Search Results (336)

Sustainability policies introduced under the European Green Deal have strengthened climate-related disclosure requirements for agri-food companies. In particular, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive requires in-scope companies to transparently disclose information on their environmental performance. However, the academic literature on decarbonisation in the olive oil sector remains fragmented. This systematic literature review synthesises findings by considering cultivation, milling and retail, and waste management as interconnected stages of the olive oil supply chain and by developing a matrix linking decarbonisation strategies to the relevant European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics. Following the PRISMA protocol, 42 peer-reviewed studies from Scopus and Web of Science were included in the final synthesis, covering cultivation (RQ1), milling and retail (RQ2), and waste management (RQ3). The cultivation stage represents an important part of the emission profile of the chain while also offering potential for carbon sequestration through sustainable management practices, such as reduced tillage, cover crops, organic amendments and biochar application. In the downstream stages, the mill and its retail interface rely on a different set of measures, including two-phase extraction, rooftop photovoltaic systems, thermal recovery from pits, and lighter bottles transported in bulk. Waste management also offers opportunities to recover value from pomace, mill wastewater and pruning waste through biogas, biochar, compost or phenolic extracts. The potential for a net-negative carbon balance is context-dependent and varies with system boundaries, the balancing period, functional units, and the methods used to account for carbon sequestration. The matrix offers a clear classification of decarbonisation strategies and ESRS topics, opening valuable avenues for upcoming studies to extend its practical utility. Full article

Given the limited environmental, social, and governance disclosure (ESGD) among Palestinian firms, this study’s purpose is to explore potential connections between diversity of board gender and nationality, as well as representation of non-executive directors, environmental, social, and governance factors and aggregate ESG disclosure. The study focuses on industrial companies listed on the Palestine Exchange (PEX), employing random-effects panel-data regression with firm-clustered robust standard errors on a balanced panel of 11 industrial companies, all listed on PEX from 2018 to 2024. The results show that ESGD is positively associated with female directors, foreign directors, and non-executive directors and provide support for agency theory, resource dependence theory, and stakeholder theory. This study furthers the literature via empirical evidence (from a conflict-affected emerging market) on the impact of board gender diversity, nationality diversity, and non-executive directors on ESGD. The study recommends that policymakers and stakeholders promote board independence and diversity of gender and nationality, with a view to enhancing ESG disclosure in Palestine. Full article

This study examines how environmental, social and governance (ESG) pressures are translated into verifiable governance practices in European banking and asks why this translation remains uneven in the Western Balkans. Drawing on institutional theory, Europeanisation and the evolving architecture of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), prudential ESG risk governance and sustainability assurance, the article distinguishes between ESG pressure and ESG measure. The empirical analysis uses an original, manually coded dataset of 55 banks across eleven European countries. A governance-oriented maturity framework captures the progression from CSR-dominant disclosure to formal reporting standards, board-level integration and external assurance. Descriptive statistics and group comparison tests reveal a pronounced institutional divide: EU-core and Croatian banks occupy the highest maturity category, while banks in selected Western Balkan systems remain concentrated around partial integration and lack local assurance. A robustness comparison using ESG_core, which excludes reporting standards and assurance, confirms that the regional divide persists beyond those mechanically related components. A double-coded subsample of 17 banks further demonstrates substantial-to-perfect inter-coder reliability across the principal coded dimensions. The article then develops a complementary policy architecture for a permissioned, blockchain-enabled ESG data platform based on standardized application programming interfaces, off-chain data storage, on-chain hashes and shared attestations. The proposed design links triple-entry accounting principles with regulatory supervision and independent assurance while explicitly addressing data protection, interoperability and the oracle problem. The article contributes by integrating comparative evidence on ESG governance maturity with a technologically realistic pathway for reducing data and assurance gaps in transition economies. Full article

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings increasingly shape capital allocation, corporate strategy, and regulatory oversight, yet their credibility is constrained by methodological opacity, rating divergence, and greenwashing risk. Prior reviews treat machine learning (ML) in ESG as a prediction problem. We identify an emerging research trajectory in which ML is increasingly used not only to consume ESG signals but also to verify their construction and credibility. Drawing on signaling theory, we conduct a PRISMA-guided systematic review of 127 peer-reviewed studies from Scopus and Web of Science to examine how machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Explainable AI (XAI) are transforming ESG rating analysis. We develop a tripartite framework classifying studies by the functional role of the ESG score: predicted (n = 29), used (n = 57), or assessed (n = 41). Our central contribution is the first synthesis of the methodological-assessment stream, organized into four clusters: XAI reverse-engineering of proprietary scoring functions, divergence reconciliation, greenwashing detection, and unsupervised industry-materiality clustering. The evidence assembled in this stream indicates that ESG ratings weight low-cost aspirational disclosure heavily relative to costly performance evidence, suggesting that greater reliance on aspirational disclosure relative to performance evidence may increase greenwashing risk, consistent with signaling-theory concerns. A study-level validation appraisal further shows that the most extreme fit statistics often arise in target-proximal reconstruction or non-temporal validation settings, cautioning against interpreting high R² as evidence of transferable out-of-time forecasting. Full article

Sustainable Responsible Investment (SRI) emphasizes the integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors into investment decisions. This study examines the relationship between ESG disclosures and individual investors’ trading behaviors, with corporate reputation as a mediating construct within the framework of signaling theory. Extending signaling theory, the study incorporates both cognitive and affective dimensions of corporate reputation to explain how ESG signals are interpreted by investors in emerging markets. Primary data were collected in 2025 from 390 individual investors in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used for analysis. The findings reveal that environmental and governance disclosures have a significant positive impact on investors’ behaviors, while social disclosures show a limited direct effect on both cognitive and affective corporate reputation dimensions. The results further indicate that corporate reputation significantly mediates the relationship between environmental and governance disclosures and investors’ behaviors. However, no mediation effect is observed for social disclosures. The study demonstrates that both cognitive (rational evaluation) and affective (emotional trust) dimensions of corporate reputation enhance the credibility of ESG signals and strengthen their influence on investment decisions. Overall, the study contributes to the ESG and signaling theory literature by highlighting how dual-dimensional corporate reputation shapes investors’ responses to ESG disclosures in emerging markets such as Pakistan. Full article

This study examines the joint and interactive effects of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and digital transformation on firm value by using a sample of 64 non-financial firms listed on the Saudi Exchange over 2020–2024. The empirical analysis employs panel data techniques, feasible generalized least squares (FGLS), Driscoll–Kraay standard errors, and two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimation. The results show that ESG performance is positively associated with firm value, which suggests that capital markets reward firms for sustainability activities. Digital transformation also shows a positive association with firm value and is consistent with its role as a driver of firm valuation. The positive interaction between ESG and digital transformation suggests that digitalization reinforces the association between ESG practices and firm value. The findings remain robust across alternative model specifications and firm value measures. Digital transformation is measured with a text-based disclosure index built from digital-related keywords in annual reports. The index captures disclosed digital orientation rather than realized digital capability, so a high disclosure frequency may partly reflect signalling or impression management rather than fully deployed digital infrastructure. The findings show the importance of adding digital strategies to sustainability practices and provide useful implications for managers, investors, and policymakers under Saudi Vision 2030. Full article

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a pivotal role in advancing sustainability, yet many struggle to translate voluntary sustainability practices into structured, strategic business models. This study examines how this gap can be bridged between voluntary certification frameworks and emerging regulatory requirements, with a specific focus on workforce-related sustainability reporting under the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). Using a qualitative case study of a Green Globe-certified, family-owned hotel, the research conducts a comparative gap analysis between existing organisational practices and corporate disclosure requirements, applying a Policy–Action–Target–Metric (PAT&M) framework. The findings reveal strong alignment in Policies and Actions (89%) but limited alignment in Targets and Metrics (14%), indicating a gap between sustainability activities and strategic performance management. The results highlight the need to transition from compliance-oriented initiatives to integrated, data-driven management systems. The findings also suggest that voluntary certification schemes, such as Green Globe, can be a useful first step in order to achieve better corporate reporting capabilities related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. As practical implications, a roadmap solution is proposed to support system-level integration, transparency, and measurable outcomes for better business resilience. Full article

As an integral component of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting, climate risk disclosure (CRD) has received growing attention from firms, investors, and regulators. Using 4501 Chinese A-share listed firms over 2009–2024, this study examines the association between CRD and corporate financial performance using return on assets (ROA) and Tobin’s Q (TQ) as separate accounting- and market-based outcomes. We construct a firm-year CRD index from annual-report text and interpret it as a normalized measure of climate-related disclosure intensity. CRD is positively associated with both ROA and TQ, and the results remain robust across alternative disclosure construction, sample windows, future outcomes, high-dimensional fixed effects, and complementary endogeneity analyses. Pathway tests show that greater CRD is associated with lower financing costs and greater green innovation, both of which are associated with stronger financial outcomes. Institutional ownership and accounting information quality positively moderate the CRD–performance relationship. Heterogeneity analyses indicate stronger associations among non-state-owned and heavily polluting firms, while both physical and transition risk disclosure are positively associated with financial performance. Overall, the findings support a conditional value-relevance interpretation of climate risk disclosure. Full article

This paper investigates the relationship between environmental information disclosure (EID) quality and green technology innovation (GTI) using panel data from Chinese A-share listed companies over 2008–2024. EID quality is measured by a 27-indicator index, and GTI by the number of granted green patents. Based on 39,075 firm-year observations with firm and year fixed effects and firm-level clustered standard errors, the results show that EID quality is significantly and positively associated with GTI, and this association remains robust to a series of checks, including the exclusion of municipalities, a one-period lagged explanatory variable, propensity score matching, and entropy balancing, among other approaches. The mechanism analysis provides evidence consistent with two channels: EID quality is positively associated with Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance and analyst coverage, each of which is positively associated with GTI. The EID–GTI association is also stronger under stronger board environmental expertise, audit quality, government subsidies, and market competition, and in firms with higher managerial myopia. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive association is stronger in state-owned enterprises and weaker in heavy-polluting industries and in regions with higher marketization. The study offers updated micro-level evidence on the role of EID quality in corporate green transformation, with implications for regulators and practitioners. Full article

Using data from Chinese listed non-financial firms from 2015 to 2023, this study examines how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) rating divergence affects banks’ loan limit decisions and the underlying decision-making mechanisms within the sustainable finance system. Drawing on cognitive psychology, we conceptualize bank lending as an organizational decision-making process in which conflicting ESG signals create information ambiguity and influence banks’ risk assessments. Greater ESG rating divergence is associated with significantly lower total annual bank loan limits. Mechanism analyses provide evidence consistent with heightened bank concerns about firm default risk, whereas we find no supporting evidence for the information-quality channel captured by discretionary accruals. Further analysis reveals an asymmetric response to conflicting ESG information: banks appear to place greater weight on relatively unfavorable ESG ratings, while favorable ratings do not exert a comparable moderating effect. The negative association between ESG rating divergence and bank loan limits is more evident among non-state-owned enterprises, firms with weaker repayment capacity, firms with lower financial information disclosure quality, and firms without third-party ESG assurance. These findings extend the literature on ESG rating divergence and sustainable finance by showing how conflicting ESG information is associated with contractual credit allocation through banks’ risk assessment and asymmetric information-processing behavior. They also highlight the importance of improving ESG information governance and banks’ capacity to evaluate inconsistent sustainability signals. Full article

Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping sustainability reporting, influencing how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information is collected, analysed, and disclosed. While AI-assisted reporting improves efficiency and analytical capability, it also raises important concerns regarding transparency, accountability, verification, and AI-enabled greenwashing, creating new challenges for the credibility of sustainability disclosures. This study adopts a doctrinal legal research design supported by qualitative analysis, comparative regulatory assessment, and a structured review of legal, regulatory, and academic sources. It examines how emerging approaches to AI governance and sustainability reporting address these challenges and identifies the governance principles required to support trustworthy AI-assisted ESG reporting. Existing regulatory initiatives strengthen important aspects of sustainability reporting, yet AI governance, ESG disclosure, and greenwashing continue to be addressed through separate regulatory instruments. To bridge this gap, the study develops an integrated governance framework that combines transparency, meaningful human oversight, AI auditing, sustainability verification, and clearly allocated accountability within a coherent governance structure. The proposed framework contributes to the literature by offering a structured governance model specifically designed for AI-assisted sustainability reporting. The framework also provides practical guidance for regulators, standard setters, organisations, and assurance providers seeking to strengthen reporting integrity and stakeholder confidence in AI-assisted ESG reporting. Full article

Sustainable supply chains carry a cost premium that can make their demand base fragile when economic shocks tighten household budgets, because the more expensive environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-aligned product is often among the first that consumers forgo. We propose extending resilience thinking to the downstream, demand-side node of the supply chain: we frame premium-tolerant ESG consumption as a conceptual indicator of demand-side resilience—an absorptive buffer that may help keep sustainable supply chains viable through disturbance—and draw on signaling theory to model how it is formed. Using a nationally structured, quota-controlled survey of 3000 Korean consumers collected by the Korea Consumer Agency, we estimate a moderated-mediation structural equation model in which ESG signal trust is associated with resilient sustainable consumption through perceived ESG legitimacy, conditioned by income and perceived greenwashing. Because the data are cross-sectional, we report associations rather than causal effects. Trust was positively associated with perceived legitimacy, which in turn was associated with resilient sustainable consumption, so that legitimacy is the proximal correlate linking trust to resilience. Income moderated this conversion only modestly—the sustainability–resilience trade-off is statistically present but small in magnitude—while perceived greenwashing did not attenuate it, and its unexpected positive coefficient proved unstable across specifications and is not interpreted. A multi-group comparison indicated that the pattern of associations differs with the perceived credibility of the ESG signal environment: when third-party signals were perceived as credible, the trust–legitimacy–consumption route was more pronounced, whereas when they were not, trust was associated with consumption more directly. Consumers also expected ESG far more of large firms than of micro-enterprises. No supply-chain-level outcome was measured; the cross-level link is advanced as a proposition for future work. The study reframes supply chain resilience as partly demand-side, potentially sustained by credible, independently verified ESG signals rather than by firms’ own disclosure. Full article

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure plays an increasingly important role in evaluating corporate sustainability performance. However, the agricultural chemicals industry faces unique environmental and social challenges, while existing ESG assessment frameworks remain largely generic and fail to capture industry-specific disclosure requirements. To address this gap, this study develops a multi-level ESG disclosure quality evaluation framework for the agricultural chemicals industry based on the GRI 2021 Standards, China’s regulatory requirements, and sector-specific production characteristics. The framework was developed through targeted qualitative content analysis and text coding of ESG disclosures from ten listed agricultural chemical companies selected from the complete eligible population of 17 Chinese A-share agricultural chemicals enterprises that met the study’s predefined inclusion criteria and had Huazheng ESG ratings. This process resulted in a hierarchical structure comprising three dimensions, 14 first-level indicators, 61 second-level indicators, and 350 third-level observation indicators, with particular emphasis on biodiversity conservation, farmer support, and corporate governance. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was then applied to determine the weights of the first-level and second-level indicators through expert evaluation, while a three-point scoring system (0–2) was established for the third-level indicators to construct the industry-specific ESG disclosure quality evaluation model. The framework was subsequently evaluated using an independent sample of the remaining seven listed agricultural chemical companies. A benchmarking comparison with Huazheng ESG ratings showed broad alignment in overall patterns while also revealing important company-level differences and disclosure-quality gaps not readily captured by the general ESG ratings. Furthermore, multi-level ±20% weight perturbation analyses demonstrated the framework’s stability, discriminative ability, industry suitability, and computational robustness. The proposed framework provides a practical and transparent tool for assessing ESG disclosure quality in the agricultural chemicals industry and offers a methodological foundation for developing sector-specific ESG disclosure evaluation frameworks in other high-impact industries. Full article

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure has received increasing attention in capital markets as investors place greater emphasis on sustainability information alongside financial information when evaluating firms. In this study, the authors examine the relationship between ESG disclosure and investor reactions among firms listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand using Bloomberg ESG disclosure scores and an event study approach. The analysis is based on secondary data over the period of 2019–2022, employing a fixed-effects model on unbalanced panel data. The findings indicate that overall ESG disclosure is positively and statistically significantly associated with investor reactions. These results show that each ESG dimension is positively associated with investor reactions. While the environmental and social dimensions are significant at the 0.01% level, governance disclosure remains statistically significant at the 0.05 level. The empirical evidence suggests that ESG disclosure provides information that investors may consider when evaluating firms. Moreover, this study provides evidence that changes in the level of ESG disclosure are associated with changes in cumulative abnormal returns (CARs). This study contributes to the literature on ESG disclosure and corporate sustainability in emerging markets. Its results have practical implications for listed companies, investors, and regulators by highlighting the importance of ESG disclosure in corporate reporting and investment evaluation. Full article

This study examines the relationship between financial performance, ESG reporting, and corporate value. The study uses content analysis of non-financial reports of Portuguese listed corporations from 2019 to 2022 to construct a comprehensive ESG disclosure index, based on GRI standards, as well as the respective environmental, social, and governance sub-indices. Panel regression models are used to investigate whether financial performance increases ESG reporting and whether ESG reporting enhances corporate value, while controlling for firm size, sector, and reputation. The results show that financial performance has no significant impact on ESG reporting. Only firm size seems to positively and significantly impact ESG reporting. This finding supports the prior literature linking larger and more visible firms to higher ESG disclosure levels. Furthermore, the results show that ESG reporting does not significantly impacts corporate value. Instead, corporate value is negatively and significantly affected by firm size. This result suggests that larger and more mature firms may derive comparatively fewer valuation benefits from ESG reporting, in line with recent evidence. Overall, the results suggest that structural firm characteristics (notably firm size) play a more decisive role in shaping ESG reporting and corporate value. Full article