The relationship between corporate environmental, social, governance issues and corporate sustainability in the financial sector: A managerial perspective

Abstract This paper investigates whether Hellenic financial institutions' commitment on environmental social and governance (ESG) issues has any relation with financial institutions' corporate sustainability. As a contribution to previous literature, the moderating role of managers' perception in the conceptual model is explored. A survey has been conducted to obtain data about the association of ESG commitment with sustainability literacy, sustainability reporting credibility, SDGs awareness, sustainability, and financial performance. Top managers from Greek financial institutions were reviewed via an online questionnaire, during the third wave of the pandemic. The results of inductive analysis provide evidence that the sample displays good reliability and internal consistency. Particularly, dichotomous variables demonstrate internal contingency, whereas liker‐scaled variables exhibit significant correlation. It seems that sustainable development and SDGs awareness are positively correlated with ESG commitment according, while business commitment to environmental issues is inversely proportional to the negative economic impact of the pandemic to corporate sustainability performance. Eventually, it turns out that ESG commitment does affect corporate sustainability on the areas of sustainability reporting credibility, SDGs awareness, sustainability, and financial performance.