Financial constraints of ASEAN firms: impact alleviation by ESG pillars

The purpose of this study is to examine whether ESG plays a positive moderating role in the negative relationship between financial constraint, the Kaplan-Zingales (KZ) and Whited and Wu (WW) indexes, and f irm performance: Return of Asset (ROA) and Return of Equity (ROE). This study uses informatio...

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Main Authors: Ng, Yee Ling, Lau, Wei Theng, Soh, Wei Ni, Ab Razak, Nazrul Hisyam
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Conscientia Beam 2024
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/114681/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/114681/1/114681.pdf
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author Ng, Yee Ling
Lau, Wei Theng
Soh, Wei Ni
Ab Razak, Nazrul Hisyam
author_facet Ng, Yee Ling
Lau, Wei Theng
Soh, Wei Ni
Ab Razak, Nazrul Hisyam
author_sort Ng, Yee Ling
building UPM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The purpose of this study is to examine whether ESG plays a positive moderating role in the negative relationship between financial constraint, the Kaplan-Zingales (KZ) and Whited and Wu (WW) indexes, and f irm performance: Return of Asset (ROA) and Return of Equity (ROE). This study uses information from the Thomas Refinitiv database, which covers the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN-5): Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Tha iland, and the Philippines non-financial firms from 2011 to 2019. Fixed-effects (FE) are used as the baseline model, and random-effects (RE) act as the robustness of methods. The results show that the main effect of financial constra ints is to a ct as an obstacle to firm performance. However, the marginal effects of financial constra ints can be improved in the presence of ESG. Firms with a high ESG score are better at alleviating the adverse impact of f inancial constraints as compared to those with a low ESG score. When the ESG score is further broken down into three sub-pillar dimensions, the S-score is of the greatest magnitude in its moderating role in the ESG breakdown. The findings have important implications: effective financial support and the source of funding from the government are crucial to supporting firm performance. ESG-compliant strategies should also be formulated to encourage ESG disclosure, which leads to increased capital allocation efficiency. The firms should be stringent on S-score, which helps drive the company a s employees respond by giving their best. Governments and firms need to deploy ESG guidelines in order to succeed in thriving competitive firm performances.
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spelling upm-1146812025-01-23T01:57:06Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/114681/ Financial constraints of ASEAN firms: impact alleviation by ESG pillars Ng, Yee Ling Lau, Wei Theng Soh, Wei Ni Ab Razak, Nazrul Hisyam The purpose of this study is to examine whether ESG plays a positive moderating role in the negative relationship between financial constraint, the Kaplan-Zingales (KZ) and Whited and Wu (WW) indexes, and f irm performance: Return of Asset (ROA) and Return of Equity (ROE). This study uses information from the Thomas Refinitiv database, which covers the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN-5): Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Tha iland, and the Philippines non-financial firms from 2011 to 2019. Fixed-effects (FE) are used as the baseline model, and random-effects (RE) act as the robustness of methods. The results show that the main effect of financial constra ints is to a ct as an obstacle to firm performance. However, the marginal effects of financial constra ints can be improved in the presence of ESG. Firms with a high ESG score are better at alleviating the adverse impact of f inancial constraints as compared to those with a low ESG score. When the ESG score is further broken down into three sub-pillar dimensions, the S-score is of the greatest magnitude in its moderating role in the ESG breakdown. The findings have important implications: effective financial support and the source of funding from the government are crucial to supporting firm performance. ESG-compliant strategies should also be formulated to encourage ESG disclosure, which leads to increased capital allocation efficiency. The firms should be stringent on S-score, which helps drive the company a s employees respond by giving their best. Governments and firms need to deploy ESG guidelines in order to succeed in thriving competitive firm performances. Conscientia Beam 2024-04-26 Article PeerReviewed text en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/114681/1/114681.pdf Ng, Yee Ling and Lau, Wei Theng and Soh, Wei Ni and Ab Razak, Nazrul Hisyam (2024) Financial constraints of ASEAN firms: impact alleviation by ESG pillars. Economics and Finance Letters, 11 (2). pp. 126-145. ISSN 2312-6310; eISSN: 2312-430X https://archive.conscientiabeam.com/index.php/29/article/view/3738 10.18488/29.v11i2.3738
spellingShingle Ng, Yee Ling
Lau, Wei Theng
Soh, Wei Ni
Ab Razak, Nazrul Hisyam
Financial constraints of ASEAN firms: impact alleviation by ESG pillars
title Financial constraints of ASEAN firms: impact alleviation by ESG pillars
title_full Financial constraints of ASEAN firms: impact alleviation by ESG pillars
title_fullStr Financial constraints of ASEAN firms: impact alleviation by ESG pillars
title_full_unstemmed Financial constraints of ASEAN firms: impact alleviation by ESG pillars
title_short Financial constraints of ASEAN firms: impact alleviation by ESG pillars
title_sort financial constraints of asean firms: impact alleviation by esg pillars
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/114681/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/114681/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/114681/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/114681/1/114681.pdf