The link between ESG and firm performance in healthcare industry: the moderating role of firm age and people awareness

Abstract

This paper examines the link between ESG and firm performance in healthcare industry moderated by firm age and advertising expenses from 2011 to 2020. Firm performance is measured by Tobin’s Q, ROA, ROE and asset turnover. This study finds the evidence that environmental pillar is the most important metric to improve firm value in healthcare equipment & supplies and advertisement helps social and governance pillars to add more value. Biotechnology looks alike, but firm age can moderate environment pillar to increase the value. Moreover, social pillar is the most influential to add firm value for healthcare provider & services and the effect is much better with older firms. Also, advertisement helps environmental pillar to enhance firm value even though its score per se cannot. Correspondingly, advertisement can be a moderator for environmental and governance pillars to add firm value for pharmaceuticals while its ESG subcomponents per se cannot. The conclusions concerning other performance measures (profitability and efficiency) are outlined in the conclusion section. The study provides an opportunity for healthcare industry to leverage ESG for firm performance improvement and presents refined guidelines that employ different firm performance measurements and ESG metrics compared between crisis and non-crisis