Digital Government Development and Agricultural ESG Performance: Evidence from Government WeChat Accounts in China

Amid the global push for sustainability, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria have become core benchmarks for corporate value. Simultaneously, government WeChat accounts have reshaped China’s regional information ecosystems. This paper systematically examines the impact of the launch of government WeChat accounts (LGWA) on agricultural enterprises’ ESG performance. Drawing on information asymmetry theory, we treat municipal-level LGWA as a quasi-natural experiment, employing an optimized double machine learning (DML) model. The study utilizes unbalanced panel data from 326 listed agricultural enterprises (2009–2024) and over five million WeChat messages. Results indicate LGWA significantly enhances ESG performance by alleviating government-enterprise, enterprise-public, and bank-enterprise information asymmetry. Executive political connections negatively moderate this effect. This enhancement is more pronounced for highly active accounts posting during work hours, particularly benefiting less-digitalized enterprises. This study provides a novel perspective on the micro-level governance effects of digital government, guiding sustainable policy formulation and encouraging corporate digital adoption.