An emphasis on responsibility provides a competitive advantage in trade: The ESG performance and export of Chinese listed companies

An emphasis on responsibility provides a competitive advantage in trade: The ESG performance and export of Chinese listed companies | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article An emphasis on responsibility provides a competitive advantage in trade: The ESG performance and export of Chinese listed companies Yang Hu, Kui Wang, Jing Zhou, Feng Hu This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4427763/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Currently, countries worldwide are giving increasing attention to environmental and social sustainability. An emphasis on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and the resulting ESG advantage could improve their export competitiveness and give them an edge. In this study, the 2010–2016 data for Chinese listed companies are used to investigate the impact of ESG performance on enterprise exports. The results show that ESG performance significantly improves enterprise export performance; furthermore, the corresponding promoting effect on general trade, final goods, and clean products exports is greater. Mechanistic analysis shows that catering to the ESG preferences of consumers in the destination country, reversing market reputation disadvantages of the exporting country, and overcoming institutional access barriers and information barriers in the destination country are the internal mechanisms by which ESG performance affects enterprise exports. Further analysis shows that ESG initiatives can help enterprises gain export competitive advantages via a quality competition strategy. JEL: F10; F18; M14 ESG export volume market reputation market access barrier Full Text Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4427763","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":304018593,"identity":"6d81a963-7c35-4459-a674-421db4f02ee2","order_by":0,"name":"Yang Hu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Huazhong University of Science and Technology School of Economics","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yang","middleName":"","lastName":"Hu","suffix":""},{"id":304018594,"identity":"0e727cfb-9f14-4596-9015-91f3ca8ca4d4","order_by":1,"name":"Kui Wang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA4ElEQVRIie3RsYoCMRCA4SxCtBjZTkYs9hVmWVALwVfJIVhtYbmVJwhbKbYbfAnBF4gE1ib2wjWKLxA7wea8Vg43dhb56vkZJmHM8z5RdJ6RyPA7r8+VsjenZqQm1vSDFZRfO7lwSsbiKvMskEWa6AZ3CEiZeAsGa2SM1QxYFLZURbJbJAlkyGm/3OhJn8VyLV4nXQ3d5LEFyBw2ugAm6KcqKaF3b+aIdExPGrhLYriIZY7ULlLmlgyPNUXWoAihpMcjY/Ut7SL4+8qp4PX5xdrbIAo7FckzfG/c8zzP+98vd7BM9KgrP5gAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3625-8607","institution":"Huazhong University of Science and Technology School of Economics","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Kui","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":304018595,"identity":"98ac4757-76dd-45ec-a030-b718ac9b34fb","order_by":2,"name":"Jing Zhou","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Anhui University of Finance and Economics","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jing","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhou","suffix":""},{"id":304018596,"identity":"2b72ecff-7516-433f-9282-ffeb13a3551e","order_by":3,"name":"Feng Hu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Shanghai University of International Business and Economics","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Feng","middleName":"","lastName":"Hu","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-05-16 01:44:10","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4427763/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4427763/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":65055100,"identity":"566a34f8-07f8-4b50-b843-c256b8995b3b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-09-23 06:55:40","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":373633,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ESGandexport.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4427763/v1_covered_9c904075-73cd-4390-9811-7ff1d1749001.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"An emphasis on responsibility provides a competitive advantage in trade: The ESG performance and export of Chinese listed companies","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"ESG, export volume, market reputation, market access barrier","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4427763/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4427763/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eCurrently, countries worldwide are giving increasing attention to environmental and social sustainability. 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