IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i17p13236-d1232400.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact and Mechanism of Corporate ESG Construction on the Efficiency of Regional Green Economy: An Empirical Analysis Based on Signal Transmission Theory and Stakeholder Theory

Author

Listed:
  • Anjun Hu

    (School of Economics, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Xianzhu Yuan

    (School of Economics, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Shuangshuang Fan

    (School of Economics and Management, Wenzhou University of Technology, Wenzhou 325035, China
    School of Management, China University of Mining & Technology, Beijing 100083, China)

  • Shali Wang

    (School of Economics and Management, Guizhou University of Engineering Science, Bijie 551700, China)

Abstract

The Chinese government’s ongoing endeavors to achieve the “low carbon goals” hold immense importance in global emissions reduction. Nonetheless, reducing emissions will inevitably cause economic losses. Therefore, the pursuit of green economic efficiency is regarded as an effective tool to mitigate the economic losses during emission reduction. Synchronously, the realization of green economic efficiency is essential for sustainable development. With the increasing awareness of regional green development, emphasis companies place on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG), which contributes to corporate ESG construction, could become a novel advantage in terms of attracting investors. Additionally, it could have a lasting impact on corporate green technological innovation, thereby enhancing the efficiency. Based on the data of A-share listed companies in China from 2009 to 2019, this study analyzes the effect of corporate ESG construction on the efficiency of regional green economy as well as its mechanism. The research findings demonstrate a significant positive impact of corporate ESG construction on the efficiency of regional green economies. Specifically, each unit improvement in corporate ESG construction is associated with an approximate 0.7% increase in the efficiency of the regional green economy. The conclusion can be drawn after robustness testing. Notably, the effect of corporate ESG construction is more pronounced for companies located in the eastern region, state-owned enterprises, and high-polluting industries. In terms of the underlying mechanism, corporate ESG construction facilitates regional green economic efficiency by fostering corporate green technological innovation. Furthermore, it is observed that environmental regulations have a negative moderating influence on corporate ESG construction, which in turn affects regional green economic efficiency. When examining the decomposed variables of regional green economic efficiency, the impact of corporate ESG construction on regional green scale efficiency is found to align with its overall effect on regional green economic efficiency. This study contributes to the existing research on corporate ESG construction and regional green economic efficiency, offering valuable insights to guide companies in enhancing both aspects. Building upon the conclusions drawn, we will provide policy recommendations from the perspectives of the company itself, corporate investors, and the government. These recommendations aim to facilitate improvements in corporate ESG construction and foster the enhancement of regional green economic efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Anjun Hu & Xianzhu Yuan & Shuangshuang Fan & Shali Wang, 2023. "The Impact and Mechanism of Corporate ESG Construction on the Efficiency of Regional Green Economy: An Empirical Analysis Based on Signal Transmission Theory and Stakeholder Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-24, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:17:p:13236-:d:1232400
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/13236/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/13236/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nathan Nunn & Nancy Qian, 2011. "The Potato's Contribution to Population and Urbanization: Evidence From A Historical Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(2), pages 593-650.
    2. Dongchu Han & Mianfang Liu, 2022. "How Does the Digital Economy Contribute to Regional Green Development in China? Evidence-Based on the Intermediary Effect of Technological Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-14, September.
    3. Gunnar Friede & Timo Busch & Alexander Bassen, 2015. "ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 210-233, October.
    4. Du, Kerui & Cheng, Yuanyuan & Yao, Xin, 2021. "Environmental regulation, green technology innovation, and industrial structure upgrading: The road to the green transformation of Chinese cities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    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. DasGupta, Ranjan, 2022. "Financial performance shortfall, ESG controversies, and ESG performance: Evidence from firms around the world," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).
    7. Huang, Zhehao & Liao, Gaoke & Li, Zhenghui, 2019. "Loaning scale and government subsidy for promoting green innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 148-156.
    8. Maria Folqué & Elena Escrig‐Olmedo & Teresa Corzo Santamaría, 2021. "Sustainable development and financial system: Integrating ESG risks through sustainable investment strategies in a climate change context," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(5), pages 876-890, September.
    9. Shuanglian Chen & Zhehao Huang & Benjamin M. Drakeford & Pierre Failler, 2019. "Lending Interest Rate, Loaning Scale, and Government Subsidy Scale in Green Innovation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-22, November.
    10. Yingzheng Yan & Qiuwang Cheng & Menglan Huang & Qiaohua Lin & Wenhe Lin, 2022. "Government Environmental Regulation and Corporate ESG Performance: Evidence from Natural Resource Accountability Audits in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-16, December.
    11. Tan, Yafei & Zhu, Zhaohui, 2022. "The effect of ESG rating events on corporate green innovation in China: The mediating role of financial constraints and managers' environmental awareness," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    12. Zhang, Dongyang & Lucey, Brian M., 2022. "Sustainable behaviors and firm performance: The role of financial constraints’ alleviation," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 220-233.
    13. Sang Kim & Zhichuan (Frank) Li, 2021. "Understanding the Impact of ESG Practices in Corporate Finance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-15, March.
    14. Meiling Wang & Silu Pang & Ikram Hmani & Ilham Hmani & Cunfang Li & Zhengxia He, 2021. "Towards sustainable development: How does technological innovation drive the increase in green total factor productivity?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 217-227, January.
    15. Nejla Ould Daoud Ellili, 2020. "Environmental, Social, and Governance Disclosure, Ownership Structure and Cost of Capital: Evidence from the UAE," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-23, September.
    16. Zhaolong Wang & Yeqing Yang & Yu Wei, 2022. "Study on Relationship between Environmental Regulation and Green Total Factor Productivity from the Perspective of FDI—Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-16, September.
    17. Yingjia Zhong & Hongyan Zhao & Tianbao Yin, 2023. "Resource Bundling: How Does Enterprise Digital Transformation Affect Enterprise ESG Development?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-18, January.
    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. Eric M. Chang & Jo-Han Cheng, 2025. "The Evolution of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Performance: A Longitudinal Comparative Study on Moderators of Agenda 2030," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-28, September.
    2. Qian, Simeng, 2024. "The effect of ESG on enterprise value under the dual carbon goals: From the perspectives of financing constraints and green innovation," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 318-331.
    3. Chenhui Lu & Caitian Wu & Linjie Feng & Jinghui Zhan & Yi Shi & Huangxin Chen, 2025. "Does ESG Performance Enhance Corporate Green Technological Innovation? Micro Evidence from Chinese-Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-25, January.
    4. Mengdi Qin & Eunmi Tatum Lee, 2024. "Does Information Transparency Moderate the Relationship Between ESG and Green Innovation? Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-17, November.
    5. Haoming Ding & Wei Han & Zerui Wang, 2024. "Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) and Total Factor Productivity: The Mediating Role of Financing Constraints and R&D Investment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-14, October.
    6. Yanfei Wu & Irina Ivashkovskaya & Galina Besstremyannaya & Chunfeng Liu, 2025. "Unlocking Green Innovation Potential Amidst Digital Transformation Challenges—The Evidence from ESG Transformation in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-30, January.
    7. Li, Huihui & Hu, Yonghong, 2025. "ESG rating and default risk: Evidence from China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(PA).
    8. Sergey N. Kukushkin & Aleksei V. Bogoviz & Yuliya V. Chutcheva & Larisa S. Korobeinikova & Svetlana V. Lobova, 2024. "Target SAP-LAP Model for Sustainable Development of Russian Universities in the Decade of Science and Technology," Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, Springer;Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management, vol. 25(1), pages 123-138, September.

    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. Tan, Yafei & Zhu, Zhaohui, 2022. "The effect of ESG rating events on corporate green innovation in China: The mediating role of financial constraints and managers' environmental awareness," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    2. Qi, Xiulin & Wu, Zhifang & Xu, Jinqing & Shan, Biaoan, 2023. "Environmental justice and green innovation: A quasi-natural experiment based on the establishment of environmental courts in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    3. Hao, Yun & Wu, Wenzhao, 2024. "Environment, social, and governance performance and corporate financing constraints," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PA).
    4. Tiantian Meng & Dan Lu & Danni Yu & M. H. Yahya & Mohd Ashhari Zariyawati, 2024. "Is executive compensation aligned with the company’s ESG objectives? Evidence from Chinese listed companies based on the PSM-DID approach," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    5. Lan, Lan & Zhou, Zhifang, 2024. "Complementary or substitutive effects? The duality of digitalization and ESG on firm's innovation," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    6. Zhang, Huiming & Wan, Dayu & Sun, Chuanwang & Wu, Kai & Lin, Caixia, 2023. "Does political inspection promote corporate green innovation?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    7. R. M. Ammar Zahid & Adil Saleem & Umer Sahil Maqsood & Judit Sági, 2024. "Moderating role of audit quality in ESG performance and capital financing dynamics: insights in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(5), pages 12031-12060, May.
    8. Marie, Mohamed & Qi, Baolei & Elgammal, Mohammed & Elnahass, Marwa, 2024. "A more sustainable future: Can politically connected CEOs spur the nexus between ESG performance and firm financial performance?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    9. Jiang, Zihao & Liu, Zhiying, 2022. "Policies and exploitative and exploratory innovations of the wind power industry in China: The role of technological path dependence," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    10. Jing Yang & Hongan Chen & Huan Jin & Yalin Jiang, 2025. "Promoting or inhibiting? The impact of supporting policy for resource-exhausted cities on corporate green technology innovation: evidence from China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 8495-8524, April.
    11. Haoqiang Yuan & Haiyan Luan & Xi Wang, 2024. "The Impact of ESG Rating Events on Corporate Green Technology Innovation under Sustainable Development: Perspectives Based on Informal Environmental Regulation of Social Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-26, September.
    12. 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.
    13. Ji, Xinru & Chen, Xiaoxu & Ao, Zhiming, 2024. "ESG rating, board faultlines, and corporate performance," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(PB).
    14. Geng, Yini & Zheng, Zhiqiang & Yuan, Xuemei & Jiménez-Zarco, Ana Isabel, 2025. "ESG performance and total factor productivity of enterprises: the role of digitization," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(PA).
    15. Bai, Caiquan & Yao, Di & Xue, Qihang, 2025. "Does artificial intelligence suppress firms' greenwashing behavior? Evidence from robot adoption in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    16. Zou, Ganna & Zhang, Shengbo & Gan, Xingqiong & Cheng, Hua, 2025. "How government green procurement incentivises corporate green innovation? Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1605-1626.
    17. Al-Shaer, Habiba & Uyar, Ali & Kuzey, Cemil & Karaman, Abdullah S., 2023. "Do shareholders punish or reward excessive CSR engagement? Moderating effect of cash flow and firm growth," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    18. Xi, Xun & Xi, Baoxing & Miao, Chenglin & Yu, Rongjian & Xie, Jie & Xiang, Rong & Hu, Feng, 2022. "Factors influencing technological innovation efficiency in the Chinese video game industry: Applying the meta-frontier approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    19. Angelidis, Timotheos & Michairinas, Athanasios & Sakkas, Athanasios, 2024. "World ESG performance and economic activity," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    20. Wang, Xiaolin & Ye, Yingying, 2024. "Environmental protection tax and firms’ ESG investment: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:17:p:13236-:d:1232400. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.