Abstract: Corporate environment, society and corporate governance (ESG) serve as important approaches to achieve high-quality development, and also strategic choices to accelerate the response to sustainable development at the micro level, hence indispensable dimensions to measure corporate value under the guidance of sustainable development. Based on the sample data of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock exchanges from 2010 to 2022, this paper analyzes the impact of patient capital on the ESG performance of enterprises. The baseline regression results indicate that the intervention of patient capital significantly improves corporate ESG performance by participating in corporate governance, improving the green cognition level of executives, and enhancing the quality of social responsibility information disclosure. The applicable situations of patient capital to enterprise ESG performance, the study finds, are as follows: patient capital mainly acts on the dimensions of environment and social responsibility, instead of that of governance; relational debt capital is the key force to improve ESG, instead of equity capital and its synergistic effect; patient capital has a significant role in promoting ESG of enterprises in non-growth stage, heavy pollution industries and old industrial areas. This means that patient capital should be invested accurately to environmental and social fields in the form of debt, and targeted to specific types of enterprises and regions. Based on this, specific policy formulation should focus on guiding the directional empowerment of patient capital, improving the green debt financing system, strengthening ESG information disclosure, and implementing regional and industrial differentiated support strategies, so as to effectively strengthen the level of enterprise ESG practice.

Key words: patient capital, ESG, relational claims, stable equity