Sustainable business practices and financial performance during pre- and post-SDG adoption periods: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

The increasing awareness about sustainable development has led to growing literature in this research area. Since the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), companies have started to focus on the environment, people, and planet with the belief that it will lead to better financial performance. Thus, the relationship between sustainability practices and financial performance of companies has attracted much attention among researchers. This study identified the trends and issues highlighted in previous studies concerning the relationship between these two variables. Content analysis was adopted in this study to examine the literature comprising a total of 56 articles indexed in Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. About 96% of the publications reported a positive relationship between sustainability practices and the financial performance of companies. This research area should be explored in all countries, especially developing countries, to facilitate the understanding of sustainability practices and their impact on financial performance.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable business
• financial performance
• sustainable development goals
• SDGs adoption period
• systematic review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (Pendidikan Tinggi): [Post-Doctoral Scholarship]; Universiti Malaysia Terengganu: [Post-Doctoral Scholarship].