The mediating role of ESG: Managers' moral cognition can improve corporate performance

Abstract This study explores the influence mechanism among managers' moral cognition (MC), environmental, social and governance (ESG) and financial performance. Based on the sample of A‐shares listed companies in China from 2010 to 2021, the text mining method was used to construct the indicators of MC so as to conduct empirical tests. The results show that MC is positively correlated with financial performance, and ESG plays a mediating role in this relationship. The heterogeneity test demonstrates that the positive effect of MC on financial performance is most obvious in the heavily polluting companies, while it is weak in the companies with high asset turnover.