"Greenwashing" or "Helping": ESG Performance and Chinese Firm Total Factor Productivity
by Jing Zhang 
and Ziyang Liu*
Graduate School, Kyonggi University, Suwon 16227, South Korea
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Journal of Engineering Research and Sciences, Volume 3, Issue 3, Page # 1-12, 2024; DOI: 10.55708/js0303001
Keywords: ESG performance, Total Factor Productivity (TFP), Corporate Reputation
Received: 28 November 2023, Revised: 20 February 2024, Accepted: 21 February 2024, Published Online: 19 March 2024
APA Style
Zhang, J., & Liu, Z. (2024). “Greenwashing” or “helping”: ESG performance and Chinese firm total factor productivity. Journal of Engineering Research and Sciences, 3(3), 1-12. [DOI: 10.55708/js0303001]
Chicago/Turabian Style
Zhang, Jing, and Ziyang Liu. 2024. “Greenwashing” or “helping”: ESG performance and Chinese firm total factor productivity. Journal of Engineering Research and Sciences 3, no. 3 (2024): 1-12. DOI: 10.55708/js0303001.
IEEE Style
As the market economy has continued to develop, businesses have consistently prioritized profits, excessively emphasizing income and financial gains while neglecting ecological conservation and financial fraud. Consequently, the phenomenon of “greenwashing” has emerged. How to prevent this “greenwashing” phenomenon while pursuing economic benefits and enabling high-quality business development has become a focal point. Therefore, this paper analyzes whether the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) performance of listed companies has an impact on the enhancement of the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) of enterprises. This study aims to explore how companies, while striving to maximize economic interests, can more proactively undertake environmental protection and social responsibility, thereby promoting the green transformation of enterprises. Using A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2022 as the sample, through an empirical examination of the correlation between the ESG performance of listed companies in China and the TFP of enterprises, the following conclusions are drawn: (1) ESG performance significantly promotes the TFP of enterprises, indicating that higher ESG performance corresponds to higher TFP; (2) Through intermediary effect tests, it is found that corporate reputation plays a role in enhancing the TFP of enterprises. That is, through good ESG performance, a company’s reputation is improved, thereby leading to higher TFP; (3) Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the impact of good ESG performance on the enhancement of TFP is more significant in large-scale enterprises and state-owned enterprises.
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