CSR and sustainability reporting: economic analysis and literature review," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 1176-1248, September.
    6. Philip Teng Lin & Yanhui Jin & Fei Gao & Ruifeng Yang & Qian Lin, 2023. "Institutional Investors, CSR Report Readability and the Moderating Role of ESG Performance," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, November.
    7. Patrick Velte, 2023. "Which institutional investors drive corporate sustainability? A systematic literature review," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 42-71, January.
    8. Zhang, Zhuang & Chizema, Amon & Kuo, Jing-Ming & Zhang, Qingjing, 2022. "Managerial risk-reducing incentives and social and exchange capital," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(6).
    9. Eunice S. Khoo & Li Chen & Gary S. Monroe, 2023. "Shareholder election of CSR committee members and its effects on CSR performance," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3-4), pages 716-763, March.
    10. Kim, Hyun-Dong & Kim, Taeyeon & Kim, Yura & Park, Kwangwoo, 2019. "Do long-term institutional investors promote corporate social responsibility activities?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 256-269.
    11. Fu, Xudong & Tang, Tian & Yan, Xinyan, 2019. "Why do institutions like corporate social responsibility investments? evidence from horizon heterogeneity," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 44-63.
    12. Kim, Hyun-Dong & Kim, Yura & Mantecon, Tomas & Song, Kyojik Roy, 2019. "Short-term institutional investors and agency costs of debt," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 195-210.
    13. Rjiba, Hatem & Saadi, Samir & Boubaker, Sabri & Ding, Xiaoya (Sara), 2021. "Annual report readability and the cost of equity capital," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    14. Fiordelisi, Franco & Ricci, Ornella & Santilli, Gianluca, 2023. "Environmental engagement and stock price crash risk: Evidence from the European banking industry," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    15. Wang, Tracy & Sun, Aonan, 2022. "Institutional ownership stability and corporate social performance," MPRA Paper 112679, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Jiami Zheng & Lin Zhang, 2023. "Do venture capitalists with foreign experience drive corporate social responsibility better? Evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(5), pages 4961-4988, December.
    17. Wang, Kun Tracy & Sun, Aonan, 2022. "Institutional ownership stability and corporate social performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PA).
    18. Driss, Hamdi & Drobetz, Wolfgang & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane, 2021. "Institutional investment horizons, corporate governance, and credit ratings: International evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    19. Abdulaziz A. Alomran & Kholod F. Alsahali, 2023. "The Role of Long-Term Institutional Ownership in Sustainability Report Assurance: Global Evidence," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-17, February.
    20. Attig, Najah & Cleary, Sean & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane, 2012. "Institutional investment horizon and investment–cash flow sensitivity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 1164-1180.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Institutional ownership heterogeneity; ESG performance; Investment horizon; Business relationship;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:51:y:2023:i:c:s1544612322006250. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.