ESG Impact Management and Corporate Social Responsibility

Dear Colleagues,

In the last decade, CSR has undergone a great evolution because the economic, financial and social scenarios have changed. In this framework, greater attention has been paid to “impact investing”, and, as a result of the commitment of the regulatory bodies, the Esg pillars have become essential. At the same time, in recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated processes and strategies to build a new perspective to improve business value creation in the long term. In this scenario and in line with the regulatory authorities’ guidelines, it is possible for the companies and for the major stakeholders to use new and different financial tools to raise capital, to build green and sustainable investment as well as to improve the best practices to write a corporate disclosure and integrated reporting. In light of the above, the aim of this Special Issue is to present an updated set of studies, theoretical ideas and methodological developments related to sustainable finance, ESG impact management and CSR evolution; in this sense, this Special issue will include, but is not limited to, the following topics:

(i) The relationship between ESG aspects and corporate financial performance;

(ii) CSR evolution in light of economic, financial, social and demographic changes;

(iii) The role of corporate disclosure and integrated reporting in sustainable finance.

References

• Morales-Parragué MA, Varela-Laso RA, Araya-Castillo L, Molina-Luque F. Corporate Social Responsibility: Where Does It Come from, and Where Does It Go? Evolution of the Conceptual Structure from 1975 to 2021. Sustainability. 2023; 15(7):5770. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15075770.
• Transition finance for transforming companies – 2022; Climate Bonds Initiative.
• Daumas, L; (2021). Should we fear transition risks - A review of the applied literature, Working Papers05, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
• Mariani M., Pizzutilo F., Caragnano A., Zito M. (2021). Does It Pay to Be Environmentally Responsible? Investigating the Effect on the Weighted Average Cost of Capital. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management.
• Fatima, T., & Elbanna, S. (2023). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation: A review and a research agenda towards an integrative framework. Journal of Business Ethics, 183(1), 105-121.
• López‐Concepción, A., Gil‐Lacruz, A. I., & Saz‐Gil, I. (2022). Stakeholder engagement, Csr development and Sdgs compliance: A systematic review from 2015 to 2021. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 29(1), 19-31.
• Iqbal, U., Nadeem, M., Gull, A. A., & Kayani, U. N. (2022). Environmental innovation and firm value: The moderating role of organizational capital. Journal of Environmental Management, 316, 115253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115253.
• Lahouel, B. B., Zaied, Y. B., Managi, S., & Taleb, L. (2022). Re-thinking about U: The relevance of regime-switching model in the relationship between environmental corporate social responsibility and financial performance. Journal of Business Research, 140, 498-519. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.11.019.
• Hart, S. L., & Ahuja, G. (1996). Does it pay to be green? An empirical examination of the relationship between emission reduction and firm performance. Business Strategy and the Environment, 5(1), 30-37. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0836(199603)5:1%3C30::AID-BSE38%3E3.0.CO;2-Q.
• Zhou, G., Liu, L., & Luo, S. (2022). Sustainable development, ESG performance and company market value: Mediating effect of financial performance. Business Strategy and the Environment, 31(7), 3371-3387.
• Busch, T., & Friede, G. (2018). The robustness of the corporate social and financial performance relation: A second‐order meta‐analysis. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 25(4), 583-608. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1480.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Nicola Raimo
Prof. Dr. Massimo Mariani
Dr. Alessandra Caragnano
Prof. Dr. Filippo Vitolla
Guest Editors

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• CSR
• ESG
• green financing
• socially responsibility investing
• environmental investment
• corporate disclosure
• integrated reporting
• ESG impact management