ESG评级不确定性与企业成长性——企业数字化转型的调节作用

ESG Rating Uncertainty and Corporate Growth—The Moderating Role of Enterprise Digital Transformation

摘要: 本文以2015~2022年我国沪深A股上市公司为研究样本，选取Wind、和讯、彭博、华证和CNRDS (中国研究数据服务平台)等5家评级机构的数据构建ESG评级不确定性指标，研究了ESG评级不确定性对企业成长性的影响。研究发现，ESG评级不确定性显著降低了企业成长性，在经过一系列稳健性检验后仍然成立；机制检验发现，企业数字化转型在两者之间的关系中起着调节作用，即数字化转型程度的提高能够削弱ESG评级不确定性对企业成长性的降低作用；中介机制检验发现，ESG评级不确定性通过加剧企业融资约束和降低企业盈利能力从而降低了企业成长性；异质性分析发现当企业聘用的会计师事务所为国际四大时，ESG评级不确定性对企业成长性的影响是不显著的，而ESG表现好的企业所受到的影响小于ESG表现差的企业。

Abstract: This article takes Chinese A-share listed companies from 2015 to 2022 as research samples, selects data from five rating agencies including Wind, Hexun, Bloomberg, Huazheng, and CNRDS to construct ESG rating uncertainty indicators, and studies the impact of ESG rating uncertainty on corporate growth. Research has found that the uncertainty of ESG ratings significantly reduces the growth potential of companies, and this still holds true after a series of robustness tests. Mechanism testing found that digital transformation of enterprises plays a moderating role in the relationship between the two, that is, an increase in the degree of digital transformation can weaken the decreasing effect of ESG rating uncertainty on enterprise growth. The intermediary mechanism test found that ESG rating uncertainty reduces corporate growth by exacerbating financing constraints and lowering profitability. Heterogeneity analysis found that when a company hires accounting firms from the top four international accounting firms, the impact of ESG rating uncertainty on the company’s growth is not significant, and companies with good ESG performance are less affected than those with poor ESG performance.