Sustainable Corporate Governance and Firm Performance

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past decades, the increasingly multifaceted sustainability challenges have encouraged companies to reconsider their way of doing business and their relations with the environment, underlining their function and responsibilities in addressing such challenges (Ogrean and Herciu, 2020; Tsalis et al., 2020; Costa et al., 2022). This discussion advances the central question of how effectively governed companies are and how different internal and external corporate governance (CG) mechanisms determine the social and environmental conduct of companies (Hussain et al., 2018; Crifo et al., 2019). Nowadays, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is climbing the ranking of CG’s main concerns, becoming critical (Lagasio and Cucari, 2019; Salvioni et al., 2018).

Despite progress towards understanding the effect of CG’s characteristics on corporate sustainability dynamics and firm performance, several areas of study are emerging that require a more systematic investigation of this relationship (Shaikh, 2022; Aguilera et al., 2021).

Indeed, the growing diffusion of the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) pillars and the interest of companies to adopt them provides new challenges/reflections for CG practices (Carnini et al., 2022; Veenstra and Ellemers, 2020). This shift leads companies to reevaluate their priorities, long-term objectives and governance efforts, and their adopted related models, particularly with regard to the measurement and assessment of corporate social and environmental performance (Hsu and Chen, 2023; Latif and Sajjad, 2018), as well as the connection between the other key companies’ results, such as financial and innovative performance (Zhang et al., 2020; Di Vaio et al., 2022).

With these new global trends, demand for a better CG, in accordance with the ESG framework, and assuring engagements and stakeholder legitimacy is rising, creating an unavoidable connection with processes of the measurement, assessment, reporting, and disclosing of firm performance.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

-ESG framework, CG structure/practices, and relationship with firm performance;

-ESG reporting/disclosing and CG mechanisms: measuring quantity and quality of firm performance;

-CG mechanisms and relationship with social and environmental reporting in private and public sectors;

-CG and social and environmental reporting in knowledge-intensive firms;

-Measuring and disclosing social and environmental performance: trends and perspectives in different CG models/structures;

-CG and institutional/contextual determinants of the accountability quality of social and environmental reporting processes and documents;

-Link between CG and social/financial accountability;

-Diversity in CG and relationships with firm performance;

-Corporate social and environmental performance and financial performance: moderating and mediating the effects of CG.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

References

1. Ogrean, C.; Herciu, M. Business Models Addressing Sustainability Challenges—Towards a New Research Agenda. Sustainability 2020, 12, 3534.
2. Tsalis, T.A.; Malamateniou, K.E.; Koulouriotis, D.; Nikolaou, I.E. New challenges for corporate sustainability reporting: United Nations' 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and the sustainable development goals. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 2020, 27, 1617–1629.
3. Costa, A.J.; Curi, D.; Bandeira, A.M.; Ferreira, A.; Tomé, B.; Joaquim, C.; Santos, C.; Góis, C.; Meira, D.; Azevedo, G.; et al. Literature Review and Theoretical Framework of the Evolution and Interconnectedness of Corporate Sustainability Constructs. Sustainability 2022, 14, 4413.
4. Hussain, N.; Rigoni, U.; Cavezzali, E. Does it pay to be sustainable? Looking inside the black box of the relationship between sustainability performance and financial performance. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 2018, 25, 1198–1211.
5. Crifo, P.; Escrig-Olmedo, E.; Mottis, N. Corporate governance as a key driver of corporate sustainability in France: The role of board members and investor relations. J. Bus. Ethics 2019, 159, 1127–1146.
6. Lagasio, V.; Cucari, N. Corporate governance and environmental social governance disclosure: A meta‐analytical review. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 2019, 26, 701–711.
7. Salvioni, D.M.; Franzoni, S.; Gennari, F.; Cassano, R. Convergence in corporate governance systems and sustainability culture. Int. J. Bus. Perform. Manag. 2018, 19, 7–15.
8. Shaikh, I. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practice and firm performance: an international evidence. J. Bus. Econ. Manag. 2022, 23, 218–237.
9. Aguilera, R.V.; Aragón-Correa, J.A.; Marano, V.; Tashman, P.A. The corporate governance of environmental sustainability: A review and proposal for more integrated research. J. Manag. 2021, 47, 1468–1497.
10. Carnini Pulino, S.; Ciaburri, M.; Magnanelli, B.S.; Nasta, L. Does ESG disclosure influence firm performance? Sustainability 2022, 14, 7595.
11. Veenstra, E.M.; Ellemers, N. ESG indicators as organizational performance goals: Do rating agencies encourage a holistic approach? Sustainability 2020, 12, 10228.
12. Hsu, B.X.; Chen, Y.M. The relationship between corporate social responsibility, external orientation, and environmental performance. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Chang. 2023, 188, 122278.
13. Latif, K.F.; Sajjad, A. Measuring corporate social responsibility: A critical review of survey instruments. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 2018, 25, 1174–1197.
14. Zhang, Y.; Sun, J.; Yang, Z.; Wang, Y. Critical success factors of green innovation: Technology, organization and environment readiness. J. Clean. Prod. 2020, 264, 121701.
15. Di Vaio, A.; Varriale, L.; Di Gregorio, A.; Adomako, S. Corporate social performance and non‐financial reporting in the cruise industry: Paving the way towards UN Agenda 2030. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 2020, 29, 1931–1953.

Dr. Antonio Prencipe
Dr. Danilo Boffa
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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

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

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

• corporate governance
• firm performance
• ESG
• corporate social and environmental performance
• social and environmental reporting