The Impact Of ESG Evaluation On Enterprise Value From A Life Cycle Perspective

In recent years,some enterprises have neglected environmental protection in pursuit of rapid economic development.Economic development is accompanied by the generation of waste and pollutants,causing huge damage to the natural environment.The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out the need to adhere to "green development,circular development,and low-carbon development",develop clean energy,improve energy structure,and accelerate the construction of a clean,safe,and energy-saving modern energy system.This is not only a requirement for the transformation of China’s economic development model,but also a supervision for Chinese enterprises to fulfill their social responsibility in the context of social responsibility becoming an important factor affecting enterprise development.At the same time,more and more companies are joining the ranks of ESG disclosure ratings,paying attention to their own environmental,social,and corporate governance conditions.Investors are also paying more attention to the fulfillment of corporate social responsibility,environmental performance,and corporate governance based on their understanding of ESG.However,currently,due to the scarcity of research on ESG evaluation and enterprise value in China,this article conducts empirical research on ESG and enterprise value,and explores the impact of the two during the enterprise lifecycle stage.We conducted empirical analysis on the correlation between ESG evaluation,corporate life cycle,and corporate value of listed companies from 2015 to 2020 using the Shanghai Shenzhen 300 Index and the China Securities 500 Index as samples,and further conducted research on property rights and industry heterogeneity.Research has found that:(1)ESG information disclosure and evaluation by listed companies can help enhance corporate value.The higher the ESG score,the greater the corporate value;(2)Grouping the enterprise lifecycle and studying the role of ESG evaluation of listed companies in the growth,maturity,and decline stages on enterprise value,the results showed that ESG information disclosure and evaluation can enhance enterprise value during the growth and maturity stages,and there is a non negative correlation between ESG and enterprise value;When a company is in a decline phase,the impact of ESG evaluation on the company’s value is negatively correlated.(3)By dividing the property rights of listed companies,research has found that there is no positive promoting effect between ESG evaluation and corporate value of state-owned listed companies;Non state-owned listed companies can enhance their corporate value through ESG disclosure and evaluation during their growth and maturity stages,while ESG evaluation can reduce their corporate value during a downturn.(4)After dividing the nature of industries,research found that ESG evaluation of non heavily polluting industries has a greater impact on enhancing corporate value than heavily polluting industries.After replacing the dependent variable,the empirical research results still hold.Finally,on this basis,this paper makes policy recommendations on the evaluation standards and systems of China’s enterprise ESG from three aspects:government departments,listed companies and investors,strengthening the responsibility of enterprise ESG evaluation,formulating ESG evaluation indicators,and investors’ attention to ESG.