We are currently witnessing dramatic changes in the business environment, and thus firms increasingly need to adequately deal with environmental issues, satisfy social expectations and design appropriate corporate governance. In addition, these changes are eye-opening for academic researchers and practitioners to understand the importance of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG). In particular, we assume that the global financial crisis, which initially occurred in the United States in 2008 and then swept across the world economy, functioned as an opportunity to think about the sustainability of corporate investment and its impacts on societies in that the crisis directly triggered alterations around the business ecosystem. In other words, the global financial crisis pushed ESG up to the forefront of scholarly attention and also became a significant practical agenda, which would not have emerged as rapidly without the catalyst of the crisis. Before 2008, the concept of ESG was not widely known. Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) already existed, the scope of the notion was much narrower. This was due to the fact that firms tended to consider it as part of strategies and buried themselves in returns through the CSR.
Based on the situations and backgrounds illustrated above, relevant discussions on ESG are still in their infancy, and therefore answering the unanswered questions of ESG are urgent. For instance, we do not know exactly which factors promote ESG, how ESG is different from CSR, and how ESG contributes to solving social inequalities, and broadly speaking, what macroscopic outcomes can be expected by enforcing ESG. A more serious problem is that, although numerous extant studies tried to dig into CSR, whether empirical results uncovered by these experiments can be applied to ESG is still unclear. Moreover, to our best knowledge, previous studies that have attempted to link and/or bridge ESG and corporate sustainability are sparse. In this regard, to fill the research gaps and simultaneously open up research that includes these enquiries, we encourage submissions that address these questions.
We seek both theoretical and empirical papers, as well as literature reviews, including interdisciplinary studies, that may address, but are not limited to, the following list of potential research questions:
- Changes in corporate strategy caused by ESG.
- The differences in ESG standard and subsequent enhancement of corporate sustainability.
- Decision-making mechanisms on ESG.
- Various differences between ESG and CSR from a multi-faceted perspective.
- ESG approaches associated with sustainable consumption and production.
- Outcomes of ESG in the national, industrial, and sociological levels.
- Multilevel perspective on how to facilitate ESG and corporate sustainability.
- Process of gaining legitimacy by disclosing ESG practices.
- Trade-offs between ESG and corporate financial performance.
We are currently witnessing dramatic changes in the business environment, and thus firms increasingly need to adequately deal with environmental issues, satisfy social expectations and design appropriate corporate governance. In addition, these changes are eye-opening for academic researchers and practitioners to understand the importance of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG). In particular, we assume that the global financial crisis, which initially occurred in the United States in 2008 and then swept across the world economy, functioned as an opportunity to think about the sustainability of corporate investment and its impacts on societies in that the crisis directly triggered alterations around the business ecosystem. In other words, the global financial crisis pushed ESG up to the forefront of scholarly attention and also became a significant practical agenda, which would not have emerged as rapidly without the catalyst of the crisis. Before 2008, the concept of ESG was not widely known. Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) already existed, the scope of the notion was much narrower. This was due to the fact that firms tended to consider it as part of strategies and buried themselves in returns through the CSR.
Based on the situations and backgrounds illustrated above, relevant discussions on ESG are still in their infancy, and therefore answering the unanswered questions of ESG are urgent. For instance, we do not know exactly which factors promote ESG, how ESG is different from CSR, and how ESG contributes to solving social inequalities, and broadly speaking, what macroscopic outcomes can be expected by enforcing ESG. A more serious problem is that, although numerous extant studies tried to dig into CSR, whether empirical results uncovered by these experiments can be applied to ESG is still unclear. Moreover, to our best knowledge, previous studies that have attempted to link and/or bridge ESG and corporate sustainability are sparse. In this regard, to fill the research gaps and simultaneously open up research that includes these enquiries, we encourage submissions that address these questions.
We seek both theoretical and empirical papers, as well as literature reviews, including interdisciplinary studies, that may address, but are not limited to, the following list of potential research questions:
- Changes in corporate strategy caused by ESG.
- The differences in ESG standard and subsequent enhancement of corporate sustainability.
- Decision-making mechanisms on ESG.
- Various differences between ESG and CSR from a multi-faceted perspective.
- ESG approaches associated with sustainable consumption and production.
- Outcomes of ESG in the national, industrial, and sociological levels.
- Multilevel perspective on how to facilitate ESG and corporate sustainability.
- Process of gaining legitimacy by disclosing ESG practices.
- Trade-offs between ESG and corporate financial performance.
