Sustainable Finance and ESG Importance: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda

Georgios Zairis, Panagiotis Liargovas and Nikolaos Apostolopoulos ()
Additional contact information
Georgios Zairis: Grant Thornton Luxembourg, L-1273 Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Nikolaos Apostolopoulos: Department of Management Science and Technology, University of Peloponnese, 22100 Tripoli, Greece

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: Over the last decade, sustainable finance has appeared to be capturing a high level of interest as a crucial pillar of sustainable development. The process of taking environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations into account when making investment decisions in the financial sector is expected to play a key role in this framework, and although it has attracted the attention of many scholars and academics, a lack of understanding of the nature of the phenomenon remains. Therefore, on the basis of a systematic literature review of 80 studies, we examine, in detail, the subject areas and emphasize the main points in the existing literature. The findings reveal that there are four main thematic areas attracting research interest, as follows: (1) A shift in value creation; (2) green bonds; (3) ESG ratings and performance; and (4) sustainable finance, banking, and financial risks. Finally, this study outlines future research avenues in the field.

Keywords: environmental, social, and governance (ESG); sustainable finance; ESG importance; financial sector; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/7/2878/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/7/2878/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:7:p:2878-:d:1366928

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().