Environmental, social, and governance performance: The role of Chinese employee stock ownership plans

With the increasing global emphasis on responsible investing, this study explores the tradeoff between ESG and traditional financial metrics in shaping the investment decisions of retail investors in India. A within-subject experimental design was employed at Christ University, India, involving an initial sample of 75 participants, with 55 completing all three experiment rounds. The sample respondents evaluated masked stock profiles across three rounds, where updated financial and ESG information on masked stock was provided at each round. The results indicate that though ESG metrics are getting attention among retail investors, financial metrics are still the main determining factor for investment. It was found that ROE (52 responses), 3-year CAGR Net Profit (36 responses), and P/E ratios (48 responses) are the most influencing factors to make investment decisions. Similarly, ESG factors (Governance, Environmental, and Sustainability scores) are also frequently mentioned, with 74 citations. Retail investors mainly consider profitability and view ESG as risk-mitigating or neutralizing factors. While evaluating the ESG factors, retailers mainly look at the firm’s environmental concerns, followed by governance and social factors. This result contrasts with the previous studies in this domain, where the literature emphasized governance factors more than environmental factors. These results highlight the integration of ESG elements, as retail investors remain with favorable returns and sacrifice sustainability. Further, this study spots the need for better and quantifiable ESG performance reports to consider alternative data comparable to financial data for better investment decisions.

Companies and investors in emerging markets have started paying attention to ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) issues. There has been a growing demand for aligning ESG disclosure of companies to UN SDGs (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals), so understanding how the firm-level ESG affects the country-level SDG is very important for evaluating the advances in ESG and SDG implementation in emerging markets. This study examines the linkage between firm-level ESG disclosures and their relationship with country-level SDG scores over ten years for three emerging countries: India, China, and Brazil. The analysis of 1,500 top-listed firms in these countries reveals an increasing trend of firms going for ESG disclosures and increased ESG scores over the years in the three markets. Out of the total sample, almost 75% of firms make ESG disclosures in Brazil, followed by 54% in India and 32% in China. Additionally, companies in all these countries tend to emphasize governance-related disclosures more, with Brazil having higher ESG disclosures than India and China. The correlation and causality tests indicate a significant positive correlation between mean ESG scores and country-specific SDG scores. The Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality tests provide stronger linkages between firm-specific Environment scores and SDG scores, indicating that a firm’s environment disclosures translate into higher SDG scores. However, the same is not valid for Social and Governance factors. These findings have important implications given the global attention on the linkages between ESG disclosure and SDG score.

Acknowledgments
The financial and infrastructure support provided by FORE School of Management, New Delhi in completing this paper is gratefully acknowledged.

The new energy vehicle industry has proliferated in the face of global climate change and challenges to sustainable development. Understanding the factors that encourage consumers to purchase new energy vehicles is essential to driving the new energy vehicle industry’s future development. Based on signaling theory, this study aims to investigate the significant influence of various factors, such as perceived ESG and policy incentives, on Chinese consumers’ intention to purchase new energy vehicles and explore the mediating effect of brand image and perceived value. This study adopts a quantitative research methodology by collecting data from 860 potential new energy vehicle consumers in China through a questionnaire survey and analyzing the data using structural equation modeling in AMOS 24.0. The results of the study show that consumers’ perceived ESG significantly affects their intention to purchase new energy vehicles. Brand image and perceived value mediate consumers’ perceived ESG factors and their purchase intention of new energy vehicles. Consumers’ positive attitudes will increase the purchase intention of new energy vehicles. In addition, government incentives also have a positive and significant effect on the intention to purchase new energy vehicles. These results provide sustainable marketing guidance for NEV companies, confirming the importance of good environmental, social, and governance performance, good brand image, and perceived benefits in driving purchases. In addition, this study provides empirical evidence of policy support for the NEV industry, thus reinforcing its importance for policymakers.