We review recent scientific production on the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) framework applied to supply chain management research. In a world where increasing pressure from stakeholders has led to an intense level of attention towards sustainable supply chain practices, both scholars and practitioners have sparked the debate surrounding ESG scores and performance of supply chains. Given the novelty of the topic, along with its significance for both academia and industry, we performed a systematic literature review with the goal of synthesizing extant knowledge and providing a structured research agenda to further expand the field. We found a lively stream of research, notably focused on the need for transparency in supply chain management, the pivotal role of policymakers in driving the ESG agenda forward and the impact of ESG in the supply chain performance. In addition to providing a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of the current state of the art, with the aid of bibliometric data, we provide useful recommendations for future research by developing a structured research agenda and a theoretical framework, synthesizing extant knowledge and covering notable research gaps. The work has implications for both theory and practice. Theoretically, the research agenda acts as a starting point for further research in the field, while simultaneously providing scholars with a comprehensive snapshot of the current state of the art. From a practical perspective, the review highlights the role of managers and policymakers in implementing the ESG framework in supply chains, along with its challenges, benefits and potential drawbacks, thus acting as an informative point of reference for such implementation.

Recent policy changes in sustainability reporting, such as the ones related to the new European Directive on non-financial disclosure (2014/95/EU), the standards issued by the American Sustainability Accounting Standard Board (SASB), the G4 guidelines issued by the Global Sustainability Standard Board (GSSB), and the framework of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) stress the importance of extending the disclosure of ethical, social, and environmental risks within financial and social-environmental reporting. Institutional pressure has notably increased among organizations, in setting up risk management tools to understand sustainability risks within managerial and reporting practices. Given such institutional pressure, the corporate reaction in providing additional sustainability risk disclosure calls for attention and scrutiny. Therefore, this study aims at addressing such issues from an exploratory perspective. We based our analysis on a sample of large Italian organizations that issued sustainability disclosure in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), G4 guidelines, and we tested the relationship between their level of risk disclosure and other relevant variables. Consistently with the literature, we found that “experienced” sustainable reporters provide a significant volume of disclosure, and that disclosure quality on risk is positively influenced by their international presence and reporting experience. However, when accounting for specific risk-related areas of disclosure, only a few of them seem to adopt a managerial perspective linking strategy, risk metrics, and disclosure.

Agritourism has achieved a greater importance in the last decade, but despite this relevance, the definition is not aligned everywhere, depending on the contingency variables of the context in which agritourism is located. This paper aims at analyzing the business model’s key success factors of Italian agritourism by studying their structural, social and economic features, integrated with a sustainability approach. The empirical analysis is based on a sample of agritourism, located in an Italian region. The empirical results show relevant and useful elements to support the sustainable development of agritourism business models in Italy, linking theory, policy and practices. Indeed, these results, together with others related to the economic dimension of the farms, their specialization, and the characteristics of the farmers make it possible to argue that there are common elements, which offer potential for agritourism. In addition, it was possible to identify two different models of agritourism. Agritourism can open new horizons in rural sustainable development, with possible beneficial effects on the environment, society, agricultural heritage and economic growth. In particular, regional policy developers should take into consideration these elements in order to direct correctly efforts. The research shows also some interesting theoretical implications as it contributes to enrich the literature on this particular kind of business model. At the same time, it helps family owners to increase the overall understanding of their agritourism, in order to finalize adequate planning and communication.