Against the backdrop of great uncertainties in the global economy and the growing attention to the concept of sustainable development, the ESG evaluation system, which integrates corporate social responsibility, environmental management, corporate governance structure and other factors, has gradually become an important criterion for investors to judge a company. Although scholars have conducted extensive research on the impact of ESG ratings on corporate profitability, few studies have explored their role in corporate resilience. Taking A-share listed companies trading on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2009 to 2023 as samples, this paper uses empirical analysis to examine the impact of divergent ESG ratings on corporate resilience and the underlying mechanism. The results show that greater discrepancies in ESG ratings are associated with weaker corporate ability to resist external adverse events and hinder corporate long-term development planning. Such negative effects are mainly reflected in higher financing costs, irrational resource allocation and inappropriate earnings management. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the impact is more pronounced in small enterprises, firms audited by high-quality audit institutions, and companies with a high proportion of institutional investors with large shareholdings. This paper not only enriches the research on the economic consequences of ESG rating disagreements and their impact on corporate resilience, but also provides useful references for enterprises to enhance their own resilience and improve the ESG evaluation system.

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With the in-depth implementation of the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality strategy, exploring how enterprise digitalization drives green innovation is of great value for promoting high-quality economic development. Taking China's A-share listed enterprises from 2010 to 2022 as samples, this study examines the influence path of enterprise digital transformation on their green innovation performance. The study finds that the degree of digitalization has a significant enhancement effect on green innovation output. Mechanism analysis shows that digital transformation internally relies on increasing corporate R&D investment and reducing agency costs, and externally attracts the attention of securities analysts through external channels, thereby improving enterprises' green innovation capability. The results of heterogeneity grouping analysis show that this driving effect is more prominent in eastern and western regions of China, non-heavy-pollution enterprises and high-tech industries.

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This paper examines whether abnormal retail investor attention on Guba, one of the major Chinese stock message-board platforms, can predict future stock volatility. Using Datago and CSMAR data, this study builds a firm-week panel of China's A-share market from 2013 to 2023. The main explanatory variable is an abnormal message-board attention index, which is measured by comparing current log posting volume with the median log posting volume over the previous eight weeks. Based on two-way fixed effect regressions, the empirical results show that abnormal Guba attention is significantly related to higher realized volatility in the following week, after controlling for firm characteristics and firm and time fixed effects. The estimated effect is moderate in size, but it still has clear economic significance. Specifically, a one-standard-deviation increase in abnormal attention is associated with an increase in next-week volatility of about 1.7% of the sample mean. Further dynamic tests show that the effect is mainly short-lived. The coefficient turns negative from weeks t+2 to t+4, indicating that the volatility response is more likely to come from transient price pressure rather than a persistent fundamental-information channel. Mechanism tests suggest that trading activity is an important transmission path. The heterogeneity analysis further identifies an activity paradox: low-turnover stocks react more strongly to attention shocks than high-turnover stocks. In addition, the sentiment decomposition results show that negative abnormal attention is more closely related to downside volatility, while the link between positive attention and upside volatility is relatively weaker.

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This paper asks whether long-horizon, strategically committed equity—what is termed patient capital—helps firms keep their supply chains intact under stress, and if so, through what route. Working with a panel of Chinese A-share firms listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen over 2020–2024, a composite gauge of patient capital is built out of strategic equity participation and its bearing on firm-level supply chain resilience is estimated. Identification leans on an OLS model that nets out province and year heterogeneity through fixed effects, paired with a mediation step that situates ESG on the transmission path. The estimates tell a consistent story: patient capital raises resilience by a statistically reliable margin; with covariates and the two layers of fixed effects partialled out, ESG is found to relay part—but not the whole—of that influence; and the pattern is unmoved by the richer controls. The evidence is read as showing that a steady, value-oriented supply of long-term capital eases the near-term funding squeeze that resilience-building entails and, by raising governance quality and sustainability capacity, leaves firms better braced against external shocks. The paper accordingly contributes micro-level evidence on how patient capital feeds through to the durability of corporate supply chains.

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