Table 1.
Variable definitions and summary descriptions.
Table 2.
Descriptive statistics of main variables.
Table 3.
Multiple Collinearity Test Results.
Table 4.
Regression Analysis Results.
Table 5.
Presents the U-test results for assessing the U-shaped relationship.
Fig 1.
The U-shaped relationship between corporate ESG and audit pricing.
Fig 2.
The moderating effect of internal control quality.
cNotes: To visually show the moderating effects, we divided the moderator variables into two groups. Low IC: IC = mean – standard deviation (6.541 - 0.660 = 5.881). High IC: IC = mean + standard deviation (6.541 + 0.660 = 7.201).Additionally, higher-quality internal controls shift the turning point of the curve to the right, implying that companies with lower internal control quality require a more substantial improvement in ESG performance to reach an optimal point.
Fig 3.
The moderating effect of information asymmetry.
dNotes: To visually show the moderating effects, we divided the moderator variables into two groups. Low ASY: ASY = mean – standard deviation (−0.069–0.322 = −0.391). High ASY: ASY = mean + standard deviation (−0.069 + 0.322 = 0.253).
Table 6.
The examination of the intermediary effect.
Table 7.
Robustness tests.