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DRIVERS OF ESG AND FIRM PERFORMANCE
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations have become increasingly important for firms' sustainability. Mandates for ESG information disclosure have been implemented in over 25 countries, including the EU, Australia, and China (Krueger et al., 2021). However, little attention has been paid to the drivers and mechanisms of ESG, which remain unclear. The existing literature has mainly focused on the consequences of ESG which shows mixed results and paid little attention to the drivers of ESG (Paolone et al., 2021). The majority of prior research suggests that ESG activities positively affect firms' financial performance (Nekhili et al., 2019). On the other hand, some researchers show a significant and negative relationship between ESG performance and a firm's financial performance (Duque-Grisales and Aguilera-Caracuel, 2021). To fill the research gap, this study attempts to identify 1) firms' internal and external factors that lead to ESG performance as drivers of ESG, and 2) firm performance as the consequences of ESG. The study found that environmental innovation activities, ESG committees, external audits, and ESG compensations related to environmental innovation could be drivers of ESG application and performance, leading to better firm performance. Moreover, the findings indicate that ESG performance positively affects firms' financial and non-financial performance. Understanding the adoption of ESG is crucial for firms since ESG requires a long-term perspective. This study contributes to the literature on ESG and firm sustainability and suggests new directions for managers to implement ESG in their business model. Especially, this study argues that taking a carrot-and-stick approach could lead to better ESG performance and firm performance. Therefore, managers might consider internal policies to encourage ESG that can lead to better firm performance.
