ESG表现如何赋能企业绿色技术创新?--来自中国上市公司的微观证据

Will ESG performance drive green technology innovation?Micro evidence from Chinese listed companies

经济新发展阶段下ESG是可持续导向下企业运营的重要理念。在绿色发展导向下,如何将企业环境、社会与公司治理(ESG)等多重责任嵌入到企业创新体系之中,驱动传统创新向绿色创新与绿色发展转型,成为了学界关注的焦点议题。本文以2011年—2019年中国沪深A股上市公司为研究样本,考察了上市公司ESG表现对企业绿色技术创新的影响及其内在作用机制。研究结果表明:(1)企业ESG表现驱动了企业绿色技术创新,对企业绿色技术创新具有显著的促进效应,在考虑内生性问题后研究结论依然稳健;区分ESG表现各类维度,企业环境责任、社会责任与公司治理表现对企业绿色技术创新均产生显著的促进效应。(2)内在机制检验结果表明,ESG表现主要通过强化企业环保投入、缓解企业融资约束以及提高企业内部控制质量以促进企业绿色技术创新。(3)调节机制检验结果表明,外部环境规制(环保补助与排污收费)与内部高管激励(薪酬激励与股权激励)在ESG表现与企业绿色技术创新之间产生显著的正向调节效应,即在ESG表现驱动企业绿色技术创新过程中,外部环境规制与内部高管激励制度具有外部的资源补偿效应、合法性倒逼效应以及内部激励效应。(4)异质性分析结果表明,ESG表现对企业绿色技术创新的驱动效应在国有企业、通过国际ISO14001环境认证企业与制造业企业中更为明显。而且经济效应检验结果表明,ESG表现驱动企业绿色技术创新有助于企业改善经济绩效。本研究为绿色发展导向下强化企业ESG理念,基于可持续导向与企业社会责任融入企业创新体系驱动企业绿色转型发展,最终实现企业与社会环境的共生融合发展提供政策启示。

In the new stage of economic development,ESG is an important concept of enterprise operation under the guidance of sustainable development.Under the guidance of green development,how to embed the multiple responsibilities of enterprise environment,society and corporate governance(ESG)into the enterprise innovation system and drive the transformation of traditional innovation to green innovation and green development has become the focus of academic attention.In recent years,the academic circles have increasingly enriched the relevant research around ESG.The existing research mainly focuses on the value effect of ESG,but there is still a gap in the relevant research on the value effect of enterprise ESG performance,which mainly focuses on the enterprise economic performance,but pays less attention to the enterprises green technology innovation,and the research on non-economic performance is still weak.In essence,enterprise green technology innovation is an important type of enterprise sustainable innovation,which is different from general financial performance and has multiple attributes of economic performance and social environmental performance.And from the perspective of the driving factors of enterprise green technology innovation,the existing research mainly discusses the specific impact of environmental regulation on enterprise green technology innovation from the policy perspective,but enterprise green technology innovation is not only closely related to environmental regulation,but also closely related to the enterprise′s sustainable development orientation and strategic emphasis.Therefore,under the guidance of sustainable development,a systematic discussion of the impact of enterprise ESG performance and its various dimensions on enterprise green technology innovation will help make up for the lack of the“ESG-CFP”research framework,and re-examine the green sustainable endogenous driving effect of enterprise ESG performance in the process of enterprise technology innovation.Based on the above research gaps,this paper takes China′s A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2019 as the empirical research sample,empirically analyzes the actual impact of enterprise ESG performance on enterprise green technology innovation and its internal mechanism,and examines the specific impact of corporate environmental responsibility,social responsibility and corporate governance performance on enterprise green technology innovation from a multi-dimensional perspective.It further analyzes the moderating effect of external environmental regulation and internal executive incentive on the relationship between enterprise ESG performance and enterprise green technology innovation.The research contributions of this paper are as follows:First,based on large sample data,this paper comprehensively investigated the specific effects and mechanisms of ESG performance on enterprise green technology innovation,which helps to open the theoretical black box of ESG performance driving enterprise green technology innovation at the theoretical level,clarify the internal mechanism of ESG performance for enterprise green technology innovation,and provide a new research perspective on how to drive enterprise green technology innovation.At the same time,this study also enriches the measurement methods of existing research on enterprise green technology innovation and avoids the deviation of estimation results caused by too narrow sample selection.Secondly,this study enriches the research on the value effect of ESG performance and expands the traditional research framework of“ESG-CFP”.The existing research mainly focuses on the impact of ESG performance on the financial or economic performance of enterprises,ignoring the green innovation(GI)of enterprises with dual value orientation.This paper reshapes the value effect of ESG performance based on the value transmission framework of“ESG-GI”.Thirdly,this study enriches the boundary conditions of the influencing factors of green technology innovation based on the internal and external combination of external environmental regulation and internal strategic decision-maker incentive,and provides a new perspective framework for re-examining the regulatory environment and incentive intensity of enterprise green technology innovation.Finally,this study provides the basic framework guidance for the government and micro enterprises to further strengthen the policy and management system construction of enterprise green technology innovation at the practical level,which is helpful for enterprises to strengthen the green innovation orientation and ultimately achieve innovation drive and innovation leadership at the stage of high-quality economic development.The results of this study show that,firstly,enterprises ESG performance and its dimensions have a significant positive effect on green technology innovation.Secondly,enterprises ESG performance mainly promotes enterprise green technology innovation by strengthening enterprise environmental protection investment,easing enterprise financing constraints and improving enterprise internal control quality.Thirdly,external environmental regulations(environmental protection subsidies and pollution charges)and internal executive incentives(salary incentives and equity incentives)have a significant positive moderating effect between enterprises ESG performance and enterprises green technology innovation.Fourth,the driving effect of enterprise ESG performance on enterprise green technology innovation is more obvious in state-owned enterprises,enterprises that have passed the international ISO14001 environmental certification and manufacturing enterprises.And the economic effect test results show that enterprise ESG performance driven enterprise green technology innovation can help improve enterprise economic performance.The research of this paper has three implications for the government and enterprises.For the government,first,strengthen the concept of green development and innovation driven development of enterprises,unswervingly promote the construction of enterprise green technology innovation system,better encourage enterprises to carry out green technology innovation through a series of institutional arrangements and policy optimization,and provide a sound external policy environment for enterprises to carry out green technology innovation and optimize enterprise green technology innovation management system.Second,the government needs to continue to optimize the construction of the ESG system in the capital market,and better play the policy optimization effect on the ESG performance of listed companies by combining the inductive system with the mandatory system.Third,governments need to strengthen coordination and linkage,strengthen the construction of internal coordination system between governments in the process of promoting enterprises green technology innovation,realize the combination effect of different policies oriented to enterprises green technology innovation,and better promote the high-quality development of enterprises green technology innovation.For enterprises,first,attach great importance to the strategic value of enterprises ESG performance from the strategic level,integrate ESG ideas into the enterprise strategic decision-making,stakeholder management mechanism and corporate governance process,promote ESG ideas to be better embedded in the enterprise′s technological innovation process and business model innovation,and create shared values and comprehensive values covering the economy,society and environment.Second,enterprises need to continue to strengthen the construction of green technology innovation system.On the one hand,they should continue to optimize the investment structure of green technology innovation,better arrange the investment funds for environmental protection and choose innovation methods;On the other hand,they need to optimize the executive incentive system arrangement under the ESG concept to provide the institutional basis for corporate executives to attach importance to green technology innovation and environmental responsibility orientation.Third,enterprises need to build a sustainable development oriented ESG performance disclosure system,better communicate the enterprise′s sustainable concept and relevant sustainable practice progress to investors and other social stakeholders through ESG performance disclosure,obtain external stakeholders′capital support and social support for enterprise green technology innovation,and ultimately provide sustainable impetus for enterprises to carry out green technology innovation.