How Does ESG Rating Affect the Maturity Mismatch of Corporate Investment and Financing?Based on the Per-spective of ESG Uncertainty
ESG is consistent with concepts such as carbon neutrality and peak carbon emissions,as well as sustainable development,and has gradually become a key factor in driving high-quality enterprise de-velopment and enhancing market competitiveness.However,the appli-cation of ESG ratings also faces challenges in terms of standardization and reliability.Due to the different rating standards adopted by different rating agencies and the insufficient disclosure of ESG information by enterprises,the ratings results of different rating agencies differ greatly.To some extent,the differences in the ratings of the same enterprise by different rating agencies also reflect the uncertainty of corporate sus-tainability,which we call"ESG uncertainty."ESG uncertainty reduces the reliability of ESG ratings and becomes a market friction that hinders firms from accessing external capital.At the same time,ESG uncer-tainty also further aggravates the volatility of stock returns,reduces investors'demand for stocks,and reduces the possibility of enterprises obtaining external financing.These effects are likely to affect firms'investment and financing decisions,especially the mismatch of invest-ment and financing maturities.Based on this,this paper empirically tests the impact of ESG uncertain-ty on corporate financing-investment maturity mismatch using a sample of listed companies on the A-share market in China from 2011 to 2021.We select six ESG rating agencies as the measurement criteria.To make the ratings of different rating agencies comparable,we first standardize the ratings of the six ESG rating agencies.We use the standard deviation of the standardized ratings indicators from different rating agencies to measure the ESG uncertainty of enterprises(ESGSTD).We find that ESG uncertainty exacerbates the degree of corporate financing-invest-ment maturity mismatch by lowering the enterprise's long-term debt fi-nancing level and investor sentiment positivity.After a series of robust-ness tests,including differential model,fixed effect model,DID,and instrumental variable method,the conclusion remains valid.Moreover,this paper rules out the possibility that enterprises choose"short-term loans for long-term investment"and increase investment intentionally to aggravate the financing-investment maturity mismatch.Further re-search shows that improving enterprise information disclosure quality,enhancing enterprise resource acquisition ability,and strengthening external supervision can alleviate the impact of ESG uncertainty on financing-investment maturity mismatch.Heterogeneity tests show that ESG uncertainty has a more significant impact on the financing-invest-ment maturity mismatch of non-state-owned enterprises,strategic of-fensive enterprises,and enterprises with higher operating risks.Further-more,based on industry heterogeneity,the impact of ESG uncertainty on the mismatch of investment and financing periods of enterprises is more significant in industries with high competition and non-heavy polluting enterprises.Further research has found that the reasons for the formation of ESG uncertainty,whether it is the poor quality of corporate ESG information disclosure or differences in rating agency standards,can have an impact on the decisions of investors,credit institutions,and other funding providers,leading to long-term funding constraints for companies and exacerbating the degree of mismatched investment and financing periods.Ultimately,the mismatch of investment and financ-ing terms exacerbated by ESG uncertainty increases the risk of corpo-rate bankruptcy,which is not conducive to the sustainable development of enterprises.The main contributions of this paper are as follows:First,it expands the perspective of ESG rating.On the one hand,although some studies have initially examined the consequences of ESG uncertainty based on mature capital market data in developed countries,it is not clear whether ESG uncertainty exists and whether it has an impact on corporate be-havior in China due to the late start of ESG rating in China.On the other hand,existing literature has ignored the differences in ESG rating re-sults between different rating agencies.Second,it enriches the research on the impact factors and ESG uncertainty of enterprise financing and investment mismatch.On the one hand,previous studies mainly explored the drivers and influencing factors of enterprise financing and investment mismatch from the perspectives of macro policies and enterprise own characteristics.This paper studies the impact of ESG rating on enterprise financing and investment mismatch from a new perspective,providing a new perspective for understanding the causes of financing and investment mismatch.On the other hand,previous studies focused on the direct impact of ESG uncertainty on the performance of capital markets.This paper analyzes the impact of ESG uncertainty on enterprises from the perspective of financial strategy,helping to deepen the research on the economic consequences of ESG uncertainty.Third,it provides empirical evidence for China to standardize ESG rating sys-tems,improve the certification system of third-party rating agencies,and promote the high-quality development of enterprises.On the one hand,this paper explores the mitigation mechanisms of enterprise fi-nancing and investment mismatch aggravated by ESG uncertainty from the perspectives of information disclosure quality,resource acquisition ability,and external supervision,providing solutions for enterprises to improve the efficiency of financing and investment term allocation.On the other hand,this paper finds that both the enterprise's own ESG information disclosure quality and the differences in ESG rating stan-dards between rating agencies will affect stakeholders'judgments and ultimately exacerbate the enterprise's bankruptcy risk,hindering its sustainable development.This conclusion provides empirical evidence for regulatory authorities to pay attention to the standardization of enter-prise ESG information disclosure and establish standardized ESG rating systems,improving the effectiveness of ESG rating and achieving the high-quality development of enterprises.This article has important practical significance and policy value implica-tions:starting from the government,it is necessary to establish ESG infor-mation disclosure standards with Chinese characteristics for enterprises.Starting from rating agencies,one should promote the development of a unified ESG evaluation standard system.From the perspective of enter-prises,one should improve the ESG information disclosure system and external supervision system.From the perspective of credit institutions,investors and other funding providers,identify the authenticity of corporate ESG information,strive to reduce the information interference caused by corporate ESG uncertainty,improve the effectiveness of credit policy im-plementation and investment decision-making;At the same time,it is nec-essary to have a deep understanding of the logic and principles behind ESG ratings,and to avoid blindly relying on the rating results disclosed by vari-ous rating agencies.Ultimately,while striving to implement the concept of ESG responsible investment,we will promote corporate ESG construction and achieve green and sustainable development.
ESG UncertaintyMismatch of Investment and Financ-ing PeriodLong-term Debt FinancingInvestor Sentiment
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