The sustainable development of the global economy and society calls for the practice of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) principle. The ESG principle has been developed for 17 years following its formal proposal in 2004. Countries around the world continue to promote the coordinated development of the environment, society, and governance in accordance with the ESG principle. In order to review and summarize ESG research, this study takes the literature related to ESG research as the research object and presents the cooperation status, hot spots, and trends of ESG research with the help of the literature analysis tool CiteSpace. On the basis of quantitative analysis results, this study presents an examination and comprehensive summary of progress in the research into ESG combined with a systematic literature review. This includes the theoretical basis of ESG research, the interaction between the dimensions of ESG, the impact of ESG on the economic consequences, the risk prevention role of ESG, and ESG measurement. Based on the systematic summary of research progress, this paper further refines the characteristics of ESG research, reveals the shortcomings of ESG research, and propose a focus for ESG research in the future in order to provide a reference for academic research and the practice of ESG.

Sluggish market demand can deteriorate the financial situation of a company and affect a shareholder’s decision to adopt environmental, social, and governance criteria (ESG). According to the socioemotional wealth theory, family firms place significant emphasis on sustainable development and long-term orientation, but this emphasis can be either internally or externally driven according to the type of involvement chosen by the owning family. Therefore, this study uses listed family firms to explore the relationship between different types of family involvement (i.e., family ownership and control, the influence of market competition, and the institutionalisation level of the environment in which a firm decides to pursue ESG criteria). We performed a multivariate regression analysis on a sample of 1,151 Chinese companies to test these relationships and found that both family ownership and control are positively related to ESG scores. Market competition negatively moderates the influence of both family ownership and control on the adoption of ESG criteria. Moreover, the influence of family control is negatively moderated by the institutional environment. Thus, types of family involvement seem to be relevant for the firm’s engagement with ESG criteria.

A large body of evidence demonstrates the key role played by entrepreneurship in promoting economic growth. However, the potential connections between entrepreneurship, social networking, and economic development still require in-depth exploration and discussion. This paper first establishes a theoretical framework combining entrepreneurship capital theory, resource dependence theory and transaction cost theory, then examines the possible associations between entrepreneurship, social networks, and economic growth based on the dynamic panel data model. To achieve the research objectives, the investigators collected data spanning the period between 2007 and 2016 from 31 provinces and cities in China. The authors adopted the enterprise employment rate as a measure of entrepreneurship and used the information sharing rate to assess social networks, which were then both introduced into the economic growth model. Additionally, by using the system of generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation, this article measures the influence of entrepreneurship and social networks on the economic growth of a local area. The empirical results reveal that both entrepreneurship and social networking significantly promote regional economic growth in China. Further, the effect of entrepreneurship is significantly enhanced after introducing the joint effects of entrepreneurship and social network. The findings also expound that entrepreneurship of the eastern zone and social networking of the central section exhibit the strongest potential for economic development of the respective areas. Conversely, entrepreneurship may actually hinder the economic advancement of the central areas of China. Corresponding to the findings, the researchers suggest that it is necessary to devise flexible policies for heterogeneous entrepreneurial environments and to appropriately utilize interpersonal networks to maximize the efficiency of the outputs of economic activity, which are likely to strengthen the role of entrepreneurship and social networks in contemporary economic and business milieu.

Purpose: From the perspective of the institution and internationalization speed, the article discusses the internal mechanism of cross-border e-commerce selection mode, as well as the moderating role of social networks as the intangible resource, and expand the theoretical system of corporate internationalization.Design/methodology/approach: Based on the empirical data of 456 multinational e-commerce companies in five first-tier cities in China from 2016 to 2019, our research explores the selection mode of cross-border e-commerce.Findings: The results show that (1) the institutional distance of the host country leads to the exit from cross-border e-commerce platforms in the international expansion of enterprises. (2) The difference in internationalization speed online and offline has become a mediated mechanism for the exit of cross-border e-commerce platforms due to the institutional distance of the host country. (3) The diversity and scale of offline social networks can weaken the impact of differences in internationalization speed on the exit from cross-border e-commerce platforms. (4) The resistance of companies expanding to countries with a weak institutional environment is greater than that experienced when expanding to countries with a strong one.Originality/value: This study shows, for the first time, how to select expansion mode for cross-border e-commerce. And the paper also centers on the research of the impact of “social network”, a kind of intangible resource, on cross-border e-commerce platform adoption.

This special issue, “Internet Finance, Green Finance, and Sustainability”, is focused on the prosperous financial industry and the relationship between finance and sustainability. It especially gathers papers pertaining to the hot topic of internet finance and green finance in this field, as well as the manuscripts exploring the operating mechanism between finance and sustainability, both of which are closely linked to the hot spots and pressing demands of society. Therefore, this special issue is of particular valuable for both academic research and the development of society.