Purpose

This study aims to look at how financial technology (FinTech) companies adhere to sustainable standards in contrast to their counterparts. Following the validation of its new sustainability index, this study looks into the impact of sustainability on the stock performance of FinTech companies.

Design/methodology/approach

To efficiently test the hypotheses, sample has been collected from the Bloomberg of all FinTech and non-FinTech companies from the USA. The final sample comprises 1,712 company-year observations over the investigation period 2010–2019. The methodology entails ordinary least squares regressions and generalized panel methods of moments (GMM).

Findings

The results suggest that the developed sustainability index is a valid proxy for sustainability measures and directly relates to stock performance. Besides, the evidence indicates that non-FinTech companies display superior sustainability and stock performance compared to FinTech companies. The present results corroborate with stakeholder theory, which implies that quality sustainability performance will alleviate the agency issue and safeguard the shareholders’ interest.

Research limitations/implications

Despite the fact that it presents the limitation of not considering other dimensions of financial performance, this research is important as it highlights the sustainability practices by the FinTech and non-FinTech companies, offering insights to researchers, policymakers, regulators, financial reports users, investors, environmental union, employees, clients and society.

Originality/value

This paper is novel because it is unique in evaluating the sustainability practices in FinTech and non-FinTech firms.

中文翻译：

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可持续性对金融科技公司重要吗？来自美国公司的证据

目的

本研究旨在了解金融科技 (FinTech) 公司与其同行相比如何遵守可持续标准。在验证了其新的可持续性指数之后，本研究调查了可持续性对金融科技公司股票表现的影响。

设计/方法/途径

为了有效地检验假设，从美国所有金融科技和非金融科技公司的彭博社收集了样本。最终样本包括 2010-2019 年调查期间的 1,712 个公司年度观察结果。该方法需要普通最小二乘回归和广义面板矩量法 (GMM)。

发现

结果表明，已开发的可持续性指数是可持续性措施的有效替代指标，并与股票表现直接相关。此外，有证据表明，与金融科技公司相比，非金融科技公司表现出卓越的可持续性和股票表现。目前的结果证实了利益相关者理论，这意味着高质量的可持续发展绩效将缓解代理问题并维护股东利益。

研究局限性/影响

尽管它存在不考虑财务绩效其他方面的局限性，但这项研究很重要，因为它强调了金融科技和非金融科技公司的可持续发展实践，为研究人员、政策制定者、监管机构、财务报告用户、投资者提供了见解、环境联盟、员工、客户和社会。

原创性/价值

这篇论文是新颖的，因为它在评估金融科技和非金融科技公司的可持续性实践方面是独一无二的。