Environmental, Social, and Governance: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda

Abstract

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles have become essential for companies seeking to avoid greenwashing and promote genuine sustainability practices. This study aims to identify the practices, barriers, and strategies for adopting ESG as a competitive strategy. A systematic literature review was conducted, which included a bibliometric analysis of 496 documents. This generated four clusters, with content analysis applied to 20 documents presenting the highest PageRank per cluster, for a total of 80 documents. The clusters are (i) innovation and green performance, (ii) influence on corporate and financial performance, (iii) communication and transparency, and (iv) diverse governance and corporate sustainability. For every cluster, the practices, barriers, and strategies for adopting ESG principles were analyzed. In addition, a research agenda was developed with questions for future research and methodological suggestions. Finally, a framework with the main practices is presented so that companies and decision‐makers can adopt ESG as a competitive strategy.