Disclosing information on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) parameters is voluntary for most firms across the world. Companies disclose their performance on ESG datapoints due to two main reasons—(i) to gain the trust of stakeholders through increased transparency and (ii) to comply with regulations imposed by governments and investment houses. Using a dataset of companies disclosing ESG parameters during 2014–2021 from the S&P BSE 500 index, this study investigates the role of ESG disclosure on firm performance. We divide the constituent securities into three factors—size, value, and disclosure to study the premiums generated by firms on each factor using single-, double-, and triple-sorting approaches. We utilize time series regressions along with GRS tests to empirically test the presence of factor premiums. We find the significant role of factors size, value, disclosure, and a dummy variable for the COVID-19 pandemic period to explain the portfolio returns. The study found a negative ESG disclosure premium stating that firms with high levels of disclosure earn less returns compared with the firms with less disclosures. The findings of this study contrast with multiple studies in the past that have found a positive disclosure premium. Our findings help reconcile the mixed evidence on the disclosure–returns relationship.

An agency problem is defined as a conflict of interest arising due to a misalignment of interests among the managers and other stakeholders of the company. This article aims to review the articles addressing the agency problem and their impact on business performance. This article reviews the contributions of prominent theorists on agency problems and agency costs. Using bibliometric attributes of 740 articles from the Scopus database, this study highlights the publishing trend and outlets, along with leading contributors and collaborators in terms of authors, institutions, and countries. This study identifies the clusters through the bibliographic coupling technique and a trend topics analysis. Most researchers have focused on corporate governance and expressed the agency problem as one of the impact areas. This study is unique as no study to date specifically focuses solely on agency theory or the agency problem through the lens of bibliometric analysis. Future research directions on agency problems and their solutions conclude this study.

The purpose of this article is to examine the academic literature about the function, structure, calculation, and weaknesses of economic value added (EVA). EVA has been used as a measure of economic profit and captures the inadequacies of using traditional rates of return. In addition, this article tackles the main residual earnings (RI) modifications used to calculate EVA. A keyword search for publications was conducted in early 2022. This study couples an inferential analysis with descriptive analyses of the existing research. The articles were sorted into different clusters based on bibliographic coupling analysis. This study identifies the main areas and current dynamics of EVA research while evaluating the quality and impact of the scientific output. Three broad themes emerged from the analysis of the cluster related to the use and application of EVA: residual income and valuation, financial performance, and performance management. In doing so, we hope to enhance the understanding and contributions of EVA research to advance its theory and practice.

This paper investigates the interlinkages between regional infrastructure disparities, economic growth, and poverty in the 21 major Indian States. An overall comprehensive index of infrastructure, the Composite Infrastructure Index (CII), is calculated for each Indian state using the Principal Component Analysis technique. In order to analyse the regional disparities between states in terms of infrastructure, they are ranked based on the calculated CII. We extend our analysis by evaluating the inter-relationship between the Composite Infrastructure Index, Per Capita Net State Domestic Product (PCNSDP), and poverty. The empirical analysis also proves that composite infrastructural growth and economic growth go hand in hand.