The Anomaly of"High Cash and Debt"and ESG Performance:A Strategic Response Perspective
ESG has been widely recognized by the international community and become an important reference for measuring the sus-tainable and high-quality development of enterprises.However,pseudo ESG behaviors such as"greenwashing"are common and se-riously damage social welfare.This article attempts to explore whether enterprises with"high cash and debt"will strategically utilize ESG advantages out of self-interest motives.Taking the A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2019 as research samples,we find that companies with"high cash and debt"exhibit better ESG performance,consistent with the assumption of strategic response.The higher the degree of tunneling by the largest shareholder and the lower the quality of accounting information,the stronger the positive relationship between"high cash and debt"and ESG performance.After distinguishing the ESG sub sectors,enterprises with"high cash and debt"only show higher performance in terms of governance.These tests further support the ESG fraud of enterprises with"high cash and debt",and heterogeneity analysis shows that it is mainly reflected in the groups with low environmental and social risks and low market attention.
"High Cash and Debt"ESGEnvironmental and Social RisksStrategic ResponseInformation Quality
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
