近年来，随着我国进入经济高质量发展的新阶段，可持续发展观念更加深入，“双碳”发展目标进一步确立，ESG概念在我国受到越来越多的关注。然而，对于ESG表现能否提升财务绩效，以及其提升财务绩效的机制，学术界还没有形成统一的结论。在这样的背景下，本文以2010-2022年A股上市公司为样本，通过实证分析，研究ESG表现对企业财务绩效的影响及其内在机制。研究结果表明，ESG表现对财务绩效有显著的正向影响，在进行一系列稳健性检验和内生性问题的讨论之后，这一结论仍然成立。从ESG的三个维度来看，环境、社会责任、公司治理均对财务绩效有显著的正向影响。作用机制方面，ESG表现可以通过缓解融资约束、促进企业创新、增加信息透明度、提升企业声誉来对财务绩效产生正向影响。调节效应方面，良好的内部控制水平和外部制度环境能在一定程度上促进ESG表现对财务绩效的正向影响。此外，本文还探讨了ESG表现对财务绩效的影响在不同产权性质、行业类型和企业规模之间的异质性。本文通过对A股上市公司的实证研究，得出了ESG表现促进企业财务绩效的结论，并注重对稳健性和内生性问题的讨论，拓展和丰富了ESG表现影响财务绩效的中国实证研究。此外，本文研究了ESG表现影响财务绩效的作用机制和调节效应，有利于更好地理解ESG表现如何影响企业财务绩效。
ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) is a comprehensive concept that assesses the sustainable development of enterprises from multiple dimensions. As China’s economy has transitioned to a stage of high-quality development, and the dual carbon goals (DCGs) have been established, ESG has become a key topic in China. However, previous literature has not reached consensus on whether ESG performance can improve CFP (corporate financial performance) and the mechanism of this improvement.Against this background, this paper studies the impact of ESG performance on CFP and its internal mechanism through empirical analysis. The results indicate that ESG performance has a significantly positive effect on CFP, and this conclusion holds still after conducting robustness tests. The mediating mechanism of ESG performance on CFP contains financing constraints, corporate innovation, information transparency, and corporate reputation. The moderating mechanism of ESG performance on CFP contains internal control and institutional environment. In terms of heterogeneity, the positive effect of ESG performance on CFP is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises, non-heavily polluting enterprises, and small-sized enterprises.Through empirical analysis on A-share listed companies, this paper demonstrates the positive effect of ESG performance on CFP. Moreover, this paper studies the mediating and moderating mechanism of ESG performance improving CFP, facilitating a deeper understanding of how ESG performance contributes to financial performance.
