近年來，ESG議題受到全球企業的重視，企業在營利之餘，也應維護利害關係人之利益，並追求長期價值創造，以達成企業之永續發展。而合理的績效評估及薪酬制度，係企業落實永續發展的重要環節，越來越多企業將ESG指標作為管理階層薪酬之衡量指標，即ESG連結管理階層薪酬，期望透過薪酬制度之設計，作為管理階層願意落實ESG之誘因。然而，ESG連結管理階層薪酬制度是否進一步影響管理階層進行盈餘管理之誘因，過去文獻尚未探討此議題 。本研究以2019年至2023年台灣證券交易所及櫃檯買賣中心交易之上市櫃公司為樣本，探討ESG連結管理階層薪酬與盈餘管理之關聯。實證結果顯示，若一企業採用ESG連結管理階層薪酬，將會增加企業管理階層進行盈餘管理；於額外測試中，將樣研進一步區分為高科技產業樣本及非高科技產業樣本，發現本研究的主要結果由非高科技產業樣本所驅動。

In recent years, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) issues have garnered increasing attention from companies worldwide. Beyond profit maximization, firms are expected to safeguard stakeholders' interests and pursue long-term value creation to achieve sustainable development. An effective performance evaluation and compensation system is critical in promoting corporate sustainability. Accordingly, an increasing number of companies have begun incorporating ESG metrics into executive compensation plans—referred to as ESG-linked executive compensation—to incentivize executives to implement ESG-related strategies.
However, whether this type of compensation design further influences executives' incentives to engage in earnings management has not been thoroughly examined in the existing literature. Therefore, this study investigates the relationship between ESG-linked executive compensation and earnings management using a sample of firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange from 2019 to 2023. Empirical results indicate that firms adopting ESG-linked executive compensation exhibit higher earnings management. Furthermore, additional analyses reveal that non-high-tech industry firms predominantly drive this main finding, as the association is not statistically significant within the high-tech industry subsample.

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