The relationship between Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) activities and financial performance has been explored within large companies. The presence of these activities in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is still in its early stages in the literature, requiring further empirical evidence. Given the importance of SMEs in economy and based on Stakeholder Theory, a set of hypotheses regarding the influence of ESG on financial and risk performance has been tested using a sample of 538 Spanish SMEs. Specifically, an index has been developed to assess ESG at both global and individual levels. The study analyses the impact of these variables on corporate performance, taking into account factors such as the pandemic period, level of disclosure and the size effect. The results demonstrate the importance of developing and index tailored to measuring ESG within this type of company, as the methodology employed can impact the outcomes. Moreover, at the individual level, all dimensions reflect a significant relationship, but the overall ESG score does not. The social and labor dimensions prove to be the most beneficial indices for enhancing resilience during periods of crisis. Finally, the findings confirm that it is more difficult for SMEs to monetize the results of ESG investment and that disclosing these activities has a positive impact. This study contributes to existing knowledge by constructing a robust measure of the level of ESG implementation and quality, providing valuable insights for SMEs on how to effectively manage their ESG activities.

Academic research specifically focused on employee-related disclosure practices is needed to enhance understanding on CSR reporting. This paper aims to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art in research on employee-related disclosure, analyzing the characteristics of the scientific production on this topic. A bibliometric analysis is conducted on the papers specifically focused on employee-related disclosure published from 2000 to 2019 in journals indexed on the Web of Science database. The findings show that relatively few studies specifically focused on employee-related disclosure have been published over the last two decades (63 papers). Most articles were published during the last 8 years (93.6%), although the highest interest in the study of employee-related disclosure among scholars concentrates on a short period around 2017. Six journals concentrate 31.75% of the publications on the subject. Most papers are empirical studies, using the content analysis technique to analyze corporate reports. Papers are spread over three research subtopics: (1) extent, quality and drivers of human resource disclosures, (2) occupational health and safety disclosures, human rights disclosures and employee-related disclosures as a legitimization tool, and (3) diversity reporting. In all research subtopics, most of the papers have been published during the last four years, confirming that employee-related disclosure is a topic of current interest to researchers. The studies found that the overall level of employee-related disclosure is low, with an increasing or irregular tendency over time. Furthermore, not all items/categories got the same attention by firms. It can be concluded that this research subject is still far from reaching the level of research on environmental reporting and important issues remain to be resolved, both theoretically and empirically.

This paper aims to identify the conditions under which corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects employees' work‐related attitudes. A meta‐analysis of 42 studies published between 1999 and 2019 is elaborated considering the moderating effect of several contextual factors (country, industry, and national culture' values) and employees' demographic features (gender, age, education, tenure, and position) on the impact of perceived CSR on three work‐related attitudes (organizational identification, commitment, and turnover intentions). The results reveal that the positive impact of CSR in employees' attitudes is not universal, it may vary due to the level of development and the national culture of the country where a company operates, the industry to which it belongs as well as employees' age and position. Furthermore, although individually some variables do not have a significant moderating effect, they are significant in combination with other variables, which opens new research avenues. The findings provide valuable help to human resource management policies.

Companies worldwide can play a fundamental role in the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda. This paper aims to determine the scope of the existing literature about the role that organizations play in contributing to the advancement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A bibliometric analysis is conducted considering the papers specifically focused on SDGs and businesses published from 2015 to 2021 in journals indexed in the Scopus database. The analysis shows that approximately 80% of the studies on this topic have been published in the last three years. Moreover, only one journal (Sustainability) has published more than the 50% of the publications on the subject. The final sample is divided into 11 clusters that analyze different perspectives within the same research topic, and, in all these clusters, practically all of the papers have been published in the last two years, which confirms that this issue is increasing its presence in the academic world. This work extends the existing research on the subject, taking into account the publications of the last year, so it is an update on this “hot topic”. Moreover, it contributes to providing a reference frame of the state of the art of this research topic and can orientate researchers in the development of future studies

As the person responsible for a company's strategies and disclosure policies, the CEO is the architect of its CSR strategy. This paper analyzes which CEO's attributes influence the level of disclosure of information about business contribution to the SDGs. Based on the Upper Echelons Theory, a set of hypotheses on the influence of several CEO attributes (demographic and professional characteristics as well as personal traits) on SDGs disclosure have been tested in a sample of the leading Spanish companies for the period 2015–2021 using ordinal regressions for panel data. The results show that education level, nationality, and narcissism are the CEO attributes that significantly affect the level of SDG disclosure. Specifically, companies whose CEOs have a higher level of education, are Spanish (local), and are narcissist tend to disclose more information about the SDGs. This study aims to contribute to literature by providing new empirical evidence on an emerging research topic and by providing a glimpse into the CEO “profile” that may favor a company's propensity to disclose information on the SDGs.

The study of the relationship between Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices and financial performance in family firms (FFs) is still in its early stages. This study focuses on 509 Spanish companies, examining how ESG influences their financial and risk performance. It differentiates among FFs, specifically between those with a single owner and those with multiple owners, and non‐family businesses. The composition of our ESG index consists of 63 variables. To analyze the impact of ESG, we employed propensity score matching (PSM) to compare FFs and non‐FFs and regression models to examine the effect of ESG commitment on future performance. The findings reveal that FFs with boards of directors demonstrate a strong commitment to ESG practices, particularly in environmental and labor subdimensions, which positively impact their financial performance. Conversely, social initiatives have a negative effect. Moreover, FFs—especially those with multiple family members involved—achieve more positive results from ESG engagement than non‐FFs. Notably, FFs, except those with a single owner, with higher ESG scores performed better financially during the COVID‐19 crisis, although not better than non‐FFs. However, the presence of sustainability reports is positive but without differences between FF and non‐FFs.