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The Impact of ESG on Corporate Sustainable Operations
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The Impact of ESG on Corporate Sustainable Operations

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 14 October 2025 | Viewed by 7631

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. De-Chih Lee

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Information Management, Da-Yeh University, Changhua, Taiwan
Interests: numerical analysis; other applied statistics; biostatistics; nursing administration/management; knowledge management; digital learning; healthcare economics; benefit assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Shou-Lin Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Logistics Management, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung 82445, Taiwan
Interests: sustainability management; strategic management; risk management; econometric analysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In 2004, the United Nations Global Compact introduced the ESG concept. Governments and mainstream asset management companies began to pay attention to the ESG performance of enterprises. The Principles for Responsible Investment were formulated the following year in order to incorporate ESG considerations into investment choices and practices. In 2015, the United Nations launched the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which included 17 social-level goals, 169 specific goals, and 231 indicators, aiming to achieve global sustainable development by 2030. The sustainability of social and economic development has become a global issue, and the participation of capital markets in social and environmental management has become an important strategy. The sustainable development of enterprises has attracted more and more attention, especially in the context of frequent financial crises and the COVID-19 pandemic, and in terms of how the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of listed companies affects the company's market value. In recent years, policymakers and regulatory agencies worldwide have paid more and more attention to implementing corporate environment, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-related research has become a popular research topic.

So far, most research has focused on exploring the relationship between ESG and corporate governance or environmental sustainability. There are few studies focusing on the impact of ESG on the consumer market or consumer behavior. Therefore, this special issue focuses on exploring the relationship between ESG and the consumer market or consumer behaviors. The Guest Editors wish to invite original research (quantitative and qualitative), reviews, theoretical frameworks, methodological reflections, case studies, and protocols from all disciplines to engage in the in-depth exploration of this topic, making up for the shortcomings of the past literature.

Sincerely,

Prof. Dr. De-Chih Lee
Dr. Shou-Lin Yang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ESG
  • consumer market
  • consumer
  • consumer behavior
  • sustainability

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

30 pages, 2578 KiB  
Article
Short- and Long-Term Assessments of ESG Risk in Mexican Mortgage Institutions: Combining Expert Surveys, Radar Plot Visualization, and Cluster Analysis
by Ana Lorena Jiménez-Preciado, Miguel Ángel Martínez-García, José Carlos Trejo-García and Francisco Venegas-Martínez
Sustainability 2025, 17(12), 5616; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17125616 - 18 Jun 2025
Viewed by 141
Abstract
The recent debate on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors has focused primarily on financial decision making and risk management from the perspectives of developed economies. However, in most developing countries, ESG risk models for mortgage lenders are very limited. In most of [...] Read more.
The recent debate on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors has focused primarily on financial decision making and risk management from the perspectives of developed economies. However, in most developing countries, ESG risk models for mortgage lenders are very limited. In most of these countries, ESG-rating providers employ widely varying methodologies and disclosure policies, often resulting in divergent assessments of the same organization. This research develops a pilot statistical-analysis, dual-horizon ESG risk model specific to the Mexican mortgage industry, which provides a better understanding of how ESG risk could evolve over time across financial, operational, regulatory, and reputational dimensions in Mexico. This dual-horizon ESG framework considers a two-year short-term risk assessment and a ten-year long-term risk assessment. This research integrates expert opinions with a scoring system that improves on traditional methods. Dependability and internal consistency are tested using the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and Cronbach’s alpha. Radar chart visualization and cluster analysis are used to visualize the empirical results. The empirical findings show that environmental risk has strong temporal effects, and the perceived severity is 20% higher over the longer time horizon. Furthermore, social risk exhibits high variability, identifying it as a critical risk for financial stability and regulatory compliance. Cluster analysis identifies systematic patterns in expert opinions that determine two groups, making the qualitative findings derived from radar plots more robust. Group 0 (75% of experts) has an institutional view about ESG risks. Group 1 (25% of experts) aligns with an affiliation to large financial institutions. Finally, this research identifies three key sustainability challenges for the mortgage sector in Mexico: exposure to climate-induced stress, fragmented regulatory frameworks, and social inequality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impact of ESG on Corporate Sustainable Operations)
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16 pages, 681 KiB  
Article
How Does Environmental Cognition Promote Low-Carbon Travel Intentions? The Mediating Role of Green Perceived Value and the Moderating Role of Electronic Word-of-Mouth
by I-Hsiung Chang and Yueh-Chih Hsiao
Sustainability 2025, 17(4), 1383; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17041383 - 8 Feb 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1212
Abstract
Most studies suggest that individuals’ environmental cognition can positively predict their eco-friendly behaviors; however, the process through which environmental cognition influences the intention to engage in low-carbon tourism has yet to be fully explored. Additionally, while electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is a key factor [...] Read more.
Most studies suggest that individuals’ environmental cognition can positively predict their eco-friendly behaviors; however, the process through which environmental cognition influences the intention to engage in low-carbon tourism has yet to be fully explored. Additionally, while electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is a key factor influencing behavioral decisions, its moderating role in the context of low-carbon tourism remains under-researched. Drawing on the Cognitive-Affective-Conative (CAC) theoretical framework, this study investigates the impact of environmental cognition on green perceived value and low-carbon tourism intention, while also examining the moderating effect of eWOM. Data were collected from 457 participants in Taiwan via a structured questionnaire survey. The results show that environmental cognition has a significant positive impact on green perceived value but no direct effect on low-carbon tourism intention while green perceived value has a significant positive impact on low-carbon tourism intention and fully mediates the relationship between environmental cognition and low-carbon tourism intention. Furthermore, the study finds that eWOM moderates the relationship between environmental cognition and green perceived value, with eWOM strengthening the effect of environmental cognition on green perceived value. These findings suggest that enhancing environmental cognition, reinforcing green perceived value, and effectively leveraging eWOM can foster positive attitudes and willingness to engage in low-carbon tourism. The results provide practical implications for tourism operators in developing strategies to promote low-carbon tourism. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impact of ESG on Corporate Sustainable Operations)
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22 pages, 408 KiB  
Article
The Influence of Green Innovation and Digital Transformation on the High-Quality Development of Enterprises: The Mediating Role of ESG Management
by Lei Xi and Hui Wang
Sustainability 2024, 16(24), 10923; https://doi.org/10.3390/su162410923 - 13 Dec 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2599
Abstract
As the effects of the global ecological and environmental crisis continue to escalate, nations around the world are compelled to explore new economic development models aimed at mitigating environmental damage. As an important driving force for economic development, green innovation; digital transformation; and [...] Read more.
As the effects of the global ecological and environmental crisis continue to escalate, nations around the world are compelled to explore new economic development models aimed at mitigating environmental damage. As an important driving force for economic development, green innovation; digital transformation; and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) have become inevitable choices for pursuing sustainable development in business. Taking Chinese high-tech enterprises as the research object, this study draws on resource-based theory, innovation economics theory, stakeholder theory, and internal organization theory to verify the feasibility of green innovation and digital transformation for enterprises to achieve their goals in high-quality development. Implementing correlation analysis, factorial decomposition, and multiple regression techniques and other methods, hypothesis testing was conducted on the premise of limited questionnaire samples to explore the impact of green innovation and digital transformation on the high-quality development of enterprises and the intermediary effect of ESG management between green innovation, digital transformation, and the high-quality development of enterprises. The results show that green innovation and digital transformation play a crucial role in enhancing the quality of enterprise development; ESG management acts as a partial intermediary in the relationship between green innovation and the high-quality development of enterprises. ESG management serves as a partial intermediary between digital transformation and high-quality development of enterprises. Using the bootstrap method for a robustness test, the conclusion of ESG management mediation is still valid. Based on observation and data, this study provides concrete evidence that ESG management promotes the high-quality development of enterprises and provides practical references for enterprises to form a sustainable development model and government departments to improve ESG management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impact of ESG on Corporate Sustainable Operations)
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11 pages, 597 KiB  
Article
The Impact of ESG Regulation on Environmental Decoupling—An Exploratory Study on Polish Listed Companies
by Marco Papa, Monika Wieczorek-Kosmala, Anna Losa and Aleksandra Swałek
Sustainability 2024, 16(17), 7309; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177309 - 26 Aug 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2328
Abstract
The sustainable finance framework implements the regulation to enhance firms’ sustainable reporting and increase market transparency in channeling funds. However, firms are under the pressure of going green and, thus, often demonstrate a propensity to environmental decoupling, which means the gap between what [...] Read more.
The sustainable finance framework implements the regulation to enhance firms’ sustainable reporting and increase market transparency in channeling funds. However, firms are under the pressure of going green and, thus, often demonstrate a propensity to environmental decoupling, which means the gap between what is told about environmental performance and what is truly done within. The main purpose of our exploratory work is to detect the environmental decoupling among sampled firms. The research problem relates to the effects of reporting requirements and aligning symptoms of environmental decoupling by comparing the increase in qualitative disclosures (talk) relative to measurable KPIs (real actions). We have empirically confirmed the potential problems of environmental decoupling within the environmental aspects other than carbon emissions. We have observed the improvement of qualitative disclosures, while the KPIs other than carbon-emission-related (use of resources and energy) confirmed no real actions. This result is aligned with the current policymakers’ focus on carbon emission reporting. Firms declare the implementation of policies and targets, but it does not fully drive real change. Our study contributes to the emerging strand of the literature on environmental decoupling, as well as offers implications for policymakers, to enhance the efficiency (and prevent environmental decoupling) within the new sustainable finance regulatory framework of the European Union. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impact of ESG on Corporate Sustainable Operations)
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