Habib Ahmed Mohamed
Accounting and Finance, Independent Research, Zagazig, Egypt.
Heliyon. 2023 Jul 7;9(7):e17847. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17847. eCollection 2023 Jul.
This study explores the connection between business strategies, ESG performance, and the probability of bankruptcy. Using a sample comprising 1970 U.S. firm-year observations from 2016 to 2020, this study adopts several techniques to achieve its goals, including the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) algorithm and additional analyses. The results demonstrate that a firm with a better cost leadership strategy has higher ESG performance. A sound cost leadership strategy and ESG performance negatively influence a firm's likelihood of financial distress. Using a mediating analysis model, we also find that financial and ESG performance mediate and mitigate the probability of experiencing financial distress through a cost leadership strategy, indicating that these are essential factors that cannot be ignored when mitigating bankruptcy probability. Financial performance also mediates and mitigates the probability of experiencing financial distress through the ESG path. This study adds to the existing body of knowledge by revealing the role of sound business strategies and ESG performance in mitigating the likelihood of financial distress, an under-explored topic. It also analyzes the mediation roles of financial and ESG performance to provide significant insights to companies' decision-makers in order to support them in their endeavors toward performance improvement and achieving best practices.
本研究探讨了商业战略、企业社会责任绩效与破产概率之间的联系。本研究以2016年至2020年期间1970个美国公司年度观察数据为样本，采用了多种技术来实现其目标，包括偏最小二乘结构方程模型（PLS-SEM）算法及其他分析方法。结果表明，采用更好的成本领先战略的公司具有更高的企业社会责任绩效。合理的成本领先战略和企业社会责任绩效会对公司陷入财务困境的可能性产生负面影响。通过中介分析模型，我们还发现财务绩效和企业社会责任绩效通过成本领先战略来中介和减轻陷入财务困境的概率，这表明这些是减轻破产概率时不可忽视的重要因素。财务绩效也通过企业社会责任路径来中介和减轻陷入财务困境的概率。本研究通过揭示合理的商业战略和企业社会责任绩效在减轻财务困境可能性方面的作用，为现有知识体系增添了内容，这是一个尚未充分探索的主题。它还分析了财务绩效和企业社会责任绩效的中介作用，为公司决策者提供了重要见解，以支持他们努力提升绩效并实现最佳实践。
