Publication Type

PhD Dissertation

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

4-2026

Abstract

In the era characterized by the dual carbon goals driving the green transformation of industries and the exponential growth of the digital economy, the real estate sector is at a critical transformation juncture. From a policy-oriented perspective, building codes and energy consumption quota standards issued by the Ministry of Housing and UrbanRural Development and other regulatory bodies have rendered it imperative for real estate enterprises to reduce carbon emissions throughout the entire building life cycle. From the market demand side, consumers' preference for green and intelligent living environments has compelled real estate firms to break through traditional development models. The advancement of digital technologies has brought transformative opportunities to the real estate industry, as cutting-edge technologies such as big data and the Internet of Things (IoT) have gradually permeated all links of real estate enterprises' operations, including project planning and construction. Additionally, the influence of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) concepts in the real estate domain has been on the rise. Research by institutions like Goldman Sachs indicates that enterprises adhering to ESG standards enjoy certain advantages in terms of financing costs and market valuation. Therefore, real estate enterprises are in urgent need of leveraging digital transformation to tap into technological potential, innovate business models, enhance ESG performance, and construct a new paradigm of sustainable development aligned with the times.

This paper, grounded in the theories of sustainable development, stakeholder theory, signaling theory, and organizational change theory, comprehensively adopts methods including normative analysis, case study, and empirical research to dissect the impact mechanism of digital transformation on the ESG performance of real estate enterprises. At the theoretical level, the study first clarifies the connotation of digital transformation, and expounds on its manifestations in technology adoption, process reengineering, and model innovation in combination with the characteristics of the real estate industry. Subsequently, it defines the environmental, social, and governance dimensions of ESG performance, and establishes an ESG performance evaluation framework for enterprises. Then, through a comparative case study of Hang Lung Properties, Swire Properties, and Sun Hung Kai Properties, the paper explores the heterogeneous characteristics and common laws of how digital transformation empowers ESG performance. Based on the panel data of 52 listed real estate enterprises on the Shanghai-Shenzhen A-share market and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange from 2017 to 2023, the study uses the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic model to quantify the digital transformation indicators of enterprises, introduces the manufacturing and financial industries as control groups, constructs an econometric model, and verifies the impact of digital transformation on the comprehensive and dimensional ESG performance of enterprises through main effect regression, industry difference test, mediation effect test, and robustness test, thereby revealing its internal transmission mechanism and industry heterogeneous characteristics. Finally, based on the research conclusions, relevant suggestions are put forward from the perspectives of enterprise strategy formulation and regulatory policy improvement, so as to provide references for the digital transformation and ESG performance improvement of the real estate industry.

Keywords

Digital Transformation, ESG Performance, Real Estate Enterprises

Degree Awarded

Doctor of Business Administration (Accounting and Finance)

Discipline

Real Estate | Strategic Management Policy

Supervisor(s)

LIANG, Hao

First Page

1

Last Page

180

Publisher

Singapore Management University

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Author

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