Environmental,social,and governance(ESG)has become a hot high-frequency term that has attracted great attention from all walks of life.However,there are many problems and concerns behind ESG,and the healthy and sustainable development of ESG is facing challenges.The emergence of these problems is caused by various explicit and implicit reasons,but one of the important reasons is the lack of consensus on the understanding of ESG,and even many understandings seriously deviate from the real ESG.To solve these problems,and to promote the development of ESG,it is necessary to correct the understanding of ESG,scientifically define and deeply deconstruct ESG,correct various deviant views on the current cognition of ESG,and form a minimum cognitive consensus on the connotation,essence,function,and boundary of ESG.By studying a large number of studies,this paper deconstructs existing viewpoints on ESG cognition,puts forward ideas and methods to define ESG concepts,and redefines and analyzes ESG,laying a foundation for forming a consensus on ESG cognition.On this basis,the existing cognition of the relationship between ESG and corporate social responsibility is systematically sorted out,the limitations of this cognition are analyzed,and the relationship between ESG and corporate social responsibility is recognized from two perspectives of vertical evolution and horizontal comparison,guiding a more accurate understanding of ESG.Given the problems of fuzzy ESG boundary and obvious divergence in reality,this paper proposes a new idea of defining ESG boundary,redefines ESG content boundary,and constructs an ESG behavior boundary model to guide scientific understanding of ESG category.Compared with existing studies,the possible marginal contributions of this paper are as follows.First,it deeply deconstructs the existing definition of ESG from the subjective perspective and essential cognitive perspective,and proposes that ESG is essentially a two-way impact management covering"enterprise → environment and society"and"environment and society → enterprise".Second,it redefines the concept of ESG from the perspective of two-way impact management and the trinity of embedded power,content,and mode.It proposes that ESG is a synthesis of organizational will,behavior,and performance,whose core lies in carrying out organizational operation in a new way.It is a whole of all elements unified under the sustainable development goal.Third,beyond the existing equivalence theory,substitution theory,and synergy theory,the relationship between ESG and corporate social responsibility is repositioned as the advanced form of corporate social responsibility or the high-level paradigm of corporate social responsibility practice.It is believed that it has achieved substantial breakthroughs and surpasses the existing form of corporate social responsibility in terms of pre-concept,core objectives,essential requirements,and management content.Fourth,the ESG scope boundary is redefined from the perspective of content boundary and behavior boundary,and the ESG behavior boundary model is constructed,which is composed of bottom line boundary,ideal boundary,potential exploitation boundary,energy release boundary,and tradeoff boundary.This paper provides a new way for the academia and the business community to deepen their understanding and scientific grasp of ESG,and has enlightening significance for ESG investment,enterprise ESG practice,and governments'ESG policy formulation,which is conducive to promoting sustainable and healthy development of ESG.
ESGcorporate social responsibilitysustainable developmentimpact management
万方数据
维普
