Nowadays, the relationship between government and enterprises is prevalent around the world, particularly in China, where this relationship has had a profound impact on the operation and development of enterprises. With the advancement of China's "dual carbon" goals, the concept of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) has gradually become an important measure of sustainable development for enterprises, and the ESG performance of enterprises is also reflected in their corporate value. However, whether enterprises can reasonably apply the resources brought by political connections to ESG practices, thereby affecting corporate value, has not been deeply explored in academia. Therefore, this paper selects A-share listed companies in China from 2015 to 2022 as samples and constructs a logical chain of "political connections - ESG rating - corporate value" based on upper echelon theory, rent-seeking theory, imprinting theory and cost-benefit theory, aiming to reveal the impact mechanism of political connections on corporate value, explore the mediating role of ESG ratings, and examine the differences in their effects under different ownership structures and levels of political connections.
The results indicate that political connections have a significant negative impact on corporate value, particularly in non-state-owned enterprises and those with lower levels of government-enterprise relationships, where this negative impact is more pronounced. However, in state-owned enterprises and those with provincial-level or higher government-enterprise relationships, the negative impact on corporate value is weakened, and even a positive effect may occur. Furthermore, this paper further verifies the mediating role of ESG ratings between political connections and corporate value: whether in the full sample or in grouped samples, political connections have a significant positive impact on ESG ratings, indicating that executives with political backgrounds are more inclined to promote ESG development. However, the short-term impact of ESG ratings on corporate value is negative, suggesting that enterprises may face high cost pressures in the process of improving ESG performance, thereby negatively affecting current corporate value. Also, group regression analysis reveals that this mediating effect holds true in non-state-owned enterprises and companies with lower levels of government-enterprise relationships. Based on the research results, this paper suggests that the government should strengthen the regulation of political connections to ensure the reasonable allocation of resources, and promote the unification of ESG rating standards. Besides, enterprises should optimize their governance structures, reduce reliance on political connections, and enhance their core competitiveness to ensure the long-term benefits of ESG practices. This research provides a new perspective for understanding the impact path of political connections on corporate value and offers empirical evidence for corporate decision-making in the context of sustainable development.