影响机制研究 ——基于信贷融资成本视角

以制造业上市公司2009—2021年的数据为研究样本,实证检验了ESG表现对制造业企业高质量发展的影响机制。结果表明：ESG表现对制造业企业高质量发展具有显著的促进作用,该结论经过一系列稳健性检验后依然成立;信贷融资成本在ESG表现与制造业企业高质量发展之间起到了中介作用;进一步研究发现,在东部地区、国有企业、大规模企业以及重污染企业样本中,ESG表现对制造业企业高质量发展的促进作用更为显著。据此,政府应建立并完善制造业上市公司的ESG信息披露制度,企业也应积极主动地提升自身的ESG表现水平,以共同促进制造业企业的高质量发展。     

强制与自愿二元定位下《证券法》ESG信息披露制度的体系完善

如何提升ESG信息披露的数量与质量,是当下ESG信息披露制度完善的首要目标。现有研究主要基于ESG强制性信息披露可以弥补自愿性监管不足之逻辑,认为应加强ESG信息披露的强制性;却忽略了自愿性信息披露的价值,以及在为何加强、如加强强制性方面论证不足。首先,理论研究发现,自愿性信息披露具有强制性信息披露不可替代的优势,其灵活性更契合ESG信息披露的个性化特征,形成更有效的市场信息;另一方面,自愿性与强制性信息披露是不可割裂的,在制度功能、披露内容与制度构建上具有关联性、互补性。完善的ESG信息披露制度需要强制性与自愿性的二元结合。其次,ESG的功能定位直接影响监管模式的选择。监管部门如将ESG定位为促进公司长期价值的工具,即属于公司自治范畴,采用自愿立场;如将ESG定位为社会治理的手段,往往会提升ESG信息披露的强制性以达到社会治理的目标。据此,我国现阶段基于“双碳”治理的目标提升环境信息披露的强制性,保留其余信息披露的自愿性具有理论与实践正当性。再次,虽然二元监管模式定位合理,但是在具体制度建设中仍存在环境强制性信息披露监管不足、自愿性ESG信息披露激励不足的内生冲突。当前环境强制性信息披露仍然采用单一重要性原则,可能造成ESG信息披露供给不足以及难以应对“漂绿”现象;在法定环境信息披露事项上,也存在标准不一的问题。自愿性信息披露则存在激励不足的现象。上市公司可能因为ESG信息披露承担监管风险,但却无细则与免责事由指引如何避免。最后,在制度优化上,监管强化存在引进双重重要性原则以及增列强制性信息披露事由两条路径。但考虑到双重重要性原则所代表的社会公共利益与证券法投资者保护利益的根本性冲突,现阶段统一法定环境信息披露标准较为合适。另一方面,证券法可以增列与环境有关的公司治理结构披露事项,以与环境法信息公开相区别。激励强化存在引进预测性信息安全港以及细化指引两条路径。但考虑到国内并无预测性信息安全港的相关规则,立法成本过高,因此现阶段细化自愿性ESG信息披露较为适宜。     

数字化转型能抑制企业的“漂绿”行为吗

企业“漂绿”行为的识别与治理是实现绿色低碳发展、建设现代化中国的重要途径,数字化转型或是治理企业“漂绿”行为的重要契机。基于2011-2021年我国A股上市公司数据,实证检验数字化转型能否抑制企业“漂绿”行为,并分析其影响机制。研究表明,数字化转型能够有效抑制企业“漂绿”行为;进一步分析表明,数字化转型通过提高会计信息质量、提高内部控制质量、缓解融资约束三个方面抑制企业“漂绿”行为;异质性分析发现,在非重污染行业、高市场化的企业中数字化转型对“漂绿”行为的抑制作用更显著。     

高管团队稳定性与企业ESG评级

ESG评级是推动企业可持续发展的重要动力,是企业长期生存的内在要求,而高管团队在企业长期发展中起着至关重要的作用。基于2010—2019年中国沪深A股上市公司数据,研究了高管团队稳定性对企业ESG评级的影响及其作用机制。研究发现,高管团队稳定性越高,企业ESG评级越高。机制检验显示,高管团队稳定性通过降低企业战略差异度和经营风险提高企业ESG评级。异质性检验结果表明,在内控质量较低、审计质量较低的企业中,高管团队稳定性对企业ESG评级影响效应显著;媒体关注度较低的企业中高管团队稳定性对企业ESG评级的影响更显著。因此,企业要重视高管团队稳定性,采取有效措施降低经营风险,注重ESG信息披露,提升ESG评级,以推动企业可持续发展。     

Creating shared value (CSV) and mutually beneficial relationships to address societal issues and develop corporate competitive advantage: A case study of Yuhan-Kimberly and an aging population

Through creating shared value (CSV) initiatives, companies have attempted to contribute to solving social problems that the public sector cannot address alone, such as migration, health, climate change, and job losses due to automation. Companies are also using CSV as business opportunities to develop their competitiveness. Only a few studies, however, have examined how organizations can develop and implement CSV programs, and the outcomes of those programs. We conducted a case study on how a multinational company, Yuhan-Kimberly, a joint venture of Kimberly-Clark and Yuhan, developed and implemented its CSV program, and created win-win, mutually beneficial impacts, in response to an increasingly aging society in Korea. South Korea is the world’s most rapidly aging society with the highest poverty and suicide rates among older adults. Yuhan-Kimberly’s CSV initiative includes fostering small-sized senior care businesses, creating jobs for older adults, changing the negative perception of older adults, and ultimately creating a market ecosystem for the older adult care industry. We used triangulation through company documents, including annual sustainability reports (N = 10), news reports (N = 623), company-conducted survey results (N = 80), and in-depth interviews (N = 14) with employees and members of other organizations and publics. The results reveal how the company developed and implemented a CSV program to cultivate mutually beneficial relationships and shared value for the company, older adults, other organizations, and society. The results indicate that CSV programs can be powerful relationship cultivation strategies to create mutual benefits both for society, by providing sustainable and feasible solutions, and for organizations, by enhancing their competitive advantages.     

Assessing companies' decent work practices: An analysis of ESG rating methodologies

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) rating agencies, as non-financial data providers, have become central actors in the field of responsible investment. Although research has explored the construction of ESG metrics, little is known about how agencies evaluate decent work. Building on the analysis of six rating agencies, this article investigates how these actors measure and assess companies' performance in terms of decent work and related areas and identifies the challenges they face in this endeavour. The authors seek to better understand the capacity of responsible investment and ESG ratings to promote and improve decent work within companies.     

Israel vs. BDS: corporate social responsibility and the politics of human rights

ABSTRACT

This is a case-study of an organized Israeli effort to disengage the issue of corporations in the Palestinian Occupied Territories from the global CSR framework of human rights. At the centre of the study are three international CSR conferences which took place in Israel, hosting players in the global industry of corporate risk-management indices. The study underscores the importance of studying the micro-politics of producing and implementing human rights norms across the globe; designating micro-politics as the sum of informal exchanges among players who share a common platform of expertise. We find that the Israeli conveners leveraged the CSR conferences to (1) promote a campaign against BDS among CSR players, (2) invoke BDS as a trope for dissociating the human rights framework of CSR from corporate activities in the OPT, and (3) frame the activities of corporations in the OPT in terms of labour opportunities and economic development.     

The value of a firm’s engagement in ESG practices: Are we looking at the right side?

Firms allocate many resources to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues and to growth options as if they were independent sources of value. Challenging this view, this paper explores the interplay of a firm's engagement in ESG practices and growth options in determining its total value. We draw upon real options reasoning to explain how ESG practices can carry two opposite (trust-enhancing and risk-reducing) forces, driving an inverted U-form relationship between ESG performance and growth options value. Moreover, we argue that ESG performance and growth options are likely to build substitutive insurance mechanisms which might exert a negative moderating effect of growth options on the relationship between ESG performance and a firm's total value. Empirical analyses of ESG scores and growth options values on a panel of U.S. firms from 2009 to 2018 provide substantial support for our hypotheses. Our results show that the inverted U-form relationship between ESG performance and growth options value becomes stronger for the environmental and social pillars. Our evidence on the moderating effect of growth option values also provides valuable insights for interpreting prior conflicting empirical evidence on the association between ESG performance and a firm's total value.     

Évaluer les pratiques des entreprises en matière de travail décent: une analyse des méthodologies de notation ESG

Les agences de notation spécialisées dans l‘évaluation des pratiques des entreprises en matière environnementale, sociale et de gouvernance (ESG) sont des partenaires importants pour les acteurs de l'investissement responsable, qu'elles alimentent en données extrafinancières. Si la question des indicateurs ESG a déjà été traitée dans la littérature, la façon d‘évaluer le travail décent est peu documentée. Les auteurs observent les pratiques de six agences de notation ESG pour comprendre comment ces organismes mesurent et évaluent la performance en matière de travail décent, et avec quelles difficultés, et pour déterminer si l'investissement responsable et les notations ESG peuvent véritablement promouvoir le travail décent dans les entreprises.     

Attention to climate change and downside risk: Evidence from China

We explore the role of public climate attention, captured by the Baidu search volume index, in the downside risk. Using 45 keywords from five perspectives related to climate change, we construct a public climate attention index in China. We find a positive and significant relationship between climate attention and downside risk at the market-level and firm-level. Moreover, the risk-increase effect of climate attention becomes more prominent for state-owned and high-carbon-emission firms. Further analysis shows that excellent sustainable performance can moderate the adverse effect of rising climate attention, while the major climate disasters exacerbate the effect. Overall, our findings shed additional light on the important role of collective climate beliefs in corporate risk management and investor decision-making.