Author(s)

Jyh-Harng Shyng ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Life Sciences College, Zhaoqing University, Zhaoqing, Guangdong, China

Corresponding Author

Jyh-Harng Shyng

ABSTRACT

Amid China's rural revitalization and common prosperity strategies, the "Thousands of Enterprises Assist Thousands of Towns" policy mobilizes market players to support rural areas. However, current CSR studies lack a dedicated ESG evaluation system for such policy-led corporate aid and seldom examine its internal mechanisms and industrial spillovers. Grounded in stakeholder theory and the resource-based view, this research collects questionnaire data from 170 participating enterprises in Zhaoqing. It establishes an ESG scale covering corporate green investment, rural social development and village governance, and applies PLS-SEM to examine main, moderating, mediating and heterogeneous effects. The empirical results indicate comprehensive corporate ESG input significantly raises assistance intensity; rural institutional environments positively moderate this relationship, and aid intensity generates industrial spillovers through village-industry linkages. Heterogeneity analysis finds manufacturers and enterprises with more than three years of assistance achieve higher resource conversion and industrial driving efficiency. This study enriches localized ESG-CSR research on policy-oriented rural support and puts forward differentiated ESG schemes for enterprises and targeted incentive policies for local governments.

KEYWORDS

Thousands of Enterprises Assist Thousands of Towns; Corporate Assistance Intensity; ESG; PLS-SEM; Industrial Spillover; Corporate Social Responsibility

CITE THIS PAPER

Jyh-Harng Shyng. Driving Mechanisms and Industrial Spillover Effects of Corporate Assistance under the ESG Framework: Evidence from the "Thousands of Enterprises Assist Thousands of Towns" Policy. Industrial Engineering and Innovation Management (2026). Vol. 9, No.1, 79-85. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/ieim.2026.090108.

REFERENCES

[1] LI;YI LI D G. Government cooperation, market integration, and energy efficiency in urban agglomerations—Based on the quasi-natural experiment of the Yangtze River Delta Urban Economic Coordination Committee[J/OL]. Energy & Environment, 2021. DOI:10.1177/0958305x211047480. 
[2] YEH;HUI-CHENG YU L K. Disclosure of Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management: Evidence from China[J/OL]. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 2012. DOI:10.1002/csr.274. 
[3] CHANG T W, YEH Y L, LI H X. How to Shape an Organization's Sustainable Green Management Performance: The Mediation Effect of Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility[J/OL]. Sustainability, 2020. DOI:10.3390/su12219198. 
[4] MORENO-MONDEJAR L, CUERVA M C. Fostering investment in resource efficiency actions: the case of European SMEs[J/OL]. Energy Efficiency, 2020, 13(7): 1329-1351. DOI:10.1007/s12053-020-09888-y. 
[5] SUN J, ZHANG C, WANG B. Consolidating poverty alleviation and rural revitalization from the perspective of industrial assistance: China[J/OL]. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 2025, 9. DOI:10.3389/fsufs.2025.1419410. 
[6] ATMIKO W, SMAOUI H, HENDRANASTITI N. Competing Institutional Logics in Corporate ESG: Evidence From Developing Countries[J/OL]. Business Strategy and the Environment, 2025, 34(5): 6184-6209. DOI:10.1002/bse.4283. 
[7] LIU Z, CHEN L, JIANG H, et al. Corporate innovation and ESG performance: The role of government subsidies[J/OL]. Journal of Cleaner Production, 2025, 498: 145209. DOI:10.1016/j.jclepro.2025.145209. 
[8] ROWE A, NOWAK M, QUADDUS M, et al. Stakeholder Engagement and Sustainable Corporate Community Investment[J/OL]. Business Strategy and the Environment, 2014. DOI:10.1002/bse.1796. 
[9] WANG K B S N. Corporations' ESG for Sustainable Investment in China: The Moderating Role of Regional Marketization[J/OL]. Sustainability, 2023. DOI:10.3390/su15042905. 
[10] QUINN B, MCKITTERICK L, TREGEAR A, et al. Trust in the programme: An exploration of trust dynamics within rural group-based support programmes[J/OL]. Journal of Rural Studies, 2021, 88: 326-336. DOI:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.08.010. 
[11] LI F, LIU J, LIU H. Institutions empowerment for sustainability: ESG performance and enterprise green innovation—Evidence from China[J/OL]. Journal of Environmental Management, 2025, 388: 125947. DOI:10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.125947. 
[12] DENG X, LONG X, SCHULER D A, et al. External corporate social responsibility and labor productivity: A S-curve relationship and the moderating role of internal CSR and government subsidy[J/OL]. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 2019, 27(1): 393-408. DOI:10.1002/csr.1877. 
[13] ZHANG W, ZHAO Y, MENG F. ESG performance and green innovation of Chinese enterprises: Based on the perspective of financing constraints[J/OL]. Journal of Environmental Management, 2024, 370: 122955. DOI:10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.122955. 
[14] KARMAN A, PROKOP V, JABBOUR A B L D S. Circular economy practices as a shield for the long-term organisational and network resilience during crisis: Insights from an industrial symbiosis[J/OL]. Journal of Cleaner Production, 2024, 466: 142822. DOI:10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.142822. 

Sponsors, Associates, and Links

---

• Information Systems and Economics
  
  
• Accounting, Auditing and Finance
  
  
• Tourism Management and Technology Economy
  
  
• Journal of Computational and Financial Econometrics
  
  
• Financial Engineering and Risk Management
  
  
• Accounting and Corporate Management
  
  
• Social Security and Administration Management
  
  
• Population, Resources & Environmental Economics
  
  
• Statistics & Quantitative Economics
  
  
• Agricultural & Forestry Economics and Management
  
  
• Social Medicine and Health Management
  
  
• Land Resource Management
  
  
• Information, Library and Archival Science
  
  
• Journal of Human Resource Development
  
  
• Manufacturing and Service Operations Management
  
  
• Operational Research and Cybernetics