企业ESG表现能否提高财务柔性?

Can Corporate Performance Improve Financial Flexibility?

在我国积极推进“碳达峰、碳中和”目标的背景下,企业ESG表现能否提高财务柔性,为可持续财务增长创造条件,对于推动企业高质量发展具有重要战略意义。以2009—2021年A股上市公司为研究样本,探讨企业ESG表现对财务柔性的影响及机理。研究发现:从资源流动的视角看,企业ESG表现能够提高财务柔性,且经过一系列稳健性检验后,结果依然成立。机制检验表明:提高的渠道是降低债务融资成本和降低风险承担水平。异质性检验进一步表明这种提高效应在环境不确定程度较低、受到投资者关注度高的企业和非污染行业中更为突出。研究有助于揭示企业ESG表现提高财务柔性的内在逻辑,探究企业如何通过关注环境、社会和治理因素来管理风险并提高财务柔性。

Under the background of China's active advancement of the goal of"peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality",whether corporate ESG performance can improve financial flexibility and create conditions for sustainable financial growth is of strategic significance for promoting the high-quality development of enterprises.Taking A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2021 as the research sample,this paper explores the impact and mechanism of corporate ESG performance on financial flexibility.The study finds that from the perspective of resource flow,corporate ESG performance can improve financial flexibility,and the results still hold after a series of robustness tests.Mechanism tests indicate that the channels of improvement are lower debt financing costs and lower risk-taking levels.Heterogeneity tests further suggest that this enhancement effect is more prominent among firms with lower environmental uncertainty,firms that receive high investor attention,and non-heavily polluting industries.This helps to reveal the internal logic of corporate ESG performance in improving financial flexibility and explore how firms can manage risks and improve financial flexibility by focusing on environmental,social and governance factors.