Digital revolution meets ESG: Can AI, blockchain and cloud computing enhance ESG performance?

Research background: In today’s digital age, traditional environmental, social, and governance (ESG) development paths are gradually facing challenges, including from digital technologies. In particular, the potential roles of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing (CC), and blockchain (BC) in the ESG market have not been fully explored. Purpose of the article: This study explores the deep integration of digital technology and ESG by evaluating the correlation and spillover effects among AI, CC, BC, and eight global ESG indices. Methods: This study explores the spillovers between AI, CC, BC, and eight global ESG indices by cross-quantilogram and quantile time-frequency connectedness approaches. Findings & value addition: The lower quantile of ESG returns has a weak positive (strong negative) correlation with the lower (upper) quantile of digital technology. Next, the spillover effects vary with time, frequency, and quantile levels. Meanwhile, the North America and Asia-Pacific developed ESG indices serve as the transmitter and receiver of spillover effects, respectively. Furthermore, the dependence between digital technology and ESG returns is insignificant before the COVID-19 crisis but increases after it. This quantile-dependent asymmetry fundamentally challenges linear assumptions prevalent in current ESG-technology integration theories. Overall, this study contributes by integrating AI, CC, BC, and ESG into a unified framework, and analyzing their interaction mechanisms. Furthermore, it dynamically analyzes the asymmetry over long and short-term horizons, and highlights the hedging role of digital technology in stabilizing ESG markets. Moreover, we provide novel insights about the interconnectedness between these markets, offering valuable guidance on risk management. Consequently, regulators should urgently explore the development of digital asset-based ESG derivatives as targeted risk mitigation tools. Positioned at the cutting-edge, this work sets a methodological benchmark for analyzing non-linear, frequency-sensitive interdependencies within the rapidly evolving ESG-digital nexus, transforming the theoretical framework from static linearities to dynamic non-linearities. Finally, this study proposes some reasonable suggestions, including raising risk awareness, promoting digital transformation, building integration and innovation platforms, and leveraging ESG’s diffusion role.