The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of environment, social and governance (ESG) performance on green innovation of Chinese listed companies from the innovation element-driven perspective, which is a new channel that is different from previous studies.
Using the data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2014 to 2023, constructing a multivariate panel regression model to measure the relationship between ESG performance and corporate green innovation, especially exploring the mediating effects of R&D investment, financing constraints and human capital structure.
ESG performance can significantly enhance corporate green innovation. The innovation elements of R&D investment, financing constraints and human capital structure play a mediating role. ESG performance promotes corporate green innovation more powerful for non-state-owned enterprises, heavily polluting enterprises and eastern region enterprises.
The results inspire companies to integrate ESG concepts into management activities, encourage companies to increase R&D funding and talent investment, improve relationships with investors and the government and recruit more high-quality talents for reserving innovative resources.
Innovation element-driven perspective developed in this paper is a novel and reliable theoretical mechanism for revealing the impact of ESG performance on corporate green innovation. The driving path and conclusion are new to the literature.
