Determinants and consequences of environmental, social and governance controversies. Status quo and limitations of recent empirical quantitative research

Abstract

The environmental, social and governance (ESG) controversies, defined as a bad behavior which calling into question the commitment to the firm under the media and capture the attention of investors causing conflicts with sustainable business practices, has received increasing attention from academics of several fields. A literature review methodology is used to reviews articles selected from the Scopus and Web of Science databases from 2018 to 2024. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and the bibliometric techniques, with the goal of mapping the intellectual landscape of the field and indicating the key issues shaping its current development. This paper is to conduct quantitative bibliometric analysis with several research factors, such as authors, citations, journals, countries, and regions, using techniques with improve the visualization of bibliometric analysis. Furthermore, this review provides a conceptual framework of the ESG controversies to obtain their drivers and reveal the consequences companies face after ESG controversies. This manuscript concludes by discussing implications of the literature analysis and providing some opportunities for future research. This research provides to the understanding of the ESG controversies context and shows insights for future lines of research.