In response to concerns about environmental issues and the role of manufacturing corporations in maintaining eco-efficiency, this study aimed to investigate the moderating role of digitally supported environmental management accounting (EMA) in the relationship between eco-efficiency and corporate sustainability performance. A quantitative approach was applied by using a survey distributed to a sample consisting of 77 individuals from senior and executive financial and operational positions in large Saudi manufacturing corporations. The findings of the linear regression analysis revealed that there is an insignificant direct relationship between eco-efficiency and corporate sustainability performance, while there is a significant moderating impact of EMA on the linkage between eco-efficiency and corporate environmental sustainability, and this significant moderating impact also applied to the linkage between digital applications and corporate environmental sustainability. This study provides good insights into the domain of environmental sustainability performance on the business scale in the Saudi context as an emerging economy, as it could be considered an innovative contribution to theoretical and practical aspects in the recent green issue adoption context; theoretically, it provides additional evidence of the role of digital EMA in improving environmental sustainability performance, and practically, the study findings can be beneficial for strategy and policymakers in corporations and regulators of environmental sustainability performance.

This study examined the impact of tax avoidance on firm value. Further, it investigated whether ESG disclosure moderates this relationship. This study examined the top 100 non-financial firms listed in the S&P/EGX ESG index over the period from 2018 to 2022. The sample contained 80 companies with 400 firm-year observations. Statistical analysis was conducted using pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) and fixed effects regression models. The statistical analysis revealed a negative and significant impact of tax avoidance on firm value. Further, ESG disclosure was found to have a negative moderating impact as it eliminated the negative impact of the effect of tax avoidance on firm value, leading to a positive overall effect. These results carry important implications for regulators, investors, and shareholders in Egypt and other emerging markets, underscoring ESG disclosure’s pivotal role in enhancing firm value and reducing tax avoidance practices within the Egyptian market. To the best of our knowledge, this study represents one of the earliest empirical explorations into the moderating effect of ESG disclosure on the relationship between tax avoidance and firm value in an emerging market. By presenting empirical evidence from the Egyptian market, this research broadens the existing literature on tax avoidance and firm value, offering fresh perspectives on the influence of ESG disclosure. Early studies have primarily focused on the direct effect of ESG disclosure on firm value.

Emerging economies confront the dual challenge of accelerating digital transformation while simultaneously mitigating environmental degradation under conditions of institutional and governance heterogeneity. In this context, this study examines how artificial intelligence (AI) capability influences green innovation efficiency (GIE) in emerging Asian economies and investigates whether environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance conditions this relationship. Using an unbalanced panel of 59,112 firm-year observations from 4926 publicly listed firms across 15 emerging Asian economies over the period 2011–2022, we employ a comprehensive panel-data econometric framework that accounts for unobserved heterogeneity, dynamic effects, endogeneity, and potential self-selection bias. The empirical results indicate that AI capability is positively and significantly associated with higher green innovation efficiency. More importantly, ESG performance strengthens this relationship, suggesting that robust governance frameworks enhance firms’ ability to translate digital intelligence into environmentally efficient innovation outcomes. These findings underscore that AI adoption alone is insufficient to generate sustainable value; rather, its environmental effectiveness depends critically on complementary governance structures that promote transparency, accountability, and responsible risk management. The results remain robust after correcting for endogeneity concerns, alternative model specifications, and extensive sensitivity and heterogeneity analyses. Overall, this study contributes to the literature on digital transformation and sustainability by providing large-scale, multi-country evidence that highlights the pivotal role of ESG in shaping the sustainability returns to AI adoption in emerging economies.

Aggressive corporate tax avoidance represents a significant fiscal and governance challenge in developing economies, where public revenues are critical for sustainable development and enforcement capacity is often uneven. This study examines whether environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance constrains corporate tax avoidance and whether this relationship is conditioned by national institutional quality. Using a multi-country panel of 2464 publicly listed non-financial firms from 14 developing economies over the period 2015–2023, the analysis employs fixed-effects estimation, dynamic System GMM, and instrumental-variable (2SLS) techniques to address unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity concerns. The results indicate that stronger ESG performance is associated with significantly lower levels of tax avoidance; however, this effect is highly contingent on institutional quality. ESG exerts a substantive disciplining role primarily in governance-strong environments characterized by effective regulation and credible enforcement. Heterogeneity analyses further reveal that the ESG–tax avoidance relationship is driven mainly by the governance and environmental pillars, is more pronounced among large firms, varies across regions, and strengthens over time as ESG frameworks mature. In contrast, the social ESG dimension and smaller firms exhibit weaker or insignificant effects, consistent with symbolic compliance in low-enforcement settings. By integrating stakeholder, legitimacy, agency, and institutional theories, this study advances a context-sensitive understanding of ESG effectiveness and helps reconcile mixed findings in the existing literature. The findings offer policy-relevant insights for regulators and tax authorities seeking to strengthen fiscal discipline and development financing in developing economies.

Islam is the world's second-largest religion, and accountability (to God and to fellow humans) lies at its heart. Islamic principles and rules of conduct, constituting the Shariah, restrict the actions of Muslims, in particular forbidding the payment and receipt of interest. Since the 1970s, an Islamic financial industry has emerged to provide Shariah-compliant transactions and financial structures to devout Muslims. This has given rise to a need for specific accounting approaches for these transactions. Under Islam, organizations and members of society are considered to have wider accountability responsibilities, with social and environmental reporting a longstanding issue for Islamic organizations. To demonstrate compliance with Shariah, many organizations have established Shariah supervisory boards consisting of Shariah scholars familiar with commercial and financial transactions. This unique governance mechanism provides a model for more conventional entities that wish to enhance their accountability to society. Research into Islamic accounting, accountability and governance has grown substantially in recent years, but there are still potentially fruitful avenues for further research.

Corporate tax avoidance remains a major concern in developed economies, yet evidence on whether environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance constrains firms’ long-term tax behavior remains inconclusive (Ardhaoui & Amar, 2026; Mitroulia et al., 2025). This study examines the nexus between sustainability performance and corporate tax avoidance using a panel of 14,025 firm-year observations from 2014 to 2022. Firm fixed-effects models are employed to evaluate the effects of the composite ESG score and its ESG pillars on long-run cash effective tax rates (LRCETRs). The outcomes indicate that stronger ESG performance is connected with lower corporate tax avoidance, with the environmental and governance pillars exhibiting the strongest effects, while the social pillar shows a weaker but consistent association. Robustness analyses using alternative tax avoidance measures and firm-size subsamples confirm the stability of the results. By providing evidence from developed economies and focusing on persistent tax behavior rather than short-term tax outcomes, this study extends the ESG-tax literature, supports stakeholder, legitimacy, and agency theories, and offers practical implications for regulators, investors, and corporate decision-makers seeking to promote transparent and responsible tax practices.