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Technological innovation (TI) has become a competitive advantage to firm sustainability and survival; however, stakeholders struggle to embrace this revolution. There is a fear that technology innovation leads to massive job loss. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate TI, employee disability (EDI) and financial performance.

Using the Indian stock market as a testing ground, the authors used panel regression to analyse 80 sustainability-reporting firms (640 firm-year observations) between 2010 and 2017.

The findings show that technology innovation has a positive association with EDI. It further indicates EDI with TI improves the financial performance (return on assets and return on equity) of firms. Also, the study shows that EDI in the service and manufacturing sector are the critical contributors when combined with TI towards an increase in financial performance.

The implication for the study allows firms to increase employment of people with disabilities in the workplace because TI has a positive effect on EDI. The results from the study confirm the service sector as the highest contributor to financial performance in the emergence of TI.

The novelty of this research provides empirical evidence that the service sector contributes more to financial performance when EDI combines with TI.

The purpose of this study is to focus on examining whether third-party assurance (TPA) and mandatory corporate social responsibility reporting (MCSR) matter in the association between philanthropic giving (PHG) and listed firms’ financial performance.

Using the Indian stock market as a testing ground, the study used interactive regression and panel regression to analyse 80 sustainability-reporting firms with 800 firm-year observations between 2010 and 2019.

The first findings show a positive association between PHG and financial performance (return on assets, ROA and stock price returns, SPR). Also, the study shows that the interactive variable of MCSR and PHG has a mixed association with financial performance. The second findings show a positive and statistically significant association between TPA and SPR. Also, the interactive effect of TPA and PHG has a negative association with return on equity (ROE) and a positive association with SPR. The third findings show a negative association between MCSR and financial performance (ROA and ROE) and a positive association with SPR. However, when a firm combines MCSR and TPA, the outcome is a negative association with ROE. The fourth findings show that MCSR has a positive association with TPA. The study control for any form of heteroscedasticity, serial correlation and endogeneity effects.

Managers, if given a choice, must opt for TPA over MCSR because the βcoefficient is higher in TPA than MCSR in PHG-financial performance nexus.

The study addresses the information asymmetry problem from the application of TPA and MCSR, which is new to an emerging economy context.

Studies on employee volunteerism have inconsistency in results. This study aims to examine whether employee volunteerism contributes to financial performance, and if employee volunteerism creates community benefit for firm legitimacy.

The data covers 80 companies (640 firm-year observations) and uses the Indian stock market for the period 2010-2017 as a testing ground. Canonical correlation analysis, panel regression and panel probit regression are used in this study.

The first findings of the study show employee volunteerism through employee skill contribution, number of hours spent on volunteerism, employee cash contribution and employee material contribution provide the substantive contributions to community benefit and financial performance and also contribute a possible positive reflection on employee commitment. The second findings show that return on asset and return on equity do not improve the practice of employee volunteerism. However, the stock price return (SPR) improves the practice of employee volunteerism. The third findings show that the engagement of third-party assurance (TPA) improves the practice of employee volunteerism. Finally, TPA and SPR are more likely to cause a firm to undertake employee volunteerism.

The research study is limited to large firms on the Indian stock market that submit sustainability reports.

An implication from the study suggests that the critical driver of employee volunteerism is employee skill contribution, and firms stand to benefit if well managed.

TPA and financial performance contribute an increase in employee volunteerism, and therefore deepens the scholarly debate on employee volunteerism. Employee volunteerism–community benefit nexus creates a new dimension to the theory of legitimacy for firms in an emerging economy.

The study aims to examine whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure does improve debt financing of listed firms with sustainable development agendas coupled with high chief executive officer (CEO) tenure in India.

Employing panel regression based on fixed effect and instrumental variable regression with fixed effect assumptions, the study examined data from the Bombay stock exchange from the period 2010 to 2019.

The study demonstrates that the disclosure of current exchange capital and moral capital cannot cause a firm to access short-term and long-term debt financing. However, lag investment in moral capital causes a positive effect on short-term debt financing. The second findings show that CEO tenure has a positive and statistically significant association with short-term debt financing and an insignificant association with long-term debt financing. The third findings show that the interaction of current CSR disclosure (moral and exchange capital) and CEO tenure is insignificant in affecting short-term and long-term debt finance. However, the interaction of lag CSR disclosure (moral and exchange capital) and CEO tenure positively affect short-term debt financing. The study addresses any endogeneity concerns arising from the CSR disclosure-debt financing association.

This study uses a single country to examine the inter-relationship between CEO tenure and debt financing and CSR measured by moral capital and exchange capital, thereby limiting the study's results for generalisation.

The observation is that moral capital investment and disclosure do not guarantee new entrants the chance to access debt financing, but subsequent and lag CSR disclosure ensures access.

No studies examine morality from CSR disclosure on debt financing. This study shows that decoupling CSR into exchange capital and moral capital in accessing debt financing presents new inputs for scholarly debate on CSR.

This study aims to use the gender socialization theory, critical mass theory and legitimacy theory to examine the female gender and environmental disclosure of family and non-family-controlled firms in India.

A sample size of 783 and 177 firm-year observations for family and non-family-controlled firms, respectively, between 2009 and 2020 uses descriptive statistics, a test of difference in means and panel regression with random effect assumptions for data interpretation.

The descriptive statistics show a significant mean difference between family-controlled firms and non-family-controlled firms in India. The first findings show that female chief executive officers (CEOs) and CEO duality have a positive and statistically significant association with environmental disclosure in a family-controlled firm but not in non-family-controlled firms in India. The second findings show that independent female directors have no significant association with environmental disclosure of family and non-family firms in India. The fourth findings with critical mass theory confirm the insignificant association of female directors on environmental disclosure of family and non-family firms in India. The results are robust to controlling firm-level variables.

Firms in the Indian context, through this study, assure stakeholders that family firms are better at improving stakeholder’s expectation of environmental accountability than non-family firms, especially where female CEOs are in charge.

This study adds the family perspective of the relationship between female CEOs and the environmental disclosure of listed firms in India. Also, female CEO duality and environmental disclosure add novelty to the research studies on gender and environmental disclosure.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of moral and exchange capital of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure on the financial distress likelihood of family management firms in India.

The constructed data set (i.e. Morgan Stanley Capital International) and Kinder, Lydenberg and Domini social performance rating data format) consists of 66 firms with 655 firm-year observations for family-managed firms that practise sustainability reporting on the Indian stock market from 2010 to 2019.

The first findings show that current and previous year-two CSR disclosure reduces family management firms’ financial distress. The second findings show that the exchange capital of CSR disclosure does not influence the financial distress likelihood of family management firms in India. The third findings show that moral capital of CSR disclosure of the current year, previous year-one and previous year-two more than likely reduce financial distress likelihood of family management firms in India. This study is robust due to the lagged variables of the dependent variables.

Management investment must be high in moral capital to accrue social capital, but the success is dependent on a policy of continuous support for establishing family-related businesses. Similarly, society can benefit as the firm becomes attractive to green consumers as additions to the consumers of a CSR-driven firm. The consequences can cause firms to be more philanthropic to the community.

The novelty shows that to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no studies examine CSR disclosure’s moral and exchange capital on financial distress likelihood in India. Also, there is no evidence from the perspective of family management studies in CSR-financial distress likelihood nexus.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of corporate social responsibility assurance practice (CSRAP) on the financial distress likelihood of listed firms in India. It uses the signalling theory to interpret the relationship among the variables of the study.

The study used the Indian stock market as the testing grounds and applied probit and panel probit regression to examine the data set with 800 firm-year observations from 2010 to 2019.

The study’s first findings show that firms with an assurance service have a negative correlation and are less likely to stay in financial distress situations for an extended period. However, corporate social responsibility (CSR) assurance has a positive but weak correlation with insignificance with financial distress likelihood of firms in India. The authors also find that the engagement of CSR assurance and level of assurance (limited assurance) does not cause a change in a firm financially distress likelihood of firms in India. However, as assurance service providers, auditing firms are more likely to reduce a firm’s likelihood of financial distress. Finally, the study shows that CSRAP (CSR assurance, assurance service providers and level of assurance) does not moderate the association between CSR expenditure and financial distress likelihood of listed firms in India.

The study findings are the first to examine the level of assurance and financial distress of firms according to the authors’ knowledge. This study also adds new knowledge to the factors that cause or reduces the financial distress of listed firms, including CSRAPs.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the choice of an assurance service provider on financial and social performance in an emerging economy. The study also examines whether the chief executive officer’s (CEO) characteristics influence the choice of an assurance service provider.

This study uses descriptive statistics, ordinary least square and probit regression to examine the 800 firm-year observations for the period 2010–2019 and with the Indian stock market as a testing ground.

The study shows that the engagement of assurance service providers reduces financial performance (stock price returns and Tobin’s q). The study also shows that consulting firms and auditing firms improve the social performance disclosure of the firm in an emerging economy. However, consulting firms outweigh auditing firms in improving social performance disclosure. Also, the implementation of mandatory reporting may slightly impede instead of an increase in social performance disclosure in an emerging economy. The study also shows that ageing CEOs prefer consulting firms over auditing firms in assurance service provision. Finally, the study shows that an extended stay in office by a CEO improves the choice of consulting firms, but the effect has a near-neutral significance.

The choice of CEO characteristics as an independent variable adds to the factors or drivers that cause the choice of an assurance service provider in an emerging economy. Also, the measurement variable of stock price returns and Tobin’s q expands the financial performance measurement in the relationship with assurance service providers.

Based on data collected using the purposive sampling technique extracted from a secondary data source, this paper aims to examine the relationship between female directors and firm innovation. The paper also examines the impact of leverage ratios and corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure on the association between female directors and firms’ innovation.

The feasible general least regression technique was applied to overcome potential endogeneity issues associated with female directors and corporate innovation spending.

With subsequent control of individual and firm variables, the first findings of this study indicate that female directors significantly decrease firms’ innovation spending. The second outcomes of this study show that the leverage ratio considerably improves corporate innovation spending. The third findings show that the leverage ratio positively moderates the association between female directors and corporate innovation spending. The fourth findings show that CSR expenditure significantly improves firm innovation spending but does not moderate the association between female directors and corporate innovation spending.

Based on dependency theory, robust and reliable conclusions suggest that female directors’ engagement on the Indian board needs more than biological sex, that is, the required expertise. The paper also provides policy implications for female expertise in minority engagement on the board of listed firms in India, especially when the firm desires to increase its corporate innovation spending.

This study is among the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to comment on mandatory CSR expenditure as an independent variable on innovation or a moderating variable between female directors and corporate innovation. Similarly, the family-controlled management perspective in this study deepens the debate on gender diversity and corporate innovation.

There is a growing interest in how firms respond to environmental degradation and societal challenges. Firms respond through their sustainability reports, but assurance of the reports gives confidence to the stakeholders. This study aims to identify the main research development in sustainability assurance which is rising in global studies.

This study uses a bibliometric analysis to assess the global trend in sustainability assurance studies. The methodology is based on descriptive, performance and science mapping. The set is based on 655 documents from the Scopus database, covering the period from 2005 to 2022.

The findings from the study suggest that sustainability studies are relevant, and the researcher's examination of the domain has dramatically increased from 2014 to date. This is due to the rise in the concerns expressed by stakeholders in satisfying themselves about the firm's responsibility to the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. The findings also show that most research on sustainability assurance is from Spain, the USA, the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia. However, the UK has the most collaboration in terms of co-authorship. It is suggestive that the UK has more links than Spain, which is the most productive country with more publications. This may be attributed to the influx of more international students completing a second and third degree in the UK. The study highlights intellectual foundations and emerging trends and outlines avenues for future studies.

This study is limited to the data obtained from the Scopus database.

This study is the first bibliometric study of the sustainability assurance domain.