Technologically driven corporate sustainability: hospitality and tourism and fintech

Purpose This article aims to reveal the impact, mechanism of action and boundary conditions (heterogeneity) of fintech on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of listed hotel and tourism enterprises in China, thereby constructing a theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between the two and enriching and expanding the theory of sustainable development of enterprises. Design/methodology/approach We select 148 Chinese-listed hospitality and tourism as the research sample, empirically examine the role of fintech on the ESG performance of these firms and explore their potential influence mechanisms. Findings This study finds that fintech significantly enhances firm ESG performance. Moreover, fintech improves ESG performance of firms through financing constraints and external monitoring, while business risk mitigates the positive effects of fintech on firm ESG performance. The heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive effect of fintech is more pronounced for regions with lower economic policy uncertainty and lower environmental regulation, as well as firms with high digitization and nonstate ownership. Research limitations/implications Firstly, there are deficiencies in the measurement of fintech. Future research will employ big data, text mining and machine learning technologies to develop more accurate fintech measurement indicators and mitigate endogenous issues such as measurement errors. Secondly, this article delves into the purview of fintech in influencing the H.T. firms' ESG performance from financing constraints, external supervision and business risks. Future research will utilize multidisciplinary cross-fertilization methods to further explore how fintech influences ESG performance. Thirdly, the current ESG disclosure of Chinese-listed firms is voluntary, and the conclusions drawn from this may have some limitations. Originality/value With the rapid advancement of fintech, H.T. firms have increasingly recognized its importance in addressing challenges related to difficult and costly financing. Nonetheless, the existing literature reveals substantial gaps in understanding how fintech influences H.T. firms' ESG performance, particularly due to the absence of a unified framework for systematically examining underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions. Accordingly, this study seeks to develop a multi-level explanatory framework that integrates information asymmetry theory, financing constraint theory, reputation theory and resource dependence theory. This framework enables a more comprehensive understanding of the transmission mechanisms and boundary conditions through which fintech influences ESG performance in H.T. firms, while providing a rational explanation of how fintech can optimize investment decision-making within these enterprises.