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Volume 67 (2023): issue 2 (jun 2023).

Social Analysis Volume 67, Issue 3 Table of Contents General Articles From Integration to Deportation: Grammars of Selves and Exogenous “Others” in the State of Denmark and Beyond Mikkel Rytter Conscientious Objection or Objecting to the Conscience? Notes Toward an Anthropology of the Conscience Christopher Houston Special Section Off the Rails: Thin Moral Thinking and Stylized Ethical Dilemmas Paolo Heywood and Adam Reed Trolleyology and the Anthropology of the Ethical Imagination Hallvard Lillehammer Dramatic Vignettes in Moral Inquiry Ben Colburn “A Lovely, Nasty Difficulty”: What’s Funny about Killing Fat Men? Joanna Cook Productive Decontextualization: Philosophical Conversations in the Pub Soumhya Venkatesan Life on the Lifeboat: Stylizing Ethical Dilemmas in the Philosophy and Activism of Animal Protection Adam Reed Truth or Trick: Thinking of Trolley Problems as Tinkering Teresa Kuan Sexbots Playing the Imitation Game Jon Bialecki A Thought Experiment in the Wild Paolo Heywood Afterword: Switching Tracks Matei Candea

Volume 67 / 2023, 4 issues per volume (spring, summer, autumn, winter) Aims & Scope Social Analysis is an international peer-reviewed journal devoted to exploring the analytical potentials of anthropological research. It encourages contributions grounded in original empirical research that critically probe established paradigms of social and cultural analysis. The journal expresses the best that anthropology has to offer by exploring in original ways the relationship between ethnographic materials and theoretical insight. By forging creative and critical engagements with cultural, political, and social processes, it also opens new avenues of communication between anthropology and the humanities as well as other social sciences. The journal publishes four issues per year, including regular Special Issues on particular themes. The Editors welcome individual articles that focus on diverse topics and regions, reflect varied theoretical approaches and methods, and aim to appeal widely within anthropology and beyond. Proposals for Special Issues are selected by the Editorial Board through an annual competitive call. Before submitting articles to Social Analysis , authors are advised to read the Editor’s  detailed advice as to what makes a good submission. Indexing/Abstracting Social Analysis is indexed/abstracted in: Anthropological Literature (Ebsco) Anthropological Literature (Tozzer Library – Harvard University) Bibliography of Asian Studies (Association for Asian Studies) Bibliometric Research Indicator List (BFI) – Level 2 Biography Index (Ebsco) British Humanities Index (ProQuest) Current Abstracts (Ebsco) Current Bibliography on African Affairs (Baywood) European Reference Index for the Humanities and the Social Sciences (ERIH) International Bibliography of Social Sciences (IBSS) International Political Science Abstracts Database (Ebsco) IBR – International Bibliography of Book Reviews of Scholarly Literature on the Humanities and Social Sciences (De Gruyter) IBZ – International Bibliography of Periodical Literature (De Gruyter) Left Index (Ebsco) MLA Directory of Periodicals MLA International Bibliography Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers – Level 2 Periodicals Index Online (ProQuest) Scopus (Elsevier) Social Services Abstracts (ProQuest) Social Sciences Abstracts (Ebsco) Social Sciences Citation Index (Clarivate Analytics) Social Sciences Citation Index (Web of Science) Social Sciences Index (Ebsco) SocINDEX (Ebsco) Sociological Abstracts (ProQuest) South Pacific Periodicals Index Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (ProQuest) 

Editors: Penny Harvey, University of Manchester, UK Martin Holbraad, University College London, UK Hans Steinmüller, London School of Economics, UK Editorial Assistant:  Fred Hoacheng LAI, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK

Editoral Board: Omolade Adunbi, University of Michigan, USA Andrea Bandak , University of Copenhagen, Denmark Christobal Bonelli, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Matthew Carey,  University of Copenhagen, Denmark Michael Cepek, University of Texas at San Antonio, USA Allen Chun, Academia Sinica, Taiwan Nélia Dias, ISCTE - Lisbon University Institute, Portugal Carlos Fausto, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Caterina Guenzi,   École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, France Andrea-Luz Gutierrez-Choquevilca,   École Pratique des Hautes Études, France Ghassan Hage, University of Melbourne, Australia Laurie Hart, University of California, USA Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University, USA Holly High, Deakin University, Australia Hannah Knox, University College London, UK Yongjia Liang, Zhejiang University, China Atsuro Morita , Osaka University, Japan Erik Mueggler, University of Michigan, USA Johannes Neurath, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de M é xico, M é xico Patrick Neveling,  Bournemouth University, UK Esra Ozyurek, University of Cambridge, UK Maja Petrovic-Steger, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Slovenia Alessandro Rippa, University of Oslo, Norway Knut Rio, University of Bergen, Norway Todd Sanders, University of Toronto, Canada Rupert Stasch, University of Cambridge, UK Olga Ulturgasheva, University of Manchester, UK Soumhya Venkatesan, University of Manchester, UK Chika Watanabe , University of Manchester, UK Founding Editor:   Bruce Kapferer,  University of Bergen, Norway

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Active Waiting and Changing Hopes

Toward a time perspective on protracted displacement.

This article introduces a time perspective on 'protracted displacement' and seeks to theorize 'agency-in-waiting' through a focus on the ways in which people simultaneously carry on during displacement, feel trapped in the present, and actively relate to alternative notions of the future. The article analyzes the protracted case of internally displaced Georgians from Abkhazia and the dominant discourse of return that characterizes their lives in displacement. Changing notions of hope are analyzed in order to understand the role that an uncertain future plays and the potential for agency that people develop during displacement. Agency-in-waiting and future perspectives, it is suggested, contribute valuable conceptual and political dimensions to the ways in which protracted displacement can be understood and addressed.

Pentecostal Networks and the Spirit of Globalization

On the social productivity of ritual forms.

Pentecostal Christianity has in the last several decades demonstrated an ability to globalize with great speed and to flourish in social contexts of poverty and disorganization in which other social institutions have been unable to sustain themselves. This article asks why Pentecostalism should be so successful at institution building in harsh environments. I argue that this question is more fundamental than those scholars more often ask about the kinds of compensations that Pentecostalism provides for its adherents. I then draw on Collins's theory of interaction ritual chains to suggest that it is Pentecostalism's promotion of ritual to the center of social life that grounds its unusual institution-building capacity.

Introduction

Flight and exile—uncertainty in the context of conflict-induced displacement.

This introduction addresses the ways in which flight and exile create particular types of uncertainty, including both radical and protracted, in people's lives. We argue that the concept of uncertainty, in its meaning of imperfect knowledge and the unpredictability of the future, is central to studies that theorize conflict-induced displacement, transit, and refugeeness. We start with an exploration of the spatial and temporal aspects of uncertainty in situations of displacement, and within that we discuss how uncertainty functions as a governing mechanism. We then analyze the ways that refugees and those internally displaced navigate situations of radical and protracted uncertainty. This article and those that follow in this special issue suggest that in our analysis of conflict-induced displacement, we must understand uncertainty rather than certainty as the norm.

Governing through Uncertainty

Experiences of being a refugee in turkey as a country for temporary asylum.

This article addresses the question of how to theorize the relation between uncertainty and governmentality with regard to displacement and its consequences. It explores the experiences of asylum seekers in Turkey and the bureaucratic processes of refugee status determination, local dispersal, and third country resettlement, illustrating two main points throughout. First, 'protracted uncertainty', characterized by indefinite waiting, limited knowledge, and unpredictable legal status, is a central element of the experience of being an asylum seeker in Turkey. Second, this uncertainty serves to demobilize, contain, and criminalize asylum seekers through the production of protracted uncertainty, which in turn is normalized as a necessity of bureaucracy and/or security. The article invites readers to question the governmentalities of asylum and border regimes that not only discipline refugees' everyday movements but also determine the uncertainty of 'refugeeness'.

Cementing Relations

The materiality of roads and public spaces in provincial peru.

This article sets out to analyze how concrete is implicated in the transformation of public space in provincial Peru. While concrete enhances a state's capacity to produce reliable, predictable structures, there are also significant limits in relation to its connective capacity in both the material and social domains. Ethnographic attention to the relational dynamics of concrete reveals how its promise to operate as a generic, homogeneous, and above all predictable material is constantly challenged by the instability and heterogeneity of the terrains to which it is applied. The image of power that concrete affords is thus a compromised one, as the stability and predictability of this substance is secure only insofar as it is surrounded by and embedded in specific relationships of care.

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Theory and Empirical Research in Analytical Sociology: The Case of Cooperation in Problematic Social Situations

• Werner Raub and Vincent Buskens

The integration of theory and empirical research in analytical social science has always been a core topic of Analyse &amp Kritik. This paper focuses on how analytical theory and empirical research have moved closer to each other in sociology, using rational choice theory and game-theoretic models as well as empirical research on problematic social situations (social dilemmas, collective action problems, etc.) as an example. We try to highlight the use of complementary research designs (surveys, vignette studies, lab experiments) for testing the same hypotheses. We also try to show that empirical research indicates the need for the development of more complex theoretical models.

© 2008 by Lucius & Lucius, Stuttgart

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Beyond integrating social sciences: Reflecting on the place of life sciences in empirical bioethics methodologies

• Scientific Contribution
• Published: 21 July 2017
• Volume 21 , pages 207–214, ( 2018 )

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• Marcel Mertz 1 &
• Jan Schildmann 2 , 3  

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Empirical bioethics is commonly understood as integrating empirical research with normative-ethical research in order to address an ethical issue. Methodological analyses in empirical bioethics mainly focus on the integration of socio-empirical sciences (e.g. sociology or psychology) and normative ethics. But while there are numerous multidisciplinary research projects combining life sciences and normative ethics, there is few explicit methodological reflection on how to integrate both fields, or about the goals and rationales of such interdisciplinary cooperation. In this paper we will review some drivers for the tendency of empirical bioethics methodologies to focus on the collaboration of normative ethics with particularly social sciences. Subsequently, we argue that the ends of empirical bioethics, not the empirical methods, are decisive for the question of which empirical disciplines can contribute to empirical bioethics in a meaningful way. Using already existing types of research integration as a springboard, five possible types of research which encompass life sciences and normative analysis will illustrate how such cooperation can be conceptualized from a methodological perspective within empirical bioethics. We will conclude with a reflection on the limitations and challenges of empirical bioethics research that integrates life sciences.

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The Vagueness of Integrating the Empirical and the Normative: Researchers’ Views on Doing Empirical Bioethics

Critical realism and empirical bioethics: a methodological exposition, a systematic review of empirical bioethics methodologies.

Though we have to mention a historical counter-example concerning the source of criticism: the early sociobiology of E.O. Wilson in the 1970s also criticised ethics—though not bioethics in particular—and did this from a dedicated natural science perspective. But this criticism, as we might say today, was neither destructive nor constructive for ethics, and the debate was mostly limited to mere academic musings without a particular tangible impact on actual research practices.

An enthymeme that underlies such thinking may go like this: Only method x is appropriate for EB research; method x is (mainly, solely) employed by discipline y; therefore, (only, solely) discipline y is an appropriate partner for EB research.

We are using ‘real world’ in a more colloquial manner in order to distinguish it from conceptions of the world that are more idealised, abstracted or are built upon the narrow lenses of a specific disciplinary tradition. We do not propose philosophically that a ‘metaphysically real’ world can be (directly) depicted by such means of carrying out bioethics.

One may argue, for example, that one or two ethicists refrain from endorsing too much the sort of naturalism that might be implied by being involved in natural science research, because of (so perceived) shortcomings of naturalism to explain normativity or to take societal institutions and ‘mechanisms’ sufficiently into account. The tendency of a lot of qualitative research approaches to epistemologies that can be classified as (social) constructivism might also be deemed better suited by many (bio-)ethicists than the scientific realist or ‘positivist’ epistemologies that are more often advocated in the natural sciences.

However, we found that these approaches are, surprisingly, not very helpful for our venture, mainly because they embrace other goals than we envisage for EB.

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Acknowledgements

We like to thank the members of the working group “Ethik und Empirie” of the Akademie für Ethik in der Medizin e.V. (Academy for Ethics in Medicine) for their critical comments on an early draft of this paper.

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Mertz, M., Schildmann, J. Beyond integrating social sciences: Reflecting on the place of life sciences in empirical bioethics methodologies. Med Health Care and Philos 21 , 207–214 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-017-9792-z

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-017-9792-z

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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Social identity and social integration: a meta-analysis exploring the relationship between social identity and social integration.

• 1 School of Humanities, Jinan University, Guangdong, China
• 2 Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

Social identity formation is crucial for psychosocial development, particularly in the case of migrating adults. A body of research exploring how social identity influences social integration among migrants shows that social identity affects social integration through a range of moderators and procedures. This study reports on a meta-analysis of 33 studies with 47 cases (total N  = 33,777; Fisher’s z  = 0.33, moderate effects) examining the relationship between social identity and social integration in research conducted from 2005–2020. The research findings suggest that social identity can affect social integration directly without any moderators, indicating that most of the identified moderators in the previous studies are sample-specific variables. More importantly, the effects of various aspects of identities exert similar degrees of impact (moderate effect) on social integration; in other words, the usefulness of analyzing different aspects of social identity on social integration is challenged.

In the last decade, immigration, a visible reflection of global integration related to well-being, freedom, life chances, etc., has become a significant facet of globalization, which has generated renewed interest in the rise of diverse identities. Social integration is recognized as the process of newcomers or minorities being incorporated into the host society ( Alba and Nee, 1997 ) and is particularly significant within ethnic minority groups as they are trying hard to adapt to the host culture to function adequately daily and increase their well-being, which is the main benefit of social integration. Social integration refers to the extent of social relations or social ties binding people together in the sense of social belonging and inclusion ( Wray et al., 2011 ). The effects of social integration have been well documented in the literature, including well-being ( Scottham and Dias, 2010 ), self-esteem ( Berry and Sabatier, 2010 ), health ( Curran, 2003 ), social identity conflict ( Ward et al., 2011 ), prosocial behaviors ( Schwartz et al., 2007 ), inter-group relations ( Zagefka and Brown, 2002 ), sociocultural adaptation problems ( Neto et al., 2005 ), and objective integration parameters, such as income and occupation ( Borjas, 1994 ). Individuals might also focus on the identity-affirming and acculturation strategies used in the host society in the face of demands linked to the context of immigration ( Berry and Sam, 1997 ). Immigrants are more likely to be accepted if they come from cities or countries considered identically and culturally compatible with the host society ( Wimmer and Soehl, 2014 ). At an individual level, the degree of identity assimilation into the host society results in social integration into the host culture ( Helbling and Traunmüller, 2016 ). Social identity changes to adapt to the local environment as we embrace and occupy various spaces and form new ties under the conditions that identities are not fixed or given, which is exactly the process of social integration.

Scholars often postulate that social identity is linked to the process of social integration ( Scott and Marshall, 2009 ). Social identity illustrates individual, interpersonal, and social processes to embed into the social structures ( Davis et al., 2019 ). Social psychologists from both sociology and psychology have developed robust theories of social identity and social integration, which is notably represented by social identity theory. Social identity theory was proposed by Tajfel and Turner (1979) making a new interpretation of group behavior. An individual’s choice of behavior is largely affected by the perceived inter-group relationship, in that individual recognition of groups is the basis of group behavior ( Tajfel and Turner, 1979 ). McCrone and Bechhofer (2008) and Reeskens and Wright (2013) suggested that social identity enacts identity meanings in social situations, which positively influenced social integration. Identities are internalized roles attached to the self as a unique person in a certain group ( Burke and Stets, 2009 ; Stets and Serpe, 2013 ; Stets and Burke, 2014 ). Individuals tend to enact prominent identities when the social situation allows ( Owens et al., 2010 ; Brenner et al., 2014 ). However, social identity may also hinder the process of social integration because of the strong ties those concerned have with their own countries ( Aalberg et al., 2011 ). Previous literature has discussed diverse identities, such as ethnic social identity ( Giles et al., 1979 ; Garcia, 1982 ; Moha, 2005 ), religious social identity ( Walters et al., 2007 ), regional social identity ( Moha, 2005 ) and cultural social identity ( Ghosh, 2000 ). Given above, social identity is a multi-dimensional construct; thus, existing literature has examined the relationship between various aspects of social identity and social integration, while multiple moderators have been identified to influence the relationship between different identities and social integration. To illustrate, life satisfaction ( Schotte et al., 2018 ), gender ( Litchmore and Safdar, 2015 ), self-esteem ( Vedder, 2005 ) and community involvement ( Ramirez-Valles et al., 2010 ) tend to affect the relationship between social identity and social integration. Given such diverse results, the strength of relationship between different types of identities and social integration remains unknown. More importantly, it also remains unclear whether there is a need to separately examine how each of our identities influences social integration and identify those moderators for such a relationship. There is a huge variation in data collection within the existing literature, with data generated from different areas, ethnicities, and nationalities. Hence, a meta-analysis on the relationship of social identity and social integration is crucial and timely.

Social psychologists from both sociology and psychology also have developed acculturation theory besides social identity theory to explain social identity and social integration. Immigrant identities form through immigrants’ cultural and social positions in the host majority group, which performs integration or exclusion behaviors. The transition of migrants from one culture to another culture and/or from one society to another society may induce social identity challenges, which is analyzable by Berry’s (1990) acculturation model. The model focuses on the process of cultural exchange with another culture with general acculturative changes in the original culture ( Berry, 1990 ), which can be summarized by four acculturation strategies (assimilation, separation, integration and marginalization). Furthermore, each acculturation strategy, effectively explaining the relationship between social identity and social integration, may lead to different psychological effects. For example, integration is the main characteristic of being a bicultural person and is the most commonly adopted acculturation strategy. Higher level of social identity increases immigrants’ social integration in the host countries through strong psychological linkage ( Aalberg et al., 2011 ). Individuals organize identity meanings, religious affiliation, community connection, to respond to identity-relevant feedback, such as social integration ( Walters et al., 2007 ) Existing literature on social identity offered two perspectives. One focused on the individual’s social identity and its relation to different social groups ( Tajfel, 1982 ), while the second focused on how an individual cope with multiple identities and the results of this ( Stryker and Burke, 2000 ). In addition, cross-cultural similarities are attributable to the integration tendency and the motivation of social integration and distinctiveness ( Gaertner and Dovidio, 2000 ). Immigrants are expected to assimilate well into the local culture and quickly adopt a new social identity ( Amit, 2012 ). The rapid development of technology and globalization effects has expanded the opportunities for people to acculturate ( Chen et al., 2008 ; Wang and Abosag, 2019 ). In other words, people can acculturate because of immigration-or technology-mediated globalization. Both acculturation types may require people to integrate different cultural identities. Helbling and Traunmüller (2016) found that immigrants who shared the same race, ethnicity, culture or religion as the ethnic majority group were more likely to be accepted. This however, refutes the reality, given the large cultural distance particularly between East Asian culture and Western culture that migrants face in terms of social identity challenges. Existing psychology literature suggests that some ethnic minorities have developed integrated cultural identities whereas others have developed separated cultural identities ( Haritatos and Benet-Martı́nez, 2002 ). The integrated cultural identities are more likely to lead to positive psychological well-being ( Haritatos and Benet-Martı́nez, 2002 ).

The aim of our paper is to examine the relationship between social identity and social integration based on social identity theory and acculturation theory. The effects of moderators, life satisfaction ( Schotte et al., 2018 ), gender ( Litchmore and Safdar, 2015 ), self-esteem ( Vedder, 2005 ) and community involvement ( Ramirez-Valles et al., 2010 ), remained uncertain in the relationship between diverse identities and social integration. Meta-analysis is already widely used in psychology research; however, it is still relatively new in sociological studies, especially in social psychology research. To fill the research gap, our research presents meta-analysis endeavors to address two questions. First, we examine the average effect size of the relationship of social identity and social integration. Second, this paper examines the potential moderators between social identity and social integration.

Literature review

Social identity and social integration.

“Social identity” firstly comes from psychology literature. As Freud (1921) suggested, social identity is the initial form of emotional connection with an objective object and it also implies an alternative to sexual instincts, as if it were that the object is injected into the self. One’s social identity includes a series of constituent multiple identities, and each sub-social identity differs from the others.

The impact of social norms on individual attitudes and behaviors is through one’s social identity ( Brown, 2000 ). Multiple identities may lead to social identity conflict. There are four identities which are widely recognized and examined in both psychology and social science literature—these are ethnic social identity ( Giles et al., 1979 ; Garcia, 1982 ; Moha, 2005 ), religious social identity ( Walters et al., 2007 ), regional social identity ( Moha, 2005 ) and cultural social identity ( Ghosh, 2000 ). Ethnic social identity, like other identities, serves as a multidimensional construct, involving ethnic attitudes, knowledge, and social behaviors ( Giles et al., 1979 ; Garcia, 1982 ). One’s religious social identity seems to influence immigrants’ adaptation to the host society; for example, Walters et al. (2007) found that the black community in Canada felt less Canadian because of their religious affiliation (Catholic or non-Catholic). Regional social identity includes national social identity and community social identity, among others. Investigated the case of Canada related to the measurement of national social identity, which could be deemed as the measurement of regional social identity. Cultural social identity is the social identity or belonging to the culture of a certain group, which is a part of self-perception relating to other types of social identity; for example, ethnic social identity and national social identity ( Moha, 2005 ). Ghosh (2000) postulated that our experiences of the past and present social, cultural and economic relations seemed to influence how we define ourselves. Although these four identities have been the most extensively studied, they nevertheless differ significantly from one another. For example, regional social identity is mainly developed from regional classification. As different ethnicity relate to different religious identity, ethnic social identity and religious social identity share some characteristics. Additionally, ethnicity also relates to region; that is, region is sometimes divided based on ethnic groups.

Social integration may be affected by social identity in that the strong ties those concerned have with their own countries ( Aalberg et al., 2011 ). Social integration is a result of allowing every member, particularly migrants, to feel part of the community and connected to the host society. Social integration takes place when minority groups from other regions are incorporated into mainstream society; however, such integration is a long-term process of adopting a shared system of meaning, language, culture and the like ( Sherman et al., 2006 ). Social integration is also a multi-dimensional construct which may include economic integration, cultural integration and psychological integration. Social identity integration is different from social integration and only captures the compatibility between one’s multiple identities which are strongly associated with social roles. Individuals may perceive their cultural identities conflicted and separated and have difficulties in integrating them in a unified sense ( Benet-Martínez et al., 2002 ; Benet-Martínez and Haritatos, 2005 ). However, social integration is a more comprehensive term which includes various aspects of integration into the host society. Therefore, social identity integration is only a dimension of social integration and cannot be perceived as equivalent to social integration.

There are no consistent terminologies that researchers use to examine the phenomenon of social integration. Social inclusion and social cohesion have been used as the proxy to measure social integration (e.g., Atkinson, 2002 ; Marlier, 2003 ; Atkinson et al., 2004 ; Cordier et al., 2017 ). Social integration embodies the implication of social inclusion and social cohesion at society, group or individual levels. To be more specific, social inclusion indicates a user-friendly term referring to individuals accessing limited resources to their benefit and returns ( Oxoby, 2009 ) in terms of improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those disadvantaged based on their social identity ( World Bank, 2013 ). Dayton-Johnson (2003) suggested that social cohesion can be a feature of society depending on social capital accumulation from the perspective of economics. Thus, social inclusion indicates the process of attaining certain rights, such as employment, adequate housing, medical care and education when people try to adapt to the host culture. A sense of belonging to a society or the opposite feelings of exclusion are often perceived as two important features of social cohesion. Social cohesion infers the desirable feature a society generating a sense of belonging within the person concerned; a sense of belonging to the community and society. The opposite, however, can also be the case when such feelings/features of social cohesion deteriorate ( Schmeets and te Riele, 2014 ). As Bernard (1999) suggested, social cohesion is a hybrid mental construction to achieve a consensus in a social entity. There are six common dimensions of social cohesion; these are social relations ( Friedkin, 2004 ), identification ( Jenson, 2010 ), equality ( Novy et al., 2012 ), orientation towards the common good ( Green and Janmaat, 2011 ), objective and subjective quality of life ( KfW Bankengruppe, 2010 ), and shared values ( Botterman et al., 2012 ).

Several empirical studies have examined the topics related to social integration ( Zhou et al., 2014 ; Mariyam and Jose, 2017 ; Negru-Subtirica et al., 2017 ). Social integration is generally measured by objective indicators and subjective indicators. Objective indicators refer to the situation of social security (e.g., medical insurance, etc.), housing, vocational training, working hours per day, and personal income. Subjective indicators refer to social identity, social status, willingness to relocate, acceptance of local cultural values and social satisfaction. In a similar vein, Giambona and Vassallo (2014) proposed that social inclusion (or social integration) could be estimated by four specific indicators, which are (i) the percentage of people at risk-of-poverty after migration, (ii) the proportion of severely materially deprived people, (iii) the percentage of people living with very low work intensity, and (iv) school dropout rates ( Finn and Rock, 1997 ).

The relationship between social identity and social integration

People encapsulate multiple identities. Existing literature has therefore examined the relationship between different aspects of social identity and social integration. Most scholars suggested that the perceived social identity, like national social identity, cultural social identity, and ethnic social identity, can greatly influence social integration. For example, national identity, a kind of social identity, is in the presence of other countries in the context of people to build a “country” belonging to the “sense of identity.” McCrone and Bechhofer (2008) argued that national social identity can be captured by social identity; which might eventually lead to social inclusion or social exclusion. Specifically, all individuals claim particular identities given their roles and the groups they belong to in the social structure, which implies that they search for positive distinctiveness in dealings with other groups, so as to increase permeability of group boundaries ( McCrone and Bechhofer, 2008 ; Hogg, 2018 ). Social identity is passed down in the form of fixed repertoire by power systems, under which people negotiate and ultimately transform identities ( McCrone, 2001 ). The degree of negotiated process influences the level of social integration. Bourdieu (1987) and Corneo and Jeanne (2010) argued that the relationship between career and people’s character traits (i.e., social identity) contributes to how individuals perceive themselves and influences how they are perceived by the rest of the society. The components of social integration come from various elements such as language, race, culture symbols, habits, geography and behaviors ( Orgad, 2015 ). Reeskens and Wright (2013) demonstrated that social integration for immigrants was influenced by the different types of identities and different conditions in a community. Social identity can influence life chances insofar as being “one of us” in the society, while interest or other factors in inclusion and exclusion is an issue of how can people integrate in a society ( McCrone and Bechhofer, 2008 ).

Nevertheless, the negative effect of social identity on social integration also exists ( Reitz et al., 2009 ). Reitz et al. (2009) contended that social identity sometimes hindered the process of social integration—for example, the ethnic social identity showed a clear negative effect on citizenship acquisition and the willingness to integrate into the Canadian society for immigrants in Canada ( Reitz et al., 2009 ). To be specific, according to social identity theory, individuals with negative or insecure identity cope with “jump ship” (social mobility) strategy, especially if group boundaries are sufficiently permeable to permit this ( Brown, 2019 ). Once a relevant social identity is thus engaged, the adaptation is occurred. However, if migrants hold a very strong social identity with their own society, it will be very hard for them to accept the new culture and values in the host society ( Aalberg et al., 2011 ). The two opposing opinions represent the diverse influence of social identity on social integration; however, the claim of positive effect occupies the dominant position.

Social identity theory and acculturation theory are widely used to explain the relationship of social identity and social integration in most of the literature. Based on social identity theory, identities have three bases: person, role, and group/social ( Stets and Serpe, 2013 ) denoting one’s position within the broader social structure ( Burke and Stets, 2009 ). Forging ties among these bases in social identity theory is a key step in constructing a general theory of the self ( Stets and Burke, 2000 ; Stets and Serpe, 2013 ). Herein, social identities influence both immigrants and host societies, particularly those that are related to social system and cultural development such as ethnic social identity ( Duroy, 2011 ). Moreover, the theoretical framework of social identity takes account of the heterogeneities which cause differences in social integration outcomes ( Merve, 2017 ). For example, the cultural social identity assimilation process requires people to accept and integrate into the host culture practices. Immigrants identify and classify themselves into social categories in the host society; namely, social identity (e.g., religious social identity and regional social identity) based on the sense of belonging. The process of forming social relationships is also a process of social integration.

Acculturation theory is also used to explain the mechanism of how social identity influences social integration. Acculturation is a process that occurs when minority groups in a society meet another culture ( Berry and Kim, 1988 ). The acculturation process may require ethnic minorities to adapt to different values, beliefs, and behaviors (e.g., language) of the dominant society ( Ramirez, 2007 ). Berry (2005) presented four ways—assimilation, separation, integration and marginalization—to manage social identity in a multicultural environment, particularly for immigrants. Goodman (2012) , Joppke (2007) and Sniderman and Hagendoorn (2007) claimed that the ethnic majority may perceive international immigrants as lacking commitment to assimilation. The marginalized feeling among international immigrants results in a vicious cycle of failed integration which is hard to break ( Adida et al., 2014 ). Even among integrated individuals, people may have developed different levels of integration. Social integration may be improved through educational classes (e.g., language class, literacy class and employment training programs), cultural assimilation, and social norms acceptance ( Billeke et al., 2015 ). Some migrants have developed integrated cultural identities, and others have not ( Benet-Martínez et al., 2002 ). Personality traits, accent, appearance and dress may contribute to these differences.

This study examines the relationship between social identity and social integration with the extension of social identity theory and acculturation model, since, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no comprehensive study including various samples in terms of area, ethnicity, nationality and others has been undertaken. We are specifically interested in seeing whether this association differs according to which aspect of social identity is considered. We are also interested in whether this moderation effect would differ across social identity dimensions.

Search strategies

Because target participants are not limited to one nationality, the current study includes papers from databases, such as PsycINFO, Pro-Quest, CNKI. Relevant studies with key words social identity (identification, belonging, acculturation, multiculturalism) and to integration (inclusion, cohesion, adaption, transformation, exclusion) were identified when searching these databases. We followed Mol and Bus’s (2011) analytic procedures to search relevant studies in social science research. We selected all possible materials from the past 15 years from 2005 to 2020.

Inclusion criteria

The selected articles had to meet the following inclusion criteria: (a) not a single case study; (b) no opinion and non-empirical articles; (c) internal migration or international migration; and (d) reports social identity and social integration. The rest of the materials were closely reviewed using specific criteria described below.

First, the correlations, or means, or the percentage of variance ( R 2 ) in social integration accounted for by social identity, or standard deviations provided presented the association between social identity and social integration. These association could be transformed into a Fisher’s z effect size. All materials for controlling the potential impact of different writing systems in the relationship between social identity and social integration ( García and Cain, 2014 ). We retrieved all (published or unpublished) articles, dissertations, and conference papers before the year of 2021.

Second, we treated multiple, independent samples within one article as separate studies ( Mol and Bus, 2011 ). For each study, we tried to find a match on the following sample size, age, vocations, life satisfaction, community involvement, self-categorization, and cultural conformity. If data were absent from the original materials, we emailed the authors concerned for the required information.

Third, studies had to assess both social identity and social integration with objective and quantitative tasks. Meta-analysis incorporates the synthesized effect of related empirical studies into the analysis. This study is the aggregation of information leading to a higher statistical power on the relationship of social identity and social integration.

Fourth, if a composite measure of social integration (e.g., police effectiveness plus social integration; social system plus social inclusion; or cognitive of discrimination plus social cohesion) was used, the resulting correlation was not included because we wanted to examine how the relationship between social identity and social integration is affected by the methods used to measure the variables.

Fifth, the measures of social identity and social integration used to calculate the correlations had to be taken at the same time point and with a group of people who shared commonalities (i.e., all the people are migrants, internal migrants or international migrants at the beginning of their migration lives).

Coding procedures

Studies were coded according to participants characteristics and the characteristics of the assessments were used to measure social identity and social integration. Two independent coders completed a standard coding scheme per study, comprising (a) year of publication, (b) sample size (c) participant’s location or nationality, (d) first three authors, (e) type of publication, (f) type of social identity, (g) type of migration, and (h) where the data came from. Two coders coded 75% of all studies included. The inter-coder agreement for both study characteristics and outcome variables ranged between 77 and 100% across meta-analyses, all discrepancies between coders were settled in discussion, and consensus scores were used.

For each study included in our analysis, we coded for the key moderators of the relationship of social identity and social integration. With respect to type of measurement, we divided the independent variable ‘social identity’ into four kinds of social identity—ethnic, cultural, regional, and religious—which four kinds most used in research.

Overview of studies

The current study includes 33 articles with 47 cases which involved 33,777 participants in total. Most studies used a correlational design. All indicators come from the correlation index which includes regression analysis, correlation analysis and factor analysis (i.e., factor loading). In the current meta-analysis, 11 studies followed longitudinal research design and two studies applied experimental research design. Table 1 lists all details of the important features from the selected studies.

Table 1 . Summary of included studies.

Meta-analytic procedures

The Comprehensive Meta-Analysis 3.0 software was applied to Fisher’s z- effect sizes calculation. PRISMA was applied to the current method, which provided the detailed information for a meta-analysis ( Moher et al., 2010 ). All correlations between the social identity and any outcome variable were inserted into the computer program Comprehensive Meta-Analysis and transformed into Fisher’s z- effect sizes for further analyses, because the variance of Fisher’s z was nearly constant, whereas the variance of the correlation followed an asymmetrical distribution ( Borenstein et al., 2009 ). To ease interpretation of the Results section, Fisher’s z summary estimates were transformed back into a correlation with the formula r  = tanh( z ’) ( Lipsey and Wilson, 2001 ). In general, a Fisher’s z value of 0.10 ( r  = 0.10) counted as a small-effect size, 0.31 ( r  = 0.30) as moderate, and 0.55 ( r  = 0.50) as large ( Cohen, 1988 ).

To interpret the ES for the correlation between social integration and its domains (economics, psychological belonging, cultural acceptance, etc.), we regraded each outcome domain as an independent correlate ( Mol and Bus, 2011 ). If an article applied multiple tests to measure the correlation through different measurements, we reported the average ES to ensure each study only offers one ES in the analysis.

We coded samples as “ethnic” when the article offered the relevant information (i.e., language, history and common social norms). In the current study, we treat participants in the same way as those who live in one area with local people because they share similar social norms of the host society.

The current study applied a random-effect model for conservative consideration on ES estimation ( Borenstein et al., 2009 ). We also presented 95% confidence interval (CI) and ensured the interval did not cross the zero zone ( Pigott, 2012 ). Meanwhile, we presented the chi-square test for materials’ heterogeneity report; we selected a significant Q between the df value for moderator analyses (meta-regression would apply if the minimum number of cases exceeds four) ( Mol and Bus, 2011 ).

Because the impact of social identity and its domains (ethnic social identity, cultural social identity, regional social identity and religious social identity), studies in each domains showed different correlations. Therefore, we examined whether the results were moderated by the age, vocation, life satisfaction, community involvement, self-categorization, and cultural conformity, among other factors. As another indicator, we checked the publication bias. We applied funnel plot ( Duval and Tweedie, 2000 ), p -curve analysis ( Simonsohn et al., 2014 ) and PET-PEESE6 ( Stanley and Doucouliagos, 2014 ). Last, we presented Rosenthal’s fail-safe number which reveals the number of missing studies with null effects that would have to be retrieved and included in the analyses before the p value becomes non-significant ( Borenstein et al., 2009 ).

Overall analyses

Table 2 presents the overall effect of the relationship of social identity and social integration. From the table, the overall effect between different kinds of social identity and social integration is at a moderate level (Fisher’s z  = 0.33, p  < 0.001). The chi-square test shows that the differences in the indicators of the empirical studies involved in this research were not significant ( p  > 0.05), which means that the heterogeneity had not reached a level of significance. The results show that the correlation between all kinds of social identity and social integration were at the moderate level, which also indicates that almost all potential moderators are not significant in this correlation. As for the heterogeneity analysis, we test all kinds of moderators. The results show that these moderators (e.g., ethnic group, age group) only explain 8% of the variance of the heterogeneity; 92% of the variances of the heterogeneity are not explainable by the current moderators.

Table 2 . Meta-analysis of the correlation between social identity and social integration.

The forest plot in Figure 1 shows the aggregate raw proportions and the 95% CIs for all the studies included in the meta-analysis. Figure 1 presents the ES and 95% CIs from all studies included in this research. The figure shows the overall ES at the bottom from the selected studies, and the dotted line at the 0.50 level reflects that the selected materials are randomly distributed with no researcher preferences.

Figure 1 . Forest plot of precision by Fisher’s z of the effect sizes relating to social identity and social integration.

In the absence of publication bias we would expect the studies to be distributed symmetrically about the combined effect size. By contrast, in the presence of bias, we would expect that the bottom of the plot would show a higher concentration of studies on one side of the mean than on the other. This would reflect the fact that smaller studies (which appear toward the bottom) are more likely to be published if they have larger-than-average effects, which makes them more likely to meet the criterion for statistical significance.

Various statistical procedures can be accessed from the View menu to quantify or augment this display. The classic fail-Safe N and the Orwin fail-safe N ask if we need to be concerned that the entire observed effect may be an artifact of bias. Rank correlation and regression procedures can test for the presence of bias. Trim and fill analysis offers a more nuanced perspective, and asks how the effect size would shift if the apparent bias is to be removed.

An important caveat is confirmed by Sterne and Egger (2001) , which notes that while the plot and these procedures may detect a relationship between sample size and effect size, they cannot assign a causal mechanism to it.

Prior to exploring the effect of moderators found in the literature, however, we examined to what extent the overall effect may be influenced by publication bias.

Publication bias check

The funnel plot distributes the large SE studies across the top of the plot which shows the selected studies are of a high quality. Regarding the current study, most studies are dotted across the top of the funnel plot, which means the selected materials are of a higher quality. Also, from the plot (see Figure 2 ), we see that almost all studies are distributed randomly axisymmetric, which reflects that publication bias was not significant.

Figure 2 . Funnel plot of the effect sizes relating to social identity and social integration.

Then we use Egger’s regression intercept test which was suggested by Sterne and Egger (2001) to offer statistical cues to test the publication bias. From the conservative perspective view, we focus on the random effects model and test the asymmetry of the funnel plot distribution. The correlation rank test from Begg and Mazumdar (1994) showed that two indicators did not reach a level of significance ( p  > 0.05), which means that from the statistical perspective, the publication bias was not significant.

We test the estimate indicator credibility through p -curve analysis ( Simonsohn et al., 2014 ). Both “file drawer effect” and “just significant effects” evinced that the obtained effect is strong and the sensitivity analysis is not significant ( p  > 0.50). It also shows that the “right-skewed curve” is not significant ( z  = 0.03, p  > 0.05), and that the “left-skewed curve” also do not reach a level of significance ( p  > 0.05). In sum, the results of p -curve analysis demonstrate the current study do not have significant publication bias.

Based on PET-PEESE method checking, because our results are significant ( r  = 0.32, SE  < 0.01, p  < 0.001), either the fixed model or the random model shows similar results (i.e., r  = 0.32, 95% CI [0.31, 0.33], p  < 0.001). According to Stanley and Doucouliagos’s (2014) findings, the current study do not find significant publication bias.

Regarding the safe-N number, Table 1 shows that 16,214 samples are still needed to reverse the conclusion reached that the correlation is not significant. Also, the result is much more stable and the researcher preference factor is not significant. In terms of checking the unpublished studies, r  = 0.31, 95% CI [0.30, 0.32]. This reveals a marginal difference in favor of published studies ( Q  = 48.34; df  = 41, p  = 0.23). Since they share a similar ES with published studies, the overlapping CI achieves the level of legitimacy. In sum, the safe-N number analysis show that the current study do not have significant publication bias.

Moderation analyses

Unlike other meta-analysis research ( Lee and Ahn, 2013 ; Thielmann et al., 2020 ), this meta-analysis on the relationship of social identity and social integration (see Table 3 ) suggests that all the moderators in previous literature show weak influences on the relationship between social identity and social integration. Possibly, there is no need to find moderators for the relationship. The effect of social identity on social integration is robust to moderation. Community involvement ( Ramirez-Valles et al., 2010 ), life satisfaction ( Schotte et al., 2018 ), self-esteem ( Vedder, 2005 ) and gender ( Litchmore and Safdar, 2015 ) do not seem to demonstrate moderation effects (see Table 3 ).

Table 3 . Moderation effect between social identity and social integration.

The research findings (shown in Table 2 ) suggests that various social identity types, such as ethnic social identity, religion social identity, regional social identity and cultural social identity classified by existing literature, exert similar degrees of impact on social integration; namely, around the moderate effect—Fisher’s z  = 0.33. In other words, the influences of social identity on social integration is the same regardless of social identity types. This also suggests that the classification of social identity is not necessary since any classifications have a similar impact on social integration. There is no strong evidence to support the research which examines the influences of each type of social identity on social integration separately. Different types of social identity correlate with each other; in other words, it is hard to distinguish which one influences social integration without affecting other identities. For example, cultural social identity is a sense of belonging which in turn affects other identities such as ethnic social identity and national social identity ( Moha, 2005 ). Litchmore and Safdar (2015) attempted to distinguish religious social identity and ethnic social identity, but religious social identity usually affects ethnicity. More importantly, none of the moderators significantly influences the relationship between social identity and social integration, including community involvement ( Ramirez-Valles et al., 2010 ), life satisfaction ( Schotte et al., 2018 ) and self-esteem ( Vedder, 2005 ) that exists in the selected studies. The findings suggest that social identity and social integration have a stronger relationship without any moderators, which may indicate that moderators are context-specific and only suitable for a certain sample. The relationship between social identity and social integration cannot follow an exclusionary pattern ( Tatar, 2010 ). This meta-analysis provided convincing evidence for the direct relationship between social identity and social integration rather than occurring through moderators; therefore, the need for future research to identify the potential moderators between social identity and social integration should be cautious.

The research findings generate some practical implications. First, the governments of those multicultural societies (e.g., the US and the UK) should try to create opportunities for migrants to integrate into the mainstream culture in general without identifying which specific social identity the governments should focus on. For instance, the host government could offer language classes for migrants to learn the local language, which is generally deemed as increasing cultural social identity in the previous literature. The increasing cultural social identity of migrants will probably enhance their national social identity and other identities as well. Eventually, social integration among migrants will be improved; this is also the process to help migrants to adapt to the host environment. For the migrants, participating in and interacting with the host country could be a process that may lead to social integration. During this process, their levels of social identity increase when they participate in the local activities.

Limitations

This meta-analysis is not without limitations. First, the number of studies involved is limited, which may affect the results of the meta-analysis. Although we have searched almost all the literature between 2005 and 2020, literature that meet our selection requirement is limited. Eventually, 33 studies with a total number of 33,777 cases were selected. Similarly, this meta-analysis has involved 15 years of studies from 2005 to 2020. Future researchers may consider expanding the time frame and analyzing studies published before 2005 or after 2020. Second, only 8% of the variance on heterogeneity was explained, so other moderators which may explain the relationship between social identity and social integration need further exploration. Finally, improvements could not be made to the identified effects due to the lack of psychometric data. Some psychological factors may affect social identity, and then further influence the relationship between social identity and social integration. This limitation offers suggestions for future researchers that relevant psychometric data should be considered and collected.

This meta-analysis serves as the first study to provide a stable estimation of the relationship between social identity and social integration based on previous research (around from 2005 to 2020) with territorial (studies from all over the world), and numerical (34 independent studies, moderate effect, and the total sample number of 33,777) factors. This meta-analysis creatively focuses on social identity and social integration, which is one of only a few meta-analysis studies in psychosocial literature. Indeed, multilevel models provide more robust estimations for the observed effects and the effects of moderators. Although social identity has a strong connection with social integration, this study illustrates different types of social identity exert similar influence on social integration. Herein, there is not necessary to classify social identity. Moreover, this study also suggests that the moderators of the relationship between social identity and social integration are only suitable for particular samples. Findings on potential moderators between social identity and social integration are not yet generalizable.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Author contributions

JH: Writing – original draft. CC: Writing – review & editing.

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (23JNQMX35), and the Fellowship of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2021M701429).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: social identity, social integration, meta-analysis, quantitative research, social psychology

Citation: Hu J and Cheung CKJ (2024) Social identity and social integration: a meta-analysis exploring the relationship between social identity and social integration. Front. Psychol . 15:1361163. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1361163

Received: 26 January 2024; Accepted: 19 March 2024; Published: 04 April 2024.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2024 Hu and Cheung. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Jieyi Hu, [email protected]

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• Published: 13 July 2023

Integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria: their impacts on corporate sustainability performance

• Anrafel de Souza Barbosa   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3178-4149 1 ,
• Maria Cristina Basilio Crispim da Silva 1 ,
• Luiz Bueno da Silva 1 ,
• Sandra Naomi Morioka 1 &
• Vinícius Fernandes de Souza 2  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  10 , Article number:  410 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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• Business and management
• Development studies
• Environmental studies

In a corporate sustainability context, scholars have been studying internal and external relations provided by Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria, mostly from the organizational perspective. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to map and analyze the literature on the impacts of integrating ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance from different points of view. The methodology used followed the Preferred Report Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, corroborated by a critical analysis. The results indicate that the integration of ESG criteria, observed from different perspectives, strengthens corporate sustainability performance. They also revealed narrowing gaps in the literature regarding methodological analysis. Most of the papers in the analyzed sample use company-level data and employ regression analysis in their analysis. The present study concludes that companies, regardless of nationality, follow the guidelines of ESG criteria integration and such procedure brings several benefits. It points to the lack of more confirmatory research approaches from a workers’ perspective, as the interest remains in the economic-environmental realm from the organizations’ point of view. The absence of such evidence points to a gap in the literature that suggests the need for new study initiatives.

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Introduction.

The discussion surrounding the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria and corporate sustainability has gained significant momentum in recent years, primarily driven by the evolving societal expectations regarding new models of production and consumption (Nishitani et al., 2021 ). Until the mid-1990s, according to Clarkson ( 1995 ), the focus of companies’ success was primarily centered on satisfying the needs of a single stakeholder, namely the shareholder. However, as time passed and the panorama shifted, particularly influenced by public policy changes, this perspective has undergone transformations. Gradually, other stakeholders have exerted pressure on companies, resulting in the integration of corporate sustainability into the strategic management of organizations, leading them to practice the ESG criteria (Wang et al., 2018 ).

Corporate sustainability performance refers to a company’s ability to operate in a manner that upholds ecological integrity, social well-being, and sound governance principles, while simultaneously generating value for its shareholders (Ahmad et al., 2023 ; Luque-Vílchez et al., 2023 ). It encompasses the effective management of environmental resources, fostering positive social relationships, and maintaining high standards of ethical conduct (Bellandi, 2023 ). The assessment of corporate sustainability performance requires the evaluation of both qualitative and quantitative indicators, examining various dimensions such as environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and corporate governance (Sandberg et al., 2022 ).

ESG criteria are used to assess corporate sustainability and ethical performance of companies and investments (Arora and Sharma, 2022 ). They are adopted by corporations to monitor and control the impacts of business activities on internal and external environments (Viranda et al., 2020 ). They mainly include: (i) collecting information; (ii) developing solutions; (iii) dealing with ESG issues in compliance with standards; (iv) conducting training; and (v) providing good communication (Boiral, 2002 ; Montabon et al., 2007 ; Merli and Preziosi, 2018 ). ESG criteria include prevention and preservation performance indicators (Gond et al., 2012 ). Besides, it requires coordination between the environmental department and other departments within companies, and balance between sustainable development goals and other corporate goals.

ESG criteria incorporates environmental, social, and governance factors into investment and business decision-making processes, and involves conditions relevant to traditional financial metrics when analyzing investments or valuing companies (Madden, 2022 ). These conditions can include metrics such as carbon emissions, water usage, employee diversity, labor practices, board diversity, executive compensation, etc. Thus, ESG criteria provide quantitative and qualitative information about a company’s sustainability practices and their potential impact on various stakeholders (Khalil et al., 2022 ; Uyar et al., 2023 ).

ESG integration involves incorporating environmental, social and governance indicators into investment and business decision-making processes. Instead of considering ESG criteria as separate from financial analysis, integration recognizes their materiality and incorporates them alongside traditional financial analysis. This integration can happen at various stages of the investment process, including portfolio construction, risk assessment, due diligence, and ongoing monitoring. Integration aims to identify and manage risks and opportunities related to ESG criteria, ultimately seeking to enhance long-term investment performance and sustainability (Gebhardt et al., 2022 ; Harasheh and Provasi, 2023 ).

ESG criteria provide the data and metrics to assess a company’s sustainability and ethical performance, while the integration involves incorporating these criteria into investment and business decision-making processes to better understand and manage the potential impacts on financial performance and corporate sustainability (Alda, 2021 ; Sahoo and Kumar, 2022 ).

In this sense, the integration of the ESG criteria has become an instrument responsible for defining, planning, operationalizing and executing the actions of corporations directed at environmental prevention and preservation, in addition to social responsibility and the quality performance of their activities (Barbosa et al., 2021 ).

Both from the standpoint of Sustainable Development Goals and the company response to shifting consumer preferences, interest in corporate sustainability has been increasing importance (Boulhaga et al., 2022 ). When looking for the relationship between the implementation of the ESG criteria and the corporate sustainability, the literature presents a heterogeneous scenario. Some researchers advocate a positive relationship (Harymawan et al., 2022 ; Kim et al., 2022 ), and others have confirmed a negative relationship (Rajesh and Rajendran, 2020 ).

As is the case with research by Lee and Isa ( 2022 ), they find a positive relationship between the implementation of ESG criteria and financial performance, suggesting that ESG criteria can increase company value. In addition, the authors also find evidence that the disclosure of ESG criteria can improve the relationship with corporate sustainability performance. Already in the study by Xu et al. ( 2022 ), the heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the negative relationship between ESG disclosure and the risk of falling stock prices is more significant in state-owned companies, companies with higher agency costs and in companies in the development phase.

Although the results are ambiguous, there are several positive examples of the relationship between the ESG criteria and the corporate sustainability, which influences the reasons why research on sustainable business models has been carried out and why organizations are changing their business model in the direction of sustainability. Additionally, there is a lot of pressure to consider ESG factors when making decisions, particularly from capital investors and financial institutions (Jonsdottir et al., 2022 ; Park and Oh, 2022 ).

Organizations responding to the pressure to implement ESG criteria must manage environmental, social, and economic risks (Triple Bottom Line) and understand their short, medium, and long-term impacts (Bravi et al., 2020 ). To this end, many companies adopt management systems related to ESG criteria to integrate elements of the Triple Bottom Line, address stakeholder needs, and mitigate risks (Esquer-Peralta et al., 2008 ).

Thus, the ESG criteria cannot be seen only as a cost, since they can bring benefits to the company and be a competitive advantage over competitors (Barbosa et al., 2023 ; Zhang et al., 2021 ).

That said, the need for an innovative and coherent research field focused on ESG issues increases as environmental, social, and governance problems intensifies (Vanderley, 2020 ).

The literature has already discussed the research situation, qualitatively and quantitatively, regarding ESG criteria through the prism of corporations, usually in the context of trying to improve the field’s problem-solving ability in relation to companies’ concerns and practices. Baumgartner and Rauter’s ( 2017 ) research addresses the strategic perspectives of corporate sustainability management to develop sustainable organizations and promote the integration of ESG criteria into business activities and techniques.

This narrow interpretation is criticized by several scholars as being insufficiently analytical, as well as lacking a rigorous appreciation of the historical basis of human-environment interaction, highlighting worker perception (Bryant and Wilson, 1998 ; Herghiligiu et al., 2019 ).

Existing research on ESG criteria primarily focuses on the corporate perspective (Bourcet, 2020 ; Khanchel et al., 2023 ; Tsang et al., 2023 ). However, this literature review did not identify any references that support the worker’s perspective or address their involvement in organizational management, as highlighted by Ouni et al. ( 2020 ).

Therefore, this study aims to map and analyze the literature on the impacts of integrating ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance through different points of view. The research will employ both qualitative and quantitative analysis and consider the viewpoints of both employers and employees. This study aims to fill the existing gap in the literature, as no significant research has yet converged in this direction.

As is the case with the research of Huang ( 2021 ), who conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) to examine the link between ESG activities and organizational financial performance, focusing on the institutional aspect. Similarly, Taliento et al. ( 2019 ), who investigated the impact of ESG factors on economic performance, emphasizing the corporate sustainability advantage and business understanding.

This research holds significance due to the growing global efforts to establish ESG criteria and mitigate environmental, social, and economic risks (Triple Bottom Line) for sustainable development. It aims to comprehend how these risks can affect sustainable development in the short, medium, and long-term, considering both organizational and collaborative perspectives (workers) (Bravi et al., 2020 ).

In this sense, the main objective of this paper is to map and analyze the literature on the impacts of integrating ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance through different points of view. To achieve the proposed objective, the investigation addressed the following research questions:

What are the main features of the literature on ESG criteria?

What are the main methodological approaches used to study ESG criteria impact on corporate sustainability?

What are the main impacts of integrating ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance observed in the literature?

This paper is divided into six sections, including this introduction (section 1). Section “Theoretical backgrounds: Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria” refers to the theoretical foundation on the ESG criteria and the construction of the research hypotheses. Subsequently, in section “Methodological procedures”, the methodological procedures of the research are discussed. In section “Results”, the results are developed. Then, in section “Discussion”, a discussion is carried out. And, finally, in section “Conclusion”, the research conclusions are highlighted.

Theoretical backgrounds: Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria

The ESG criteria are about the set of organizational practices that considers in its context environmental, social, and governance factors, with a view to achieving long-term sustainability (Sultana et al., 2018 ). The proportionality of these three aspects in business management has the purpose of analyzing the operations in a holistic way, not limited merely to the economic and financial aspects (Cek and Eyupoglu, 2020 ). In this sense, the economic, transparency and ethical precepts are articulated, seeking to ensure the competitiveness and the perdurability of a company. (Oncioiu et al., 2020 ).

The environmental dimension involves assessing the corporation’s carbon footprint, natural resource usage (energy consumption and efficiency), recycling policies, waste management, and efforts to minimize environmental impacts (Rajesh, 2020 ). The social dimension encompasses the company’s relationships with employees, suppliers, partners, clients, and communities. It includes promoting diversity, non-discrimination, gender pay equality, equal opportunities, employee education, and community protection (Li and Wu, 2020 ). The governance dimension focuses on leadership, internal controls, executive compensation, audits, shareholder rights, anti-corruption policies, and transparency and accountability practices (Cek and Eyupoglu, 2020 ).

ESG criteria, also known as sustainable or socially responsible investments, assist investors in assessing companies’ initiatives and commitment to environmental, social, and governance issues. These criteria can be applied internally or externally in a company’s management (Du Rietz, 2018 ).

That said, compliance with ESG policies and practices is increasingly important to investors, employees, and customers, shaping company perception and performance evaluation beyond financial measures (Beretta et al., 2019 ).

While ESG indicators may vary by region, market, and industry, there are emerging best practices in the corporate world (Khalid et al., 2021 ). Thus, an example of ESG practices can be observed through the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), created by initiative of investors in partnership with the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and the UN Global Compact, with the aim of guiding the market in the pursuit of responsible development (Bauckloh et al., 2021 ; Naffa and Fain, 2020 ).

Therefore, one way to find out whether a particular organization is sustainable is to evaluate its performance by ESG indexes. However, these indexes have limitations as they may not capture the multidimensional aspects of ESG criteria comprehensively. Consequently, a broader focus on ESG criteria is needed, considering corporate sustainability performance.

Methodological procedures

There are distinct alternatives that can be appreciated in the deployment of a SLR, comprising a bibliometric approach, meta-analysis (Hunter et al., 1986 ) and content analysis approaches. (White and McCain, 1998 ). These three techniques were applied in the present study. The scope of this study provides qualitative and quantitative analysis of publications, in the synthesis and assimilation of the most explored academic research and authors with the support of citation analysis, as well as in the critical analysis of the sample of articles collected.

To address the research aims, which is to map and analyze the literature on the impacts on corporate sustainability performance provided by the integration of ESG criteria, this study relied on two procedures. The first procedure was a consistent and robust SLR materialized according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) methodology, which blends reference analysis, network analysis, and content analysis. The second method was a critical in-depth analysis of a specific sample of articles collected through the PRISMA structured procedure, which integrated and supported the initial technique, as already used in the sustainability literature (Bolis et al., 2014 ).

Primary procedure: PRISMA methodology

The PRISMA methodology is a directive that aims to provide scholars to improve the peculiarity of the externalization of research information, as well as to guide in the critical conjecture of a review of articles already published (Page et al., 2021 ).

Eligibility and ineligibility criteria

The documents eligible for the sample of this research were those published in the last 5 years (period from 2017 to March 2022); belonging to the study domain of environmental, social and governance areas (research area); considered exclusively as research articles (document type); disseminated only in scientific journals (journals ); written only in English language (language); and intrinsic to the topic of this research. The ineligible studies were those without a well-defined scientific structure, those without relevant data implicated in the theme of this research, those without access to the text ( in press ), and those that did not propose quantitative analysis (as this is a relevant point for future research).

Selection of the scientific databases

As a basis for this SLR and starting to answer the questions listed to achieve the objective of this study, the initial sample of articles followed systematic strategies that were adopted to consult the bibliometric databases until March 2022. Three scientific knowledge bases, Scopus , Web of Science ( WoS ), and Science Direct ( SD ) were used in to identify studies related to the ESG criteria.

The level of quality, the number of publications, the area of knowledge, and the set of metadata essential for the analysis of the references (including titles, abstracts, keywords, year of publication, number of citations, list of authors, countries, among others) were the criteria of choice for these 3 scientific databases. Scopus is one of the largest scientific knowledge bases of peer-reviewed literature (Morioka and de Carvalho, 2016 ). WoS can cover all indexed journals with an impact factor calculated in JCR ( Journal Citation Report ) (Carvalho et al., 2013 ). And SD combines reliable full-text publications in the scientific, technical and health fields (Direct, 2020 ). Another factor also considered was that all 3 databases provide metadata compatible with Mendeley reference analysis software (Carvalho et al., 2013 ).

Sampling procedure

The sampling procedure used to screen the articles was search by search terms, which were adapted for each defined bibliographic database. This was performed in March 2022. The keyword terms for the investigation were applied as follows: ("Environmental, Social, and Governance") AND (Impact* OR Effect* OR Performanc* OR Integrat*) AND (Sustainab*).

The initial searches are shown in Table 1 .

The first triage was applied as " Article title, Abstract, Keywords " in Scopus , as " Topic " in WoS and as " Title, abstract or author-specified keywords " in SD resulting in 5,760 collected documents ("Initial Sample"). Then, the primary parameter for refining the references was run as " Publication Years ", reducing the number of records by 1,152 documents. The secondary elimination criterion was applied as " Topic Area ", synthesizing the sample into 580 searches.

Continuing with the exclusion process, the third suppression factor was submitted as " Document Type ", summarizing the records into 486 studies. Subsequently, "Source Type" was used as the fourth parameter of reference reduction, reducing the records by 3 documents. Subsequently, the penultimate refinement requirement was performed as " Language ", subtracting 9 more references. Finally, the reading of the titles and abstracts of the articles was used as the sixth ground for the refinement of the sample as " Off Topic ", restricting to 3,172 documents that did not directly address the topic of this study. Thus, the quantity of rejected documents was 5,402 references, resulting in a sample of 358 research articles selected from the 3 scientific databases.

The references were then entered into Mendeley software to verify the intersections of studies between the databases. The triage identified 229 duplicate documents, which were excluded, reducing the sample to 129 articles. Subsequently, an isolated analysis of each of the 129 selected publications was performed to assess compatibility with the eligibility and ineligibility criteria focusing on the adequacy to the research premises and quality parameters related to the methodological peculiarity of the publications. This analysis resulted in an exclusion of 82 studies. The "Remaining Sample" became 47 research articles.

After rejecting studies that did not satisfy the "Initial Sample" pre-selection process, that were in duplicate, and that did not have the eligibility criteria, the snowball method was applied (Yin et al., 2020 ). The references were expanded to incorporate other studies that were cited in the 47 articles in the "Remaining Sample". The total number of records selected through the snowball technique was 2 studies ("Additional Sample"). The inclusion of the additional articles followed the same eligibility (except for the year of publication) and ineligibility criteria cited in section “Eligibility and ineligibility criteria”. Thus, the "Final Sample" for the conduct of this SLR was 49 research articles.

Reference analysis

Data tabulation and grouping strategies directed the stratification of information and a narrative synopsis. A spreadsheet ( Microsoft Excel 2021) and Mendeley software were used to manage the selected articles to transcribe predominant methodological minutiae of each research study comprising the assessment instrument used, the setting, participants, and substantive findings in terms of validity and credibility. The number of publications summarized by year and journal was the initial parameter of the reference analysis process. This resource made it possible to see how the records succeeded over the years and to discriminate the journals that repeatedly dealt with the theme of this research.

Network analysis

In this step, with the assistance of the VOSviewer software , the network analysis was performed, considering the compatibility of keywords and authors were analyzed through clustering diagrams. The first citation network developed was that of most relevant keywords. The second network developed was that of co-citations, which shows the degree of equivalence between the references presenting the articles mentioned together. The analysis of this network can help assimilate the intellectual character of a field and map the thematic similarities of scholars and the aspect of how groups of researchers relate to each other (Pilkington and Liston-Heyes, 1999 ).

Another analysis performed was on the methodological approaches applied among the studies. For this diagnosis, a deductive multivariate approach was applied based on the theoretical foundation and knowledge from the references. This analysis used insights extracted from the keywords and the analysis of important topics.

Content analysis

Each article included in the final sample was specifically cataloged using Mendeley software that comprised the metadata generated by scientific databases. For the content analysis, the articles were classified in order to consider the tools applied, the scope of application, the relevant industries, the research objectives, and the advantages and limitations of the process required to obtain the research results.

Secondary procedure: critical (interpretative) analysis

Critical analysis is a research skill outlined to contribute to the interpretation of complex issues to understand specific conjunctures (Gil-Guirado et al., 2021 ). Critical analysis involves multiple iterative cycles of interpreting and perceiving the content of parts of the phenomena of interest, and this assimilation of the parts entails a better understanding of the contexts as a whole (Valor et al., 2018 ).

To deepen the assimilation of the contexts, each researcher involved forms an understanding of their perspective in continuous cycles until a "cognitive fusion" is achieved resulting in a better conception of the phenomena. This approach does not aim to construct a theory, but rather to infer a better understanding of the contexts (Bolis et al., 2014 ). Thus, to complement the answers to the questions of this research, critical analysis was applied, which involved dialectical reasoning cycles to identify the understanding (systematization of applicable processes to determine the meaning and scope of methodologies) of researchers on the impacts of integrating ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance with the aim of finding the "cognitive fusion".

The initial cycle demanded a series of reviews, syntheses, and interpretations of the sample of articles collected in the structured procedure (PRISMA). In the next cycle, the collaborative critical process was adhered to, resulting in the refinement of the main methodological characteristics fragmented by each ESG criterion. Later, in the final interpretive cycle, the procedures of the first two cycles were analyzed, which provided additional perspectives and insights that complemented the previous interpretations.

Risk of bias

To assess the methodological quality of the included articles, the Prediction Study Trend Risk Assessment Tool (PROBAST) was used. (Wolff et al., 2019 ). This tool includes 20 questions divided into four domains (participants, predictors, outcome, and analysis). The risk of bias for each domain was rated as low risk, high risk, or very unclear to judgment (Wolff et al., 2019 ). Two researchers of the present study independently assessed the risk of bias of the included articles and performed an evaluation by qualitative analysis. Disagreements were resolved by consensus with a third reviewer.

The document collection strategy yielded 129 records, and after screening titles and abstracts and applying eligibility and ineligibility criteria, 49 articles were selected for this systematic literature review (SLR). Please refer to Fig. 1 for the SLR flow diagram.

Source: Adapted from Page et al. ( 2021 ).

Consistent with Nishitani et al.’s ( 2021 ) assertion, Fig. 2 demonstrates the contemporary nature of discussions on ESG criteria and corporate sustainability, indicating their recent consolidation. In this specific context, the eligibility and ineligibility criteria of the articles were disregarded, and only a keyword search for "Environmental, Social, and Governance" was conducted across three databases. This was solely done to quantify the research related to the theme.

Source: Scopus , WoS , and SD .

It is evident that there has been an increasing number of studies focused on ESG criteria over the years, with a peak of 649 research articles in 2021 (an average of 54 articles per month). This trend aligns with the growing interest of organizations in implementing ESG criteria (Qureshi et al., 2021 ).

Literature overview

Starting to answer the first research question ( What are the main characteristics of the literature on ESG criteria? ), an overview of the literature was conducted based on descriptive statistics of the sample of 49 selected articles. Table 2 presents the most influential studies. It lists the publications with 20 or more citations in the Scopus database.

The study that stood out the most was that of Xie et al. ( 2019 ), which investigates whether environmental, social, and governance activities improve corporate financial performance, with 115 citations over 3 years, an average of 38 citations/year; followed by the respective research of Garcia et al. ( 2017 ), which highlights the sensitive emerging market sectors in relation to improved ESG performance, published in the year 2017 and has 104 citations; and by Qureshi et al. ( 2020 ), which analyzes the moderating role of the impact of sustainability disclosure and board diversity on firm value, with 41 citations in 2 year, both averaging approximately 21 citations per year.

The articles of the core sample were designated from the network analysis of keywords, a quantitative technique practiced to identify the repercussion and expressiveness of an author or an article (Garfield and Morman, 1981 ). Nevertheless, this methodology should also take into account the relevance of the journal, besides computing the average annual citation (Carvalho et al., 2013 ), as shown in Table 2 .

That said, Fig. 3 shows, through the network analysis of the VOSviewer software , the relationship between the keywords and the articles in the designated sample, with recurrences of at least 2 times (this implies that terms that appear only once were not displayed). Other points to be observed are that the more consistent (full-bodied) the meshes the stronger the connections and the larger the points (nodes) of connections the more relevance they have.

Source: Scopus, WoS , and SD .

Network analysis enables a better explanation of the consonance between the terms discovered, as well as simplifying the differentiation between the groupings literally associated with its operating principles.

There were 4 sets of keywords identified. Of the 4 sets of the keyword network analysis, 3 contain the term " ESG " and its variations. In the case of the terms " sustainability and performance ", all 4 clusters register their presence. This demonstrates that the search terms adopted were assertive, since it can be seen that they adhere to the proposed theme.

The research by Zhang et al. ( 2020 ), which discusses how ESG initiatives affect innovation performance for corporate sustainability; and the research of Xu et al. ( 2021 ), which examines the impacts of research and development (R&D) investment and ESG performance on green innovation performance; ratify the cited adherence.

Research topics: the main methodologies

The predominant impacts addressed in the sample of 49 scientific studies collected, classified by level of analysis and methodological interpellation, are evidenced in Table 3 , which already awakens the dissolution to the second research question ( What are the main methodological approaches used to study ESG criteria impact on corporate sustainability? ).

A content analysis of the full texts of the articles selected for this SLR was performed and it was found that approximately 87.75% of the studies (43 references) were conducted using information from companies through databases. Analyzes were quantitative, 46 studies, approximately 93.87%, applied regression analysis. Of these, 6 investigations, approximately 13.04%, implemented structural equation modeling. These results, corroborate the conjuncture that there is no evidence in the literature regarding research allusive to a mapping and quantitative analysis of the impacts of the integration of ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance, from an employee’s perspective.

By Fig. 4 , it can be distinguished that the organizations’ commitment does not focus exclusively on financial performance (12 studies), but also prioritizes corporate sustainability (12 studies).

Financial performance and corporate sustainability were investigated in approximately 49% of the research (24 records), proving corporate concern for both sustainable development and economic performance. Landi et al. ( 2022 ), highlight this awareness in their investigation of the incorporation of sustainability into risk management and the impacts on financial performance. Taken together, these practices have the potential to minimize cost and risk, enhance the company’s reputation and legitimacy, intensify innovation, and solidify growth paths and trajectories, all of which are vitally important to stakeholder value creation. (Ting et al., 2020 ).

The corporate sustainability performance disclosed through the ESG criteria was investigated in an attempt to demonstrate the quality of an organization, because through environmental, social, and governance analysis, it is possible to determine how the company positions itself in relation to society and the planet, in addition to offering more transparency to the investor (Mohammad and Wasiuzzaman, 2021 ).

Figure 5 displays a broad view of the amount of research performed around the world according to the sample of articles selected for this SLR.

It can be seen that Europe stands out in the evolution of ESG criteria with approximately 32.65% of research, with the highest visibility for Italy and Spain. The research by Conca et al. ( 2021 ), on the impacts of ESG reports in European agri-food companies; and (Baraibar-Diez and Odriozola, 2019 ), related to the effects of ESG parameters on the social responsibility committees of European corporations, highlight the aforementioned evolutionary prominence.

Figure 6 displays the most often consulted databases to collect information about the ESG criteria of the listed companies for their corporate sustainability performance.

Source: Table 3 .

Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg databases stand out because they are providers of reliable answers that help organizations make confident decisions and better manage business (Alsayegh et al., 2020 ). This reinforces the fact that most studies use publicly available data to measure ESG, whether than collect the ESG criteria for the companies under investigation.

Critical analysis

Critical analysis is a method of study for understanding difficult and complex situations, especially when interpretations of the same articulation are possible and competing. It is a form of text analysis and has been handled to discover their original meanings and how they are interpreted (Shephard et al., 2019 ).

Thus, complementing the results of the primary approach (PRISMA method), a critical analysis was implemented based on the selection of 49 articles considered for discussion. The aim was to answer the third question of this research ( What are the main impacts of integrating ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance observed in the literature? ). Table 4 shows the main perceptions of the fragmented research according to each of the ESG criteria.

The cycles of the critical analysis involved a series of reviews, syntheses, and interpretations of ESG criteria affecting corporate sustainability performance identified in the 49 selected articles corroborating the structured process of this SLR. The results are shown in Tables 3 and 4 , which summarize the focus of the research, the methodologies applied, and the main gaps, contributions, and limitations of the studies.

In this SLR, the need for future empirical studies was also identified. There are still several research questions that need to be answered in depth. Some propositions for future investigations and possible research questions are outlined in Table 5 .

Analyzing the risk of bias in scientific research is of paramount importance as it can significantly impact the validity and reliability of research findings. It helps ensure that research outcomes accurately reflect reality and can be trusted by other researchers, policymakers, and the public (McGuinness and Higgins, 2021 ). Reproducibility is a fundamental principle of scientific research and transparently analyzing bias allows researchers to identify potential pitfalls and enhance the reproducibility of their work. Ethical considerations are also important as biased research can lead to harm, perpetuate discrimination, or favor specific individuals or groups unjustly (Marshall et al., 2015 ). Analyzing bias helps to improve the quality of evidence available for decision-making processes and ensures that the scientific literature remains reliable, allowing researchers to build upon a solid foundation of unbiased evidence. By carefully evaluating and addressing bias, researchers can enhance the quality and impact of their work (Reveiz et al., 2015 ; Wang et al., 2022 ).

In accordance with Table 6 (PROBAST diagnostics), most (93.9%) of the included research evidenced a minimal risk of bias and a low concern for applicability. The participants were the companies selected in each study; the predictors were the variables measured; the results were verified by the mathematical models; and the analysis, encompass the techniques used. The quality of the studies included in this study was rated from satisfactory to excellent.

Drawing upon rigorous research, this paper elucidates the prominent features that have appeared from the examination of ESG criteria. Table 2 and Fig. 3 show the repercussion, expressiveness and relevance of studies, authors, and journals.

The content analysis highlighted in Table 3 found that the literature on ESG criteria were carried out with information from companies through databases and applied regression analysis. These findings support the idea that there is no evidence in the study literature that maps or quantifies the effects of incorporating ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance from the viewpoint of employees.

Ouni et al. ( 2020 ), in their study on the mediating role of ESG strands in relation to executive board gender diversity and corporate financial performance, highlighted the need for future research that focuses not only on organizational understanding, but especially on the perception of women (workers) themselves, as board members, of their role and their contribution to financial performance, which strengthens the gap characterized in this SLR.

Researchers employ various methodologies to study ESG criteria, allowing for nuanced insights and robust analysis (see Table 3 ). Quantitative studies utilize large-scale data sets, statistical models, and financial indicators to explore the relationship between ESG criteria and financial performance, risk management, and firm valuation (Alkaraan et al., 2022 ; Mavlutova et al., 2022 ). Qualitative research methods employ interviews, case studies, and content analysis to investigate the organizational processes, stakeholder perceptions, and contextual factors that influence ESG practices and outcomes (Petavratzi et al., 2022 ). Some studies adopt an integrated approach by combining quantitative and qualitative methods to gain a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted nature of ESG criteria. These integrated approaches contribute to a holistic understanding of ESG-related phenomena (Aldowaish et al., 2022 ; Rehman et al., 2021 ).

Recognizing the strengths and limitations of methodologies, researchers have increasingly adopted mixed-methods approaches to investigate the impact of ESG criteria on corporate sustainability, integrating data collection and analysis processes to provide a comprehensive understanding of the research problem (Gebhardt et al., 2022 ). This approach allows researchers to triangulate findings, validate results, and gain a more nuanced perspective on the relationship between ESG criteria and corporate sustainability (Harasheh and Provasi, 2023 ). By leveraging the strengths of methodologies, research offers a more holistic and robust approach to studying complex phenomena.

The positive relationship of voluntary disclosure of corporate sustainability through the ESG criteria of organizations found in this study (see Table 4 ) provides evidence that the implementation of environmental and social strategies within an efficient system of corporate governance in the company strengthens the performance of corporate sustainability. The results also show that environmental performance and social performance are significantly positively related to sustainable economic performance, indicating that the corporation’s economic value and the creation of value for society are interdependent.

A similar fact was also found in the investigation of Zhang et al. ( 2020 ), on environmental, social and governance initiatives that affect innovative performance for corporate sustainability, which revealed that corporate governance initiatives play a moderating role in the relationship between environmental initiatives and performance innovation and the relationship between social initiatives and innovative performance.

Shaikh ( 2021 ), in his study on ESG practices and solid performance, explains the importance of voluntary reporting of non-financial indicators and a company’s responsibility towards stakeholders, reflected in the corporation’s accounting performance.

Integrating ESG criteria into business practices can have potential negative impacts, although specific effects may vary depending on context and implementation. As shown by the investigations of Wasiuzzaman et al. ( 2022 ), which verifies the extent to which culture can affect the relationship between ESG disclosure and company performance, evidencing the negative impact on the profitability of energy companies; and of Suttipun and Yordudom ( 2022 ), which analyzes the extent, level and trend of ESG disclosure in companies in Thailand, to test the different levels between high and low profile industries, which found a negative impact of governance disclosure on market reaction . Another example is the research of Yu et al. ( 2020 ), about Greenwashing in ESG disclosures, which identified organizations’ manipulations of ESG disclosures to increase market value.

While these concerns exist, effectively integrating ESG criteria can drive long-term value creation, risk management and stakeholder confidence. Implementing robust ESG practices requires careful consideration, transparency, and ongoing evaluation to mitigate potential negative impacts and ensure sustainable results.

The main objective of this article is to map and analyze the literature concerning the impacts of the integration of ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance. To this end, an SLR was performed using the PRISMA methodology, with the intention of selecting the most relevant articles.

Figure 2 revealed an increase in the number of publications on ESG criteria. In 2017, there were only 97 published papers. Already in 2021, this number expanded to 649 manuscripts, an evolution of approximately 570%.

The references were systematically appraised using a hybrid approach that combined literature review methodologies, including structured and objective techniques such as bibliometric analysis, network analysis, and content analysis, to identify key highlights and gaps in the literature related to the theme of this investigation; as well as subjective text interpretation technique (critical analysis), to robust the structured analysis.

This study assisted in diagnosing the methodologies addressed and narrowing the gaps in the literature in four ways. Initially, the article presents a bibliometric analysis with a perspective on ESG criteria and sustainability performance based on the sampling of 49 research studies outlining the main papers and journals (according to Table 2 ). Subsequently, with the aid of network analysis the main keywords were highlighted (see Fig. 3 ).

Next, based on an in-depth content analysis, the article presents the main study highlights, the focus of the research, and the stratification of methods (Table 3 ). Finally, the critical analysis is juxtaposed to consolidate the initial structured analysis (Table 4 ).

Several authors have discussed the topic addressed by this SLR, such as Lokuwaduge and Heenetigala ( 2017 ), who made an interpellation of the integration of ESG precepts for an organizational sustainable development. Another reference is the paper by Bouslah et al. ( 2013 ), which analyzed the ESG dimensions and corporate risks.

But there is no evidence, to the knowledge of the authors of this paper, in the sample selected for this SLR, of research on a mapping and quantitative analysis of the impacts of integrating of ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance as a result of workers’ perceptions. The study points out the lack of more confirmatory research approaches applying a multidimensional perspective of workers, as the interest remains in the economic-environmental perspective from the organizations’ point of view. It was also found that none of the studies listed made use of other types of diagnostic instruments diverging from the databases.

That said, the absence of such evidence highlights a gap in the literature that suggests the need for new study initiatives to fill it.

In addition to the opportunities for future studies proposed in Table 5 , future researches could explore the developing standardized metrics, common metrics that are relevant across different sectors and geographies; the relationship between ESG and financial performance, mechanisms behind this relationship, such as the impacts of ESG criteria on customer loyalty or employee satisfaction; the impacts of ESG criteria on non-financial stakeholders, such as employees, customers, and communities; the role of technology in ESG, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain in ESG reporting and decision-making; and on emerging ESG issues, such as the impact of climate change on supply chains or the ethical considerations of artificial intelligence.

Therefore, it would be important to establish standards and parameters that allow companies to understand and evaluate ESG criteria. In this sense, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) could develop a global standardization on ESG that defines parameters, guidelines, and criteria with quality indicators, in line with the ISO 9001 standard already recognized worldwide.

This exploratory work highlights as a contribution the aspect of guiding corporations in understanding how the integration of ESG criteria can positively impact corporate sustainability performance, providing investment optimization and better business planning.

Furthermore, some important conclusions related to the ESG criteria can be obtained. It was observed that companies, regardless of nationality, follow the guidelines of ESG criteria integration and such procedure brings many benefits, such as: improving the organization’s image with stakeholders; increasing the corporation’s competitiveness; promoting corporate sustainability; improving the conjuncture in relation to gender diversity; improving intellectual opportunities; among others.

This research has limitations related to the use of keyword search engines and the filters of the selected databases. The keyword groups are asked to be elaborated in diverse ways, so the combinatorial analysis of the groupings may bring different answers. The filters of the scientific databases have disparate search characteristics, which may cause divergences in the answers. Another limitation was the critical analysis that may have generated an interpretation bias. Nevertheless, the PROBAST method and the systematic multi-method approach applied (bibliometric, network analysis, and content analysis) helped to mitigate this limitation.

Data availability

Data sharing is not applicable to this research as no data were generated or analyzed.

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The authors are grateful for the support received from the Federal University of Paraíba and the Federal Institute of Paraíba.

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Anrafel de Souza Barbosa, Maria Cristina Basilio Crispim da Silva, Luiz Bueno da Silva & Sandra Naomi Morioka

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For greater transparency, the individual contributions of the authors are as follows: AdSB: contributed to conceptualization, methodology, validation, investigation, data curation, writing—original draft, visualization, and project administration; MCBCdS and LBdS: contributed to validation, writing—review and editing, and supervision; SNM: contributed to validation, methodology, and writing—review and editing; and VFdS: contributed to validation and writing—review and editing.

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de Souza Barbosa, A., da Silva, M.C.B.C., da Silva, L.B. et al. Integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria: their impacts on corporate sustainability performance. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10 , 410 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01919-0

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01919-0

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Using empirical research to formulate normative ethical principles in biomedicine

Affiliation.

• 1 Centre for Bioethics, University of Aarhus, Taasingegade 3, Building 1443, DK-8000, Aarhus C, Denmark. [email protected]
• PMID: 16955345
• DOI: 10.1007/s11019-006-9011-9

Bioethical research has tended to focus on theoretical discussion of the principles on which the analysis of ethical issues in biomedicine should be based. But this discussion often seems remote from biomedical practice where researchers and physicians confront ethical problems. On the other hand, published empirical research on the ethical reasoning of health care professionals offer only descriptions of how physicians and nurses actually reason ethically. The question remains whether these descriptions have any normative implications for nurses and physicians? In this article, we illustrate an approach that integrates empirical research into the formulation of normative ethical principles using the moral-philosophical method of Wide Reflective Equilibrium (WRE). The research method discussed in this article was developed in connection with the project 'Bioethics in Theory and Practice'. The purpose of this project is to investigate ethical reasoning in biomedical practice in Denmark empirically. In this article, we take the research method as our point of departure, but we exclusively discuss the theoretical framework of the method, not its empirical results. We argue that the descriptive phenomenological hermeneutical method developed by Lindseth and Norberg (2004) and Pedersen (1999) can be combined with the theory of WRE to arrive at a decision procedure and thus a foundation for the formulation of normative ethical principles. This could provide health care professionals and biomedical researchers with normative principles about how to analyse, reason and act in ethically difficult situations in their practice. We also show how to use existing bioethical principles as inspiration for interpreting the empirical findings of qualitative studies. This may help researchers design their own empirical studies in the field of ethics.

Publication types

• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
• Beneficence
• Biomedical Research / ethics*
• Ethical Theory
• Ethics, Medical*
• Personal Autonomy
• Philosophy, Medical
• Social Justice