Over the last 2 decades, the literature on corporate governance and sustainability has increased substantially. In this study, we analyze 468 research studies published between 1999 and 2019 by employing three clustering analysis visualization techniques, namely keyword network clustering, co-citation network clustering, and overlay visualization. In addition, we provide a brief review of each cluster. We find that the number of published items that fall under our search criteria has grown over the years, having surged at various times including 2014. We identified three main thematic clusters, which we have called (1) corporate social responsibility and reporting, (2) corporate governance strategies, and (3) board composition. The weighted average years that major keywords appear in the literature published over the last 2 decades fall into a period of 4 years between 2014 and 2017. This is due to the massive increase in the number of publications on corporate governance and sustainability in recent years. By means of chronological analysis, we observe a transition from more abstract concepts-such as 'society,' 'ethics,' and 'responsibility'-to more tangible and actionable terms such as 'female director,' 'board size,' and 'independent director.' Our review suggests that corporate governance and sustainability literature is evolving from quite a conceptual approach to rather more strategic and practical studies, while its theoretical roots can be traced back to a number of foundational studies in stakeholder theory, agency theory and sociopolitical theories of voluntary disclosure.
Abstract:The complexity that characterizes the international competitive system has enhanced the call for transparent reporting and the dissemination of information concerning social and environmental impact being implemented by firm. Recently, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was developed in order to respond to the specific needs to measure the environmental impact of firm's products and processes in terms of resources consumption and pollution along their entire life cycle. This study can contribute to strengthening of the understanding, to promote discussion on the current state of the art of sustainability reports and to verify the development of the tools of corporate sustainability management to assess the environmental and social impact, in particular in the imaging industry. The paper proceeds as follows. First, it examines the literature on the sustainability reporting, corporate reputation as an intangible asset. Second, after the literature review it provides a descriptive and critical knowledge linking LCA, corporate reputation and sustainability reporting. Finally, the attention will be focused on the analysis of Canon, Epson, Nikon and Sony's sustainability reports in order to better understand if sustainability reporting tools based on LCA approach are useful to improve transparency towards stakeholders and if these tools are suitable to generate value and improve corporate reputation. Conclusions and implications for further research will end the paper.
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