连锁董事网络会提升企业ESG绩效吗？

吕英，谷晓雪

（兰州理工大学 经济管理学院，甘肃 兰州 730000）

摘要：为响应国家“双碳”目标和可持续发展的要求，ESG绩效的提升已成为企业经营和发展的重要任务。为深入了解企业ESG绩效的驱动因素，本文基于资源依赖理论和社会网络理论，以2009—2023年沪深A股上市公司为研究样本，实证分析连锁董事网络对企业ESG绩效的影响路径。研究结果表明：（1）连锁董事网络能够改善企业ESG绩效，该研究结论在控制内生性及进行一系列稳健性检验后依然成立；（2）连锁董事网络通过资源溢出、协同和监督效应直接促进企业ESG绩效的提升；（3）在间接影响路径中，开放式创新构成连锁董事网络影响企业ESG绩效的机制变量；（4）公司治理和媒体关注程度均能加强连锁董事网络对企业ESG绩效的提升作用；（5）异质性分析显示，在所处行业集中度较高的企业和非国有企业中，连锁董事网络对企业ESG绩效的促进效果更明显。研究结论为加强连锁董事网络的综合治理效应以及提升企业ESG绩效提供了重要参考。

基金项目：甘肃省中青年科技基金项目“绿色投资对甘肃省环境绩效的影响机制研究”（22JR5RA310）；甘肃省自然科学基金项目“强工业”视阈下甘肃新质生产力发展路径组态研究（24JRRA740）

关键词：连锁董事网络；企业ESG绩效；开放式创新；资源溢出；协同效应；监督效应

作者简介：吕英，兰州理工大学经济管理学院教授；谷晓雪，兰州理工大学经济管理学院硕士研究生。

引用格式：吕英,谷晓雪.连锁董事网络会提升企业ESG绩效吗?[J].首都经济贸易大学学报,2026,28(1):102-114.

Can an Interlocking Director Network Enhance Corporate ESG Performance?

LV Ying, GU Xiaoxue

(Lanzhou University of Technology，Lanzhou 730000)

Abstract: In response to the national “dual carbon” goals and the requirements of sustainable development, enhancing ESG performance has become a crucial task for corporate operations and development. The interlocking director network, as an important cross-enterprise information and resource channel, has increasingly attracted attention for its impact on corporate governance and strategic performance. Therefore, exploring the economic consequences of the interlocking director network on corporate ESG performance and its mechanism is of significant reference value for enhancing corporate ESG performance and comprehensively understanding the role of interlocking directors in enterprises.

Drawing on resource dependence and social network theory, this paper develops a model of the interlocking director network's role. Taking the A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2023 as the research sample, it empirically analyzes how the interlocking director network influences ESG performance, and examines the moderating effects of corporate governance and media attention.

The research results are as follows. First, the interlocking director network drives corporate ESG performance through a “direct-indirect” dual path. The direct influence path is reflected in the resource spillover, synergy, and supervision effects resulting from the structural embeddedness of the interlocking director network, while the indirect influence path identifies the core mediating role of open innovation, forming a complete transmission chain of “network-behavior-performance”. Second, it confirms the dual regulatory framework of “internal governance-external attention”. Good corporate governance and high-intensity media attention jointly enhance the promoting effect of the interlocking director network on ESG. Third, the heterogeneity analysis reveals the contextual constraints of institutional logic and market structure on network effects. In the context of non-state-owned enterprises or high industry concentration, enterprises are more dependent on the interlocking director network and other informal social mechanisms to obtain scarce resources and fill institutional gaps, highlighting the strategic value of the interlocking director network as an “institutional substitute” or a “resource bridge”.

This paper makes the following contributions. First, it reveals the mechanism by which the interlocking director network drives corporate ESG performance through resource spillover, synergy, and supervision effects. It further examines the performance of this mechanism under the differences in industry concentration and China's property rights system. Second, it reveals the mediating role of open innovation in the relationship between the interlocking director network and corporate ESG performance, filling the research gap regarding the mechanism of open innovation in the interlocking director network research. Third, it introduces a dual governance regulatory framework and explores the differences in the impact of the interlocking director network on corporate ESG performance from the perspectives of internal governance and external governance, to reveal the boundary conditions of the governance effect of the interlocking director network.

Keywords: interlocking director network; corporate ESG performance; open innovation resource spillover; synergy effect; supervision effects

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