Recently, with the emphasis on ESG management worldwide, social pressure on ESG management is increasing. ESG is driven by two contradictory pressures: ‘responsibility required from society’ and ‘voluntary participation of companies’, and ESG activities are sustainable, if the two pressures work together. From the view of maximizing social benefit, it is necessary to identify the optimal pressure level. Therefore, this study aims to empirically examine the relationship between regulatory · normative ESG pressure and corporate innovation activities from the perspective of institutional theory. Innovation as an ESG activity enables companies to achieve revenue generation through ESG activities, enabling sustainable ESG activities. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that regulatory ESG pressure had an inversed U-shape relationship with innovation activities, and normative ESG pressure had a U-shape relationship.