Does ESG Performance Promote High-Quality Development of Enterprises in China? The Mediating Role of Innovation Input

Abstract

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) concept has internal consistency with the high-quality development of China’s economy theoretically, and implementing ESG concept is an important way to achieve sustainable economic development. However, whether ESG performance can promote the high-quality development from the perspective of micro enterprises is rarely studied. Thus, we explore the impact and mechanism of ESG performance on enterprises’ high-quality development. The empirical results indicate that good ESG performance is conducive to promoting high-quality development of enterprises. Environmental performance and social performance can promote high-quality development of enterprises more than corporate governance performance. The mechanism results show that innovation input plays a medicating role between ESG performance and enterprises’ high-quality development. The additional analysis suggest that the promoting effect is more obvious in state-owned enterprises, environmentally sensitive enterprises and enterprises with less financing constraints. This study has enlightenment significance for enterprises to value ESG performance and government departments to formulate relevant policies.