Search Results (1,549)

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

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reorganising corporate work, but whether green skills retain their relative weight during intelligent upgrading remains unclear. This study examines how disclosure-based AI technology exposure is associated with the share of green-skill positions in corporate recruitment. It combines annual-report text, online job postings, and financial and governance data for 31,303 firm-year observations of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2016 to 2024. Panel regressions with industry and year fixed effects show that greater AI exposure is associated with a significantly lower green-skill recruitment share. The result remains stable when the explanatory and dependent variables are remeasured, the 2020 observations are excluded, governance controls are added, a fractional response model is used, and firm years are weighted by recruitment volume. The negative association is stronger under higher media attention, greater industry concentration, stronger tax incentives, and more government subsidies. It is also evident across environmental-governance, carbon-management, and new-energy positions. Further analysis shows that the absolute number of green-skill postings rises while total recruitment expands faster, so the lower share represents relative recruitment reallocation rather than a demonstrated contraction in green hiring. Green-skill recruitment is positively associated with green innovation output. By distinguishing AI exposure from verified adoption and recruitment composition from employment levels, the study identifies green human capital as a link between digital transformation and sustainability and provides evidence for coordinated technology, training, and workforce policies. Full article

As digital transformation accelerates and the transition toward sustainable development intensifies, improving corporate environmental performance has become essential for achieving green and low-carbon development. However, limited attention has been paid to the multiple pathways through which digital transformation affects environmental performance and the conditions under which these effects occur. This study examines the impact of digital transformation on corporate environmental performance using an unbalanced panel of 2743 non-financial firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share stock exchanges in China from 2015 to 2024, yielding 14,163 firm–year observations. Firm and year fixed-effects models are employed to examine the causal relationship, its underlying mechanisms, and the moderating role of government subsidies, with extensive endogeneity and robustness tests conducted to assess the reliability of the findings. The findings show that digital transformation significantly improves corporate environmental performance through green technological innovation, resource allocation efficiency, media coverage, and analyst attention. Government subsidies further strengthen this relationship. Additional analyses reveal heterogeneous effects across firms with varying executive green cognition, CEO information technology backgrounds, and industry pollution intensity, while also providing evidence supportive of the Porter Hypothesis and consistent with the Matthew Effect regarding the simultaneous improvement in environmental and economic performance and the widening of inter-firm performance disparities, respectively. This study advances the literature on digital transformation and environmental governance by identifying the mechanisms, boundary conditions, and heterogeneous effects underlying this relationship, and provides practical implications for promoting corporate sustainability and green transition. Full article

Board-level ESG committees are increasingly used to formalize corporate sustainability governance, yet formalization does not ensure implementation. Existing research mainly evaluates disclosure, ESG ratings, and other favorable sustainability outcomes, and it remains unclear whether these committees are associated with changes in regulator-confirmed environmental noncompliance. Using Chinese A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2023 and a staggered difference-in-differences framework, this study examines whether committee establishment is followed by lower environmental penalties. The negative post-establishment relationship remains across specifications addressing treatment timing, observable selection, reverse causality, and potential self-selection. Mechanistic evidence points to two complementary forms of implementation: green innovation expands firms’ technical capacity to meet environmental requirements, whereas internal control quality strengthens risk identification, responsibility allocation, and corrective execution; the former explains only a limited share of the overall relationship. CEO duality provides marginal evidence of a weaker association, while analyst attention is associated with a stronger relationship. The findings suggest that the relevance of an ESG committee lies less in its formal presence than in its connection to organizational processes that translate sustainability concerns into compliance action. In China, where committee establishment is largely voluntary but environmental enforcement is externally imposed, the evidence is also consistent with internal ESG governance and external regulatory discipline operating as complements. Full article

The growing importance of sustainable digital commerce has increased the need to understand how Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)-related information communicated through digitally mediated environments influences consumer decision-making and value creation. This study investigates the effects of corporate ESG information and public ESG information on consumer awareness and subsequent behavioral responses, including purchase intention, investment intention, advocacy, and positive perceptions toward ESG-oriented companies. Drawing on Stakeholder Theory and the theory of planned behavior, the study examines how different sources of ESG information shape consumer evaluations and intentions in an increasingly information-driven marketplace. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), data from 1836 respondents obtained from the Korea Consumer Agency’s national consumer survey were analyzed. The results indicate that corporate ESG information significantly enhanced consumer awareness, whereas public ESG information did not have a significant effect on consumer awareness. Public ESG information significantly strengthened positive perceptions but did not significantly influence advocacy. Consumer awareness emerged as the strongest predictor of purchase intention, investment intention, advocacy, and positive perception. It significantly mediated the relationships between corporate ESG information and consumer responses, whereas no significant indirect effects were observed for public ESG information. However, corporate ESG information did not directly increase purchase intention or investment intention, suggesting that awareness represents the primary mechanism through which ESG communication influences consumer responses. These findings contribute to the literature on sustainable digital commerce by demonstrating that ESG information functions as a strategic market signal that promotes consumer engagement and sustainable value creation through awareness. The study further provides practical implications for firms and policymakers seeking to develop credible ESG communication strategies that support the green transition and foster sustainable consumer decision-making. Full article

Environmental policy evaluation for sustainability requires attention not only to the effects of individual instruments but also to how prior policy exposure shapes corporate responses to subsequent regulation. Using China’s revised Environmental Protection Law as the institutional setting, this study examines whether firms facing historically greater regulatory exposure experienced differential post-2015 changes in corporate environmental disclosure and whether pre-policy environmental subsidy exposure is associated with the magnitude of those responses. Corporate disclosure is conceptualized as a multidimensional policy response comprising aggregate disclosure-based transparency, outcome-oriented content, process-oriented content, and structural balance. Using Chinese A-share listed firms from 2008 to 2023, the analysis combines entropy balancing with a difference-in-differences design and industry-level inference. Historically, pollution-intensive firms exhibit a larger post-2015 increase in aggregate disclosure-based transparency than comparison firms ($\beta$ = 0.2221), wild-bootstrap (p = 0.0005). Both outcome- and process-oriented disclosure increase, with a significantly larger response in outcome-oriented content, whereas content imbalance does not decline significantly. Greater pre-policy subsidy exposure is associated with a smaller incremental response ($\beta$ = −0.0542), wild-bootstrap (p = 0.0238), although this relationship is distributionally sensitive and noncausal. The findings indicate that corporate responses to mandatory regulation are multidimensional and may vary with prior policy exposure, highlighting the relevance of policy sequencing to sustainability governance. Because later environmental policies overlap with the post-2015 period, the estimates reflect differential responses to the broader regulatory environment rather than the isolated effect of a single law. The disclosure measures capture reported information rather than verified environmental performance. Full article

In recent times, with increasing awareness of sustainable development, environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) performance has emerged as an important factor in achieving sustainable development. In the current literature, the determinants of ESG performance are mostly considered at the macro level, while the impact of firm-specific factors remains limited. To fill the gap in the literature, this study uses panel data from 2014 to 2023, focusing on 89 global firms, and applies the GMM approach to examine the impact of firm-specific factors on firms’ ESG performance. The findings reveal that ESG performance demonstrates strong continuity. Furthermore, the effects of financial indicators on ESG performance differ. While return on assets and capital expenditures negatively impact environmental performance, return on equity positively affects liquidity, firm size, and market capitalization for some ESG dimensions. Conversely, the total debt to total equity has a negative impact on social performance. The findings of this study regarding the impact of financial indicators on ESG performance have important implications for firms. This paper contributes to the ESG literature by providing empirical evidence that highlights the dynamic impact of firm-specific factors on ESG performance. Full article

Sustainability reporting is moving from voluntary narrative disclosure toward regulated, evidence-based and externally assured corporate reporting, creating an assurance problem that artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to help address. Because AI is embedded in accounting and audit workflows, its outputs increasingly shape how assurance evidence is located, tested and evaluated. This conceptual article develops an assurance-specific framework answering three questions: for which sustainability-assurance procedures AI creates analytical value, which risks arise when AI influences assurance work, and which decision rights and controls should govern that influence. Integrating assurance standards, accounting and auditing research, AI-governance frameworks and behavioural studies, it finds AI adds value in five domains—evidence extraction, criteria mapping, anomaly and greenwashing screening, external-data triangulation, and documentation support—but only under defined base rates, error costs and source traceability. It identifies the risks limiting reliance: data, source fidelity, explainability, bias, calibration, preparer gaming, and auditor overreliance. The Responsible AI-Assisted Sustainability Assurance Framework sets graded reliance ceilings, non-delegable decisions, calibrated decision gates, anti-gaming safeguards and ex-post metrics, permitting clerical assistance, analytical recommendation and constrained agentic execution while prohibiting autonomous decisions on materiality, evidence sufficiency and conclusions. Illustrated in Europe, it generalises through ISSA 5000 as a testable model. Full article

Amid the global push for sustainability, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria have become core benchmarks for corporate value. Simultaneously, government WeChat accounts have reshaped China’s regional information ecosystems. This paper systematically examines the impact of the launch of government WeChat accounts (LGWA) on agricultural enterprises’ ESG performance. Drawing on information asymmetry theory, we treat municipal-level LGWA as a quasi-natural experiment, employing an optimized double machine learning (DML) model. The study utilizes unbalanced panel data from 326 listed agricultural enterprises (2009–2024) and over five million WeChat messages. Results indicate LGWA significantly enhances ESG performance by alleviating government-enterprise, enterprise-public, and bank-enterprise information asymmetry. Executive political connections negatively moderate this effect. This enhancement is more pronounced for highly active accounts posting during work hours, particularly benefiting less-digitalized enterprises. This study provides a novel perspective on the micro-level governance effects of digital government, guiding sustainable policy formulation and encouraging corporate digital adoption. Full article

Corporate ESG transformation is a multi-stage, multi-dimensional process of aligning a firm’s strategy, business model, and decisions with Environmental, Social, and Governance principles to create sustainable value. This study examines the mechanisms through which stakeholder pressure influences the financial outcomes of ESG transformation, focusing on the mediating roles of strategic ESG integration and initial transformation costs. Based on a sample of 384 companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange surveyed in 2025, structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied. The results show that stakeholder pressure, differentiated into capital and non-capital market actors, is positively associated with financial outcomes. This relationship is mediated by the strategic approach to ESG integration. A direct association with financial outcomes was confirmed for non-capital market stakeholders only. However, the anticipated negative relationship between the perceived initial transformation costs and financial outcomes was not confirmed. Drawing on stakeholder theory and the resource-based view (RBV), this paper shows how external pressures and internal strategic alignment jointly relate to sustainable value creation. By employing a dual mediation framework, separating strategic ESG integration from initial transformation costs, this study identifies key factors associated with the financial success of sustainable transformation regardless of initial cost burdens. Practically, the results highlight the necessity of a mature, strategic approach to sustainability. Empirically, the study provides novel evidence from Poland, addressing the literature gap on ESG transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. Full article

Using data on Chinese A-share private listed firms from 2017 to 2024, this study distinguishes between the “efficiency view” and the “agency view” of perquisites. We decompose total perquisites into a predicted normal component and a residual excessive component and examine how these two components jointly affect ESG performance, as well as the governance mechanisms through which these effects operate. Our findings are fourfold. First, normal perquisites exert a significantly positive effect on private firms’ ESG ratings, whereas excessive perquisites have a significantly negative effect. Second, internal control quality partially mediates the relationship between excessive perquisites and ESG ratings-excessive perquisites, which impair ESG performance by weakening internal control. Third, the disclosure of key audit matters mitigates the negative impact of excessive perquisites on ESG ratings, serving as an external governance device. Fourth, the positive effect of total perquisites on ESG ratings is more pronounced in firms with strong equity incentives or extensive analyst coverage. By adopting a perquisite structure perspective, this study offers fresh insights into the longstanding debate between the “efficiency view” and the “agency view.” It also extends the scope of internal and external governance mechanisms-including internal control and key audit matter disclosures into the corporate sustainability domain. Full article

ESG risk is financially relevant, yet ratings and disclosure scores primarily capture external evaluations or reported outcomes rather than the internal arrangements through which risks are anticipated, challenged, and monitored. This study examines how board composition, leadership structure, gender representation, and committee architecture signal ESG risk governance capacity in Greek listed firms included in the ATHEX ESG Index during 2021–2024. Using hand-collected firm-year data from annual reports, corporate governance statements, sustainability reports, and company disclosures, it develops a descriptive longitudinal baseline. Board size and director-role composition remained stable; independent non-executive directors were the largest category; executives occupied about one-third of board seats; female representation rose from 24.0% to 28.1%; CEO–chair separation predominated but was not universal; and the number of disclosed board committees remained stable. These patterns indicate visible formal monitoring arrangements but do not establish substantive effectiveness. The study contributes by distinguishing executive, dependent non-executive, and independent non-executive roles and integrating leadership and committee architecture into ESG risk governance assessment. It provides longitudinal evidence from Greece and a baseline for future research linking governance architecture to independently measured ESG risk outcomes. Full article

The global energy transition is increasingly shaped by industrial competition, supply chain restructuring, and fragmented regulation. Morocco seeks to turn its renewable energy potential into green industrial capacity, while China has become an important partner in renewable-energy infrastructure, battery materials, storage, and hydrogen. This study examines whether China–Morocco energy cooperation is moving from individual projects toward green industrialization, and what conditions shape its sustainability outcomes. Using a qualitative case study approach, it analyzes policy documents, legal texts, corporate announcements, project records, and international organization reports from 2016 to June 2026. The project database covers twelve projects: four operational, three under construction, three signed, one awarded, and one announced. The findings show an emerging, partial, and uneven shift in project composition that points toward a potential project-to-industry transition, though industrial upgrading remains largely prospective. Chinese investment may support Morocco’s renewable deployment, manufacturing localization, and participation in low-carbon value chains, but these gains depend on domestic supplier linkages, workforce skills, technological absorption, environmental governance, and institutional coordination. European Union (EU) due-diligence rules and United States (U.S.) clean energy policies also create regulatory exposure and compliance pressures that may shape project ownership, sourcing, production standards, and export-market access. The study argues that foreign green capital alone does not constitute green industrialization. Sustainable progress depends on Morocco’s ability to anchor individual projects in local capabilities while adapting to a fragmented geoeconomic environment. Full article

This study examines how dimensions of organisational leadership are associated with corporate sustainability in Colombian medium-sized enterprises. Grounded in stakeholder theory, the research employed multi-stage psychometric design and partial least squares structural equation modelling. A total of 475 responses were collected from managers in 12 medium-sized enterprises in Antioquia, Colombia; after data screening and removal of outlier cases, 457 valid observations were retained for analysis. The findings show that commitment showed the strongest positive relationship with corporate sustainability, followed by innovation and entrepreneurial orientation, whereas governance showed a positive but non-significant relationship. The model explained 40% of the variance in corporate sustainability. These results indicate that sustainability outcomes depend more strongly on leadership dimensions that mobilize organisational action than on formal governance mechanisms alone. From a managerial perspective, firms should strengthen leadership commitment, innovation capabilities, and entrepreneurial behaviour while maintaining appropriate governance structures. From a policy perspective, support programs should complement regulatory and governance requirements with initiatives that build managerial capabilities, encourage innovation, and promote proactive sustainability practices. The study provides novel evidence from an under-represented Latin American context and offers insights applicable to sustainability management and policy decisions in comparable enterprises in other emerging economies. Full article

Based on microdata from A-share listed companies from 2016 to 2025, this study uses corporate digital governance capabilities as a threshold variable and combines an intermediary effects model with a threshold regression model to empirically examine the nonlinear impact of proprietary AI computing power investment on corporate green sustainable development performance, as well as its underlying transmission mechanisms and moderating boundaries. The study finds that there is a significant “N”-shaped nonlinear relationship between investment in proprietary AI computing power and corporate green sustainable development performance. This relationship primarily facilitates green empowerment by optimizing firms’ green pure technical efficiency, while having no significant effect on scale efficiency; green innovation plays a significant mediating role in this relationship, and investment in proprietary AI computing power can indirectly empower the improvement and upgrading of corporate green sustainable development by driving the iteration of green innovation. Digital governance capabilities exert a significant dual-threshold moderating effect on the green empowerment process of AI computing power; the green empowerment effects of computing power exhibit differentiated characteristics across different digital governance ranges, and a moderate level of digital governance can maximize the green development dividends of AI computing power. The study’s conclusions provide empirical support and decision-making references for enterprises to scientifically allocate AI computing power resources, establish appropriate digital governance systems, and advance the synergistic transformation of digitalization and green development. Full article