Systematic review of the literature on corporate sustainability performance measurement: a discussion of contributions and gaps

Abstract

The present study discusses the incorporation of the concept of corporate sustainability into the literature of performance measurement systems (PMS), resulting in the investigation of publications on sustainability PMS (SPMS). This study presents an overview of the literature on SPMS, synthesizing the main contributions and pointing out the main trends and gaps in this area of ​​knowledge. The research method is based on a systematic review of the literature, combining bibliometrics and content analysis. The sample is composed of 406 scientific articles. This sample was analyzed quantitatively, with support of descriptive statistics, co-citation network and keywords network. The study shows that the number of publications on the topic surveyed has grown in recent years, but still remains scattered, with low connection between tribes. The study also shows that, despite being relatively consolidated, the literature on SPMS has not yet been exhausted towards addressing the challenges of SPMS. One of the research results shows that the SPMS literature can be divided into three categories according to its main focus: (1) the sustainability indicators themselves and their application in decision making; (2) the set of indicators as a system; and (3) the organizational context of the SPMS. Analyzing these categories, there is little evidence on the consequences of the SPMS implementation, as well as the fact that the literature is still unclear on how managers should consider the contingencies of SPMS, such as industry, company size, type of product or business model.

Keywords:
Corporate sustainability; Performance measurement systems; Sustainability indicators; Sustainability performance; Bibliometric study; Content analysis; Literature review