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Driven by dual-carbon goals, companies are moving towards green and sustainable development models. Therefore, environmental, social and governance (ESG) benchmark has become a key focus of corporations. Employing data from 1988 Chinese listed manufacturing firms between 2018 and 2023, this study uses quantile regression to explore how ESG performance, as disclosed by companies across different value segments, impacts corporate value through specific mechanisms. This study has several key findings. First, it shows that environmental and social performance drive growth in low- and medium-value enterprises. By comparison, the positive effect of the governance dimension extends across all value segments, and this effect strengthens as the enterprise value increases. Second, the mechanism analysis indicates a pathway through which ESG enhances corporate value. This is because ESG performance attracts external investment, which enhances corporate green innovation capabilities. Third, the heterogeneity analysis indicates a stronger ESG impact on specific company types. Non-state-owned enterprises and heavily polluting firms experience significant effects. For these companies, the benefits are primarily derived from the social and governance dimensions. This study clarifies how the three ESG dimensions affect firms across various value segments. It also offers practical insights that enable companies to leverage ESG to achieve sustainable development.
Li et al. (Thu,) studied this question.