Environmental, Social and Governance Performance and Firm Value: A Bibliometric Review of Intellectual Structure and Emerging Research Trends (2015-2025)

Abstract

The issues of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors have gained much attention in terms of firm valuation and investment decisions. Although ESG has been extensively studied over the years, there is a lack of understanding in terms of the intellectual structure and thematic development of the relationship between ESG and firm value. To bridge this gap, this paper seeks to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the body of literature about ESG–firm value relationships from the year 2015 to 2025. The research will utilise a data set of 589 journal papers that were retrieved from the Scopus database for the purpose of investigating the publication dynamics, prominent contributors, citation network, and the intellectual/conceptual structure of the field. From the analysis of the science mapping results, it can be deduced that there are four major streams of research: (1) relationship between ESG performance and firm value; (2) sustainability disclosures and transparency; (3) corporate governance structure; and (4) consequences of ESG factors on financial performance such as cost of capital and investment efficiency. In addition, through co-citations and bibliographic coupling, it is evident that the theories upon which the body of knowledge is built include not only finance but also stakeholder theory, agency theory, and sustainable perspectives. The contribution of this paper to the literature on ESG-firm value lies in synthesizing the existing works on the subject matter.