Is there a peer effect on corporate ESG performance?Evidence from China’s capital market

Corporate ESG performance is an important way for stakeholders to understand the corporate environment,social responsibility,and governance behavior.Under China’s implementation of the“carbon peak and carbon neutrality”dual carbon strategic background,ESG has become an important tool to promote the achievement of the“dual carbon”goals and high-quality development.How enterprises can reasonably and effectively improve their ESG performance and promote their green and sustainable development has become a major practical problem that urgently needs to be solved.Based on social learning and dynamic competition theories,this study takes Shanghai-Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2021 as research samples,empirically tests whether there is a peer effect in the ESG performance of listed companies in China,and examines the generation mechanism and influencing factors of the peer effect in the ESG performance of enterprises.The results show that:(i)There is an industry and regional peer effect on the ESG performance of enterprises,where the average ESG performance of other enterprises in the same industry and region,except for the focus enterprise,significantly affects the ESG performance of the focus enterprise.This core conclusion still holds true after robustness tests such as instrumental variable method,propensity score matching method,and first order difference method to eliminate endogeneity issues,replace key measurement indicators,and control for macro factors.(ii)The mechanism analysis results show that the“information learning”and“competitive pressure”mechanisms promote the peer effect of ESG performance.(iii)Further research has found that institutional investors’attention and government environmental regulations positively and significantly impact the peer effect of corporate ESG performance.(iv)Heterogeneity analysis shows that the ESG performance peer effect is more significant for large-scale,eastern,and state-owned enterprises than for small-scale,central,western,and non-state-owned enterprises.This study expands the boundaries of current ESG theory and empirical research,and the conclusions provide important policy implications for governments and enterprises.

Glutamate oxidase-integrated biomimetic Fe_(3)O_(4) hybrids as cascade nanozymes for glutamate detection

Herein,a new nanozyme/natural enzyme hybrid biosensor was established for ultrasensitive l-glutamic acid(L-Glu)detection.The Fe_(3)O_(4) nanoparticles with peroxidase-like activity and stability was used as a nanozyme and carrier for immobilizing l-Glutamate oxidase(GLOD)through Schiffff base reaction to construct a chem-enzyme cascade detector.The resultant Fe_(3)O_(4)-GOLD exhibited a wide linear range(10−500μM)and a low detection limit of 6.03μM for L-Glu detection.Furthermore,the Fe_(3)O_(4)-GOLD exhibited excellent pH stability,thermal stability,reusability and storage stability.After repeated nine cycles,Fe_(3)O_(4)-GOLD still retained 70%of its initial activity.Meanwhile,Fe_(3)O_(4)-GOLD maintained 50%of its initial activity after storage for 20 days,while free GLOD only retained 20%of its initial activity.This strategy of integrating biomimetic Fe 3 O4 and natural enzymes for cascade catalysis makes it possible to design an efficient and stable chemo-enzyme composite catalysts,which are promising for applications in biosensing and biomimetic catalysis.

A dual enzyme-phosphate hybrid nanoflower for glutamate detection

The enzyme hybrid nanoflower has gained interests in biosensors due to their simple synthesis and high efficiency.In this study,glutamate oxidase(GLOX)and horseradish peroxidase(HRP)hybrid nanoflowers(GLOX&HRP-HNFs)were successfully prepared for the detection of glutamic acid(Glu).The effects of the synthesis conditions on the activity of GLOX&HRP-HNFs were investigated.Results revealed that the maximum activity of GLOX&HRP-HNFs was under 4 mM phosphate radical,2.5 mM MnSO4,0.04 mg/mL GLOX,and 0.16 mg/mL HRP.After immobilization,no significant differences were observed in optimum pH and temperature values of the GLOX and HRP.The GLOX&HRP-HNFs exhibited higher storage stability and resistance to organic solvents than free GLOX and HRP.Additionally,the GLOX&HRP-HNFs maintained 69%of its primary activity after 6 cycles.More important,the GLOX&HRP-HNFs exhibited a good linear range from 1 to 100μM(R^(2)=0.9979)and a low limit of detection(LOD)of 0.59μM for glutamate.These results suggest that the GLOX&HRP-HNFs is a promising candidate for applications in biosensing for the detection of glutamate.