Digital inclusive finance and corporate ESG performance: The moderating role of executives with financial backgrounds

Utilizing empirical data from A-share listed corporations on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges of China between 2011 and 2021. It empirically examines the impact of digital in-clusive finance (DIF) on corporate ESG performance and explores the mediating function of ex-ecutives with financial backgrounds. The research findings are below: (1) DIF considerably improves corporate ESG performance, consistently validated across a spectrum of robustness tests; (2) DIF's beneficial impact on business ESG performance is reduced by the influence of executives with financial backgrounds (3) The positive influence on corporate ESG performance is particularly evident for mid-western enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises.