Mapping the ESG and corporate financial performance relationship: a bibliometric investigation with mediating and moderating variables

Abstract

The connection between Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) commitments and Corporate Financial Performance (CFP) is well established, but the specific mechanisms and boundary conditions remain fragmented in existing research. The purpose of this study is to map the landscape of the studies and to identify the most commonly used and the emerging moderators and mediators in the ESG-CFP relationship. For this purpose, the study analyzes 1420 articles from the Scopus database (2019–2026) using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and applying Bibliometric analysis, Keywords analysis and Manual content reading of abstracts. The findings reveal that higher publication counts from an entity do not confirm its role as an influential entity. The presence of substantial moderators and mediators reveals the complexity of ESG-CFP relationship. “Ownership Structure,” “Institutional Environment” and “Competition” appear as the most frequently examined moderators, whereas “Transparency” and “Green Innovation” as the most frequent mediators in ESG-CFP relationship. The contribution of this study is the identification of established and proposed mediators and moderators to explore the dynamics of the ESG-CFP relationship.