Navigating three decades: corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and risk

Purpose Firms are integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) into their business operations as a competitive strategy to reduce risks. Furthermore, the core components of CSR align with the three pillars of sustainability: profit, people and the planet, encapsulated in the concept of triple bottom line. The shift of resources to sustainable activities leads to a fall in the firm’s risk. Despite growing interest, a gap persists in integrating CSR, sustainability and risk, underscoring the need for a comprehensive synthesis. This paper aims to systematically consolidate the existing body of work to map prevailing themes, outline underexplored dimensions and propose future research avenues. Design/methodology/approach Bibliometric and thematic analyses are performed on 1,348 articles published worldwide over three decades, i.e. 1993–2023, using R, VOSviewer and Datawrapper. Findings This study identifies six key themes, including CSR’s role in managing risk, integration of Sustainable Development Goals, environmental sustainability and risk perception, sustainable supply chains, unintended effects of sustainable development and the disclosure–performance gap. Together, these reveal the complex, evolving relationship between CSR engagement and corporate risk management. Originality/value By determining the thematic evolution of CSR, sustainability and risk, it highlights how CSR engagement influences financial, operational and reputational risk across sectors and regions globally. This study not only synthesizes the scattered literature but also suggests future research avenues, including the role of moderators, geographical and regulatory differences and the trade-off between sustainable transition and a firm’s risk and its impact on vulnerable stakeholders.