ESG investing and pollution outsourcing (Yan et al., 2026) | FT50 SMJ

<p>English Podcast Starts at 00:00:00</p><p>Bengali Podcast Starts at 00:42:58</p><p>Hindi Podcast Starts at 01:05:22</p><p>Danish Podcast Starts at 01:18:51</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Reference</strong></p><p>Yan, S., Zhang, F., &amp; Li, Z. (2026). ESG investing and pollution outsourcing. Strategic Management Journal, 1–36. <strong>https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.70115</strong></p><p><br></p><p>‌</p><p>‌Youtube Channel</p><p>⁠https://www.youtube.com/@weekendresearcher⁠</p><p>Podcast Website</p><p>https://mayukhmukhopadhyay.com/reviseandresubmit</p><p>AOM SIM Curriculum Committee</p><p>https://sim.aom.org/curriculum/curriculum-committee</p><p>AOM SIM-Bytes Curriculum Lessons</p><p>https://sim.aom.org/curriculum/simbytes</p><p><br></p><p>🎙️🔎 <strong>Welcome to </strong><em><strong>Revise and Resubmit</strong></em><strong>!</strong></p><p>Today, I want to take you into a rather intriguing corner of the world of corporate sustainability, where appearances can be deceiving and the most important clue may be hiding somewhere just beyond the obvious. 🌍🕵️‍♂️</p><p>Our paper today is titled <strong>“ESG Investing and Pollution Outsourcing”</strong>, by <strong>Shipeng Yan, Fan Zhang, and Zhengyu Li</strong>, published online on <strong>3 August 2026</strong> in the <strong>Strategic Management Journal</strong>, a highly prestigious academic journal and proudly part of the <strong>FT50 journal list</strong>. 📚🏆 The paper is published by <strong>John Wiley &amp; Sons Ltd.</strong></p><p>Now, ESG investing has often been presented as a powerful new force for corporate accountability. The logic seems straightforward. Investors care about environmental performance, so companies should have every reason to become cleaner, greener, and more responsible. 🌱💰</p><p>But as I began exploring this study, I found myself drawn to a rather more curious possibility.</p><p>What if the pollution does not disappear?</p><p>What if it simply moves?</p><p>Using global firm data covering <strong>2006 to 2019</strong>, Yan, Zhang, and Li investigate whether companies facing pressure from ESG investors might reduce pollution within their own operations while quietly shifting some of that environmental burden onto suppliers. The result is a fascinating and uncomfortable puzzle: a company may appear cleaner on paper, while the pollution associated with producing its goods remains much the same. 🔍🏭</p><p>The authors describe this as a sophisticated form of corporate decoupling. And the story becomes even more interesting when we look at the conditions under which this behaviour weakens. ESG investors can sometimes make a genuine difference when they provide access to green technologies or when they have greater visibility into the environmental practices of suppliers.</p><p>In other words, perhaps the real test of ESG is not simply asking, <strong>“Is this company cleaner?”</strong> 🌿</p><p>Perhaps we should ask, <strong>“Where did the dirt go?”</strong></p><p>That question takes us beyond corporate reports and sustainability promises, into the complicated world of supply chains, incentives, institutional pressure, and the curious ways organisations respond when someone is watching. 🧩📊</p><p>❓ <strong>So, if a company becomes greener only because the pollution has been moved somewhere we cannot easily see, are ESG investors really changing corporate behaviour, or merely changing the appearance of it?</strong></p><p>🙏 My sincere thanks to <strong>Shipeng Yan, Fan Zhang, and Zhengyu Li</strong>, and to <strong>John Wiley &amp; Sons Ltd.</strong> for bringing this important research to the academic community.</p><p>🎧 If you enjoy <em>Revise and Resubmit</em>, please subscribe to <strong>Revise and Resubmit</strong> on <strong>Spotify</strong> and to <strong>Weekend Researcher</strong> on <strong>YouTube</strong>. 📺 You can also find the podcast on <strong>Amazon Prime</strong> and <strong>Apple Podcasts</strong>.</p><p>🌍 Until next time, keep questioning