The study attempted to identify how ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) activities affect firm value depending on the industrial environment to which the entity belongs, taking into account industrial characteristic factors that may affect the activities and performance of the entity from a strategic perspective. In order to analyze ESG activities, sustainability report data of South Korea containing ESG information of 87 domestic companies for the period 2002–2020 were collected, and then the effect of ESG according to industrial characteristics on firm value was investigated in depth. The empirical results are as follows. First, it was confirmed that ESG was found to have a positive effect on the firm value. Second, we found that industrial concentration and industrial growth rate, which are industrial characteristic variables, moderate the relationship between ESG and firm value. Through this study, it was possible to identify the importance of the industrial environment surrounding the company in enhancing firm value through ESG activities and to confirm its influence. These results may suggest which ESG strategy directions are needed internally according to the characteristics of the industry in which the company is engaged. We hoped that this study will serve as a stepping stone to broaden the scope of business management research on ESG and to contribute to the field of business strategy, subsequently contributing to the development of ESG in the future.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a management strategy that simultaneously pursues societal and company sustainable development. Additionally, CSR is becoming a key strategy to secure competitiveness and sustainability by improving a company’s reputation and creating new business opportunities. Thus, expectations and demands for companies’ social impacts and sustainability from various stakeholders, such as shareholders, consumers, employees, and local communities, have begun to rise. This study focused on the distinctive factor of rapid economic growth, which characterizes Korean development, and analyzed the relationship between CSR and firm performance according to the industries’ growth rates. Regression analysis was conducted through multi-level analysis using data from a sample of 102 companies that prepared sustainability reports or ESG reports in Korea; the research results are as follows. First, CSR activities have a positive impact on firm performance. Second, when CSR activities increase, the firm performance increases faster for companies in the high-growth industry group than those in the low-growth industry group. Furthermore, we conducted additional analyses to examine the moderating effect of industry growth and found that companies in the high-growth industry group had higher overall CSR levels than those in the low-growth industry group. This study’s results provide meaningful implications for understanding how CSR affects a company’s economic performance and acts as a way to strike a balance between industrial development and fulfilling social responsibility.

Environmental management, which was recognized as a functional part of corporate management, has recently been recognized as a strategic element of all business activities. It can be defined as a series of management activities to improve environmental performance throughout the business process and simultaneously achieve profitability and sustainability. Accordingly, businesses are now abandoning the existing management philosophy that economic and environmental feasibility are inevitably in conflict and establishing strategies and methods to achieve both. Meanwhile, industry affects the business performance of individual companies. Since the performance of a company tends to be influenced by the intensity of competition in an industry, it is necessary to analyze the structural factors that determine the intensity of competition in an industry in order to predict the future performance of a company. Therefore, we studied how environmental management affects corporate performance given the level of industry competition. The results are as follows. First, environmental management positively impacts corporate performance. Second, a high level of competition within an industry moderates the relationship between environmental management and corporate performance. By verifying the influence of the industry to which a company belongs, that is, the level of competition within the industry, we confirm that a company’s environmental management can be used strategically to gain a competitive advantage. With the finding that the impact of a company’s environmental practices differs by industry in line with the degree of competition, we expect this study to be helpful for future research into strategic ESG activities.

CSR has become a key issue for the qualitative growth of the Chinese economy, while digital transformation has emerged as a crucial strategy for enhancing company competitiveness. Thus, the complex impact of CSR and digital transformation on the firm value is an important research topic. This study analyzes the moderating effect of digital transformation and the three-way interaction effect of internal control on the CSR–firm value relationship. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis of Chinese listed companies shows a significant positive relationship between CSR and the firm value and a positive moderating effect of digital transformation on the CSR–firm value relationship. According to the three-way interaction analysis results, internal control strengthens the moderating effect of digital transformation, which strengthens the positive relationship between CSR and the firm value. This study has academic value as the first to present and empirically analyze a research model on the complementary effects of CSR, DT, and internal control on the firm value. It also presents corporate strategies to respond to changes in the business environment and provides political implications for promoting corporate and social development together.

The turnover of key talent is a critical issue that can negatively impact an organization’s ability to execute strategies and achieve competitive advantage. Therefore, it is important to understand the factors that influence employees’ decisions to change jobs. In this study, we test the antecedent factors that affect Korean employees’ intention to change jobs and the relationships among them. Specifically, to examine the various paths that affect turnover intention (TI), a dual mediation model including organizational justice (OJ), organizational commitment (OC), and innovative work behavior (IWB) is analyzed. To analyze the research model, we use survey data on Korean employees and various analyses, including frequency, reliability, confirmatory factors, and discriminant validity analyses, as well as structural equation modeling analysis using SPSS and AMOS. All the paths in the research model are found to be significant. Additionally, an indirect path from OJ to TI through OC, an indirect path from OJ to TI through IWB, and an indirect path from OJ to TI through OC and IWB are found to be significant. This study may help explore effective countermeasures for strategic development and employee retention in organizations.

Recent years have seen the influence of both institutional investors and corporate social responsibility strengthen in the Chinese capital market. However, research on the impact of these market changes on corporate activities and values has been insufficient. To address this gap, this study analyzes the impact of foreign and domestic institutional investors who invest in Chinese A-share listed companies on corporate value through environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies. The results of the analysis are as follows: First, the shareholding of both foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) enhances corporate value. Second, the shareholding of FIIs strengthens the company’s ESG, while that of DIIs does not significantly affect it. Third, ESG has a positive impact on corporate value. Fourth, ESG partially mediates the positive relationship between the shareholding of FIIs and corporate value. The research findings provide academic implications for the causal relationship between corporate governance, sustainable management, and performance, as well as practical implications for the development of the Chinese capital market and corporate sustainability.