IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v62y2024ipas1544612324001260.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

ESG rating disagreement and corporate innovation: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Li
  • Zhang, Du
  • Li, Rongrong

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of ESG rating disagreement on corporate innovation using data on Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2021. We robustly find that ESG rating disagreement significantly reduces corporate innovation. Further research reveals that ESG rating disagreement can impede corporate innovation by amplifying firms' financing constraints and diminishing their human capital. In addition, the dampening effect of ESG rating disagreement on corporate innovation is more pronounced among firms with higher ESG ratings. The research in this paper holds importance for a more comprehensive and objective understanding of ESG rating disagreement.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Li & Zhang, Du & Li, Rongrong, 2024. "ESG rating disagreement and corporate innovation: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PA).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:62:y:2024:i:pa:s1544612324001260
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2024.105096
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612324001260
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2024.105096?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. Wang, Quan-Jing & Feng, Gen-Fu & Chen, Yin E. & Wen, Jun & Chang, Chun-Ping, 2019. "The impacts of government ideology on innovation: What are the main implications?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 1232-1247.
    2. Monica Billio & Michele Costola & Iva Hristova & Carmelo Latino & Loriana Pelizzon, 2021. "Inside the ESG ratings: (Dis)agreement and performance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(5), pages 1426-1445, September.
    3. Jing Zhang & Ziyang Liu, 2023. "Study on the Impact of Corporate ESG Performance on Green Innovation Performance—Evidence from Listed Companies in China A-Shares," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-18, October.
    4. Wang, Juxian & Ma, Mengdi & Dong, Tianyi & Zhang, Zheyuan, 2023. "Do ESG ratings promote corporate green innovation? A quasi-natural experiment based on SynTao Green Finance's ESG ratings," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    5. Li, Chao & Ba, Shusong & Ma, Kejia & Xu, Yueling & Huang, Wenli & Huang, Niyuan, 2023. "ESG Rating Events, Financial Investment Behavior and Corporate Innovation," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 372-387.
    6. Sun, Xiuli & Li, Haizheng & Ghosal, Vivek, 2020. "Firm-level human capital and innovation: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    7. George Serafeim & Aaron Yoon, 2023. "Stock price reactions to ESG news: the role of ESG ratings and disagreement," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 1500-1530, September.
    8. Li, Chengming & Wang, Yilin & Zhou, Zhihan & Wang, Zeyu & Mardani, Abbas, 2023. "Digital finance and enterprise financing constraints: Structural characteristics and mechanism identification," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    9. Florian Berg & Julian F Kölbel & Roberto Rigobon, 2022. "Aggregate Confusion: The Divergence of ESG Ratings [Corporate social responsibility and firm risk: theory and empirical evidence]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(6), pages 1315-1344.
    10. Tan, Ruipeng & Pan, Lulu, 2023. "ESG rating disagreement, external attention and stock return: Evidence from China," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    11. Guariglia, Alessandra & Liu, Pei, 2014. "To what extent do financing constraints affect Chinese firms' innovation activities?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 223-240.
    12. He, Guosheng & Liu, Yiting & Chen, Fu, 2023. "Research on the impact of environment, society, and governance (ESG) on firm risk: An explanation from a financing constraints perspective," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PA).
    13. Dirk Czarnitzki & Hanna Hottenrott, 2011. "R&D investment and financing constraints of small and medium-sized firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 65-83, January.
    14. Chen, Lifeng & Khurram, Muhammad Usman & Gao, Yuying & Abedin, Mohammad Zoynul & Lucey, Brian, 2023. "ESG disclosure and technological innovation capabilities of the Chinese listed companies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    15. Luo, Deqing & Yan, Jingzhou & Yan, Qianhui, 2023. "The duality of ESG: Impact of ratings and disagreement on stock crash risk in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PB).
    16. Avramov, Doron & Cheng, Si & Lioui, Abraham & Tarelli, Andrea, 2022. "Sustainable investing with ESG rating uncertainty," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 642-664.
    17. Aaron K. Chatterji & Rodolphe Durand & David I. Levine & Samuel Touboul, 2016. "Do ratings of firms converge? Implications for managers, investors and strategy researchers," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(8), pages 1597-1614, August.
    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. Yong Shi & Tongsheng Yao, 2025. "ESG Rating Divergence: Existence, Driving Factors, and Impact Effects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-26, May.
    2. Gucciardi, Gianluca & Ossola, Elisa & Parisio, Lucia & Pelagatti, Matteo, 2025. "Common factors behind companies’ Environmental ratings," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    3. Pan, Zhijie & Zheng, Yanting & Xu, Dandan & Wang, Ting, 2024. "How green screening influences risk transmission among stock-bond indices: Insight into the dependence structure," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(PA).
    4. Lin, Yu-En & Teng, Shi & Yu, Bo & Lam, Keith S.K., 2025. "ESG rating, rating divergence and investment efficiency: International evidence," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    5. Chen, Tianyu & Yin, Ding & Li, Xinghua & Xu, Xuegao, 2025. "Media attention, information asymmetry and agribusiness ESG rating divergence," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    6. Jidong Qin & Meijia Wang, 2025. "ESG rating disagreement and bank loan availability: Evidence from China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(1), pages 1-18, January.
    7. Yin, Libo & Zhu, Xiaoye & Su, Zhi & Guo, Hongliang, 2025. "Is disagreement beneficial for market efficiency? Evidence from ESG ratings," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    8. Zhanli Li & Zichao Yang, 2024. "ESG Rating Disagreement and Corporate Total Factor Productivity:Inference and Prediction," Papers 2408.13895, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2025.
    9. Kangqi Jiang & Jie Zhang & Mengling Zhou & Zhongfei Chen, 2025. "ESG disagreement and corporate debt maturity: evidence from China," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 11(1), pages 1-39, December.
    10. Jiang, Yichi & Zhang, Xuanyue & Yao, Shujie, 2025. "On ESG and corporate employment decision: Evidence from Chinese listed firms in 2009–2022," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 854-869.
    11. Ling, Shixian & Xia, Hui & Liu, Zhangxin (Frank), 2024. "ESG rating divergence and audit fees: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 67(PA).
    12. Lufeng Gou & Xiaoxiao Li, 2025. "Why Do ESG Rating Differences Affect Audit Fees?—Dual Intermediary Path Analysis Based on Operating Risk and Analyst Earnings Forecast Error," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-17, January.
    13. Ren, Hao, 2025. "ESG rating disagreement and corporate digital transformation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).

    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. Ju, Chunhua & Fang, Xusheng & Shen, Zhonghua, 2025. "ESG rating divergence and stock price crash risk," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    2. Yin, Libo & Zhu, Xiaoye & Su, Zhi & Guo, Hongliang, 2025. "Is disagreement beneficial for market efficiency? Evidence from ESG ratings," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    3. Li, Ge & Cheng, Yuxiang, 2024. "Impact of environmental, social, and governance rating disagreement on real earnings management in Chinese listed companies," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    4. Minghua Dong & Miaomiao Li & Hongxia Wang & Yuanyuan Pang, 2025. "ESG Disagreement and Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence from China," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 32(1), pages 267-299, March.
    5. Zou, Jin & Yan, Jingzhou & Deng, Guoying, 2023. "ESG rating confusion and bond spreads," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    6. Zhu, Jialei & Xiong, Zhengde & Lu, Xinxin & Yao, Zhu, 2025. "Does ESG rating disagreement impede corporate green innovation?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    7. Xiao, Zhongyi & Shum, Wai Yan & Lai, Fujun & Xiang, Cheng, 2025. "How do firms respond to divergent ESG ratings? The perspective of green innovation," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    8. Horky, Florian & Pasquali, Andrea & Magazzino, Cosimo, 2024. "ESG rating disagreement portfolios – Evidence from the EuroStoxx 600," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(PA).
    9. Wang, Haijun & Jiao, Shuaipeng & Ge, Chen & Sun, Guanglin, 2024. "Corporate ESG rating divergence and excess stock returns," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    10. Ling, Shixian & Xia, Hui & Liu, Zhangxin (Frank), 2024. "ESG rating divergence and audit fees: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 67(PA).
    11. Jian Zhou & Xiaodong Lei & Jianglong Yu, 2024. "ESG rating divergence and corporate green innovation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 2911-2930, May.
    12. Liu, Xiangqiang & Liu, Jiayi & Liu, Jia & Zhai, Qiong, 2024. "Can investor-firm interactions mitigate ESG rating divergence? Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    13. Ruan, Lei & Li, Jianing & Huang, Siqi, 2025. "ESG rating adjustment and capital market pricing efficiency: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    14. Liu, Xiangqiang & Yang, Qingqing & Wei, Kai & Dai, Peng-Fei, 2024. "ESG rating disagreement and idiosyncratic return volatility: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(PB).
    15. Ajithakumari Vijayappan Nair Biju & Snehith Jacob Kodiyatt & P. P. Nithi Krishna & Geetha Sreelekshmi, 2023. "ESG sentiments and divergent ESG scores: suggesting a framework for ESG rating," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(12), pages 1-21, December.
    16. Muck, Matthias & Schmidl, Thomas, 2024. "Comparing ESG score weighting approaches and stock performance differentiation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 67(PB).
    17. Kurbus, Barbara & Rant, Vasja, 2025. "A legal origins perspective on ESG rating disagreement," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    18. Luo, Deqing & Shan, Xun & Yan, Jingzhou & Yan, Qianhui, 2023. "Sustainable investment under ESG volatility and ambiguity," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    19. Li Meiyi & Gan Yufei, 2025. "More Philanthropy, More Consistency? Examining the Impact of Corporate Charitable Donations on ESG Rating Uncertainty," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 1-21.
    20. Jianzhi Wei & Xuesong He & Yawei Wu, 2025. "ESG Performance Empowers Financial Flexibility in Manufacturing Firms—Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-21, January.

    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:62:y:2024:i:pa:s1544612324001260. 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.