Sustainable development, ESG performance and company market value: Mediating effect of financial performance

At present, more and more attention is paid to the sustainable development of enterprises. In particular, in the context of frequent financial crises and COVID-19 pandemic, how the performance of listed companies' environmental, social, and governance (ESG) affects the company's market value has attracted widespread attention. Different from existing studies, this paper takes financial performance as a mediating variable and constructs linear regression model and mediating effect model based on analyzing the relationship between ESG performance, financial performance, and company market value and their influencing mechanism. The ESG rating data of Chinese listed companies newly developed by SynTao Green Finance from 2014 to 2019 were selected for empirical test. The results show that the improvement of ESG performance of listed companies can improve the market value of the company, and the financial performance of the company presents an obvious mediating effect. At the same time, operational capacity is an important mediating way for ESG performance to affect the company's market value. Further research shows that ESG performance of state-owned listed companies exerts a stronger mediating effect on corporate operating capacity. Finally, this paper provides relevant suggestions for regulators, listed companies, and investors.

Automated summary

This paper investigates the impact mechanism of ESG performance on company market value by analyzing the relationship between ESG performance, financial performance, and company market value. It finds that improving ESG performance of listed companies can enhance the market value of the company, with financial performance acting as a mediating factor. Additionally, operational capacity plays an important mediating role in the relationship between ESG performance and company market value.