This study examines how Green Inclusive Leadership (GIL) enhances Team Green Innovation Performance (TGIP) in Sierra Leone's mining sector. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory and Situational Strength Theory, we propose a moderated mediation model in which Green Harmonious Passion (GHP) mediates the GIL–TGIP relationship, while Perceived Organizational Support for the Environment (POSE) moderates the leadership–passion link. Using multi-wave data from 305 employees and supervisors across 68 teams, PLS-SEM results show that GIL positively predicts TGIP, and GHP partially mediates this relationship. Moreover, POSE strengthens both the GIL–GHP link and the indirect effect on TGIP. The findings advance green leadership research by integrating motivational and contextual mechanisms driving sustainable innovation in developing economies.

Against the backdrop of the transition toward a green economy, this study examines the effect of managerial overconfidence on firms' green innovation performance, encompassing both substantive and strategic dimensions. Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2021, we find that managerial overconfidence is positively associated with green innovation output. The results still hold after several robustness tests. Mechanism analysis reveals that this effect operates primarily through increased research and development (R&D) investment. Furthermore, cross-sectional tests reveal that this positive effect is more pronounced among state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and firms with higher executive ownership. Overall, our findings highlight the crucial role of managerial traits in shaping corporate environmental strategies during the transition to a sustainable economy.

Leveraging a sample of European listed firms, we investigate whether CEO duality, CEO tenure, and CEO membership in the CSR board committee are associated with the quality of corporate social responsibility (CSR) governance. Our findings indicate that CEO duality is negatively associated with CSR governance quality, whereas CEO membership on the CSR board committee is positively associated with CSR governance quality. We also find that CEO tenure is associated with CSR governance quality, with a positive effect primarily in the early years of service, but not in the later stages of tenure. This study introduces a measure of CSR governance quality based on the CSR committee members' characteristics and highlights the role of the CEO over the board attributes.

This study examines the relationship between Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance and cost of debt among food security companies in ASEAN emerging markets, specifically addressing the Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) financing gap. Using panel data from 107 firm-year observations across 30 publicly listed food and beverage companies spanning 2020–2024, we employ MSCI ESG ratings with fixed-effects panel regression models. The analysis reveals that companies with higher SDG 2 alignment scores demonstrate significantly lower cost of debt financing (110 basis points reduction per unit increase), while environmental pillar performance reduces borrowing costs by 60 basis points. Aggregate ESG scores demonstrate no significant relationship, consistent with ESG materiality theory. We develop a creditor-centric theoretical framework explaining how SDG 2 alignment operates through regulatory compliance signaling, operational risk mitigation, and concessional finance access—mechanisms distinct from general ESG performance. Lagged-variable robustness tests and formal endogeneity tests confirm these findings are not driven by reverse causality. These results advance sustainable finance theory and provide actionable guidance for policymakers designing SDG-linked financing instruments.

Brand misconduct can trigger negative consumer responses and escalate into brand crises. Effective crisis management is therefore essential to mitigate such responses and enhance organisational resilience. This study investigates the impact of various crisis communication strategies on consumer engagement and subsequent brand cancellation, incorporating the mediating role of consumer engagement and the moderating influence of brand misconduct type. Two experimental studies using simple random sampling were conducted online. The findings reveal that crisis communication strategies exert significantly different effects on consumer engagement, which in turn negatively influences brand cancellation. However, the mediating role of consumer engagement varies depending on the specific strategy used: it partially mediates the effect of corrective action, fully mediates the effect of reducing offensiveness and does not significantly mediate the effects of the evading responsibility and mortification strategies. Furthermore, corrective action and reducing offensiveness strategies are more effective in enhancing consumer engagement in performance-related misconduct, whereas evading responsibility is the least effective in value-related misconduct. This study contributes to the crisis management and brand cancellation literature by offering practical insights for brand managers and corporate communication professionals. Tailoring crisis communication content to the nature of brand misconduct can enhance consumer engagement and reduce the risk of brand cancellation.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is widely recognized for its role in advancing sustainability within emerging economies like China. However, the specific mechanisms and contextual factors that shape the impact of internal CSR (ICSR) and external CSR (ECSR) on firms' environmental performance (EP) remain insufficiently understood. This study addresses this gap by leveraging stakeholder theory to explore the distinct effects of ICSR and ECSR on EP, while examining how these relationships are moderated by industry competition and media scrutiny. Using a comprehensive dataset of 815 Chinese firms spanning 2008 to 2020, we reveal that both ICSR and ECSR positively enhance EP, with ECSR exerting a comparatively stronger influence. Furthermore, our findings show that industry competition attenuates the positive effects of ICSR and ECSR, whereas media scrutiny amplifies them. These insights contribute to the environmental management and business strategy literature by clarifying how and when diverse CSR approaches drive firms' environmental outcomes, offering practical implications for organizations navigating competitive and media-intensive landscapes.

This study examines how collaborative entrepreneurship and responsible entrepreneurship shape venture performance. It further examines the mediating role of responsible innovation in explaining these relationships. Moreover, the study explores the moderating effect of entrepreneurial strategy on the link between responsible innovation and venture performance. Using survey data from 340 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Guangdong, China, the study employs partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS–SEM) to test the proposed relationships. The results indicate that collaborative and responsible entrepreneurship are significantly and positively related to venture performance. In addition, responsible innovation significantly mediates the relationships among collaborative entrepreneurship, responsible entrepreneurship, and venture performance. The findings further show that entrepreneurial strategy significantly strengthens the relationship between responsible innovation and venture performance. It also offers practical insights for SMEs aiming to improve competitiveness by fostering collaborative entrepreneurial practices, embedding responsibility into decision-making, and aligning innovation efforts with adaptive strategies.

Matching-gift programs institutionalize employee-led CSR by amplifying employees' voluntary donations. Yet we know relatively little about what promotes the adoption of these decentralized forms of corporate social engagement. Drawing on upper echelons theory, this study argues that executives with STEM educational backgrounds tend to favor problem environments that are technically framed, systemically structured, and analytically tractable, making them less receptive to decentralized forms of corporate social engagement such as matching-gift programs. Using panel data on 1604 publicly listed Japanese firms from 2006 to 2020, this study finds that a higher proportion of STEM-educated executives is associated with a lower likelihood of adopting matching-gift programs. This negative association is attenuated by greater female representation in the executive team. Moreover, although STEM-educated leadership discourages the adoption of matching-gift programs, it is positively associated with firm-led CSR investments. By distinguishing not only how much firms give but also how giving is governed, this study shows that top leadership composition can shape employee-driven CSR initiatives.

Small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) globally are increasingly struggling to maintain competitiveness while addressing the escalating expectations of society and the environment. As sustainability demands increase, enterprises have to align their strategic objectives with ethical business practices. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a crucial mechanism for firms to align their economic objectives with societal needs, thereby enhancing their resilience and competitiveness over time. This study examines the impact of CSR on sustainable competitive advantage, considering the mediating roles of green human resource management (GHRM) and technological adaptability in the Ghanaian SMEs. The non-probability convenience quantitative data drawn from 383 participants were analysed using SPSS AMOS version 23 and PROCESS macro version 3. They revealed that CSR significantly enhances sustainable competitive advantage, GHRM practices and technological adaptability. Also, both green human resources and technological adaptability significantly influence sustainable competitive advantage. The study further confirms that both GHRM and technological adaptability partially mediate the relationship between CSR and sustainable competitive advantage. This study enhances the Dynamic Capabilities Theory by clarifying how green human resource management and technological adaptability serve as mechanisms linking CSR to sustainable competitive advantage in SMEs. This study contributes to the literature on CSR and sustainability by presenting evidence from an emerging economy where research on CSR-driven adaptive competencies is scarce. The findings underscore the strategic significance of integrating sustainability commitments into human resource frameworks and technological enhancement initiatives. Overall, integrating CSR with GHRM practices and adaptive technological investments not only enhances the long-term performance of SMEs but also demonstrates the transformative potential of strategic sustainability efforts in driving competitive advantage and positive societal impact.

This study examines the cross-lagged association between the disclosure of corporate sustainability and Sustainable Development Goals of 300 large nonfinancial firms listed on major stock exchanges across five emerging Asian nations. It uses content analysis to compute disclosure scores and employs a cross-lagged panel data model to estimate bi-directional association. Consistent with the stakeholder and signaling theories, findings reveal that the lag of corporate sustainability disclosure positively influences Sustainable Development Goals. However, we fail to extricate the reversed lag impact of Sustainable Development Goals on sustainability disclosure. While our study finds a positive bi-directional lag impact between environmental disclosure and Sustainable Development Goals, the impacts of social and economic disclosures have a unidirectional association. The findings are useful for policy implications for enhancing the disclosures of corporate sustainability and Sustainable Development Goals. Further, the positive bi-directional association between environmental disclosure and Sustainable Development Goals is useful for firms and regulators to develop appropriate strategies in a voluntary setting for a green environment and long-term sustainable development.

This study provides the results about the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the financial performance of banks in six Western Balkans (WB6) over the 2011–2023 period. CSR index was constructed from 11 estimated indicators on a Likert scale with six levels (from 1 to 6) to measure the intensity of social responsibility practices of the banks. The sample included 70 banks from the WB6 that were used to investigate the impact and relationship between CSR and financial performance. The research employed an advanced empirical framework by integrating OLS, 2SLS, fixed effects (FEs), and GMM to address possible endogeneity and to obtain consistent findings. The results show that the banks with higher implementation of CSR have higher returns and financial sustainability than those where CSR has been less implemented, suggesting that an approach based on ethics toward generating bank performance indicators contributes to sustainable performance. Larger banks are motivated to respect the standards of CSR more, which is an indication of a strategic orientation toward building a long-term reputation and consolidation of trust among the stakeholders. In addition, this study shows that CRS is positively and comprehensively related to bank performance indicators such as return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE), while its effect on ratio of efficiency (RE) is found to be negative but economically small and statistically insignificant. The study finds that foreign banks operating in the respective region are at least 2.5 points better off than their local counterparts in CSR application. The results show that CSR plays a strategic role in strengthening financial stability, institutional trust, and sustainable gains, especially in environments with higher risk and uncertainty.

Enhancing banks' environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance is essential for high-quality sustainable development in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey (MENAT) region. Gender diversity, which is one of the main governance mechanisms, plays a crucial role and has a significant influence on the bank's ESG performance. This paper aims to understand the nonlinear relationship between board gender diversity and environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. More precisely, we explore the threshold effect of bank market power on this relationship. To do so, we use a sample of 77 listed banks operating in nine MENAT countries (Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE) over the period 2017–2024. To explore this model, this paper employs the Dynamic Panel Threshold Regression (DPTR) approach. This method accounts for the dynamic nature of the dependent variable and potential endogeneity. The findings indicate that there is a threshold effect of bank market power on board gender diversity-ESG performance. The threshold value is estimated at 0.2553 (25.53%), beyond which (in a less competitive market) gender diversity begins to hinder ESG performance. This research contributes to the bank gender diversity and ESG literature by highlighting the role of bank market power, offering novel perceptions into mechanisms for enhancing bank sustainability.

This study examines whether sustainability reporting becomes relevant to firm value partly through externally evaluated ESG performance and whether this process varies with firms' communication environments. Using firm-year data on Korean listed firms from 2019 to 2021, we estimate regression models with year and industry fixed effects and firm-level clustered standard errors, complemented by bootstrap mediation analysis. The results show that sustainability disclosure is positively associated with externally evaluated ESG performance and that externally evaluated ESG performance is positively associated with firm value. The mediation analysis further indicates that external ESG evaluation accounts for part, but not all, of the disclosure–value association. In addition, the positive association between sustainability disclosure and externally evaluated ESG performance becomes weaker as advertising intensity increases. These findings suggest that sustainability reporting matters not only as a disclosure practice, but also as part of a broader process through which publicly available ESG-related information is incorporated into external evaluation. By treating externally evaluated ESG performance as an external evaluative output rather than a direct proxy for underlying ESG conduct, this study offers a more context-sensitive account of when sustainability disclosure becomes economically meaningful.

From a signaling perspective, this study examines how the temporal properties of ESG cues shape their diagnostic value in consumer evaluation and purchase intention. Corporate reputation is conceptualized as an enduring ESG signal, whereas ESG signal quality is conceptualized as an episodic ESG signal. Survey data from 415 consumers in China's first-tier cities were analyzed using PLS-SEM and fsQCA. The results show that episodic ESG signal quality is the more influential immediate cue: it enhances perceived ESG and purchase intention and is associated with greater cognitive elaboration. By contrast, enduring corporate reputation primarily informs perceived ESG and functions more as a broad credibility condition than as a direct driver of elaboration or intention once signal quality is considered. fsQCA further shows that high purchase intention arises through multiple sufficient configurations. Overall, the study extends signaling theory in an ESG context by showing that signal temporality shapes diagnostic value.

Corporate decarbonization combines real investment, governance change, and disclosure. Using Chinese A-share firms (2008–2022), we examine whether faster green transition predicts higher financial fragility. We develop a dynamic model with convex adjustment costs and financing constraints embedded in a structural default-risk framework. Transition speed is measured as the year-on-year speed of a composite green transition index constructed via entropy-weighted TOPSIS (excluding financial-performance proxies); the baseline uses Δln(1 + gt) and robustness uses absolute changes, growth rates, and physical proxies (CO₂- and pollution-intensity reduction speed). Firm and year fixed-effects estimates show that faster transition is associated with higher distress and default risk (lower Z-scores and distance-to-default), with heterogeneous but not uniformly ranked effects across pollution, life-cycle and regional subsamples. Evidence is strongest for leverage buildup and higher volatility; innovation outcomes and debt-structure adjustments provide additional mechanism-consistent but more mixed evidence. Green finance is associated with the financing environment around rapid transition, disclosure provides the clearest buffering evidence by lowering financing costs and attenuating selected risk measures, and regulation mainly adds compliance-cost pressure rather than a robust offset in the core distress/default regressions. Overall, we provide evidence of an intertemporal trade-off between rapid transition and short-run financial stability.

Despite growing interest in SDG-oriented business practices, limited attention has been paid to how practice maturity and managerial gender jointly shape the translation of sustainability initiatives into Sustainable Development and organizational results. This study addresses this gap by examining a model in which SDG-oriented practices at three maturity levels (basic, advanced, and expert) influence Sustainable Development and organizational performance, while Sustainable Development acts as a mediator and managerial gender operates as a moderator. Drawing on a micro-foundations perspective, the study uses survey data from 200 medium-sized Spanish firms and applies Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) combined with multi-group analysis. The findings indicate that SDG-oriented business practices positively affect Sustainable Development and organizational results, with stronger effects observed as practice maturity increases. Sustainable Development partially mediates the relationship between sustainability practices and performance, suggesting that firms derive economic benefits not only from direct operational improvements but also through the development of sustainability-related organizational capabilities. The results further reveal significant gender differences, as advanced and expert practices display stronger effects in female-led firms, whereas basic-level practices exert relatively stronger effects in male-led firms. By integrating practice maturity and managerial agency into a unified explanatory framework, this study contributes to the sustainability management literature by providing a more differentiated explanation of how SDG-oriented practices generate organizational value. The findings also suggest that organizations should align sustainability governance structures with the maturity level of sustainability practices and foster gender-diverse managerial approaches to strengthen sustainability capabilities and long-term organizational performance.

This article examines how songwriters in the United States object to the unwanted performance of their musical works at live political events, and the legal options available to challenge such uses. Prompted by the repeated use of ‘Hold On, I'm Comin'’ as outro music at Donald Trump's campaign events between 2020 and 2024, and the recent litigation brought by the family of co-writer Isaac Hayes, the article explores the limits of three legal approaches commonly relied upon in these disputes between songwriters and political users of music: copyright claims based on the public performance right, false endorsement claims under the Lanham Act, and state-based right of publicity claims. The analysis considers how music industry practices shape copyright ownership, how blanket licensing systems administered by performing rights organisations restrict objections to political uses, and how revocation clauses are a limited tool for preventing future performances. It also shows that Lanham Act and publicity-rights claims succeed only in narrow circumstances. The article concludes that while copyright law can sometimes offer control over political uses of music, alternative legal doctrines rarely make up for weak copyright claims, leaving ongoing gaps in the ability of songwriters to resist politically objectionable uses of their work.

Despite growing attention to corporate social irresponsibility, relatively few studies have examined the factors that may prevent its occurrence, particularly across diverse cultural contexts. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the effect of immediate inspirational leadership on value orientation, as well as the effects of both on corporate social irresponsibility related to employees and related to the environment, based on the perceptions of employees of large companies operating in different countries, such as Brazil, Portugal, Malaysia, England, France, Germany, Canada and Hungary. After drawing up a structural model that connected the constructs, a survey was carried out with employees in Brazil and other countries, resulting in 500 respondents, 301 from Brazil and 199 from abroad. The analyses were carried out using structural equation modeling with partial least squares and multi-group analysis. The results indicate that there are no statistically significant differences in the perceptions of employees of large companies in Brazil and abroad, suggesting that cultural differences between countries do not influence perceptions in the context of corporate social irresponsibility. Furthermore, regardless of the country of operation, immediate inspirational leadership tends to positively influence value orientation and negatively influence corporate social irresponsibility related to employees and the environment, while value orientation tends to reduce corporate social irresponsibility related to employees. Therefore, these findings suggest that, regardless of culture, immediate inspirational leadership and value orientation can be effective in mitigating corporate social irresponsibility, both in relation to employees and the environment, favoring social responsibility in large companies.

As carbon neutrality has become a central goal of global climate governance, how firms achieve low-carbon transformation has emerged as a critical research issue. However, prior studies have primarily focused on macro- or industry-level analyses, offering limited and fragmented insights into how digital technologies—particularly AI—affect firm-level carbon-neutrality performance and the underlying process-based mechanisms. To address this gap, this study adopts Resource Orchestration Theory (ROT) as the core analytical framework to examine how AI application is translated into firms' carbon-neutrality performance and integrates Dynamic Capability Theory (DCT) and Resource Dependence Theory (RDT) as complementary perspectives—used to explain internal capability reconfiguration and the role of the external resource environment, respectively—thereby constructing a comprehensive analytical framework. Using panel data of Chinese A-share listed manufacturing firms from 2018 to 2023, this study conducts empirical analysis based on a two-way fixed effects model. The results indicate that AI application significantly enhances firms' carbon-neutrality performance, and this finding remains robust after a series of robustness checks and controls for potential endogeneity. Further analyses reveal that AI exerts its effects primarily through alleviating financing constraints, enhancing R&D vitality, and increasing green patent outputs. Moreover, green technological efficiency, which reflects firms' internal capabilities, and the level of green finance development, which captures the external resource environment, both exhibit significant positive moderating effects on the focal relationship. From the perspective of ROT, this study reexamines the environmental value of AI, demonstrating that such value does not stem solely from the technology itself but is shaped through managerial resource orchestration processes and the interaction between internal capabilities and external resource environments. By moving beyond the conventional view that attributes AI's environmental effects to mere technological inputs, this study extends the literature through a process-based perspective. In the context of concurrent digital and green transformations, this research provides important theoretical insights and empirical evidence for understanding low-carbon development among firms in emerging economies.

Amidst burgeoning interest in sustainability and corporate value, this study addresses an empirical gap in the ASEAN-6 markets (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam) by investigating the interplay between green innovation capability (GIC), environmental, social, and governance ratings (ESGR), energy transition (ETR), and firm value (FV). It further explores how ESGR and ETR moderate the GIC–FV relationship. Using Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) regression, we analyzed panel data from Refinitiv Eikon for 2806 companies across the region from 2020 to 2024 (14,030 firm-year observations). Findings reveal novel insights specific to ASEAN-6; GIC and ESGR significantly enhance FV, confirming their strategic importance. However, the pathway to increased FV through sustainability is neither straightforward nor uniform but a multidimensional phenomenon. The findings reveal that while GIC and ESGR significantly enhance FV, confirming their strategic importance, the pathway to value creation is neither straightforward nor uniform. Instead, the impact of these sustainability factors is profoundly shaped by country-specific characteristics and intricate interactions among variables. Practically, this study underscores the necessity for managers to formulate sustainability strategies that leverage GIC and ESGR. Furthermore, it offers guidance for policymakers to design tailored, context-specific frameworks within each ASEAN-6 nation. By illuminating the context-dependent nature of these relationships, this research fills a critical empirical void in understanding how sustainability dimensions influence FV in key emerging economies.

Corporate digital transformation influences not only internal business processes and strategic management models, but also the way the stakeholders engage in corporate sustainable development. We explore the impacts of corporate digital transformation on stakeholder green engagement at three levels of stakeholders, inner-layer, mid-layer, and outer-layer stakeholders, as well as the moderating effect of digitalization depth and breadth. Based on stakeholder theory and stakeholder stratification perspective, we find that corporate digital transformation significantly improves stakeholder green engagement in different ways: it improves green investment efficiency for inner-layer stakeholders, enhances green disclosure quality for mid-layer stakeholders, and strengthens responsiveness to green policies for outer-layer stakeholders. Besides, the impact of digitalization is asymmetric: depth enhances engagement through integration of capabilities, whereas breadth undermines engagement through the dispersion of resources and organizational complexity. The significance of these findings is that they combine the stakeholder stratification theory with the digitalization studies and contain the realistic advice that managers and policymakers can use when implementing digital technologies to organize diverse stakeholders in order to promote sustainable corporate performance.

Artificial intelligence (AI) reflects a paradox for corporate sustainability: it provides tools for genuine socio-economic improvement and enables greenwashing at scale. This study examines this duality in emerging Asian markets, where rapid AI adoption coincides with evolving regulatory regimes. Using a panel of 1260 firm-years across six economies, we construct a firm-level green washing index and estimate panel models with Mondale corrections. The results show that AI adoption is positively associated with green washing intensity. Crucially, this risk is disciplined by two forces: verified ESG performance and regulatory stringency. We demonstrate their complementarity; the disciplining effect of verification is substantially stronger where regulatory enforcement is credible. Furthermore, firm valuation rewards verified ESG performance, not AI adoption itself. These findings reframe verification and regulation as synergistic rather than independent safeguards, advancing theory on disclosure credibility. They also provide actionable insights for policymakers designing governance regimes and for investors seeking to distinguish substantive sustainability from AI-enabled impression management.

Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), this study examines how green intellectual capital (GIC) enhances organizational resilience (OR) among hospitality SMEs in Egypt. It analyzes the roles of green entrepreneurial orientation (GEO), green dynamic capability (GDC), green absorptive capacity (GAC), and green competitive advantage (GCA) in converting green intangible resources into resilience outcomes. Data from 239 SME hotel managers were analyzed using PLS-SEM with SmartPLS 4 to test direct, mediating, sequential, and moderating effects. Results indicate that GIC positively influences GEO, GDC, and GCA. GEO and GDC mediate the GIC–GCA relationship, while GCA significantly strengthens OR. A significant sequential mediation pathway links GIC to OR through GEO, GDC, and GCA. Moreover, GAC positively moderates the effects of GIC on GEO and GDC. The study extends RBV by integrating green capability configurations as boundary conditions and provides insights for enhancing resilience and competitiveness in hospitality SME markets.

In an era of growing stakeholder pressure and regulatory fragmentation across global jurisdictions, the quality of environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting has become foundational to corporate valuation, investment screening and regulatory oversight. This study uses machine learning (ML) techniques to predict global reporting quality and examine how the determinants differ in disclosure quality in developed and emerging economies as well as civil and common law jurisdictions. Drawing on a cross-sectional sample of 5000 publicly listed companies across 50 countries for the fiscal year 2022, we develop and evaluate Random Forest and XGBoost models alongside a panel regression benchmark, using financial performance metrics, corporate governance indicators and institutional characteristics as predictors. The primary contribution of this study is methodological: The authors demonstrate that ML techniques deliver superior predictive power compared to traditional econometric approaches by capturing the non-linear, high-dimensional interactions that characterise ESG disclosure decisions globally—a capacity that conventional ordinary least squares and fixed-effects regressions structurally cannot replicate. The study integrates signalling theory, legitimacy theory and agency theory to explain corporate disclosure motivations across diverse institutional settings. The results show that agency theory, in particular, illuminates why board size and board independence consistently emerge as strong predictors, since independent monitoring reduces information asymmetry and incentivises management to commit to transparent sustainability disclosures. Results confirm the superiority of ML techniques, with XGBoost achieving a test R ² of 0.78 compared to 0.62 for panel regression. SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analysis identifies firm size, governance score and board independence as the most consequential predictors. Board independence exhibits a threshold effect: ESG quality gains plateau beyond approximately 65%–70% independent directors. The study offers actionable insights for investors and regulators seeking to identify firms at high risk of greenwashing through governance-marker profiling and sustainability officers benchmarking their organisations' reporting quality against global peers.

This paper examines the association between biodiversity disclosure, artificial intelligence (AI), and gender diversity of board and the cost of capital in Chinese A-listed companies. Global sustainability and long-term business resilience increasingly rely on biodiversity protection and technological adoption, yet the financial aspects of these issues are under-researched. Based on agency theory and stakeholder accountability models, we hypothesise that biodiversity disclosure and AI adoption will lead to lower financing costs through better governance, transparency and reduced risk. Moreover, we hypothesise that board gender diversity enhances these effects by enhancing monitoring, oversight and credibility of sustainability initiatives. Based on large-scale firm-level data (2010–2024) from CSMAR and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, our results indicate that biodiversity disclosure and AI integration have a significant positive effect on the weighted average cost of capital, cost of equity, and cost of debt for Chinese A-share-listed firms. In addition, gender diversity is a moderator that enhances the cost-reducing impacts of biodiversity disclosure and AI adoption. Artificial intelligence can be used to reduce a firm's financing costs by improving information processing, minimising uncertainty, and enhancing the credibility of its disclosures. AI technologies can analyse massive amounts of financial and operational data quickly and with high precision. This enables firms to provide more transparent and believable information to investors and lenders, thereby alleviating information asymmetry between firms and their capital providers. These results highlight the complementary role of governance, sustainability and technology in lowering financing costs. As the drivers align corporate finance with sustainable development objectives, policymakers and international regulators are urged to require biodiversity reporting, promote gender-diverse boards, and embrace AI-enabled transparency.

Integrating sustainability not only into corporate strategy and product design is essential to address pressing global challenges. This study proposes a framework that integrates social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) into time-driven activity-based costing (TD-ABC) to manage both social and economic issues by assessing social impacts across value chains. An illustrative case study in the packaging sector demonstrates the model's (TD-ABC-S-LCA) feasibility in calculating the direct and indirect upstream social impacts of a company. Significant social risks can be identified in non-recycled paper packaging due to the sourcing of resources from high-risk regions. Contribution and geographical variability analysis identify opportunities, such as strengthening supplier relationships and optimizing material sourcing. Despite limitations, including reliance on generic databases and a cradle-to-gate scope, this framework provides a practical method for companies to align economic goals with social responsibilities. It advances sustainability accounting practices, paving the way for further research and business applications.

Green bonds play a central role in sustainable finance, yet concerns about greenwashing raise questions about the credibility of issuers' sustainability disclosures. Using dictionary-based methods and domain-specific BERT transformer models, this paper proposes two greenwashing alert metrics and investigates their performance by analyzing sustainability reports of European corporate green bond issuers from 2019 to 2023. First, we develop the SDGs Omission Index (SDGOI), which measures the discrepancy between Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) declared ex-ante in green bond frameworks and those subsequently reported in sustainability disclosures. We show that the use of SDG-specific language is associated with broader SDG coverage, whereas generic environmental language is not. Second, we introduce the Environmental Sentiment Metric (ESM), capturing opportunity-oriented environmental sentiment. We find that a more opportunity-oriented tone is positively related to SDG omission, ESG controversies, and greenwashing accusations. Together, SDGOI and ESM provide interpretable, disclosure-based indicators that can support issuing greenwashing alerts in the European green bond market.

Responsible consumption and production, emphasized in Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG 12), require both company-level sustainability initiatives and an understanding of how consumers respond to corporate responsibility signals. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) framework has become a central mechanism through which companies communicate their commitment to sustainable development; however, the behavioral pathways that link ESG perceptions with consumer behavior remain under-researched. This study examines how consumers' perceptions of companies' ESG engagement shape sustainable consumption through the mechanisms proposed by the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Using survey data from a nationwide sample of 1000 consumers across four generational cohorts, the model is tested with partial least squares structural equation modeling and multigroup analysis. The results indicate that perceived ESG engagement acts as a structured antecedent that influences attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, which subsequently shape behavioral intention and actual sustainable consumption. Attitudes emerge as the dominant mechanism, indicating that ESG-aligned consumption is largely value-driven, while normative and control-related factors play complementary roles. Although behavioral intention significantly predicts actual behavior, an intention–behavior gap remains. Generational differences are limited and mainly concern the translation of intention into behavior. By integrating ESG into TPB, the study provides a behavioral micro-level explanation of how company-level ESG engagement supports the objectives of SDG 12.

We investigate how traditional capital structure choices interact with emerging strategic drivers—ESG performance, R&D intensity, digitalization, and board gender diversity—to shape firm profitability in Saudi Arabia during the Vision 2030 reform era. Using a fixed-effects panel regression model on 2067 firm-year observations (2018–2024), we find that traditional leverage metrics show no consistent direct impact on profitability, whereas R&D intensity emerges as the strongest positive determinant. ESG and digital transformation do not influence financial performance directly but enhance the effect of R&D and governance factors when treated as moderators. We contribute by integrating corporate finance and strategic management theories under the dynamic capabilities lens, highlighting the contingent role of institutional transformation in emerging economies, and offering a robust, multi-dimensional framework for strategic investment decision-making in transitional markets. These findings provide actionable implications for firms and policymakers working toward sustainable, innovation-led growth under reform agendas like Vision 2030.

This study analyses the commitment of marine tourism companies to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the factors that affect it (economics, pressures from interest groups, barriers, innovative capacity, relationships of the company with its environment and characteristics of the businesses). The data were collected in 2020 using a structured questionnaire, administered with in-depth interviews with business owners on the island of Fuerteventura (Canary Islands). Thirty-two small or micro-enterprises participated in the study, out of the 150 companies in the said sector. A questionnaire was designed for an in-depth interview with business owners. The data obtained are analysed through a combination of exploratory factor analysis and backward stepwise multiple linear regression, allowing the simultaneous examination of the interrelationships between several latent constructs derived from observable variables. The results indicate that the commitment of these companies to CSR is more conditioned by driving factors than by barriers, although one of the most important difficulties is the lack of trust in public administrations. The existing governance framework is considered limited, so it is necessary to involve all stakeholders in the tourist destination in promoting socially responsible actions. A portfolio of public policies is proposed to promote responsible behavior among companies in the sector.

This study examines how engineering trained chief executive officers (CEOs) determine firms' sustainability performance and greenwashing behavior in Australian listed firms from 2016 to 2024. Drawing on Upper Echelons theory and Imprint theory, we argue that engineering cognition influences environmental strategy by providing conservative, evidence-based sustainability disclosures. We find that engineering CEOs are associated with weaker sustainability performance and lower greenwashing, indicating more credible and performance-based environmental disclosure. Sustainability assurance moderates this association by increasing external verification of sustainability disclosures, encouraging firms to follow compliance-oriented reporting practices and limiting CEOs' ability to influence disclosure credibility. Subsample analysis shows engineering CEOs are associated with stronger sustainability performance and an even greater reduction in greenwashing in technically intensive industries. Robustness tests using propensity score matching (PSM), entropy balancing, lagged models, and two-stage least squares (2SLS) confirm the consistency of our results. This study shows that engineering expertise influences sustainability performance, disclosure quality and greenwashing. The findings provide insights for boards, regulators, and stakeholders interested in credible sustainability strategies.

Despite burgeoning literature on sustainable innovation, there is limited understanding of how adversarial conditions, such as competitive intensity and environmental threat, shape green product innovation and the underlying mechanisms of this relationship. To address this gap, a caravan passage model is proposed using the strategy tripod perspective. Utilizing second-generation econometric analysis and data from 2011 to 2024 across firms in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions, we addressed endogeneity and reverse causality and estimated long-run relationships. We find evidence that while environmental threat does not directly influence green product performance (GPP), it enhances co-innovation capability, which in turn promotes GPP. On the other hand, competitive intensity, both directly and indirectly, drives GPP. However, the quantile results suggest a non-linear relationship. Finally, co-innovation capability is identified as a strategic medium to achieve green product performance. Managers must redirect focus from product innovation to green product performance as a more consequential outcome. Second, policymakers should reframe environmental threats as a catalyst for a green strategy. Finally, strategic collaboration is necessary to overcome adversity, and managers must move beyond a linear view of competition by adopting strategic differentiation and avoiding outspending rivals.

This paper examines the impact of corporate biodiversity risk exposure on investment and financing sensitivities to growth opportunities captured by Tobin q (Q). Using a sample of non-financial US listed firms over the period from 2001 to 2023, we find that biodiversity risk exposure is positively associated with investment sensitivity to Tobin's Q, suggesting that firms facing higher biodiversity risk respond more strongly to growth opportunities signaled by market valuations. This result indicates that biodiversity risk amplifies the informational content of Tobin's Q in guiding investment decisions. In addition, we find that biodiversity risk exposure increases equity financing sensitivity to internal cash flows, implying that firms adjust financing behavior in response to perceived risk conditions while still relying on internal resources to support growth opportunities. Our findings suggest that biodiversity risk plays an important role in shaping how firms interpret market signals and allocate capital. These results have important policy implications for regulators, investors, and managers by highlighting the value of integrating biodiversity risk into corporate disclosure frameworks and sustainable finance policies to enhance market transparency and capital allocation efficiency.

The Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)-performance literature has grown substantially, yet a fundamental question remains underexplored: do ESG investments improve firm performance, or do high-performing firms simply invest more in ESG? We empirically address this question using panel vector autoregression with Granger causality tests on Korean listed firms rated by the Korea Corporate Governance Service (2013–2021), examining disaggregated ESG components alongside both financial performance and innovation outcomes. After controlling for firm and year fixed effects, we find no evidence that ESG improvements predict subsequent profitability or innovation within firms. However, profitability significantly predicts subsequent Environmental ESG investment, consistent with organizational slack theory. These findings suggest that much of the observed ESG-performance association may reflect selection rather than causation. We discuss implications for the broader sustainability, CSR, and innovation literatures, arguing that the field should routinely test for reverse causality before drawing causal conclusions informing corporate strategy and public policy.

This paper investigates how board gender diversity relates to corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance in Thailand, where patriarchal and hierarchical cultural norms shape gender roles differently compared with Western economies. Drawing on theories from social psychology, we posit that Thailand's cultural norms weaken the positive relation between board gender diversity and CSR performance as well as the relation between female CEO leadership and CSR performance. Consistent with the predictions by Social Role Theory and Role Congruity Theory, the empirical results show that neither female board representation nor female CEO leadership alone is associated with CSR performance. In support of the Relational Identity Theory, moreover, a coalition of a female CEO and female directors is positively related to CSR performance. Robustness tests confirm that CSR performance positively relates to firm valuation. We conclude that a coalition of female leaders offers a powerful mechanism for advancing CSR practices in emerging markets where cultural norms constrain individual female leadership effectiveness.

Prior research has primarily examined corporate social responsibility (CSR) directed toward stakeholders such as investors, consumers, and regulators, signaling trustworthiness and positive moral character. However, nonmarket strategies such as CSR may also be interpreted by firms in relation to competitors, suggesting that CSR may influence interfirm competition. Despite the growing relevance of CSR in shaping competitive dynamics, we have only a limited understanding of how firms respond competitively to rivals' CSR activities. While CSR activities signal investments in specific stakeholders and a long-term orientation, we argue that a rival's CSR activities convey information about the strategic positioning that influences a focal firm's competitive actions. By utilizing signaling theory and the awareness-motivation-capability framework, we argue that a gap between a focal firm's CSR substantive activities and a rival's symbolic CSR activities jointly affects their competitive actions, depending on the CEO's motivational factors: regulatory focus and compensation structure. The longitudinal analysis of 4341 dyad-years from the S&P 500 companies suggests that larger CSR gaps within rival dyads increase their competitive dissimilarity. The interaction analysis reveals that this relationship depends on a CEO's prevention focus and performance-based compensation. This study enhances understanding of the signaling mechanism of CSR activities toward rivals and highlights the spillover of nonmarket strategies into competition-based strategies.

Italian listed enterprises increasingly rely on intellectual capital (IC) to enhance competitiveness and sustainability performance. As IC, comprising human, structural, and relational capital, is rarely recognised in financial statements due to the lack of standardised frameworks, its disclosure has gained relevance in sustainability reporting to address stakeholder expectations. Although prior studies acknowledge the compatibility between IC and sustainability reporting, limited attention has been paid to explicit gender and digital-related IC disclosure, particularly in relation to digital transformation. Drawing on legitimacy, resource-based view (RBV) and stakeholders' theories, this study examines digital and gender dimensions of IC disclosure in sustainability reports. Using content analysis of hand-collected data, it investigates Italian listed enterprises from 2020 to 2025. IC disclosure is measured through a weighted index across human, structural, and relational capital dimensions. The findings show a positive association between IC disclosure and ESG reporting, with firms disclosing digital elements of structural and relational capital, while gender issues remain concentrated in human capital.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly recognized as an effective tool in promoting corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable governance. This study investigates how AI shapes corporate environmental information disclosure (EID), using panel data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2013 to 2023. Employing a year and industry fixed effect model and a series of robustness checks, the findings reveal that AI adoption is associated with higher EID. Further analysis indicates this relationship is strengthened by dual internal mechanisms: green innovation and corporate governance. From the ability perspective, green innovation enhances firms' ability to generate and process environmental information. From the motivation perspective, corporate governance strengthens managerial incentives and makes firms more motivated to respond to stakeholders' environmental expectations. The positive association between AI and EID is also more pronounced in firms subject to stronger external monitoring, proxied by media attention and analyst attention. The findings clarify how AI adoption supports EID and offer practical guidance for enterprises and policymakers seeking to leverage AI, internal governance, and external oversight for green governance.

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) presents both opportunities and challenges for corporate social responsibility (CSR), fundamentally altering how businesses address societal needs. Yet research at the CSR–AI interface remains fragmented. This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of 747 peer-reviewed articles, encompassing 39,435 references to uncover the intellectual structure of CSR-AI research. We address three key questions: the evolution of CSR-AI studies, current research hotspots, and future directions. Our findings reveal nine intellectual subdomains, with web accessibility and online platforms as dominant themes. The CSR-AI field has evolved through three growth stages, accelerating markedly in recent years, centering on sustainability, impact, and performance, while emerging frontiers focus on firm performance, co-creation, and environmental sustainability. By synthesizing dispersed knowledge and mapping key trajectories, this study offers a systematic foundation for understanding how AI is redefining responsible business. It concludes with seven research opportunities to guide CSR–AI scholarship and practice.

This study examines the maturity of supplier-related environmental disclosures in sustainability reports of top environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-performing Brazilian companies. A content analysis of 67 reports from firms listed on the Corporate Sustainability Index (CSI) was conducted using the CRITIC method to weight disclosure criteria and Grey Fixed Weight Clustering to classify maturity levels. Results reveal substantial variation: nearly 60% of firms fall into the low-maturity cluster, while companies in regulated or internationally scrutinized sectors, such as banking, pulp and paper, and food processing, demonstrate higher maturity. Findings highlight sectoral disparities, the influence of regulatory and market pressures, and gaps between stated sustainability goals and supplier accountability. The study advances debates on supply chain environmental accountability, offers a replicable framework for benchmarking disclosure maturity, and provides practical insights for managers, ESG analysts, and policymakers to strengthen transparency, due diligence, and alignment with sustainability commitments.