Entangled value: actor–network configurations and ESG pathways in China’s textile value chain

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is a critical criterion for evaluating corporate non-financial performance. For the textile sector, which is highly concentrated in global resource consumption and pollution emissions, the transition toward sustainable development presents particularly severe challenges. Traditional research primarily focuses on the linear effects of single factors, often failing to capture the non-linear interplay and complex causality among multiple influencing conditions. Based on corporate governance and market-driven perspectives, this study innovatively integrates Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to construct a multi-actor governance network. It then employs fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to systematically explore the influence mechanism of multiple antecedent conditions (including external regulation, internal incentives, and market drive) on the ESG performance of China’s A-share listed firms in the textile supply chain. The results indicate that no single factor (such as government regulation, social supervision, consumers, investors, the board of directors, or digital technology) is a necessary condition for achieving high ESG performance, thereby confirming the configurational complexity underlying high ESG outcomes. We identify two core sufficient paths leading to high performance: the ‘internal-driven configuration,’ centered on internal governance and digital technology, and the ‘external supervision-market-driven configuration,’ characterized by external governance and market drive. Furthermore, our findings reveal a significant asymmetry in the ESG performance of these textile firms. A group of firms, due to the absence of critical governance elements, follow an ‘element-missing path,’ resulting in persistently low ESG performance. This study not only enriches the configurational theory of ESG performance formation, particularly for the complex governance systems of highly polluting industries like textiles, but also addresses the limitations of traditional linear methods in revealing diverse driving pathways. Ultimately, it provides differentiated policy tools and practical references for promoting the green transition of the textile industry and its related value chain enterprises.