How does the type of consumer market (discretionary vs staples) impact the relationship between ESG performance and financial performance, and how does this difference vary across countries with different levels of media press freedom?
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- This thesis examines whether consumer market type (Consumer Discretionary vs. Consumer Staples) moderates the ESG–CFP relationship, and whether this moderation is amplified by country-level press freedom. Two hypotheses are tested on a panel of 1,006 publicly listed firms across 45 countries (2015–2024), using two-way fixed-effects panel OLS with ROA and Tobin's Q as dependent variables. H1, that the ESG–CFP association is stronger in discretionary than in staples markets, is not supported. H2, that press freedom amplifies this relationship more strongly in discretionary markets, is supported. The ESG × press freedom interaction is positive and significant in the consumer discretionary subsample for both ROA (β = 0.012, p = 0.009) and Tobin's Q (β = 0.003, p = 0.038), and insignificant in consumer staples. This finding holds under a one-year lagged ESG specification. The results suggest that press freedom plays a central conditioning role for ESG investment to generate financial returns in consumer-facing discretionary markets.