Is the ESG Performance of State-Owned Enterprises Becoming a Pivotal Role?—Based on the Empirical Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms

The fundamental principles of “sustainable development” and “green” promoted by ESG align with the concept of “green and sustainable” development. Enhancing enterprise ESG is a methodical endeavor that necessitates enterprises to possess ESG investment capabilities, coordinate many stakeholders, and leverage the influence of prominent market players. State-owned enterprises (SOEs) possess a specific level of support within a nation’s economy. SOEs serve as a fundamental pillar of China’s socialist economic system with distinctive characteristics, significantly influencing business conduct and reinforcing corporate value orientation. Consequently, the capacity of SOEs to assume a strategic leadership role in enhancing supply chain ESG performance is of paramount importance for the general elevation of ESG standards among Chinese enterprises. Limited research has investigated the transmission effect of the ESG performance among chain enterprises from a supply chain viewpoint, particularly regarding the pivotal role of SOEs in enhancing the ESG performance of these entities. This article examines the influence of SOEs’ ESG performance on the ESG performance of supply chain enterprises, focusing on the spillover effects of SOEs’ ESG performance within the supply chain context. It investigates how SOEs lead upstream and downstream enterprises in enhancing their ESG performance, aiming to address the existing cognitive gap in this area and provide substantial evidence for pertinent theories and practices. This article, employing an empirical research methodology, discovers that the ESG performance of state-owned supply chain core enterprises significantly enhances the ESG performance of enterprises in a supply chain, while non-state-owned supply chain core enterprises do not exhibit this effect. Furthermore, research indicates that this effect is asymmetric: when the supply chain core enterprise is a SOE and the enterprises in the supply chain are non-state-owned, the leading effect is more pronounced, and this effect is more powerful for upstream enterprises. The heterogeneity test reveals that the impact of the ESG performance is more pronounced in larger state-owned supply chain core enterprises that have been publicly listed for an extended duration and operate in highly competitive markets. The conclusions of this essay address the deficiencies of current research and provide significant practical implications for the development of green supply chains in the contemporary era.