ESG–CFP Linkages: A Review of Its Antecedents and Scope for Future Research

Abstract

The last two decades have seen a gradual shift in the reporting practices of the corporate sector across the globe. Besides reporting the standard financial statements, there is increased emphasis on qualitative reporting particularly issues related to governance, sustainability and society, popularly referred to as environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting ( Griffin & Sun, 2018 ). In this regard, sustainability issues are being more aggressively addressed by the firms. This study aims at identifying and empirically examining the antecedents that influence the relationship between ESG disclosures of organisations and its corporate financial performance (CFP). The study uses a sample of BSE-200 companies and employs multiple regression technique to ascertain the ESG–CFP relationship. The results obtained show that ESG and CFP are negatively related, and the control variables have a significant impact on this association. The study provides insights from the perspective of an emerging economy and contributes to both the managerial decision-making and policy formulation. It also paves the way for future research.