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Purpose - This study explores how green supply chain management (GSCM) practices influence supply chain management (SCM) utilization in the shipbuilding and shipping industries, focusing on the mediating role of environmental, social and governance (ESG) management awareness. It aims to assess whether higher levels of ESG awareness enhance the effectiveness of GSCM in driving sustainable operational outcomes. Design/methodology/approach - A survey targeting professionals in the shipbuilding and shipping sectors was conducted, and the collected data were analyzed using Hayes' PROCESS Macro Model 4. The analytical process included normality checks, reliability assessment and correlation analysis to ensure methodological robustness and transparency. Findings - ESG awareness acts as a partial mediator, enhancing the impact of GSCM on SCM by facilitating resource efficiency, emission reductions and sustainable waste practices. These findings emphasize ESG awareness as a strategic lever for achieving both regulatory compliance and long-term competitiveness. Originality/value - This study provides a clear and industry-specific contribution by empirically analyzing the relationship between ESG management awareness, green supply chain management (GSCM) and supply chain management (SCM) utilization in the shipbuilding and shipping sectors. This research highlights how ESG awareness functions as a critical enabler of GSCM effectiveness in highly regulated, resource-intensive environments.

PurposeSocially responsible investment (SRI) is a niche and upcoming investment strategy in India. Very few researches have been conducted on SRI in the Indian context. This study identifies the SRI awareness level, attitude towards the importance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, willingness to invest in SRI avenues and obstacles in SRI investment decision-making by Indian retail investors. The second objective was among the awareness, attitude, willingness, obstacle, and demographic constructs to identify the most significant variables that impact an individual investor's SRI decision in India. .Design/methodology/approachData for the study have been collected through a self-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics are used to identify the importance of variables for individual investors. This paper used the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to understand the factors impacting individual investors' SRI behavior. Binary logistics regression analysis is used to recognize the variables that affect an individual investor's SRI decision.FindingsThe descriptive statistics indicate a low level of SRI awareness; the majority of the investors agreed that ESG issues are significant in investing and showed a willingness to invest in SRI avenues. However, the investors were not willing to accept lower returns from SRI. The majority of investors found, lower returns on SRIs, no tax benefit, lack of information about SRIs, and low liquidity as important obstacles in SRI investing. Binary logistics regression results indicated that awareness about SR/ESG indices, awareness about SR/ESG funds, and willingness to invest in SRI avenues significantly impact investors' SRI decisions but demographic variables have no significant impact on SRI decision-making.Practical implicationsThis study has implications for the ethical/SR mutual funds managers, policymakers, government, and international asset management companies. The study finds an urgent need for increasing awareness about SRI among individual investors in India. The study suggests that the issuers must provide adequate information about SRI avenues and probable risk and returns involved in these, while the regulators must make efforts to educate investors in India.Originality/valueThe context of the present study is original because hardly any of the earlier studies conducted in India have tried to find out the individual investors' SRI awareness level, investors' willingness towards SRI, investors' attitude towards ESG issues, and obstacles faced by investors in socially responsible investing.

The relationships between accountants’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) awareness and their perceptions of organisational risk are examined in this study. The emphasis is on the operational, strategic, financial and compliance risks of business organisations. A total of 462 accountants in Hong Kong were included via stratified random sampling and snowball sampling to ensure population diversity. A stratified random approach was used to include factors such as age, gender, income and experience, and snowball sampling amongst professional networks was used to ensure representativeness. A significant positive relationship exists between ESG awareness and risk perception, with environmental and governance factors emerging as the strongest predictors. Accountants with deep ESG awareness, especially in the aforementioned areas, can successfully identify and manage nontraditional risks such as regulatory changes and environmental threats. The findings highlight the need for institutionalising ESG-focused education in accounting and corporate governance to improve risk management capabilities. Increased ESG awareness can ensure responsible and sustainable business behaviour. Future research can expand the sample of accountants to executives and use longitudinal designs to capture the dynamic nature of ESG awareness and risk perception.

In the era of the digital economy, traditional industries have begun to realize digital transformations. For commercial banks, digital transformation is a trend and a requirement and is the only way to achieve sustainable development. At the same time, at the helm of the enterprise, executives play an essential role in the development of commercial banks. This study explored the relationship between digital bank transformation and bank efficiency, environment, society, and corporate governance (ESG) through empirical analysis, and how executives’ innovation awareness and executive technical background affect the relationships between digital bank transformation, bank efficiency, and ESG. This study used the regression method of fixed effects to conduct empirical research on the data of China’s A-share listed banks from 2011 to 2021. The research results show that the digital transformation of banks has improved efficiency and promoted the ESG performance of commercial banks. At the same time, executives’ innovation consciousness and technical background have played a positive regulatory role in banks’ digital transformation to promote bank efficiency and ESG. The main research object of this study was Chinese commercial banks. The bank’s digital transformation results were examined and the research was expanded to digital transformation and ESG. At the same time, this study has particular significance for investors who have a financial interest in banks.

This study, grounded in Upper Echelons Theory and Strategic Cognition Theory, investigates the impact of Chinese executives’ green cognition on corporate performance from a geographic differentiation perspective by analyzing environmental terminology frequency in annual reports of listed companies (2010–2021). The article adopts the green patent analysis method and text mining method we use to evaluate the ESG performance of enterprises with the CSI ESG score, and uses the Cobb–Douglas production function to calculate the total factor productivity (TFP) as an operational performance metric. The findings demonstrate that executives’ green cognition positively enhances both commercial performance and ESG outcomes in Chinese enterprises, yet exhibits heterogeneous effects across four major city clusters of Jingjinji Megaregion, Yangtze River Delta Megaregion, Greater Bay Area, and Chengyu Megaregion. Mechanism analysis reveals that green technological innovation significantly moderates the relationship between executives’ ecological orientation and organizational success. Moderating effect tests indicate that in enterprises with higher proportions of environmentally experienced executives, green cognition exerts substantially stronger influence on ESG performance than its relatively limited effect on operational efficiency. Paradoxically, executives in highly polluting industries demonstrate diminished economic performance when possessing elevated environmental awareness. Heterogeneity analysis across corporate ownership types and green performance levels further shows differentiated impacts of executives’ green cognition on both ESG and operational performance metrics.

Humble leadership, characterised by self-awareness, openness to feedback, and recognising others’ strengths, has gained increasing scholarly attention as a transformative leadership paradigm in contemporary organisations. In technology-driven environments, where rapid advancements such as automation and big data analytics necessitate continuous adaptation, leaders must cultivate digital capabilities to drive innovation and sustainable growth. Within this context, humble leadership emerges as a critical enabler of organisational resilience, particularly in achieving Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) benchmarks. This study examines the direct impact of humble leadership on employee performance, encompassing both task-related and contextual outcomes, with a specific focus on its relevance within the public sector. The research highlights the role of humble leadership in fostering psychological safety, trust, and innovation, thereby enhancing both individual and collective performance. Addressing a notable gap in the existing literature, which predominantly explores mediated relationships, this study employs structural equation modelling (SEM) to provide robust empirical evidence on the effectiveness of humble leadership in improving employee performance. The findings contribute to the broader discourse on sustainable and equitable leadership practices in dynamic organisational contexts, offering valuable insights for both scholars and practitioners in leadership and public administration.

This study examines how consumers’ perceptions of corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance are statistically associated with sustainable relational outcomes within a structured cognitive and relational framework. Drawing on signaling theory and perceived value theory, we propose and empirically test a sequential mediation model in which perceived ESG performance is positively associated with perceived sustainability awareness (PSA), PSA subsequently is associated with dual-path value perceptions (cognitive and socio-emotional value), and these value perceptions are positively related to long-term trust (LTT) and value co-creation (VCC). In addition, the moderating role of signal credibility on the ESG–PSA relationship is examined. Using survey data from 278 South Korean consumers and structural equation modeling, the results indicate that perceived ESG performance is significantly positively associated with PSA, which in turn is positively associated with both cognitive and socio-emotional value. These value dimensions independently and positively relate to long-term trust, which is in turn associated with value co-creation. Contrary to expectations derived from signaling theory, signal credibility does not significantly moderate the ESG–PSA relationship, suggesting that ESG signals may function as baseline legitimacy cues within the South Korean institutional context, where sustainability norms are relatively institutionalized. Overall, the findings suggest that ESG effectiveness does not operate through direct persuasion but is consistent with a multi-stage cognitive and relational framework. By distinguishing sustainability awareness from ESG perception and decomposing value perceptions into dual paths, this study advances theoretical understanding of how ESG signals may be internalized and statistically linked to sustainable firm–consumer relationships. From a managerial perspective, the results highlight the strategic importance of designing ESG initiatives and communications that enhance sustainability awareness and support long-term trust as foundations for engagement and co-creation. Given the cross-sectional design, the proposed sequential structure should be interpreted as associative rather than definitive causal evidence.

This paper employs a novel database to investigate the influence of pressure-sensitive institutional investors (PSIIs) in China on the relationship between managerial climate awareness and firms’ sustainability performance. The paper demonstrates that an increase in pressure-sensitive institutional investors shareholding strengthens the positive impact between managerial climate awareness and firms’ sustainability performance. The existence of robust commercial ties between the majority of pressure-sensitive institutional investors and listed companies enables the transmission of pressure to management teams in the form of constraints on companies’ access to capital. This ultimately promotes firms’ sustainable development. Subsequent research demonstrated that the alignment of interests and risk preferences exerts a more pronounced effect in firms characterized by high managerial ownership. Furthermore, financial support from PSIIs manifests as greater intensity in firms grappling with high financial constraints. The utilization of environmental regulations as a competitive strategy, coupled with the capacity for early implementation, serves to amplify the aforementioned positive effect, particularly in contexts where environmental regulation is minimal.

Purpose This study aims to explore the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the cost of equity (CoE) capital of Indian manufacturing firms. Design/methodology/approach The study is conducted on a sample of 68 manufacturing firms listed on National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) 200, investigated for the period 2013 to 2018. To deal with the issue of endogeneity, the techniques of system generalized method of moments and two-stage least square have been applied. Findings The results suggest that CSR disclosure is positively linked with the CoE in the case of manufacturing firms, signalling that socially responsible firms in India bear a higher CoE. The findings indicate that investors do not treat CSR as a value-augmenting factor. Practical implications Firms should effectuate effective managerial and organizational changes to fulfil their social responsibility instead of window dressing their activities. Regulators in India must work towards more stringent enforcement of the act and make efforts to promote public awareness of CSR. Social implications The integration of CSR activities with the economic operations of the business is imperative. Originality/value To the best of researchers’ knowledge, there is a lack of studies focussing on India, which serves as an ideal setting for the study owing to the latest legislation mandating CSR expenditure. The study focusses on manufacturing firms as these firms are more susceptible to contribute to environmental pollution, exploitation of natural resources and labour concerns.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the complex interplay between environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance, firm performance and firm political awareness in an increasingly politicized and globalized world, where corporate sustainability is under intense scrutiny. Design/methodology/approach The study uses data from 466 globally listed retail firms sourced from Bloomberg data set for the year 2022. Multiple linear regression with robustness checks is used for the analysis. Findings While prior research indicates that ESG performance negatively influences firm performance, the findings reveal that a firm’s political awareness can enable positive firm performance alongside ESG performance. Practical implications The findings, which highlight the role of political awareness as an intangible external resource, have implications for the resource-based view of the firm. Amid growing pressures from institutional investors and other stakeholders to enhance ESG performance, the findings are particularly relevant for corporate firms striving to meet ESG mandates without compromising firm performance. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to examine the role of political awareness in shaping the relationship between ESG performance and firm performance. The findings provide valuable insights, highlighting political awareness as a critical tool to mitigate the potential negative influence of ESG performance on firm performance.