*5.2. Practical Significance*

First, businesses should prioritize the development of transformational leadership characteristics. For businesses to gain a competitive advantage, it is essential to identify and cultivate exceptional transformational leaders or even leadership teams [141]. Organizations can properly cultivate transformational leadership styles. For instance, a company can establish a leadership style analysis group, develop a transformational leadership training and evaluation system based on the dimensions of transformational leadership and the company's characteristics, and conduct regular audits and training on the transformational leadership styles of its leaders. According to the evaluation results, the leader can be provided with suggestions for improving his or her leadership style.

Second, organizational enterprise innovation should be strengthened. Organizational innovation is a key measure for enterprises to enhance their competitive advantages [142]. Enterprises should optimize workflow, adjust staff tasks and functions, revise management rules and regulations, and explore more efficient management methods and novel management techniques to better adapt to external environmental changes, enhance enterprise resilience, and promote enterprise development through organizational innovation [143]. In addition, managers should establish innovative work models for their employees; provide them with intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and personalized care; help them establish high-level innovation goals; develop innovative ways of thinking; and enrich their innovation skills [144].

Third, businesses should consider ESG performance. When formulating strategies and implementing decisions, enterprises should consider their development and stakeholder demands, comprehensively analyze the impact on society and the environment, and maximize the total value [145]. By bolstering environmental responsibility and ethics, businesses integrate environmentally responsible behavior and executive ethical commitment with corporate strategy, enhancing their competitive advantage [146]. Responsible management can be practiced in numerous facets of R&D, design, manufacturing, and product sales [147]. At the same time, enterprises should integrate the practice of social responsibility into supply chain management, systematically manage the suppliers' and partners' compliance, safety, environmental protection, and operation transparency and realize the joint fulfillment of corporate social responsibility. In addition, enterprises should strengthen their daily information disclosure efforts and maintain immediate communication with various stakeholders to gain the community's understanding and support through extensive use of traditional and new media.

Fourth, firms should focus on establishing social capital and strengthening the cultivation and maintenance of external social capital. Firstly, in terms of the relationship network of market competition, firms should establish a positive corporate image, strengthen their communication and cooperation channels with other enterprises, and learn advanced management modes and service concepts to build a stable relationship network [148]. Secondly, businesses should focus on and maintain their relationship networks with governments, strengthen the cooperation between government and enterprises by building a good relationship with the government, broaden information channels, and obtain the heterogeneous resources needed for the development and growth of enterprises.

### *5.3. Prospects and Limitations*

Although this study has made progress in terms of its theoretical and practical implications, it still contains shortcomings that can be addressed in future research. First, in this

paper, only firm type, firm size, years in business, and firm industry are selected as control variables; other control variables, such as the market value of equity, earnings per share, and return on asset may be selected in future research. Second, this paper only selects organizational innovation as the mediating variable between transformational leadership and ESG performance; in the future, other mediating variables, such as technological innovation, may be selected to investigate the mechanism underlying the relationship between transformational leadership and ESG performance. Third, this paper conducts empirical research using only a questionnaire and no qualitative research. Enterprises can be used as case studies for qualitative research in the future. In addition, future studies could include secondary data to make the study more rigorous and comprehensive. Fourth, this study only examines the impact of transformational leadership on corporate ESG performance, and it does not examine it from other leadership perspectives. In the future, the impact of different leadership styles on corporate ESG performance, such as ethical leadership and responsible leadership, can be studied.

**Author Contributions:** Supervision, F.H.; writing, original draft, J.Z. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Acknowledgments:** This study partially summarizes Jin Zhu's Ph.D. thesis.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
