Research on the impact of ESG performance on enterprise value and its transmission mechanism - Social psychological observation

This study investigates the impact of ESG performance on corporate value and its transmission mechanisms from a social psychological perspective. Based on data from Chinese A-share listed companies during 2018-2024 and questionnaire-experimental research, we constructed an analytical framework incorporating direct effects, mediating effects, and moderating effects. The findings reveal: (1) ESG performance has a significant positive impact on corporate value, but exhibits a non-linear inverted U-shaped relationship with an optimal ESG threshold of approximately 63.5%; (2) Environmental performance has the strongest impact, followed by governance and social performance; (3) Stakeholder psychological perceptions (investor identification, consumer brand attitudes, employee organizational identification) play significant mediating roles; (4) Social psychological distance has a significant negative moderating effect, with ESG performance creating stronger value when stakeholders perceive lower temporal, spatial, and social distances; (5) Industry and organizational culture differences significantly moderate ESG effects. Based on these findings, this study proposes a "psychologically-oriented" ESG governance framework with four recommendations: optimizing value communication strategies, reducing psychological distance, implementing differentiated stakeholder management, and optimizing ESG investment, thus providing an optimization pathway based on psychological mechanisms for corporate ESG practices.