Lessons for creating shared value from ESG and RBC: toward indicators and operationalisation

Creating Shared Value (CSV), Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investment, and Responsible Business Conduct (RBC), are three frameworks used to assess the sustainability impacts of businesses. As a relative newcomer, we assess the role of CSV developed in strategic management studies by Porter and Kramer in the light of the latest advances in ESG and RBC. Each framework provides its own perspective, but they all focus on the challenge of measuring and demonstrating practical impact. Each contributes insight and metrics to assess business activity on wider issues than just shareholder value, narrowly defined and measured. This article points to the remarkable speed and evolution in ESG and RBC. The conclusion reached is that CSV should draw on the materiality and due diligence principles underlying ESG and RBC respectively, while contributing its unique insights in terms of business models, innovation and contribution to societal needs. We see the merits of an integrative approach wherein the three perspectives deliver an updated and nuanced understanding of shareholder, and more broadly stakeholder value. This analysis will be relevant to scholars and practitioners with an interest in corporate sustainability and sustainable finance, from both a managerial practice as well as public policy perspectives.