Assessing the Impact of ESG Performance on Firm Competitiveness: A Meta-Frontier DEA and OLS Regression Analysis of Global Optical Component Firms

The optical component industry is an industry that generates a high profit, yet it has rarely been explored on its management in the previous research. This study aims to investigate the impact of environmental (E), social (S), and governance (G) performance (ESGP) on firm competitiveness. Specifically, by using ordinal least square (OLS) regression, we analyze how overall ESGP and its components (E, S, G) impact the competitiveness including component of marketability, profitability, and innovation ability of global optical component firms, including those from Taiwan, Japan, China, and South Korea. We developed a meta-frontier data envelopment analysis (DEA) model including meta frontier, group frontier, and operational technology gap ratio to estimate firm competitiveness and analyzed 95 firm-year observations from 2016 to 2020. The meta-frontier DEA results indicate that optical component firms from Taiwan and Japan exhibit relatively higher competitiveness. Additionally, the ordinary least squares and truncated regression results reveal a significant positive association between ESGP and firm competitiveness, aligning with the resource-based view theory, where firms that performs in ESG practices obtaining unique resources and capabilities would develop a long-term competitive advantages, and also aligning with stakeholder theory, where firms that engage in ESG attract support from stakeholders, leading to a higher firm performance and competitiveness. The findings of the provides insights for the optical policymakers of the proper resource allocation to maximize firm competitiveness under the influence of ESGP.