ESG and the High-Quality Development of New Energy Vehicle Enterprises: Configurational Associations Based on Annual Repeated fsQCA

The high-quality development (HQD) of new energy vehicle enterprises (NEVs) is a key component of achieving green and low-carbon transformation. In the context of the deepening sustainable development concept, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) has gradually become a critical governance mechanism for promoting enterprises’ HQD. However, existing studies often examine the impact of ESG on enterprise performance from a single-factor perspective and lack analysis of the synergy between the three dimensions of ESG and enterprise resource conditions. Therefore, this study constructs a configuration analysis framework encompassing environmental, social, and governance dimensions, innovation intensity, capital structure, and firm size, and conducts annual repeated fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) based on panel data from 155 NEVs. The study finds that there is no single path for ESG to drive NEVs’ HQD; rather, it forms multiple driving pathways with enterprises’ resource conditions. The pathways present three patterns: resource-driven, ESG-assisted, and resource–ESG-balanced. The three dimensions within ESG also show annual differences during the sample period, shifting from a social responsibility-led pattern to a joint role of environmental governance and corporate governance. From a configurational perspective, this study reveals multiple pathways through which ESG promotes the HQD of the new energy vehicle industry and the annual changes in these pathways during the sample period. Furthermore, this study suggests that, in terms of resource conditions, enterprises should focus on optimizing capital structure and establishing a stable R&D investment mechanism. Regarding ESG governance, enterprises should adjust their priorities in light of their resource conditions, business environment, and regulatory requirements.