The impact of environment, social and governance (ESG) disclosure on firm value, profitability and capital raising of listed companies in the South East Asia

Abstract

This study examined how ESG performance affects the value, profitability, and cash flows of listed enterprises in Southeast Asia from 2019 to 2023. For panel data estimation, fixed-effect models and random-effect models with robust standard errors were used to investigate the relationships between the variables involved. The findings show that ESG performance has a considerable negative influence on firm value, and profitability, but positively on financing cash flows in Southeast Asian enterprises. The findings offer policymakers, managers, and other stakeholders in emerging markets valuable insights for developing more realistic methods for ESG integration. While ESG activities have received global attention, businesses should not rely entirely on ESG performance to improve their results. ESG efforts require proper resource allocation and strategic implementation to yield meaningful results