Since the Industrial Revolution, productivity and production technology have developed rapidly. Meanwhile, the environmental, climate and resource crisis has become increasingly prominent. Since the 18th CPC National Congress incorporated ecological civilization construction into the overall layout of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the concept of green development and sustainable development has become a new trend of current economic development. All sectors of society have shown unprecedented attention to environmental pollution control, social responsibility fulfilment and internal governance of enterprises. ESG is a non-financial enterprise evaluation system focusing on the environment, society and governance, which serves as a systematic methodology to promote the sustainable development of enterprises. lt promotes enterprises from the single pursuit of their own interests to pursue the maximization of the social value, which is both the core framework and internal requirements for enterprises to pursue green development. It is an important starting point for promoting high-quality economic development. Previous studies on goodwill are mostly limited to the perspectives of the merger parties, the management and the internal governance mechanism of companies. In addition, there are few publications on the influence of external information flow on the pricing decision of the merger parties. As a carrier of information dissemination, the academic community mainly discusses the media and regulatory role of the media in information disclosure, suggesting that the information dissemination function of the media has largely improved the information asymmetry between shareholders and executives. Also, the corporate governance function of the media has gradually emerged through the play of the media's public opinion guidance and supervision functions.
This research project focuses on 96 Chinese A-share listed enterprises from 2015 to 2019. The project applies the fixed effect model to analyze the structural relationship between environmental activities (E), corporate social responsibility activities (S), corporate governance assistance activities (G), media exposure, management rights and corporate financial performance, especially from the relationship between ESG activities and corporate financial performance. Both the moderating effect of media exposure and management right and the role of media are analyzed. The dual difference (DID) model is used to verify the robustness of the model. The results show that positive media attention has a significant positive moderating effect on the relationship between environmental activities, corporate governance structure and corporate financial performance. Comprehensive media attention has a significant positive moderating effect on the relationship between environmental activities, corporate governance structure and corporate financial performance. Goodwill plays a positive mediating role in environmental activities and corporate financial performance. In the long run, in the case of the one-year time difference, environmental activities, corporate social responsibility activities and corporate governance structure activities in negative media exposure all have a significant defining impact on corporate financial performance. Extensive media exposure shows that both corporate social responsibility activities and corporate governance structure activities significantly impact corporate financial performance.
Enterprises' investment in ESG began to develop initial effects. With the investment in ESG, more and more consumers began to pay attention to enterprises, while the consumer market of enterprises was constantly expanding. As enterprises continue to invest in ESG for a long time period, the initial investment cost is gradually transformed into benefits. Enterprises' sustained environmental investment, social responsibility and corporate governance structure strategy can establish a good profile of enterprises, gradually improve their profitability and competitive advantages, and lay the foundation for the sustainable development of enterprises in the future. As a long-term investment, ESG will have a particular impact on the main business of an enterprise at a specific stage. Still, in the long run, ESG and the results of all levels are of great significance to the growth and development of an enterprise. On the premise of meeting consumer expectations and responsibilities, it is beneficial to the improvement of enterprise value and enterprise performance.