Wang Xiaoqian, Phua Lian Kee, Wang Chu
Economic Management and Public Affairs School, Chongqing Jianzhu College, 400072, Chongqing, China.
School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Gelugor, Penang, Malaysia.
Heliyon. 2024 Aug 23;10(17):e36798. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e36798. eCollection 2024 Sep 15.
In recent years, underinvestment has become common among subsidised enterprises in China. Stakeholder theory asserts that environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance forces enterprises to prioritise stakeholder needs by incorporating ESG principles into business operations, which in turn influences business investment decision-making. This study examines the impact of government subsidies on firm underinvestment and whether ESG performance plays a moderating role in this direct relationship. A dataset of 17,780 firm-year observations of A-share public firms in China for the period 2011-2021 was employed, and the data were analysed using the ordinary least squares regression model, fixed-effects regression model, propensity score matching difference-in-difference model, and instrumental variable approach. These results indicate that government subsidies mitigate firm underinvestment and tend to reduce underinvestment in firms with higher ESG performance. Moreover, the findings indicate that the performance in ESG factors influences the effect of government subsidies on the lack of investment in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), as opposed to non-SOEs. This effect is more noticeable in heavily polluting industries compared to non-heavily polluting industries. These findings imply that the government should promote the ESG performance of subsidised firms to enhance their overall corporate investment efficiency.
近年来，投资不足在中国受补贴企业中已变得普遍。利益相关者理论认为，环境、社会和治理（ESG）绩效促使企业通过将ESG原则纳入商业运营来优先考虑利益相关者的需求，这反过来又会影响企业的投资决策。本研究考察了政府补贴对企业投资不足的影响，以及ESG绩效在这种直接关系中是否起到调节作用。我们使用了2011年至2021年期间中国A股上市公司17780个公司年度观测值的数据集，并采用普通最小二乘法回归模型、固定效应回归模型、倾向得分匹配法双重差分模型和工具变量法对数据进行了分析。这些结果表明，政府补贴减轻了企业的投资不足，并倾向于减少ESG绩效较高企业的投资不足。此外，研究结果表明，ESG因素的绩效会影响政府补贴对国有企业（而非非国有企业）投资不足的影响。与非重污染行业相比，这种影响在重污染行业更为明显。这些发现意味着政府应推动受补贴企业的ESG绩效，以提高其整体企业投资效率。
