ABSTRACT In recent years, Brazil has experienced severe accidents caused by mining companies. This study aims to analyze the socio‐environmental strategies and environmental transparency practices adopted by the largest Brazilian mining companies following the Mariana and Brumadinho disasters, in light of Legitimacy Theory. The strategies adopted by the 15 largest companies in the Brazilian mining sector in 2024 were analyzed using sustainability reports and institutional information as primary data sources. The results indicate that, following the Mariana and Brumadinho disasters, Brazil's largest mining companies strengthened their risk management, tailings dam safety, and corporate sustainability strategies. A broad adoption of measures was observed, including the decharacterization of upstream tailings dams, geotechnical monitoring, tailings disposal technologies, environmental restoration, circular economy practices, and decarbonization initiatives. Advances were also identified in biodiversity management, occupational health and safety, the implementation of social development programs, and community engagement. Nevertheless, significant differences were observed among the companies regarding the maturity of their ESG strategies and the level of transparency of the information disclosed. While some organizations reported consistent indicators and objective evidence of environmental and social performance, others remained focused on disclosing corporate policies and institutional commitments, providing limited detail on the outcomes achieved, thereby reflecting different levels of institutionalization of sustainability and governance practices.
ABSTRACT This paper delineates the moderating role of climate perception (CP) on the effect of process innovation (PI) and management support (MS) on the environmental (EP) and financial performance (FP) of firms in a climate‐vulnerable environment. The explanatory survey, stratified random sampling and SmartPLS‐SEM were used to analyse data from 342 respondents across selected ISO 9001‐certified manufacturing companies in Ghana. PI is observed to influence EP but not FP. MS influences both FP and EP, while CP moderates the PI‐FP, PI‐EP and MS‐FP nexus but not that of MS‐EP. The study extends the dynamic capabilities, innovation diffusion and organisational climate theories and suggests that manufacturing firms need to view PI as a strategic requirement and not just a profit mechanism. Manufacturing firms in the Global South should strengthen management support by ensuring adequate resource allocation, demonstrating sustained commitment, and integrating climate vulnerability into organisational decision‐making.
ABSTRACT The role of women in family businesses and entrepreneurship is significant; however, the impact of female board members on the performance of family‐owned companies in Saudi Arabia remains underexplored. Moreover, Saudi family firms are primarily male‐dominated, and women face challenges such as limited access to leadership roles. This study presents a decision‐making framework explicitly designed for family‐owned businesses. It sets out to define grey female directors as non‐executive female directors who are not completely independent due to familial, ownership, business or social relationships with controlling family shareholders. We utilise an unbalanced panel data set comprising 481 firm‐year observations in Saudi Arabia as of 31 December 2022. The data for this research were collected from three distinct sources: corporate governance information was obtained from the firms' end‐of‐year reports, while firm‐level data were gathered from DataStream and the Saudi stock exchange website (Tadawul). We analysed the data using panel techniques to examine the effects. The empirical results suggest that a Saudi woman on the board positively impacts financial performance. Importantly, the involvement of independent female directors—rather than those who are less active—plays a crucial role in the success of family‐owned businesses. However, this positive effect diminishes when family members, such as the CEO or board chairperson, occupy key positions. On this basis, we urge family businesses, often characterised by concentrated ownership and male leadership, to embrace board diversity and improve women's professional qualifications.
ABSTRACT This study aims to examine the association between green banking practices (GBP) and financial performance (FP) in Indian banks. The moderating effect of NPAs (non‐performing assets) on GBI‐FP relationship is also examined on the basis of the sample of 20 banks for the period 2019–2024. The green banking index consists of four subindices and is prepared by using the content analysis technique. Ordinary least squares is applied to attain the objective. However, to deal with the endogeneity issue, the system GMM is also applied to analyse the GBI‐FP relationship. The findings indicate that GBI positively affects banks' financial performance. Subindices are also positively associated with financial performance. However, NPAs negatively moderate the relationship between GBI and FP. These findings will set a basis for policymakers and regulators in integrating environmental sustainability principles into banking operations and policy.
ABSTRACT Sustainable entrepreneurship (SSE) is widely regarded as a critical response to socio‐economic and global environmental issues. However, the drivers of its development remain underexplored, particularly in the service sector and within the rapidly transforming Saudi Arabian context, driven by Vision 2030. Existing research identifies key factors that appear general, without accounting for contextual specifics or explaining how they interact. This study addresses this gap by identifying the key drivers of SSE in Saudi service businesses and their relative importance. Three main steps are considered to achieve this objective: the first was the Fuzzy Delphi method, which identified 15 factors that matter in our context; the second used MICMAC‐ISM and the third applied the Analytic Network Process. Findings confirm the specificities of the service context and offer a stratified framework based on each factor's opportunity. The corresponding critical pathway generated by this research emphasises the importance of the legislative framework as an influential driver, followed by institutional, individual and social factors. By adopting this approach, the study contributes to enriching entrepreneurship theory by proposing a system‐based perspective and offering practical insights for managers and policymakers seeking to promote SSE in the service sector in Saudi Arabia.
ABSTRACT Sustainable development is increasingly reshaping corporate strategies, particularly in emerging markets such as India, where environmental, social, and governance (ESG) integration has become pivotal for long‐term value creation. This study examines the impact of ESG performance on firm outcomes for Nifty 500 firms over 2014–2024, considering both aggregated and disaggregated ESG dimensions, while assessing the influence of country‐level governance mechanisms. Using panel regression analysis, the findings reveal that robust ESG practices significantly enhance financial, operational, and market performance, underscoring their strategic relevance. At the disaggregated level, social (SOC) and governance (GOV) performance consistently improve profitability, efficiency, and market valuation, whereas environmental (ENV) initiatives exhibit short‐term negative effects, likely due to compliance and investment costs. Further, country governance indicators, including voice and accountability (VAA), political stability and absence of violence (PSV), government effectiveness (GVE), regulatory quality (REQ), rule of law (ROL), and control of corruption (COC), differentially shape the ESG–performance link. While VAA, PSV, REQ, and GVE enhance ESG's impact, ROL and COC constrain immediate gains, highlighting the role of governance quality in aligning ESG initiatives with firm‐level outcomes. The study provides critical insights for regulators, policymakers, investors, and corporate managers, emphasizing governance as a key enabler of sustainable growth in an emerging market.
ABSTRACT This study investigates how sustainability in the digital era shapes corporate value through the interplay between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and technological transformation in African business environments. In emerging economies, where institutional weaknesses, regulatory inconsistencies, and rising stakeholder scrutiny create complex operational conditions, the strategic relevance of ESG practices remains underexplored. Drawing on Stakeholder Theory and the Resource‐Based View, this research conceptualizes ESG engagement as a strategic capability that contributes to long‐term value creation, while digital transformation is viewed as an enabling mechanism that strengthens firms' ability to convert sustainability efforts into financial outcomes. Using a panel of 882 firm‐year observations from publicly listed manufacturing firms across Africa between 2010 and 2023, the study employs the system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator to address potential endogeneity, dynamic panel bias, and unobserved heterogeneity. Robustness checks, including alternative performance measures, winsorization, and endogeneity diagnostics, reinforce the reliability of the results. The findings show that environmental and social performance significantly enhance corporate value, whereas governance performance exhibits a more nuanced nonlinear relationship. Digital transformation positively moderates the ESG and corporate value link, indicating that technology enables firms to better leverage sustainability initiatives for financial gains. Heterogeneity analysis further reveals that ownership structures and industry classifications shape the strength of these relationships. The study highlights the strategic importance of aligning ESG practices with digital transformation efforts to drive sustainable corporate value in Africa's evolving business landscape, offering implications for managers, policymakers, and investors committed to advancing sustainability‐driven strategy.
ABSTRACT This study examines the relationship between green corporate governance, defined as firms' green mindsets and strategies as well as organizational arrangements that embed social responsibility into top‐level design, corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure, and financial reporting quality (FRQ) using a sample of 608 Vietnamese listed non‐financial firms from 2016 to 2024 and applying the fixed‐effects and system GMM estimations. The empirical evidence shows several notable findings. First, green corporate governance is positively associated with FRQ. Second, CSR disclosure has a positive effect on FRQ. Third, firms with stronger green corporate governance tend to disclose more CSR information. Finally, CSR disclosure mediates the relationship between green corporate governance and FRQ. Therefore, green corporate governance not only directly improves FRQ but also indirectly enhances FRQ through greater CSR disclosure. Overall, this study extends the literature on corporate governance, sustainability disclosure, and FRQ by offering new evidence from an emerging economy.
Environmental issues have emerged as major global concerns that adversely affect overall productivity and sustainable development. This study explores the factors that enhance the green economic growth of organizations, with a specific focus on the mediating effect of green capability, using the Natural Resource-Based View (NRBV) theory and the Ecological Modernization Theory (EMT). For research purposes, a standard questionnaire was circulated among distinct corporate employees using a non-probability purposive sampling technique and among them, 407 valid responses were used for analysis using SPSS 25 and SmartPLS 4. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to examine the correlation between the predictor and predicted variables. The findings indicate that green innovation (GI0, composed of elements: green product innovation, green process innovation, green technology innovation) does not show a significant direct impact on green economic growth (GEG). Conversely, Green Tax (GTX), Green Climate Finance (GCF), ESG Practices (EP), and Green Capability (GC) exhibit statistically significant direct effect on GEG. This study also found that GC fully mediates the relationship between GI and GEG, and partially mediates the relationship between GTX and GEG and between GCF and GEG. The research is original and novel for its comprehensive generational analysis of how the GEG is shaped in an emerging country context. This study extends green economic benefits concepts by integrating NRBV and EMT to explain how green strategic decisions influence GEG using organizational capability. These findings also create pragmatic insights for firms as well as policymakers to incorporate green ideology in their activities and policies. Organizations should focus on implementing green capabilities based on their accessible resources and integrate ESG practices into capability progression. Also, the adoption of these factors, which ensure green economic growth, can aid our country in attaining five SDGs. Moreover, the study contributes to global sustainability objectives by aligning with SDG 8 (Decent work and Economic growth), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and SDG 13 (Climate Action).
This study investigates how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance shapes corporate dividend policy using an international panel of 3665 publicly listed enterprises from 14 countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia from 2010 to 2022, spanning six sectors: finance, industry, technology, healthcare, basic materials, and utilities. We document an apparent size-based asymmetry: ESG has little effect in small firms, but it is associated with higher dividend per share and more stable payout ratios among medium and large firms, with dividend growth improving mainly for large firms. Sectoral evidence shows that ESG-related dividend benefits are most substantial in financial and technology firms. Importantly, disaggregating ESG reveals that the overall effect is driven primarily by the governance pillar, while environmental performance shows weaker, and sometimes costly, links to payout outcomes, especially for smaller firms. These results contribute new cross-country, multi-sector evidence that ESG mainly operates as a governance-driven dividend-stability mechanism, implying governance catch-up rather than a uniform sustainability-payout channel.
ABSTRACT This study investigates how competitive business strategy shapes the relationship between board gender diversity and ESG performance in Asian emerging economies. Integrating resource dependence theory, upper echelons theory, and Porter's competitive strategy framework, we examine whether the ESG effect of female board representation differs between cost leadership and differentiation strategies. Using an unbalanced panel of 64,427 firm‐year observations from publicly listed firms between 2015 and 2023, we find that board gender diversity is positively associated with ESG performance. Contrary to our hypothesis, this relationship is stronger in cost leadership firms than in differentiation‐oriented firms. Robustness tests using a critical mass indicator and lagged explanatory variables confirm the main findings. These results suggest that gender‐diverse boards may serve as a corrective governance mechanism in efficiency‐oriented firms, where ESG concerns may be less naturally embedded in competitive strategy. This study advances strategy–governance research by demonstrating that the ESG value of board gender diversity is contingent upon firms' strategic orientation. It also highlights the importance of aligning board composition and business strategy to enhance sustainable corporate performance in emerging markets.
This study examines how board effectiveness influences corporate sustainability by accounting for the temporal dynamics through which board attributes affect sustainability outcomes. Analyzing a balanced panel of 1091 listed firms from the world's five largest economies over the period 2016-2024, the study employs fixed effects regressions to estimate the contemporaneous (t) and lagged effects (t + 1, t + 2). Results reveal a differentiated temporal pattern: board gender diversity and sustainability committees yield contemporaneous, persistent positive impacts, while the influence of board size emerges only over longer time horizons. Conversely, board independence remains consistently insignificant. Theoretically, the study extends the predominantly static treatment of governance theories by demonstrating that different governance mechanisms operate through distinct temporal pathways, with general board structural attributes requiring gestation periods before their impact materializes. Practically, we recommend that regulators should shift toward mandates that structurally embed sustainability expertise and functional committee oversight within board processes. Managerially, firms must utilize sustainability committees as strategic conduits to bridge the information gap for independent directors. By incorporating a temporal lens, the research reconciles mixed prior evidence and offers a novel framework for evaluating the long-term efficacy of corporate governance in driving sustainability.
Grounded in the resource-based view (RBV), the knowledge-based view (KBV), and the institutional theory (IT), this study examines how green product and process innovations serve as mechanisms linking green knowledge management (GKM) and environmental performance (EP) in an emerging economy context. The study also examined how environmental regulation (ER) serves as a boundary condition. To achieve this objective, the study develops and tests the mediation and moderation model utilizing cross-sectional survey data from 331 managerial-level employees of firms in Ethiopian Industrial Parks. Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) with AMOS was employed to test the relationships. The findings indicate that GKM has a significant direct influence on green product innovation (GPtI), green process innovation (GPcI), and EP. Furthermore, GPcI partially mediates the relationship between GKM and EP, whereas GPtI does not. Finally, ER does not show a significant moderating effect on the relationship between GKM and EP. These findings contribute by refining the mechanisms by which GKM enhances EP through disaggregating GI into product and process dimensions and examining the conditional role of ER within the RBV, KBV, and IT framework. The findings provide context-specific and actionable insights for managers and policymakers, highlighting the stronger role of GPcI relative to GPtI and the complementary benefits of GKM and GPcI in enhancing EP, while indicating a limited role of ER.
Corporate cash holding policies have become increasingly important as firms face heightened global uncertainty, growing sustainability demands, and greater transparency expectations. This study examines the effect of the Women Leadership Index (WLI) on corporate cash holdings through ESG assurance and ESG performance within a serial mediation framework. The analysis is based on 12,330 firm-year observations from non-financial companies across Asia-Pacific and Europe. Empirically, the study employs a serial mediation approach using System GMM and Hayes' PROCESS Model 6, complemented by robustness tests and additional analyses. The findings reveal that WLI has a positive and significant effect on corporate cash holdings, suggesting that firms with higher-quality female board representation tend to retain more cash as a strategic response to governance discipline and sustainability demands. Furthermore, this relationship operates through a serial mediation mechanism. WLI enhances ESG assurance as a monitoring function, strengthening transparency and credibility and, in turn, promoting higher ESG performance. Improved ESG performance subsequently increases long-term investment needs and exposure to uncertainty, leading firms to hold more cash as a strategic buffer. These results indicate that high-quality female leadership not only mitigates cash inefficiencies but also aligns cash holding policies with firms' strategic needs. From a practical perspective, regulators, firms, and investors should expand women's access to leadership development and promote higher-quality ESG assurance as a governance instrument to enhance transparency and sustainability risk management. This study contributes to the literature by uncovering the mechanisms through which women's leadership influences corporate cash holding policies, integrating ESG assurance and performance. This area remains relatively underexplored in prior research.
This study examines the relationship between tax avoidance (CTA) and greenwashing, and how business strategy types (i.e., defender, analyzer, and prospector) influence this relationship during periods of economic uncertainty. Using a battery of estimating models and focusing on firms on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) between 2019 and 2022, the study found a positive association between CTA and greenwashing, suggesting that CTA firms are more inclined to engage in symbolic corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies (i.e., Greenwashing) during economic crises. The CTA-greenwashing association is more pronounced among Defender-type firms than among Prospector- and Analyzer-type firms. Furthermore, we found that non-environmentally sensitive firms and firms heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic are more susceptible to the CTA-greenwashing nexus. These findings call for a more context-sensitive policy to encourage genuine CSR practices and transparency, with consideration of the roles of economic crises and business strategy types in influencing firms' engagement in opportunistic behaviors.
Agrifood supply chains are increasingly exposed to environmental, operational, and food safety risks, while technological innovation is attracting growing attention for its potential to improve supply chain resilience and management. However, limited attention has been devoted to understanding how technological applications may contribute to mitigating specific risks affecting agrifood supply chains. This study examines the relationship between technological innovation and risk management in agrifood supply chains. To this end, the main risks relevant to technological innovation are identified based on the literature, then prioritised through expert evaluation using a fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process. Next, we examine how technological applications may contribute to mitigating specific risk categories. The findings show that risks can be organised into categories relating to environmental conditions and natural resource availability, food safety and product authenticity, data and information management, and supply chain activities. The results highlight the relevance of food safety and environmental risks, as well as vulnerabilities related to traceability, logistics, and information management. Moreover, the study shows how technological applications may contribute to mitigating specific risks, particularly by improving information availability, traceability, monitoring, and coordination. This study contributes to the literature by providing a conceptual classification of the main risk categories affecting agrifood supply chains in relation to technological innovation and by analysing the connections between technological applications and risk management. From a practical perspective, the findings offer useful insights for practitioners and policymakers to orient technological innovation towards the mitigation of specific supply chain risks.
A circular economy (CE) has become an important tool for suggesting sustainable use, consumption, and management of resources and thereby reducing environmental impacts for businesses. This study aims to identify the awareness, barriers, and policy awareness to implement micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Charkhi Dadri district, Haryana, toward the concept of CE. Based on the resource-based view (RBV) and institutional theory, the study examines the nature of relationships between organizational characteristics and institutional support, and CE's awareness and participation among MSMEs. Primary data were gathered by a structured questionnaire using a purposive sampling technique from 48 MSMEs. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation, chi-square analysis, Fisher's exact test, Cram & eacute;r's V, multiple response analysis, and Friedman test, using IBM SPSS statistics. The results showed that MSME type, number of years of operation, and number of employees were significant to the CE awareness, while the variable of industry type was nonsignificant. Insufficient awareness and institutional support, and costly implementation were the primary challenges facing CE adoption. The study revealed that there was also a significant linkage between the points of awareness of CE practices and government policies supporting CE practices. The results bring into prominence the significance of organizational strength, institutional support, and awareness of policy in empowering the organization of CE among MSMEs. This study adds empirical data from a local perspective in an emerging economy and offers insightful recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders of MSMEs to encourage sustainable and circular business practices.
Within today's globalised business sectors, where the demand for socially responsible practices is high, understanding the importance of social sustainability is pivotal. However, the social sustainability dimension has received scarce attention, especially in the context of emerging market firms. Based on stakeholder theory, this study investigates how internal and external social initiatives enhance geographic internationalisation in the context of emerging market firms. The study also examines the moderating influence of CSR reporting and the CSR committees on that relationship. The research uses panel data drawn from the LSEG Workspace database from 2016 to 2022, covering 370 firms from 21 emerging economies. This research helps to further clarify the significance of how internal and external social initiatives impact emerging market firms' internationalisation approaches and assists in developing further understanding among managers and policymakers regarding the need for both transparent disclosures and effective committees to convert external and internal social initiatives into a comparative strategic advantage in international and diverse markets.
This study examines how Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance mediates the relationship between managerial ability and carbon emission reduction across developed and developing economies. We address a critical gap: understanding how executive capabilities translate into environmental outcomes through organizational systems. Using unbalanced panel data from 50 developed and 147 developing countries (2018-2023), we employ the Hayes Process Model for mediation analysis and the Heckman two-stage method to address endogeneity. Our findings reveal partial mediation: ESG performance transmits managerial ability's impact on carbon reduction, but transmission mechanisms differ systematically by institutional context. In developed economies, managerial ability exerts stronger direct effects on emission reduction. Conversely, ESG performance plays a more critical mediating role in developing economies, compensating for institutional voids. These results demonstrate the necessity of context-specific sustainability strategies. For practitioners, we show that emerging markets require robust ESG infrastructure as governance substitutes, while developed economies benefit from strengthening direct regulatory mechanisms. This research advances corporate environmental governance theory by revealing how institutional quality moderates managerial effectiveness pathways.
This study examines sustainable consumption behaviors within the framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior, incorporating tax awareness as a normative construct into the relationship between environmental awareness and green consumption. The research aims to reinterpret behavioral processes, often explained in the literature through moral norms and civic responsibility, through a more concrete dimension of public awareness related to policy consciousness. Data was collected via an online survey prepared using Google Forms, yielding 423 responses. The data was analyzed using SPSS (Windows 23.0 and 25.0), and a structural equation model was applied. Analyses conducted on a Turkish sample show that environmental awareness directly influences green consumption and indirectly influences tax awareness. The significant mediating role of tax awareness indicates that individuals' environmental awareness is integrated with their perceptions of public responsibility, thereby shaping behavior. These findings demonstrate that sustainable consumption is shaped not only by individual attitudes and moral norms but also by civic responsibility and policy consciousness. By expanding the scope of normative constructs, this study offers a conceptual contribution to the sustainable consumption literature.
