Analyst Tracking and Enterprise ESG Performance
-- Empirical Evidence from China
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54691/bcpbm.v50i.5610Keywords:
Analyst tracking; Enterprise ESG performance; Information transparency.Abstract
ESG investment has increasingly become a mainstream investment concept. As the external supervisor and the carrier of "business signals", the analyst's analytical opinions have a great impact on investors' investment decisions. Based on China's Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2022 as research samples, this paper empirically tests the effect and mechanism of analyst tracking on enterprise ESG performance. It is found that analyst tracking can significantly improve the ESG performance of the enterprise. This conclusion is still robust after a series of tests, while the conclusion is still valid after the endogeneity problem is taken into account by the cross-cross term test. The mechanism shows that analyst tracking can improve the environmental, social and governance performance of enterprises by increasing the transparency of enterprises. The results of heterogeneity analysis show that the effect is more significant in state-owned enterprises, large-scale enterprises and companies that are not part of the CSI 300 index or are followed by non-star analysts. This paper provides a theoretical basis for investors to make investment decisions and for enterprises to improve their sustainable development capabilities.
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