上市公司ESG表现对成本黏性的影响研究

Exploring the Impact of ESG on Cost Stickiness

上市公司环境、社会责任和公司治理(ESG)信息披露是经济可持续发展的必然要求,企业ESG表现是否以及如何影响成本黏性这一问题是重要的。利用Heckman两阶段方法对2011—2021年中国上市公司进行实证检验,结论是ESG表现越好的企业,成本黏性越高,原因在于:(1)ESG表现越好,企业在环境、社会责任和公司治理投入的成本更高,导致向下调整成本的难度提高;(2)ESG表现越好,企业更重视长期发展和市场竞争力,也更加重视自身的品牌形象和声誉,不景气时维持原有成本有助于实现企业长期目标,因此表现为成本黏性。从传导过程来看,ESG表现通过提高企业的绿色技术创新水平和增加供应商稳定性影响企业成本黏性。进一步分析表明这种正向作用在国有股、社会责任不敏感、审计质量差和法律环境好的企业中更为显著。文章的结论对企业ESG投资决策和成本决策具有一定的启示作用。

Mandating public firms to provide environmental,social,and governance(ESG)disclosure is necessary for sustainable economic development.It is also crucial to understand how the firm’s ESG performance affects cost stickiness.Using a sample of listed companies in China from 2011 to 2021 and the Heckman two-stage approach,we find that firms with better ESG performance have higher cost stickiness for the following reasons:(1)The better the ESG performance,the higher the investments in ESG,and thus the greater difficulties in cost reduction.(2)Firms with stronger ESG focus on the longterm growth,developing competitiveness in markets,and building up brand image and reputations.Maintaining the original cost level during an economic downturn aligns with the long-term goals of firms.Moreover,ESG performance affects firms’cost stickiness by increasing green technology innovation and supply chain stability.Further analyses find that the positive relationship between ESG performance and cost stickiness is more pronounced for state-owned firms,firms that are not sensitive to social responsibility,and firms with poor audit quality and operating in a good legal environment.Our findings provide valuable insights on corporate ESG investment and cost-based decision making.