Do environmental, social, and governance activities improve corporate financial performance?
研究用数据包络分析评估公司效率，发现中等程度的ESG信息披露与效率正相关，且多数ESG活动与财务绩效非负相关，为企业自愿选择社会责任策略提供参考。
Abstract This study investigated the relationship between corporate efficiency and corporate sustainability to determine whether firms concerned about environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues can also be efficient and profitable. We applied data envelopment analysis to estimate corporate efficiency and investigated the nonlinear relationship between corporate efficiency and ESG disclosure. Evidence shows that corporate transparency regarding ESG information has a positive association with corporate efficiency at the moderate disclosure level, rather than at the high or low disclosure level. Governance information disclosure has the strongest positive linkage with corporate efficiency, followed by social and environmental information disclosure. Moreover, we explored the relationship between particular ESG activities and corporate financial performance (CFP), including corporate efficiency, return on assets, and market value. We found that most of the ESG activities reveal a nonnegative relationship with CFP. These findings may provide evidence about voluntary corporate social responsibility strategy choices for enhancing corporate sustainability.