Receiving More Government Subsidies by Improving ESG Performance: A Specification Curve Analysis
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2024-07-08
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en
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This study examines the transparency of the relationship between an organization’s ESG performance and the amount of government subsidies it receives, using a Specification Curve Analysis (SCA). This relationship is based on the political arguments for subsidization, which argues that governments use subsidization as a policy tool to pursue their political and social goals. This relationship was investigated by Zhang et al. (2023). However, this study performs multiple SCAs to examine whether their research findings are steered by certain methodological decisions. The SCA helps to (1) identify potential biases, (2) determine the impact of certain methodological decisions, and (3) identify which variables play an important role in reaching (in)significant results.
Each SCA has 15.488 different model paths, based on the methodological decisions that can be made. Overall, this study finds that there is indeed a positive relationship between an organization’s ESG performance and the amount of government subsidies it receives. Furthermore, the results confirm that the SCA is a well-suited research method for enhancing the transparency of research findings in the field of accounting. This stimulates a broader acceptance of the SCA as a research method in accounting research.
Keywords: Specification Curve Analysis, ESG performance, Government subsidies, Transparency.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen