A recent paper titled Common Institutional Ownership and Corporate ESG Performance, authored by Professor Dayong Zhang of our school and co-authors Lei Lei and Qiang Ji, has been published in the Economic Research Journal, Issue 4, 2023. Founded in 1955, Economic Research Journal is rated as a top journal in economics in the Chinese Humanities and Social Science Journals AMI Comprehensive Evaluation Report (2022). Its 5‑year composite impact factor and 5‑year general impact factor are 25.491 and 15.663, respectively (with 5‑year cited impact factors of 24.971 and 15.143).

This study constructs a theoretical model incorporating ESG investment to investigate the mechanisms and channels through which common institutional ownership affects corporate ESG performance, and empirically tests the research hypotheses derived from the model. The findings confirm that common institutional ownership exerts a negative effect on corporate ESG engagement in China’s capital market. Specifically, common institutional ownership reduces interfirm competition by enhancing corporate market power, thereby weakening firms’ incentives to improve their ESG performance. This research provides new evidence on how common institutional ownership shapes corporate ESG performance in the Chinese capital market and carries important policy implications for antitrust regulation and the sustainable development of the capital market.