Research on the Impact of Enterprise ESG Performance on Audit Opinions

ESG, as one of the important standards for measuring the sustainable development of enterprises, is an important indicator of corporate risk control and investor concern, and audit, as a third-party forensic institution, is also an important user of ESG ratings. The article takes A-share listed companies from 2009-2021 as the research object, and explores whether ESG ratings affect the decision of audit opinions and the investment of audit fees from the auditor's perspective. It is found that the higher the ESG rating, the higher the probability of the auditor issuing a standard unqualified audit opinion. The mechanism of action suggests that the higher the ESG rating, the lower the level of corporate risk, and the more likely the company is to issue a standard unqualified opinion, i.e., the ESG rating influences the issuance of an audit opinion by reducing the corporate risk factor. Further analysis shows that when the accounting firm is non-Big 4 accounting firm audit, the more significant ESG ratings on audit opinion, indicating that the non-Big 4 on ESG ratings to reduce corporate business risk and information asymmetry risk affects the effect of its premium assessment is obvious; when ESG ratings are higher, the company's management level and disclosure of information level is higher, the audit in the acquisition of information in the reduction of the cost of the input.