ESG Risk Management and Financial Performance: Insights from S&P 500 Companies’ ESG Risk Ratings
By: Delia IACOB and Paul Cristian DONOIU
References
- Chen, S., Song, Y., & Gao, P. (2023). Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and financial outcomes: Analyzing the impact of ESG on financial performance. Journal of Environmental Management, 345, 118829.
- Yang, S. S., Huang, J.-W., Chen, H.-Y., & Tsay, M.-H. (2025). Detecting corporate ESG performance: The role of ESG materiality in corporate financial performance and risks. North American Journal of Economics and Finance, 76, 102370.
- Wang, M., Liu, L., & Liang, T. (2025). Does the ESG disclosure quality affect financial performance? Empirical evidence from Chinese energy-listed companies. Finance Research Letters, 77, 107118.
- Nikolaou, I., Evangelinos, K., & Leal Filho, W. (2015). A system dynamic approach for exploring the effects of climate change risks on firms’ economic performance. Journal of Cleaner Production, 103, 499–506.
- Luan, L., Wang, J., Guo, K., & Ji, Q. (2022). Climate risk and enterprise performance – Micro-evidence from Chinese A-share listed companies. Procedia Computer Science, 214, 983-990.
- Ding, L., Cui, Z., & Li, J. (2024). Risk management and corporate ESG performance: The mediating effect of financial performance. Finance Research Letters, 69, 106274.
- Carvalho, P. V., Falcão, P. F., Pinheiro, C. M., & Carrão, D. (2026). Revisiting ESG performance: Do high scores translate to higher returns? A risk-adjusted analysis of S&P 500 portfolios. Finance Research Letters, 77, 109467 (in press).
- Chang, R., Liu, X., & Deng, W. (2025). Prediction of corporate default risk considering ESG performance and unbalanced samples. Applied Soft Computing, 171, 112864.
- Shrestha, C., Andrikopoulos, P., & Park, J. S. (2025). ESG rating and financial performance in the emerging markets: The moderating effects of cross-listing and industry type. Research in International Business and Finance, 77, 102916.
- Parashara, M., Jaiswal, R., & Sharma, M. (2024). An empirical analysis of ESG and financial performance of clean energy companies through unsupervised machine learning. Procedia Computer Science, 241, 330–337.
- Stock Analysis. (2024). S&P 500 companies. https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/
- Sustainalytics. (2025). ESG Risk Rating. https://www.sustainalytics.com/corporate-solutions/esg-solutions/esg-risk-ratings
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/picbe-2026-0340 | Journal eISSN: 2558-9652
Language: English
Page range: 4635 - 4646
Published on: Jul 22, 2026
Published by: Bucharest University of Economic Studies
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 issue per year
Keywords:
Related subjects:
© 2026 Delia IACOB, Paul Cristian DONOIU, published by Bucharest University of Economic Studies
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.