Abstract: Mixed ownership reform is an important way to promote enterprise high-quality development, but the ESG differentiation effect of mixed ownership reform in different ownership enterprises needs to be further studied. This paper, based on the data from Chinese A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2013 to 2020, used the OLS regression model and mediation effect model to examine whether and how mixed ownership reform can affect enterprise ESG performance. The research results indicated that: firstly, mixed ownership reform has a significant promoting effect on enterprise ESG performance; After distinguishing the various dimensions of enterprise ESG performance, mixed ownership reform has a significant promoting effect on enterprise environmental responsibility performance, social responsibility performance and corporate governance performance; After distinguishing the nature of enterprise property rights, mixed ownership reform has a significant promoting influence on the ESG performance of both state-owned and private enterprises. Secondly, the internal mechanism test results indicated that mixed ownership reform has mainly played a governance effect in improving the ESG performance of state-owned enterprises, while it has mainly played a resource effect in improving the ESG performance of private enterprises. Thirdly, further research found that the promotion effect of enterprise mixed ownership reform on ESG performance exhibits heterogeneity in regional marketization, industry environmental sensitivity and executive incentive intensity; ESG performance plays a partial mediating role in the green technology innovation promotion effect of enterprise mixed ownership reform. This paper has broken through the limitations of existing research that only focuses on mixed ownership reform of state-owned enterprises or private enterprises. It has not only effectively expanded the research content of mixed ownership reform and enterprise ESG performance literature, but also revealed the heterogeneity of the mechanism of mixed ownership reform on enterprise ESG performance from the perspective of property rights, thus providing some experiences and reference for systematically promoting mixed ownership reform of different types of enterprises to improve enterprise ESG performance under the guidance of high-quality development.

Key words: mixed ownership reform, enterprise ESG performance, corporate governance effect, resource acquisition effect