Does environmental, social, and governance performance move together with corporate green innovation in China?

This research investigates the bidirectional cointegration relationship between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and corporate green innovation with a panel of 770 Chinese listed firms during the 2011-2020. We find that there exists a long-run bidirectional comovement between ESG performance and corporate green innovation output. ESG performance exerts a short-run and long-run causal link with green innovation output. The panel cointegration test and VECM estimation also support that ESG performance moves together with green innovation output for clean industries, while ESG performance only presents a long-run relationship to green invention patents output for pollution industries. Our findings offer important value for policymakers and enterprises to propose an effective strategy to stimulate green innovation and improve ESG score.

Automated summary

This research reveals a bidirectional long-term relationship between ESG performance and corporate green innovation among Chinese listed firms. It also demonstrates a causal link from ESG performance to green innovation output in both short and long terms.