The Nexus Between Green Finance, Sustainability Innovation, And Corporate Financial Performance: Empirical Evidence From Nifty 100 Companies

Authors: R Srinivasan, M Mithun Kanth, Suriya N, Pradhappriyan S, Harish M, Professor Dr. Thiruchelvi

Abstract: This study aims at exploring the impact of the GF allocation on the financial performance of Nifty 100 listed firms in India in the fiscal year 2023-2024. Based on the stakeholder theory perspective, the study attempts to find out the nature of the link between GF allocation and financial performance by considering SI as the mediating variable and firm size as a moderating boundary condition. The study utilizes secondary data of 100 large-cap firms of India, collected from the audited financial statements, SEBI BRSR guidelines, and Climate Bond Initiative (CBI) India registry. Hierarchical ordinary least squares regression, Baron and Kenny's mediation model, Sobel test, and 2,000 iteration bootstrap are used for statistical analysis. The results indicate that GF allocation positively influences ROA with an additional explained variance of 15.44% beyond the influence of control variables (ΔR² = 0.154, p < 0.001). However, sustainability innovation does not play a mediating role between GF allocation and ROA because the confidence interval of the indirect effect overlaps zero, and hence the null hypothesis is accepted.. The size of the firm emerged as an important negative predictor of ROA, but the interaction of green finance with the firm size was insignificant, implying that being a large-sized firm does not necessarily mean that green capital leads to improved innovation or performance results. One of the more interesting results obtained in the analysis was that firms issuing green bonds had significantly lower average ROA than those firms not issuing green bonds (3.45% and 12.20%, respectively). This is more of a result of the heavy capital and asset requirements of the industries in which green bond issues are frequent, rather than any disadvantage due to green investments. The overall results provide new insights into the burgeoning field of research on green finance in India.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20103120