Corporate sustainability has garnered increasing attention within the business community as corporations communicate to influence their stakeholders to build sustainable relationships. There has been a surge in research exploring its connection to firm performance, but existing studies lack a cohesive and concentrated approach. The aim of this study is to explore the trends of growth of publications; gauge the annual growth rate, annual ratio of growth, relative growth rate, doubling time, and scientific production index; predict future production levels; and look at the relationship between corporate sustainability and firm performance by analysing the literature as well as identifying clusters and links with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The top countries contributing to the research were China, India, and the United States, accounting for over 45% of the global publications. The study analysed a focused corpus of 65 documents from the Scopus database on specific subfields of corporate sustainability and firm performance, identifying five main thematic clusters related to environmental performance, financial performance, corporate sustainability reporting, corporate social performance, and green supply chain management, with significant citations related to 17 SDGs. The annual growth rate (AGR) of publications was found to be −2.88%, with an average of 4.06 publications per year. The relative growth rate (RGR) decreased from 0.69 in 2010 to 0.36 in 2023, and the doubling time (Dt.) increased from 1.00 in 2010 to 1.93 in 2023. Employing structured methods and the PRISMA protocol, this scientifically rigorous study points towards identification of research themes linking sustainability practices to firm performance. Exponential smoothing (Holt’s linear trend model) is employed to project future research output within the field. The significant trends include an increase in publication frequency since 2017, indicating a growth phase in the research field. The findings highlight the need for greater investigation from developing countries and the importance of integrating sustainability considerations into business strategies.

Corporate Sustainability has garnered increasing attention within the business community, as corporates communicate to influence its stakeholders for building sustainable relationships. There has been a surge in research exploring its connection to firm performance but, existing studies lack a cohesive and concentrated approach. This study employs scientometric and bibliometric methods to analyse scientific production which signals a scarcity of research from developing countries, indicating a need for greater investigation. Focussing on specific subfields of Corporate Sustainability and Firm Performance, we analyze and narrow down the scope of our study to a focussed sample. Employing use of structured methods and PRISMA Protocol, this scientifically rigorous study, points towards identification of research themes linking sustainability practices to firm performance for achieving business excellence. It goes beyond mapping of literature, thereby establishing linkages to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our analysis reveals clusters centered on Environmental Performance, Firm Performance, Corporate Sustainability Reporting, Corporate Social Performance and Green Supply Chain Management with significant citations related to various SDGs. We make use of time series analysis to determine the future trends of research in the field. This scientometric and bibliometric analysis study contributes to a more focused understanding of the linkages between corporate sustainability and firm performance, emphasizing the need for cohesive research approaches to address the complexities of sustainable business practices and their implications for financial performance and the economy.