IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i22p9804-d1517898.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate ESG Performance, Green Innovation, and Green New Quality Productivity: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Yan Ma

    (School of Accounting, Taizhou Institute of Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Taizhou 225300, China)

  • Pei Liu

    (School of Accounting, Xinjiang University of Finance and Economics, Urumqi 830012, China)

  • Haonan Chen

    (School of Economics, Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing 100070, China)

Abstract

In recent years, China has placed significant emphasis on sustainable economic and social development, actively implementing the concept of green development. In 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed that all regions should actively develop new-quality productivity, signifying a deepening of green and sustainable development principles. As an internationally recognized indicator for measuring corporate sustainability, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria may influence the enhancement of new-quality productivity across regions, particularly in relation to green new quality productivity. This paper investigates the effects of corporate ESG performance on the levels of green and new-quality productivity using data from China’s A-share listed companies from 2013 to 2022. The findings reveal the following: (1) corporate ESG performance significantly enhances the level of green new quality productivity; (2) mechanism tests indicate that corporate ESG performance enhances green new quality productivity by promoting firms’ green innovation; and (3) further analysis shows that the effect of ESG performance on green new quality productivity is more pronounced in firms with low levels of financing constraints, high media attention, and elevated green awareness among executives. These findings provide empirical evidence for strengthening corporate ESG performance, promoting green innovation, elevating regional levels of green and new-quality productivity, and advancing sustainable development, thereby offering valuable insights for developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Yan Ma & Pei Liu & Haonan Chen, 2024. "Corporate ESG Performance, Green Innovation, and Green New Quality Productivity: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-21, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:22:p:9804-:d:1517898
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/22/9804/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/22/9804/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fengyan Wang & Ziyuan Sun, 2022. "Does the Environmental Regulation Intensity and ESG Performance Have a Substitution Effect on the Impact of Enterprise Green Innovation: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-24, July.
    2. 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).
    3. Zhu, Lin & Luo, Jian & Dong, Qingli & Zhao, Yang & Wang, Yunyue & Wang, Yong, 2021. "Green technology innovation efficiency of energy-intensive industries in China from the perspective of shared resources: Dynamic change and improvement path," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    4. Maha Faisal Alsayegh & Rashidah Abdul Rahman & Saeid Homayoun, 2020. "Corporate Economic, Environmental, and Social Sustainability Performance Transformation through ESG Disclosure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-20, May.
    5. Jun-liang Du & Yong Liu & Wei-xue Diao, 2019. "Assessing Regional Differences in Green Innovation Efficiency of Industrial Enterprises in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-23, March.
    6. Heitor Almeida & Murillo Campello, 2007. "Financial Constraints, Asset Tangibility, and Corporate Investment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(5), pages 1429-1460, 2007 12.
    7. Yang, Qin & Du, Qiang & Razzaq, Asif & Shang, Yunfeng, 2022. "How volatility in green financing, clean energy, and green economic practices derive sustainable performance through ESG indicators? A sectoral study of G7 countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    8. Susanne Arvidsson & John Dumay, 2022. "Corporate ESG reporting quantity, quality and performance: Where to now for environmental policy and practice?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 1091-1110, March.
    9. Jing-Wen Huang & Yong-Hui Li, 2017. "Green Innovation and Performance: The View of Organizational Capability and Social Reciprocity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 309-324, October.
    10. Riquan Yao & Yingqun Fei & Zhong Wang & Xin Yao & Sasa Yang, 2023. "The Impact of China’s ETS on Corporate Green Governance Based on the Perspective of Corporate ESG Performance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-16, January.
    11. Ben Arfi, Wissal & Hikkerova, Lubica & Sahut, Jean-Michel, 2018. "External knowledge sources, green innovation and performance," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 210-220.
    12. Vasileiou, Efi & Georgantzis, Nikolaos & Attanasi, Giuseppe & Llerena, Patrick, 2022. "Green innovation and financial performance: A study on Italian firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(6).
    13. Yang Chen & Oleksii Lyulyov & Tetyana Pimonenko & Aleksy Kwilinski, 2024. "Green development of the country: Role of macroeconomic stability," Energy & Environment, , vol. 35(5), pages 2273-2295, August.
    14. Nie, Song & Liu, Junxian & Zeng, Gang & You, Jiyuan, 2023. "Local government debt pressure and corporate ESG performance: Empirical evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PB).
    15. Zhao, Xin & Nakonieczny, Joanna & Jabeen, Fauzia & Shahzad, Umer & Jia, Wenxing, 2022. "Does green innovation induce green total factor productivity? Novel findings from Chinese city level data," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    16. Meijia Ren & Jinsheng Zhou & Jingjian Si & Guoyu Wang & Chunyu Guo, 2024. "The Impact of ESG Performance on Green Innovation among Traditional Energy Enterprises—Evidence from Listed Companies in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-16, April.
    17. Johnson, Christopher, 2020. "The measurement of environmental, social and governance (ESG) and sustainable investment: Developing a sustainable new world for financial services," Journal of Securities Operations & Custody, Henry Stewart Publications, vol. 12(4), pages 336-356, September.
    18. Sun, Huaping & Edziah, Bless Kofi & Sun, Chuanwang & Kporsu, Anthony Kwaku, 2019. "Institutional quality, green innovation and energy efficiency," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Bai, Rui & Lin, Boqiang, 2024. "An in-depth analysis of green innovation efficiency: New evidence based on club convergence and spatial correlation network," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    2. Alexandre Rodrigues da Silva & Claudia Brito Silva Cirani & Fernando Antonio Ribeiro Serra & Angélica Pigola & Priscila Rezende da Costa & Isabel Cristina Scafuto & Roberto Lima Ruas & Marcos Rogério , 2023. "Determining Factors on Green Innovation Adoption: An Empirical Study in Brazilian Agribusiness Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-23, April.
    3. Cong Zhang & Shanyue Jin, 2022. "What Drives Sustainable Development of Enterprises? Focusing on ESG Management and Green Technology Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-20, September.
    4. Han Long & Gen‐Fu Feng & Qiang Gong & Chun‐Ping Chang, 2023. "ESG performance and green innovation: An investigation based on quantile regression," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7), pages 5102-5118, November.
    5. Ying Guo, 2023. "External Knowledge Acquisition and Green Innovation in Chinese Firms: Unveiling the Impact of Green Dynamic Capabilities," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, July.
    6. Xie, Ronghui & Teo, Thompson S.H., 2022. "Green technology innovation, environmental externality, and the cleaner upgrading of industrial structure in China — Considering the moderating effect of environmental regulation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    7. Yang Shen & Zhihong Yang, 2023. "Chasing Green: The Synergistic Effect of Industrial Intelligence on Pollution Control and Carbon Reduction and Its Mechanisms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-22, April.
    8. Xihui Chen & Juan Ou & Xuemei Tang & Qinghe Yang, 2023. "The Impact of Officials’ Off-Office Accountability Audit of Natural Resource Assets on Firms’ Green Innovation Strategies: A Quasi-Natural Experiment in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-36, February.
    9. Song, Yang & Zhang, Zhiyuan & Sahut, Jean-Michel & Rubin, Ofir, 2023. "Incentivizing green technology innovation to confront sustainable development," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    10. Rui Ding & Fangcheng Sun, 2023. "Impact of River Chief System on Green Technology Innovation: Empirical Evidence from the Yangtze River Economic Belt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-22, April.
    11. Biao Hu & Kai Yuan & Tingyun Niu & Liang Zhang & Yuqiong Guan, 2022. "Study on the Spatial and Temporal Evolution Patterns of Green Innovation Efficiency and Driving Factors in Three Major Urban Agglomerations in China—Based on the Perspective of Economic Geography," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-28, July.
    12. Lei Tong & Yafei Rong, 2022. "Internet, Green Innovation and Industrial Upgrading," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-20, October.
    13. Hung M. Nguyen & George Onofrei & Dothang Truong & Simon Lockrey, 2020. "Customer green orientation and process innovation alignment: A configuration approach in the global manufacturing industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2498-2513, September.
    14. Sun, Yunpeng & Gao, Pengpeng & Tian, Wenjuan & Guan, Weimin, 2023. "Green innovation for resource efficiency and sustainability: Empirical analysis and policy," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    15. Wang, Ke-Liang & Sun, Ting-Ting & Xu, Ru-Yu & Miao, Zhuang & Cheng, Yun-He, 2022. "How does internet development promote urban green innovation efficiency? Evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    16. Lu Qiu & Xiaowen Jie & Yanan Wang & Minjuan Zhao, 2020. "Green product innovation, green dynamic capability, and competitive advantage: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing enterprises," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 146-165, January.
    17. Mohammed Abdullah Ammer & Meqbel Mishary Aliedan & Mansour Abdullah Alyahya, 2020. "Do Corporate Environmental Sustainability Practices Influence Firm Value? The Role of Independent Directors: Evidence from Saudi Arabia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-21, November.
    18. Sheng, Jichuan & Ding, Rui & Yang, Hongqiang, 2024. "Corporate green innovation in an aging population: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    19. Adrián Rabadán & Ángela Triguero & Ángela Gonzalez-Moreno, 2020. "Cooperation as the Secret Ingredient in the Recipe to Foster Internal Technological Eco-Innovation in the Agri-Food Industry," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-19, April.
    20. Hu, Jinyan & Wang, Kai-Hua & Su, Chi Wei & Umar, Muhammad, 2022. "Oil price, green innovation and institutional pressure: A China's perspective," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

    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:16:y:2024:i:22:p:9804-:d:1517898. 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.