Purpose

This study aims to examine the potential effect of integrating social and ethical practices into strategy on the market valuation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) businesses using the moderating effect of green innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample used consisted of 523 international firms listed on the ESG index and headquartered in North America and Western Europe, forming an unbalanced panel of 7,845 observations spanning the period 2005–2019. The authors run a fixed-effects panel regression model using the Thomson Reuters ASSET4 to test the relationship between societal and ethical practices and the stock market value creation. Similarly, as an extension of the research, this paper exploits two robustness analyzes. The authors tested the dynamic dimension of the data set through the generalized moment method and the effect of the legal system.

Findings

Evidence reveals a significant positive relationship between societal and ethical practices and businesses’ market valuation. The empirical results indicate that societal and ethical strengths increase firm value with the moderating effect of green innovation and weaknesses reduce it. The results found with the dynamic dimension of the data set indicate the existence of continuity between firm values over time.

Research limitations/implications

Given the long study period, many firms with missing data were eliminated. To avoid the small sample size, countries with few observations were included, which led to an uneven distribution between observations per country.

Practical implications

Findings from this paper can help ESG firms to consider their future growth opportunities in a context where the approach of business ethics occupies a central position in business valuation.

Originality/value

This study is the only study that provides ESG companies with seven different nationalities with evidence for the effect of social and ethical practices regarding market valuation. This paper is also relevant as it addresses the relationship between social effectiveness and financial efficiency, as well as the dynamic effect of this relationship.

中文翻译：

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社会和道德实践与企业价值：绿色创新的调节作用：来自国际 ESG 数据的证据

目的

本研究旨在利用绿色创新的调节作用，研究将社会和道德实践纳入战略对环境、社会和治理 (ESG) 企业市场估值的潜在影响。

设计/方法/方法

所使用的样本包括 523 家在 ESG 指数中上市、总部位于北美和西欧的国际公司，形成了一个由 2005 年至 2019 年期间的 7,845 个观察值组成的不平衡面板。作者使用汤森路透 ASSET4 运行固定效应面板回归模型来测试社会和道德实践与股票市场价值创造之间的关系。同样，作为研究的延伸，本文利用了两个稳健性分析。作者通过广义矩法检验了数据集的动态维数和法制效果。

发现

证据表明，社会和道德实践与企业市场估值之间存在显着的正相关关系。实证结果表明，社会和道德优势会随着绿色创新的调节作用而增加企业价值，而劣势则会降低它。用数据集的动态维度发现的结果表明，随着时间的推移，公司价值之间存在连续性。

研究限制/影响

由于研究时间长，许多数据缺失的公司被淘汰。为避免样本量过小，将观测值很少的国家也包括在内，这导致每个国家的观测值分布不均。

实际影响

本文的发现可以帮助 ESG 公司在商业道德方法在商业估值中占据核心地位的背景下考虑他们未来的增长机会。

原创性/价值

本研究是唯一一项为七个不同国籍的 ESG 公司提供有关市场估值的社会和道德实践影响的证据的研究。本文也具有相关性，因为它讨论了社会有效性和财务效率之间的关系，以及这种关系的动态影响。