Abstract The energy sector stands as the foremost battleground for Chinese companies seeking to expand overseas. It is worth investigating whether listed energy companies can leverage their ESG performance to forge new competitive advantages in the international market, navigate the high standards and stringent regulations of the global arena, and propel them to go global. Using panel data of 1,882 firm-year observations of Chinese A-share listed energy companies from 2013 to 2023, this study examines the association between ESG performance and internationalization performance measured by overseas revenue. Fixed-effects regression models are employed to control for unobserved heterogeneity. The main findings are as follows: (1) ESG performance is positively and significantly associated with internationalization performance ( β = 0.7816, p < 0.01), and the result remains robust across multiple robustness checks. (2) Mechanism analysis shows that ESG performance enhances internationalization outcomes by improving corporate reputation ( β = 0.5045, p < 0.01) and promoting green innovation capability ( β = 0.3740, p < 0.01). (3) Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive association is stronger for state-owned energy companies and companies operating in the new energy segment and in the non-Belt and Road Initiative countries. These results provide quantitative evidence that ESG practices are closely linked to international expansion outcomes in the energy sector. The policy implications are that regulators may strengthen standardized ESG disclosure and verification to reduce information asymmetry in cross-border markets. Companies can embed ESG governance into overseas compliance and green innovation strategies to enhance internationalization outcomes.
Huang et al. (2026) studied this question.