Weak ESG Performance Links Under ASEAN Governance Quality

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides empirical evidence on ESG-performance link in ASEAN with governance moderation, useful for comparative institutional studies.

🏢実務担当者:Suggests that in ASEAN, ESG disclosure alone may not boost financial metrics; strategic integration and long-term commitment are needed.

🏛政策担当者:Indicates that improving governance quality and regulatory enforcement is crucial for ESG to influence corporate performance.

General Background: Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices have become increasingly important in corporate sustainability and accountability discussions, particularly in environmentally sensitive industries. Specific Background: ASEAN companies in the energy and basic materials sectors have gradually adopted ESG disclosure and sustainability reporting following rising regulatory and stakeholder expectations between 2020 and 2024. Knowledge Gap: Previous studies have produced inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between ESG ratings and corporate performance, while cross-country institutional governance factors in ASEAN remain underexplored. Aims: This study investigates the relationship between ESG ratings and corporate performance measured by Return on Assets (ROA) and Tobin’s Q, while examining the moderating role of Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) in ASEAN countries. Results: Using panel data regression on 26 companies from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, the findings show that ESG ratings did not positively affect ROA or Tobin’s Q. The results further reveal that WGI did not moderate the relationship between ESG and either financial or market performance. These findings indicate that ESG implementation and disclosure in ASEAN remain at an early stage and have not yet been fully reflected in corporate financial outcomes or market valuation. Novelty: This study integrates cross-country governance quality into the ESG–corporate performance framework within the ASEAN context, particularly in environmentally sensitive industries. Implications: The findings suggest that ESG implementation in ASEAN requires stronger institutional support, long-term strategic integration, and more mature regulatory environments to contribute to sustainable corporate value creation. Highlights: Sustainability disclosure showed no positive association with profitability indicators in ASEAN energy and basic materials firms. National institutional quality failed to strengthen the relationship between non-financial practices and market valuation. Regional sustainability adoption remains transitional and has not been fully incorporated into investor assessment mechanisms. Keywords: ASEAN, Tobin’s Q, WGI

• semanticscholar https://doi.org/10.21070/acopen.11.2026.14306first seen 2026-06-05 05:28:30 · last seen 2026-06-15 05:27:00