The 25th Xi Xian Academic Luncheon, co-organised by IIDPF and the School of Public Finance and Taxation, was successfully held on 20 April 2023 in Conference Room 119, Wenqin Building.As the keynote speaker of this academic luncheon, Associate Professor Wang Jiaxin from the School of Accounting, gave a keynote speech entitled "Consensus and Strategy: A Perspective on ESG Interaction between Banks and Enterprises".The academic luncheon was hosted by IIDPF researcher Dr Wan Xin and attended by over twenty participants, including researchers Dr Wan Qian, Dr Zou Wei and Dr Zou Jianwen, faculty and students.
Against the backdrop of global climate change, negative externalities and social issues, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) has become the mainstream of capital market players to reconstruct a new logic of value growth by pursuing long-term value growth and balancing economic and social effects. However, in recent years, ESG behaviour of enterprises has shown a trend of formal compliance but substantive complexity and diversity. Most of the existing literature focuses on the demand and supply of ESG from the perspective of a single entity, but few studies have examined the relationship between bank-enterprise consensus and ESG strategic behaviour in a pre-lending and post-lending context. In this regard, Dr. Wang Jiaxin conducted a study based on bank-enterprise lending data, and showed that pre-loan bank-enterprise ESG consensus significantly inhibits post-loan ESG "inconsistent" behaviour. The mechanism is that the pre-lending ESG consensus can exert a "financial effect" and a "governance effect" on the strategic ESG behaviour of post-lending companies. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the inhibitory effect of pre-lending ESG consensus on post-loan strategic ESG behaviour varies across ownership, bank lending dependence and bank size. In addition, pre-loan ESG consensus effectively reduces post-loan ESG "green" behaviour, while it has little effect on ESG "brown" behaviour; compared with pre-loan ESG symbolic consensus, pre-loan ESG substantive consensus has a greater impact on post-loan ESG behaviour. The impact of a substantive pre-loan ESG consensus on post-loan corporate strategic ESG behaviour is greater than a symbolic pre-loan ESG consensus.
Dr. Wang gave a fascinating lecture to the audience and also stimulated in-depth thinking on the phenomenon of strategic ESG behaviour of companies before and after lending. In the discussion session, the participating faculty members exchanged and discussed relevant issues, and the students also spoke enthusiastically and actively interacted on the research background, model construction and mechanism analysis. DrWang's sharing not only deepened the understanding of the ESG behaviour of enterprises, but also promoted the communication and interaction of academic views, broadened students' horizons and created a strong atmosphere for academic research.