The Role of Environmental, Social and Governance Performance in Achieving Firm Sustainability

This study explores research trends in environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and identifies the effect of ESG performance on firm sustainability. A search of Web of Science using the keywords ‘ESG performance’ and ‘firm sustainability’ identified 879 documents for bibliometric analysis. The analysis revealed a growing interest in researching the effect of integrating ESG into corporate strategies on firm sustainability. Popular key phrases identified include ESG, ESG performance, ESG disclosure, sustainability development, sustainability performance, firm performance and sustainability reporting. Key clusters of related keywords include social, governance, climate change, risk management and green innovation. A survey of 393 manufacturing firm employees in Ho Chi Minh City with knowledge of the role of ESG performance was conducted to test the research model. Among the factors of ESG, social performance had the most substantial effect on sustainability performance (β = 0.367), followed by environmental performance (β = 0.326) and corporate governance performance (β = 0.235). This study provides scholars with a foundation to widen future studies and has practical implications for the application of ESG in business strategies to achieve firm sustainability.