---
title: "Corporate sustainability research: papers and trends"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “corporate sustainability” appeared in 832 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in finance (325), management (247) and economics (121)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/corporate-sustainability
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/corporate-sustainability.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “corporate sustainability” appeared in 832 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in finance (325), management (247) and economics (121). (as of 2026-11-04)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-04T00:03:46+09:00
window: 2026-10-06 to 2026-11-04
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “corporate sustainability”

Research on “corporate sustainability” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “corporate sustainability” appeared in 832 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in finance (325), management (247) and economics (121).
- 245 of them were published in 2025, against 32 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (11), Xiamen University (10) and Central University of Finance and Economics (9).
- The journals publishing most of them were Finance research letters (122), International Review of Economics & Finance (56) and International Review of Financial Analysis (32).
- The most-cited of them is “ESG performance and firm value: The moderating role of disclosure” (Global Finance Journal, 2017), with 1,608 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 12 | 18 | 80 | 135 | 64 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 18 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 21 | 17 | 33 | 26 | 57 | 43 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 7 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 22 | 26 | 28 | 21 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 10 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 12 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 4 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| All categories | 32 | 20 | 22 | 19 | 49 | 48 | 84 | 154 | 245 | 159 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Finance research letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/finance-research-letters.md) | 122 |
| 2 | [International Review of Economics & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-economics-finance.md) | 56 |
| 3 | [International Review of Financial Analysis](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-financial-analysis.md) | 32 |
| 4 | [Research in International Business and Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/research-in-international-business-and-finance.md) | 30 |
| 5 | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 21 |
| 6 | [Economic Analysis and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-analysis-and-policy.md) | 21 |
| 7 | [Journal of Business Ethics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-ethics.md) | 20 |
| 8 | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 18 |
| 9 | [Journal of Business Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-research.md) | 16 |
| 10 | [Resources Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/resources-policy.md) | 10 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Zhongnan University of Economics and Law](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/zhongnan-university-of-economics-and-law.md) | 11 |
| 2 | [Xiamen University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/xiamen-university.md) | 10 |
| 3 | [Central University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/central-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 9 |
| 4 | [Nanjing University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/nanjing-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 9 |
| 5 | [Wuhan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/wuhan-university.md) | 8 |
| 6 | [Macquarie University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/macquarie-university.md) | 7 |
| 7 | [Southwestern University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/southwestern-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 7 |
| 8 | [University of Turin](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-turin.md) | 7 |
| 9 | [Capital University of Economics and Business](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/capital-university-of-economics-and-business.md) | 6 |
| 10 | [Copenhagen Business School](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/copenhagen-business-school.md) | 6 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 291 |
| 2 | United Kingdom | 64 |
| 3 | United States | 59 |
| 4 | Italy | 45 |
| 5 | France | 41 |
| 6 | Australia | 38 |
| 7 | Germany | 28 |
| 8 | India | 28 |
| 9 | South Korea | 25 |
| 10 | Spain | 22 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [ESG performance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/esg-performance.md) | 135 |
| 2 | [Chinese listed companies](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/chinese-listed-companies.md) | 118 |
| 3 | [corporate governance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/corporate-governance.md) | 75 |
| 4 | [financial constraints](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/financial-constraints.md) | 69 |
| 5 | [green innovation](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/green-innovation.md) | 66 |
| 6 | [state-owned enterprises](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/state-owned-enterprises.md) | 60 |
| 7 | [ESG ratings](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/esg-ratings.md) | 51 |
| 8 | [digital transformation](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/digital-transformation.md) | 38 |
| 9 | [listed companies](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/listed-companies.md) | 37 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,608 | 13.9 | [ESG performance and firm value: The moderating role of disclosure](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfj.2017.03.001) | [Global Finance Journal](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/global-finance-journal.md) | 2017-03-09 | Ali M Fatemi, Martin Glaum, Stefanie Kaiser |
| 2 | 995 | 10.7 | [A Stakeholder Theory Perspective on Business Models: Value Creation for Sustainability](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04112-z) | [Journal of Business Ethics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-ethics.md) | 2019-02-08 | Birte Freudenreich, Florian Lüdeke‐Freund, Stefan Schaltegger |
| 3 | 846 | 17.8 | [Impact of ESG performance on firm value and profitability](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bir.2022.11.006) | [Borsa Istanbul Review](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/borsa-istanbul-review.md) | 2022-11-17 | Mahmut Aydoğmuş, Güzhan Gülay, Korkmaz ERGUN |
| 4 | 806 | 9.8 | [Barriers and drivers to sustainable business model innovation: Organization design and dynamic capabilities](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2019.101950) | [Long Range Planning](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/long-range-planning.md) | 2019-12-16 | Nancy M. P. Bocken, Thijs Geradts |
| 5 | 622 | 6.2 | [Multinational enterprises and the Sustainable Development Goals: An institutional approach to corporate engagement](https://doi.org/10.1057/s42214-018-0008-x) | [Journal of International Business Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-international-business-policy.md) | 2018-06-12 | Jan Anton van Zanten, Rob J.M. van Tulder |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “corporate sustainability”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/corporate-sustainability

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-corporate-sustainability,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “corporate sustainability”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/corporate-sustainability}},
  urldate = {2026-11-04},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).