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Do environmental, social, and governance activities improve corporate financial performance?
Author(s) -
Xie Jun,
Nozawa Wataru,
Yagi Michiyuki,
Fujii Hidemichi,
Managi Shunsuke
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
business strategy and the environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.123
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1099-0836
pISSN - 0964-4733
DOI - 10.1002/bse.2224
Subject(s) - corporate governance , business , corporate social responsibility , corporate sustainability , accounting , transparency (behavior) , sustainability , linkage (software) , corporate communication , finance , public relations , ecology , biochemistry , chemistry , political science , gene , law , biology
This study investigated the relationship between corporate efficiency and corporate sustainability to determine whether firms concerned about environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues can also be efficient and profitable. We applied data envelopment analysis to estimate corporate efficiency and investigated the nonlinear relationship between corporate efficiency and ESG disclosure. Evidence shows that corporate transparency regarding ESG information has a positive association with corporate efficiency at the moderate disclosure level, rather than at the high or low disclosure level. Governance information disclosure has the strongest positive linkage with corporate efficiency, followed by social and environmental information disclosure. Moreover, we explored the relationship between particular ESG activities and corporate financial performance (CFP), including corporate efficiency, return on assets, and market value. We found that most of the ESG activities reveal a nonnegative relationship with CFP. These findings may provide evidence about voluntary corporate social responsibility strategy choices for enhancing corporate sustainability.