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Abstract Currently, countries worldwide are giving increasing attention to environmental and social sustainability. An emphasis on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and the resulting ESG advantage could improve their export competitiveness and give them an edge. In this study, the 2010–2016 data for Chinese listed companies are used to investigate the impact of ESG performance on enterprise exports. The results show that ESG performance significantly improves enterprise export performance; furthermore, the corresponding promoting effect on general trade, final goods, and clean products exports is greater. Mechanistic analysis shows that catering to the ESG preferences of consumers in the destination country, reversing market reputation disadvantages of the exporting country, and overcoming institutional access barriers and information barriers in the destination country are the internal mechanisms by which ESG performance affects enterprise exports. Further analysis shows that ESG initiatives can help enterprises gain export competitive advantages via a quality competition strategy. JEL: F10; F18; M14
Hu et al. (Thu,) studied this question.