With the establishment of China’s “dual carbon” target and the promotion of high-quality development strategy, the role of green innovation has become increasingly important. Corporate ESG innovation, as a guiding principle for companies to practice sustainable development and an important signal for evaluating their environmental and social responsibilities as well as corporate governance level, deserves in-depth research on its impact on green innovation performance. This paper empirically analyzes the green innovation effect of corporate ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) performance using Chinese A-share listed companies as a sample from 2009 to 2021. The research shows that corporate ESG performance can enhance green innovation performance. Mechanism analysis reveals that ESG performance mainly improves green innovation performance by alleviating financing constraints and enhancing human capital. Further research shows that all three sub-dimensions of ESG performance contribute to improving green innovation performance, with the strongest effect observed in corporate governance performance. ESG performance not only enhances strategic green innovation performance and independent green innovation performance but also improves substantial green innovation performance and collaborative green innovation performance. Therefore, the government should improve the ESG information disclosure system, increase support for companies with excellent ESG performance, and improve local talent policies to attract high-quality green innovation talents. Investors should incorporate ESG performance into their decision-making and strengthen the identification and use of ESG information. Companies should formulate ESG strategies, increase relevant investments, prioritize corporate governance improvement, and enhance the quality of ESG information disclosure through various means.

In recent years, there has been an increasing amount of theoretical research on corporate social responsibility and its influence on practical activities. The impact of corporate social responsibility on business performance has received attention from scholars and managers. However, the existing research lacks the empirical analysis concerning the moderating effects of long-term business performance (brand value) and social capital. This study was based on the relevant data from listed, Chinese companies and conducted regression analysis on the impact of corporate social responsibility on financial performance and brand value, exploring its moderating effects under different social capital. The results showed that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was significantly positively correlated with financial performance and brand value. Both horizontal and vertical social capital played a positive moderating role in the impact of CSR on financial performance and brand value. These conclusions differed between companies that were required to disclose and those that had voluntarily disclosed, as well as between heavily polluting industries and non-heavily polluting industries. This article enriches the existing theoretical framework and provides decision-making references for business managers on whether to take on corporate social responsibility, contributing to the theoretical understanding of corporate sustainable development from a social responsibility perspective.

Against the background of B2C e-commerce platforms, ecological agricultural enterprises often overlook the issues of quality and safety, as well as product image shaping, during their operations, thereby affecting consumers’ purchase decisions. This study adopted authoritative scales and utilized data from 201 questionnaires to empirically investigate the influence of brand images on brand attitudes. Firstly, variables of consumers’ perception and brand attitude were measured through questionnaires. Secondly, regression models were used to discuss the impacts of different brand storytelling themes on brand attitudes. Finally, models of the mediating and moderating effects were employed to empirically study the mechanisms of consumers’ perception and regional familiarity. The research results indicate that brand storytelling themes of ecological agricultural products have a significant positive impact on consumers’ brand attitudes. Consumers’ perception of authenticity plays a mediating role, while regional familiarity acts as a moderator. The research conclusions enrich brand evaluation systems, deepen the related research on brand storytelling themes of agricultural products, reveal the inherent mechanism of the influence of brand storytelling themes of ecological agricultural products on consumers’ brand attitudes, and provide a reference for the practice of regional brand narratives of agricultural products.

This study investigates the homophily effect in corporate information disclosure, specifically focusing on executive social networks. We analyze data from 385 privately listed companies in China’s Growth Enterprise Market between 2018 and 2021. An OLS regression model is employed to examine the presence of a homophily effect in ESG information disclosure by private enterprises, along with regional and industry variations. Additionally, we utilize a moderation effect model to assess the influence of executive social networks on the homophily effect of ESG information disclosure. We conduct robustness tests based on our findings. The results indicate a significant homophily effect in ESG information disclosure by private enterprises, with varying magnitudes across regions and industries. Furthermore, executive social networks positively moderate the homophily effect, suggesting that a more diverse social network among the executive team enhances the homophily effect of ESG information disclosure for private enterprises. These findings offer valuable insights for corporate low-carbon sustainable development.

“Greenwashing” or “Helping”: ESG Performance and Chinese Firm Total Factor Productivity by Jing Zhang and Ziyang Liu* Graduate School, Kyonggi University, Suwon 16227, South Korea * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Journal of Engineering Research and Sciences, Volume 3, Issue 3, Page # 1-12, 2024; DOI: 10.55708/js0303001 Keywords: ESG performance, Total Factor … Continue reading "“Greenwashing” or “Helping”: ESG Performance and Chinese Firm Total Factor Productivity"