What are the relationships between corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG), corporate social responsibility (CSR), and stock returns? Existing research has affirmed the impact of ESG or CSR on stock returns, but the discussion on the cointegration relationship among these three variables is still insufficient. Therefore, we use panel data of ESG ratings, CSR scores, and annual stock returns of 684 Chinese‐listed companies from 2011 to 2020 to verify the relationship between the variables through panel CADF and Westerlund tests. Meanwhile, we use PMG estimation to find that, in the long run, CSR significantly promotes the improvement of corporate stock returns, but ESG hurts the stock returns of most corporates. Further research proves that the impact of ESG on stock returns closely relates to corporate profitability. Our findings provide valuable policy implications for both developing and semi‐efficient market countries to help them improve their ESG and CSR performance.

This research empirically investigates the static and dynamic impacts of firms' digital transformation on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance by employing data of listed Chinese companies from 2011 to 2020 via estimations of propensity score matching and difference in differences. First, we find that digital transformation does some good to improve firms' ESG, which is confirmed after conducting several robustness tests. Second, digital transformation benefits the three aspects of ESG (environmental performance, social responsibility, and governance), and its impact is dynamic, promote ESG two years after the digital reform. Third, the impact of digital transformation on ESG is not constant among different firms. Specifically, digital transformation's impact on ESG is stronger among firms located in western or central regions of China and to those in polluting and competitive industries, as well as among non‐stated‐owned enterprises.