CERGAS Seminar "Examining the relationship among ESG performance, debt financing, and R&D output: evidence from the healthcare sector."

This study is motivated by the growing attention to sustainability issues and the potential role that environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance may play in enhancing R&D output in the healthcare sector. Based on an integrated theoretical framework that encompasses stakeholder, resource-based, and agency perspectives, this study offers a more profound understanding of whether and how ESG performance stimulates R&D output through the mediating and moderating role of debt financing. Using panel datasets from healthcare firms in Europe and the US for the period 2016–2022, we employ ordinary least squares, instrumental variables, and system generalized method of moments regressions to test our research hypotheses. Our results show the significant positive and (negative) effects of ESG performance and (debt financing) on R&D output. We find that debt financing plays a partial intermediary role in driving the ESG performance and R&D output relationship. Further, we identify a negative and significant moderating effect of debt financing, weakening the positive impact of ESG performance on R&D output. Our results are robust to alternative variable measurements and econometric models to address endogeneity concerns. Our findings offer valuable theoretical and practical insights for improving the debt financing mechanism through which ESG performance affects R&D output.

Speaker:

Sarmad Ali is a post-doc researcher at SDA Bocconi School of Management, Bocconi University in Milan (Italy). He is currently associated with the Centre for Research on Health and Social Care Management (CERGAS) under the Hi-Prix Project. He earned his PhD in Accounting, Management, and Business Economics (AMBE) from the Department of Management and Business Administration, University of Chieti-Pescara (Italy). He has been a visiting researcher at Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). His research topics include sustainable finance, strategic management, capital structure, and corporate governance. He has published articles in international and national peer-reviewed academic journals, such as the Journal of Sustainable Finance and Investment, EuroMed Journal of Business, Managerial Finance, Journal of Risk and Financial Management, and Economia Aziendale Online.

Link zoom:

https://unibocconi-it.zoom.us/j/98788417769?pwd=CzcivJDmoYaeSKmJ9HnLkbOD8P67SO.1

Meeting ID: 987 8841 7769

Passcode: 697314

Lunch at the end of the meeting: for those willing to participate in person, click here before the 30th of October.