From Compliance to Value Creation: ESG, Sustainability Governance, and Multistage Performance in Taiwan's Integrated Circuit Design Industry

ABSTRACT This study analyzes 66 publicly listed integrated circuit (IC) design companies in Taiwan by using 330 decision‐making unit observations from 2019 to 2023. By integrating multistage network data envelopment analysis (network DEA), multiple regression, k ‐means clustering, and classification and regression tree (CART) models, it examines the relationships between ESG performance and firms' innovation, operational, and market outcomes. The results indicate that the Taiwan IC design industry is highly concentrated, with a small number of leading firms dominating R&D investment, patent resources, and market value, while most firms adopt relatively cost‐oriented strategies. The network DEA results reveal significant efficiency differences across the three performance stages and among the identified firm clusters. The findings further show that ESG‐related associations vary across performance stages. Environmental and social indicators are generally associated with short‐term adjustment burdens at the innovation and operational stages, whereas governance‐related indicators, particularly ownership and board structure, demonstrate relatively stable positive associations with operational and market performance. Clustering and CART analyses further identify three strategic types: sustainability governance enhanced, conservative stable operations, and performance‐driven innovation. Overall, the findings suggest that sustainability governance has become an important source of competitive differentiation within the IC design industry, supporting the integrated stakeholder RBV ESG framework in which ESG functions as a governance and resource allocation mechanism associated with long‐term value creation.