How ESG Contribute to the High-Quality Development of State-Owned Enterprise in China: A Multi-Stage fsQCA Method

The purpose of this study is to explore what configurations of dimensions corresponding to environmental, social responsibility, governance (ESG) and firm contextual factors can lead to the high-quality development of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). A configuration analysis framework with six conditions including environmental, social responsibility, and governance (ESG), innovation intensity, capital structure, and firm size was constructed. Moreover, the multi-stage qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) approach was conducted on a sample of 692 annual observations of SOEs from 2017 to 2019. Findings suggested that three equifinal patterns can produce the high-quality development of SOEs, which are resource and capability prominent pattern, sustainability driven pattern, responsibility and growth balanced pattern, respectively. Each pattern is a conjunctural combination of different ESG and firm conditions. The number of resource and capability prominent pattern decreased in the third year, while the proportion of sustainability driven pattern increased, in which the environmental dimension played a core role rather than the social dimension. Different ESG dimensions and firm conditions have both complementary and substitutive relationships, but firm size is a common condition in all configurations. This study provided a holistic empirical explanation of how ESG leads to sustainability issues in SOEs.