Empirical Research On The Influence Of Listed Companies’ ESG Performance On Enterprise Value

Since the reform and opening up,the "extensive" economic growth mode based on physical capital investment has made China’s economy maintain rapid growth for a long time,which is accompanied by the huge consumption of resources and the destruction of the natural environment.At present,China is actively changing the mode of economic development,from high-speed economic development to high-quality development.At this stage,enterprise management methods are also changing from focusing on financial performance to focusing on both financial performance and non-financial performance with ESG as the core.ESG performance is one of the important factors for enterprises to obtain a certain competitive position and achieve sustainable development.Therefore,this paper studies the impact of China’s listed companies’ESG performance on corporate value,which is of great significance for enterprises to make ESG strategic choices and for the government to formulate relevant policies to guide enterprises to practice ESG concepts.Under the background of China’s promotion of ecological civilization construction and the goal of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality,"this paper takes the data of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock exchanges from 2011 to 2020 as the research sample.Through literature review and empirical analysis,this paper conducts theoretical analysis and empirical test on the relationship among the variables of ESG performance,corporate financing constraints,corporate market value,corporate book value and institutional investor preference of listed companies in China,and deeply discusses the impact of corporate ESG performance on corporate value of different ownership nature and different industries.The results show that:(1)Corporate ESG performance will have a positive impact on corporate value.Specifically,the better the ESG performance of enterprises is,the higher the market value and book value of enterprises will be.(2)Financial constraints play a partial mediating role in the impact of ESG performance on corporate value.(3)Compared with soes,the ESG performance of non-soes has a greater effect on improving enterprise value;Compared with enterprises in low-pollution industries,the ESG performance of enterprises in highpollution industries has a greater effect on the improvement of enterprise value.(4)ESG performance of enterprises has a positive impact on institutional investor preference.Based on the above conclusions,this paper obtains the following policy recommendations:(1)The government should establish and improve the ESG information disclosure system of listed companies,refine and unify the disclosure requirements,guide listed companies to make substantive disclosure of ESG information,encourage non-listed companies to disclose ESG information,and reasonably guide market expectations.(2)The government should guide investors to establish the concept of ESG responsible investment and encourage investment specialization.(3)When providing policy guarantee,the government should consider the differences in the nature of enterprises and industries,encourage enterprises in highpollution industries and non-soes to practice ESG activities,and encourage these enterprises to achieve industrial transformation and sustainable development.