Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering (산업경영시스템학회지)

Society of Korea Industrial and System Engineering (한국산업경영시스템학회)
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An Empirical Study on the Relationship between Corporate ESG Activities, Green Innovation and Corporate Performance: Focused on the Chinese Manufacturing Companies

기업의 ESG 활동, 녹색 혁신과 기업성과 간 관계 연구: 중국 제조기업을 중심으로

  • 증탁기 (한양대학교 대학원 경영학과) ;
  • 오민정 (연세대학교 글로벌엘리트학부) ;
  • 최성용 (한양대학교 경영학부)
  • Received : 2022.08.12
  • Accepted : 2022.09.19
  • Published : 2022.09.30
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Abstract

In recent years, ESG activities (Environment, Social and Governance) have been paid more and more attention by enterprises and their stakeholders in various countries. China is the largest developing country in the world. The ESG performance of Chinese listed enterprises helps to understand the shortcomings of their sustainable development ability and further enhance the firm value. Moreover, the interaction effect between green innovation investment and ESG activities is of great significance for enterprises to balance the resource allocation between the two factors in the future. Taking listed Chinese manufacturing companies from 2011 to 2020 as an example, this study investigates the influence of ESG activities on financial performance and non-financial performance, and tests the moderating role of green innovation. Our results show that: (1) ESG performance has a negative impact on financial performance; (2) ESG performance has a positive impact on non-financial performance; (3) Green innovation can positively adjust the negative impact of environmental activities on financial performance. However, it will enhance the negative impact of governance activities on financial performance. The interaction effect between green innovation and social activities on corporate financial performance is a substitution effect; (4) With the improvement of green innovation level, the positive impact of ESG overall performance and environmental performance on corporate reputation will also be suppressed.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This study has been supported by the Research Fund of Hanyang University (HY-202100000003539)

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