Information Infrastructure and Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance of the Enterprise: A Quasi-Experimental Analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACT Information infrastructure development substantially impacts the transformation of enterprises’ decision-making. Based on the “Information Consumption Demonstration City Construction” policy issued by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2016, we conducted a quasi-experiment to examine the effects and mechanisms of information infrastructure construction on the enterprise’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Overall, information infrastructure construction was shown to substantially improve the ESG performance of these companies and exhibit a strong promoting effect on labor-intensive and state-owned enterprises. Regarding internal mechanisms, the information infrastructure has accelerated the digital transformation of enterprises and improved information efficiency, which is beneficial for suppressing opportunistic behavior. Regarding external mechanisms, information infrastructure development and ESG investment have jointly reduced corporate financing constraints, improving their credit market performance. These findings provide substantial practical evidence for promoting the construction of an information infrastructure from the perspective of enterprise governance transformation.