Earticle

초록

영어

ESG1) has gradually evolved from a discussion centered on corporate social responsibility to a core issue in capital markets and corporate strategy. As Chinese firms accelerate their global expansion, cross-border M&As stands out as a capital-intensive and high-risk strategic choice. Whether firms can successfully integrate resources and mitigate institutional and cultural differences after the deal is completed largely determines the potential for performance improvement. Against this backdrop, a key question arises: what is the relationship between acquirers' ESG performance and post-acquisition operating performance in cross-border M&As? Combining perspectives from the resource-based view, signaling theory, and institutional theory, this study proposes that ESG performance is central to explaining post-acquisition performance, exerting both direct and indirect effects, but also indirectly improving outcomes by attracting foreign shareholders and optimizing the investor structure, thereby further strengthening governance efficiency and post-acquisition integration capability. A panel dataset covering cross-border M&As by Chinese A-share listed firms during 2008–2023 is constructed to examine these hypotheses. M&A transaction data are obtained from CSMAR data. ESG is proxied by Huazheng ESG ratings (nine grades from C to AAA), ROA in the first post-completion year (t + 1) is used to capture post-acquisition performance. Foreign ownership is incorporated as a mediating variable, and the moderating role of ownership structure is further explored. In addition, the empirical models control for firm age, firm size, largest shareholder ownership, and the ratio of independent directors. The empirical results indicate that: (1) superior ESG performance is associated with higher post-acquisition profitability, as reflected in ROA; (2) ESG performance significantly increases foreign ownership, and foreign ownership further contributes to improved post-acquisition performance, suggesting that part of ESG's effect operates through foreign ownership; however, after incorporating both year and industry fixed effects, the effect of ESG on foreign ownership becomes statistically insignificant, indicating that this mediating pathway is not robust at the firm level and that foreign ownership functions only as a partial mediator, with the signaling effect of ESG being context-dependent; (3) ownership structure serves as an important institutional boundary condition, as ESG performance contributes more significantly to post-acquisition performance in non-state-owned firms than in state-owned firms, highlighting the role of institutional constraints and governance space in shaping ESG value realization. In contrast, the moderating effects of ownership structure on the ESG–foreign ownership and foreign ownership– performance relationships are not statistically significant. This study contributes by situating ESG in the highly uncertain M&As context and integrating ESG value implications with the governance role of foreign shareholders, thereby clarifying the transmission mechanism through which ESG affects post-acquisition performance and identifying its boundary conditions. The findings also provide practical implications: in cross-border M&As processes, firms should not only focus on synergy valuation at the transaction level, but also treat ESG management as an important tool for enhancing external trust, attracting international capital, and improving post-acquisition integration performance.

목차

Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical Basis and Hypotheses Formulation
2.1. ESG and ROA
2.2. The Intervening Role of Foreign Ownership
2.3. The Moderating Effect of Ownership Structure
3. Methodology and Estimation Strategy
3.1. Data and Definition of Selected Variables
3.2. Summary Statistics of Variables
4. Estimation Results
4.1. Correlation Analysis
4.2. Baseline Regression Results
4.3. Robustness Tests
4.4. Moderation slope plot
5. Research Results
6. Conclusion
7. Limitations and Future Research Directions
7.1. Limitations
7.2. Future Research Directions
References

키워드

저자

• Yang, GuangQing [ School of Business, Kangwon National University, Korea ]
• Kim, KyungTae [ School of Business, Kangwon National University, Korea ] Corresponding Author
• Zhang, XiaoTong [ School of Business, Kangwon National University, Korea ]

참고문헌

발행기관

간행물

표지보기 관심저널 등록

• 간행물명

  Journal of China Studies

• 간기

  계간

• pISSN

  1975-5902

• eISSN

  3022-5590

• 수록기간

  2006~2026

• 등재여부

  KCI 등재

• 십진분류

  KDC 912 DDC 951