Purpose: Sustainable development has now been recognised as the pivot around which development activities should revolve. Banking is an important component in the same and adoption of sustainable banking practices by various banking institutions is a strong driver to achieve sustainable development. The purpose of this paper is to study the level of adoption of sustainable banking tools and the extent to which banking institutions practice the same in India. In addition, the banking institutions have been ranked and categorised on basis of their sustainable banking performance.Design/methodology/approach: The proposed framework focuses on the environmental and social conduct of the banks, who address the issues of sustainability in Indian banking sector. As there is a difference in the economic standards of developed and developing countries, the review of literature helps to figure out the gap in specific frameworks for assessing sustainable banking practices in developing countries. Previous researchers have made an attempt to develop a general framework for assessing the sustainable banking efforts of the banking sector. These studies fall short of indicators on the social dimension of sustainability specifically in the context of less developed countries like India, the social dimensions are is equally a major thrust area along with environmental indicators. Content analysis technique has been used to evaluate sustainable banking performance of the banks and Mann–Whitney U test used to determine the differences in sustainable banking performance of the banks in India.Findings: In Indian banking sector, the adoption of the international sustainability code of conduct is still in its nascent stage. The research indicates that sustainability issues which are of the highest priority for the banks are directly related to their business operations such as financial inclusion, financial literacy and energy efficiency, and banks are more focussed on addressing social dimension of sustainability in banking rather than important dimensions of sustainable banking, namely, environmental management, development of green products and services and sustainability reporting.Practical implications: The application of the proposed framework reflects the status quo of sustainable banking in India. This study is useful for the banks and all the stakeholders in understanding more about the shortcomings in integrating sustainability issues in banking. Further, the present study also redresses the extant research dearth in the field of sustainable banking in the Indian context.Originality/value: This is one of the first studies evaluating the sustainable banking performance of the Indian banking sector.

Sustainability reporting is at the core of designing corporate sustainability environment. The study has been conducted on Indian banking sector to examine the extent of sustainability reporting by the banks operating in India. Sustainability report, corporate social responsibility report, business responsibility report and annual report (FY 2015–16 & 2016–17) of the banks were analysed and coded using content analysis technique against sustainability indicators derived from review of literature, GRI G4 guidelines, and National Voluntary Guidelines on responsible business conduct. This is one of the first studies to examine the extent of sustainability reporting by the commercial banks in India in line with major sustainability-related standards & guidelines. The result of the study shows that the banks in India are much slower in adopting sustainability reporting practices. It was found that sustainability issues which are of the highest priorities for the banks are directly related to their business operations like financial inclusion, financial literacy, energy efficient technology etc. The environmental consideration indicators are relatively unaddressed by most of the banks in India. The results of the study also show that there is a significant difference in the disclosure of environmental and internal socio-environmental indicators between public and private sector banks in India. This study is expected to contribute to banking sector and all the stakeholders in understanding more about the limitations in implementing sustainable reporting in India.

The emergence of high-speed internet (5G) services and the demonetization of the Indian currency by the Government of India in the year 2016 served as catalysts for the growth of banking services, such as internet/mobile banking. The main objective of the study was to investigate the role of perceived financial cost, perceived risk, and trust in the adoption of mobile banking services by users. The study extends the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to explain the adoption of mobile banking services by young Indian customers. The data from 253 users of age between 18–30 years were collected through a survey questionnaire and were analyzed using structural equation modeling with Amos 22.0. The results revealed that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and perceived financial cost exhibited a significant positive influence on behavioral intentions. However, the facilitating conditions were found to exert no effect on actual use. In addition, the results demonstrate that both perceived risk and perceived trust moderate the relationship between behavioral intention and the actual use of mobile banking. The results of the study provide some novel insights into how perceived risk and perceived trust shape the interplay between behavioral intention and the actual use of mobile banking services. The inferences drawn from the study may enhance the understanding of the transformation of behavioral intention into the adoption and actual use of mobile banking services.

Purpose: Based on the essence of the legitimacy and agency theories, this study empirically investigates the influence of corporate governance attributes and ownership structures on sustainability reporting of companies listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), India.Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on panel data regression analysis of sustainability reporting practices of 53 environmentally sensitive companies drawn from NIFTY100 Index at NSE. All data pertaining to sustainability information disclosure, ownership structure and corporate governance characteristics were sourced from sustainability report, business responsibility report, annual report and Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) database for the years 2015–2019.Findings: The empirical result reveals that sustainability reporting scenario has been consistently improving in India. This study documents that government ownership and frequency of board meetings are the two most important factors significantly influencing the extent of sustainability information disclosure of companies. However, the present study failed to find any significant impact of board size and big4 auditing on sustainability reporting practices. Unexpectedly, a higher number of independent directors does not improve sustainability disclosure of companies in India.Originality/value: This study is one of the first studies to investigate how the nature of ownership and corporate governance characteristics contribute to or impede sustainability reporting practices of companies in India. This study offers important insights to regulators, practitioners and investors to analyze whether sustainability disclosure of companies is influenced by corporate governance attributes. It also provides a perspective for regulators and corporate strategists to assess the impact of recent corporate governance reforms in India and consider how corporate governance mechanism can be used to improve sustainability reporting practices.

Due to environmental degradation, using environment-friendly products has become necessary to reduce carbon emissions. However, the consumption of such products is still below expectations because these products are usually costlier than their traditional counterparts. The current study aims to investigate consumer behavior towards environment-friendly products using Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior as a theoretical model. The study seeks to examine the role of the key determinates of environmentally conscious purchase behavior, such as ethical obligation and green self-identity. A total of 386 responses were collected from consumers living in a few major cities of northern India using purposive sampling. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling in Amos 22.0. The results demonstrated that attitudes towards environment-friendly products perceived behavioral control and green self-identity as the major determinants of green purchase intentions. In addition, attitude was reported to mediate the effect of ethical obligation on green purchase intentions and green self-identity was found to moderate the effect of attitude on green purchase intentions. Additionally, green self-identity was also reported to moderate the relationship between ethical obligation and attitude. The study adds value to the existing literature by signifying the role of green self-identity and ethical obligation in stimulating consumers’ green purchase intentions. The findings of the study are also meaningful for marketers and policymakers.