Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) together comprise what is regarded as a metric system that can be used to gauge a corporation’s performance in various facets of social responsibility. The increasing urgency for businesses to contemplate and proactively address ESG issues, due to their immediate relevance, underscores its importance in contemporary business landscapes. In the current academic landscape, scholars across various disciplines have thus been engaged in rigorous investigations of ESG. This research aims to present an overarching comprehension of the theoretical foundation of ESG by reviewing existing research and highlight the latest trends in ESG literature in the field of management. We have engaged in a comprehensive bibliometric examination, supplementing our research with the application of co-citation and bibliographic coupling methodologies. Based on co-citation analysis, this study elucidates four theoretical foundations of ESG research: Sustainability of competitive advantage; compliance of social construction; alignment of governance accountability; and allocation of sustainable capital. We then employ bibliographic coupling to assess current research trends, revealing five groups of research trends correlated with the topics: ESG activities and economic outcomes; ESG reporting and non-financial disclosure; ESG performance and corporate sustainability; ESG attributes and investment market; and ESG practices and board diversity. Furthermore, this study summarizes future research directions in the ESG domain.