CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF GOVERNANCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND STAKEHOLDER-CENTRIC APPROACHES

Abstract

The increasing pressure for businesses to take responsibility toward achieving sustainability goals at the global level has oriented corporate sustainability as a crucial, multi-faceted focus area. Despite the growing academic interest, diversity in theoretical, methodological and thematic approaches has prevented the convergence of a common understanding of this field. This systematic literature review (SLR) of 315 peer-reviewed articles published between 2015 and 2025 fills this gap, providing a synthesis of constellation of both the qualitative and quantitative researches. The study traces a three-phase evolutionary trajectory: emergence (2015-2017) consolidation (2018-2021) and institutionalization (2022-2025) pointing to the transition from the traditional CSR approaches to models of sustainability by innovation. Major research topics including the ESG transparency and stakeholder governance, digital sustainability and circular economy practices are discussed, with a particular emphasize towards the increasing application of blockchain, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. The review also identifies highly ranked academics, results, publications and national collaborations through a bibliographic coupling and co-citation study. Using the tenets of the stakeholder theory, resource-based views (RBVs) as well as institutional and legitimacy frameworks, the study propose a conceptual model which outline the most important elements which influence corporate sustainability. It provides tangible understandings of how to improve governance, ensure institutional accountability and rekindle solutions to sustainability, which are underpinned by innovation.