The integration of sustainable development principles

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the limitations and recommendations and stated research gap and stated challenges of the source papers, classified as general, spanning 3 journals.

Supporting evidence — 4 representative gaps

• Environmental sustainability practices and ROA: A configurational Analysis of IBEX 35 firms in Energy and Industry & Construction (2026) · Strategic Management · doi

  References thinking and Adams, C. (2017). The Sustainable Development Goals, integrated report. International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) & Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS). https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and- resources/the-business-case-for-the-sdgs? integrated the Anselmi, G., & Petrella, G. (2025). ESG ratings: Disagreement across providers and effects on stock returns. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, 102133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intfin.2025.102133 Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17(1), 99-120. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700108 Benzidia, S., Rahoui, M., Ouiakoub, Z., & Rostan, P. (2025). ISO 14001 and corporate financial performance: A systematic literature review. Business Strategy and the Environment, 34(1), 259–275. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3969 Berg, F., Koelbel, J. F., & Rigobon, R. (2022). Aggregate confusion: The divergence of ESG ratings. Review of Finance, 26(6), 1315-1344. https://doi.org/10.1093/rof/rfac033 Brabec, J., & Macháč, J. (2025). Impacts of the EU Taxonomy implementation: a systematic literature review. Climate Policy, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2025.2526683 Chaihuaque, B. (2021). Análisis de la relación entre rentabilidad y sostenibilidad empresarial en empresas peruanas. Compendium: Cuadernos De Economía Y Administración, 8(2), 227-237. https://doi.org/10.46677/compendium.v8i2.950 Corrales-Cano, L. F., & Gómez-Zapata, J. D. (2023). ¿Sostenibilidad ambiental o indicadores económicos? Una revisión exploratoria sobre sus relaciones. En Contexto, 11(20), 159-183. https://doi.org/10.53995/23463279.1450 Denison, D. (1990). Corporate culture and organisational effectiveness. Wiley. DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American sociological review, 48(2), 147-160. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101 Donaldson, T., & Preston, L. E. (1995). The stakeholder theory of the corporation: Concepts, evidence, and implications. Academy of management Review, 20(1), 65-91. https://doi.org/10.2307/258887 Elkington, J. (1997). The triple bottom line. Environmental management: Readings and cases, 2, 49-66 European Commission. (2019). The European Green Deal. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal- content/ES/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52019DC0640 European Commission. (2023). Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772 of 31 July 2023 supplementing Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards sustainability reporting standards. http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2023/2772/oj the sample rather This study has several limitations. First, it focuses on a single year (2023), which limits the ability to capture dynamics, lagged effects, and temporal shifts in reporting practices. Second, the case base is small (N=15) and split by sector, so the results should be interpreted as configurational evidence within than as generalizable sector-wide claims. Third, the model is intentionally parsimonious (three conditions) to preserve interpretability and avoid overfitting, but this may omit relevant environmental dimensions, particularly for Energy. Fourth, environmental indicators may differ across firms in measurement boundaries, assurance levels, and disclosure choices, which can introduce noise even among highly visible listed companies. Fifth, we do not directly measure sustainability-oriented culture or leadership processes; research could incorporate explicit culture proxies (e.g., validated textual measures or mixed-method case evidence) and examine how cultural embedding moderates the practice-performance relationship. future Future research can extend this design in several ways. A natural step is to increase the number of cases by adding years and/or comparable firms, which would support more stable truth tables and stronger cross-case patterns. Researchers may also test alternative financial outcomes (e.g., ROS or ROE) and incorporate intensity-based environmental indicators where feasible. Finally, mixed-method follow-ups (e.g., focused case comparisons or expert-informed validation of specific bundles) could help explain why different configurations emerge within the same sector.

  generallimitationsevidence 5/5
  Keywords: https case review environmental european integrated reporting financial management culture evidence commission sector international council
• Environmental Accounting Disclosure and Financial Performance of Listed Manufacturing Firms in Nigeria (2026) · African Journal of Management and Business Research · doi

  • Compliance should not be the last thought of manufacturing company executives when it comes to environmental disclosure quality. Environmental reporting, conducted on an annual basis based on the GRI Standards and TCFD recommendations will help build the credibility of the EDI scores and based on the findings of this study is likely to support ROA and ROE in the future. • Environmental cost reporting must be viewed as a communication of long term strategic value, not just minimised as a cost line item. Positive ECD coefficients for all specifications show that there is no investor-relations risk in cost transparency; there logic behind the Porter hypothesis that communicating environmental costs can be a signal of innovation orientation to the market. is also a 175 Vol. 23, No. 1 2026 African Journal of Management and Business Research www.afropolitanjournals.com AJMBR • Institutionalise sustainability reporting as a governance responsibility with Boards of directors. In the context of the positive impact of SRP on ROE and EPS, signing up for annual sustainability reports aligned with the GRI and/or TCFD is a tangible tool to enhance equity returns and per-share earnings. • There is a need for a transition of environmental disclosure from voluntary to mandatory disclosure across manufacturing sector issuers through a regulatory path to be established by the Securities and Exchange Commission Nigeria and the NGX with minimum content standards based on GRI in consultation with the sector. China's experience (Ahmad et al., 2019; Yang et al., 2020) and Sub-Saharan Africa (Adu, 2022) on the performance and governance benefits from disclosure mandates also offers a solid policy precedent. • Future research should investigate the extension of the panel beyond 6 years to give the lagged ECD effects more time to materialize, as well as the use of dynamic GMM estimation to address potential endogeneity, and market-based performance measures, which are more direct to assessing investor valuation responses to ECD, such as Tobin's Q.

  generalrecommendationsevidence 5/5
  Keywords: environmental disclosure based reporting cost there manufacturing annual standards tcfd future positive investor market sustainability
• Assessment of Corporate Sustainable Development: the Integral Esg Index as a Tool For Competitiveness Analysis (2026) · Journal of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University · doi

  There is a need for a generalized approach to assessing the effectiveness of ESG practices that would enable comparison of corporate performance based on unified criteria. The existing literature does not provide a comprehensive analysis of the impact of ESG instruments on financial performance, non-financial outcomes, and the long-term resilience of enterprises across different sectors of the economy.

  generalstated research gapevidence 5/5
  Keywords: there need generalized approach assessing effectiveness esg practices
• Assessment of Corporate Sustainable Development: the Integral Esg Index as a Tool For Competitiveness Analysis (2026) · Journal of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University · doi

  The integration of sustainable development principles into corporate strategy is a key challenge for companies. The assessment of the effectiveness of ESG practices is a complex task due to the lack of unified criteria. The development of a standardized ESG maturity index is a challenge due to the diversity of ESG practices across different sectors and countries.

  generalstated challengesevidence 5/5
  Keywords: integration sustainable development principles corporate strategy key challenge

Questions about this gap