ESG品質與揭露對企業財務表現的影響

Abstract

本研究關注當企業投身企業社會責任（以下稱CSR）領域，企業是否能透過縮減資訊不對稱提升企業營運、財務和市場表現（本研究分別用ROA, ROE, Tobin Q代表），或者反而受到額外產生的成本效果造成企業表現惡化。研究中將CSR拆分為環境、社會責任和公司治理（Environmental, Social Responsibility, Governance, 以下稱ESG）三大議題，並利用ESG加權評分和揭露評分，分別探討三種領域中何者會對企業產生正面的影響。透過研究驗證，我們發現社會責任議題不論是資訊揭露或品質皆對於企業表現；我們也發現企業投入環境議題最有可能降低企業表現。另外，研究中顯示對於欲投入CSR的企業從社會責任領域著手對於企業績效會產生正向的影響，且規模較大和高財務槓桿的企業投入CSR領域的表現普遍更佳。

This study focuses on whether companies can improve their operations, financial and market performance (represented by ROA, ROE, Tobin Q in this study) by reducing information asymmetry when companies engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) or the CSR-related costs worsen corporate performance. In the research, CSR is divided into three major topics: Environment, Social Responsibility, and Corporate Governance (Environmental, Social Responsibility, Governance, hereinafter referred to as ESG), and uses ESG pillar score and disclosure score to explore which of the three topics will have a positive impact on the financial performance. This study found that social responsibility issues have an significant impact on corporate performance both on ESG information disclosure or quality; we also found that corporate investment in environmental issues are most likely to reduce corporate performance. In addition, this study shows that for companies that want to invest in CSR, starting from the social responsibility issues can improve the corporate performance, and companies with larger scale and higher financial leverage generally perform better in the field of CSR.