Hanwen Sun

Hanwen Sun is an associate professor of finance at the University of Bath School of Management. Her research interests mainly lie in the areas of corporate finance and capital market, with a special focus on the topics of insider trading, short selling, institutional investors, corporate innovation, and ESG issues.

Market Competition Hurts Firm’s ESG Performance

New research by Vesa Pursiainen, Hanwen Sun and Yue Xiang finds that competition hurts corporate incentives to fulfill environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. Firms facing more competitive pressure have worse ESG scores, in particular when the firms have short-term-oriented shareholders. However, firms located in areas that are more concerned about climate change appear more willing to sacrifice profits for better ESG performance.

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