Corporate Sustainability: A Review

Introduction

Economic development, industrialization, and globalization processes have significantly contributed to the degradation of the natural environment. Climate changes, resulting from the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, will negatively influence the functioning of society and the development of countries in the long run (Misztal, 2019, p. 34). Therefore, it is necessary to involve the whole world in activities protecting the natural environment. This applies both to measures taken on a macroeconomic and microeconomic scale, at the level of households and enterprises.

During the past two decades, the concept of corporate sustainability has become increasingly popular. The rapid growth of the research in this area concerning also other directions of world development, such as sustainable development, competitiveness, or sustainable business models is observed. The primary purpose of corporate sustainability is to seek added value to an organization’s activities by ensuring they have a positive impact on society, the environment, and the economy. There are usually three areas of corporate sustainability: environmental, social, and economic ones. Some companies also extend this scope to other areas, specifically relating to, e.g., people or organization security. However, the extent of developing this concept and combining it with other business development directions is unknown. In order to explore the issue, this research provides a comprehensive review of corporate sustainability literature in various areas. The paper also highlights the gaps in clearly explaining the scope for it extending and incorporating the term of corporate sustainability into other research areas. The main advantage of this study is providing an insight into the state of the art of corporate sustainability in various application areas, future development, and research directions. In addition to the literature review in this scope, the paper also presents numerous examples of the corporate sustainability understanding by various business organizations. This type of research is particularly important in the current global situation and the threat of a pandemic. A new kind of risk has led to a situation where not only companies but also governments have abandoned their socially responsible actions for the sake of particular benefits.

The paper analyzes publications in this field available in the Web of Science (WoS) database. In addition to quantitative analyzes, in-depth qualitative research was also performed. This research focused mainly on the possibilities of extending the term corporate sustainability and how to combine it with other areas.