IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jjrfmx/v18y2025i5p268-d1656152.html

The Impact of CEO and Firm Attributes on ESG Performance: Evidence from an Emerging Market

Author

Listed:
  • Fahad Alrobai

    (Department of Accounting, College of Business Administration, Majmaah University, Al-Majma’ah 11952, Saudi Arabia)

  • Maged M. Albaz

    (Department of Accounting, College of Business Administration, Majmaah University, Al-Majma’ah 11952, Saudi Arabia
    Department of Accounting and Auditing, Faculty of Commerce, Suez Canal University, Ismailia 41522, Egypt)

Abstract

The research aims to unveil the impact of CEO traits and firm attributes on corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance within the Egyptian context as an emerging market. Using the quantitative research approach, we analyzed a panel of data from 43 listed firms in the S&P/EGX ESG index from 2014 to 2022 through three statistical models to examine how CEO power, confidence, and tenure influence corporate sustainability practices. Our findings reveal that CEO power and confidence influence ESG performance and shape the firm’s strategy. However, there is no significant influence related to CEO tenure. Moreover, we found mixed evidence regarding the impact of firm financial attributes, such as the positive impact of firm size and operating cash flow on ESG performance and the negative impact of firm listing tenure. Our findings contribute to the literature by adding new empirical evidence in this arguable area from an emerging market and provide new insights into the significant influence of the firm’s first man (CEO) in shaping its sustainability practices, especially ESG. In addition, it gives professional authorities and policymakers insights into the nexus between the CEO and the firm’s ESG strategies, disclosure, and performance. Moreover, it can motivate future research to re-examine the role of CEO traits in shaping ESG performance in other countries to create a comprehensive understanding of this knowledge field.

Suggested Citation

  • Fahad Alrobai & Maged M. Albaz, 2025. "The Impact of CEO and Firm Attributes on ESG Performance: Evidence from an Emerging Market," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-19, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:18:y:2025:i:5:p:268-:d:1656152
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/18/5/268/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/18/5/268/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emiel Duuren & Auke Plantinga & Bert Scholtens, 2016. "ESG Integration and the Investment Management Process: Fundamental Investing Reinvented," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 138(3), pages 525-533, October.
    2. Monica Singhania & Gurmani Chadha & Dimple Gupta, 2025. "ESG measurement: an interdisciplinary review using scientometric analysis," International Journal of Managerial and Financial Accounting, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 17(2), pages 205-253.
    3. Shang Gao & Fanchen Meng & Zhouyang Gu & Zhiyuan Liu & Muhammad Farrukh, 2021. "Mapping and Clustering Analysis on Environmental, Social and Governance Field a Bibliometric Analysis Using Scopus," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-17, June.
    4. Jeremy Galbreath, 2013. "ESG in Focus: The Australian Evidence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(3), pages 529-541, December.
    5. Colak, Gonul & Korkeamäki, Timo P. & Meyer, Niclas Oskar, 2024. "ESG and CEO turnover around the world," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mona Ali Mohamed Khalil & Mohamed Abdelraouf & Tamer Shahwan, 2026. "Evaluating the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on corporate financial performance” an applied study on Egyptian stock market," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-18, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pruthiranjan Dwibedi & Debasis Pahi & Antarjyami Sahu, 2024. "Mapping the landscape of environmental, social and governance research: A bibliometric analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 3745-3767, September.
    2. Qin Lingda Tan & Sharizal Hashim & Zhangwei Zheng, 2025. "Environmental Social Governance (ESG) in Digitalization research: A bibliometric analysis," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(1), pages 21582440241, January.
    3. Irene Wei Kiong Ting & Noor Azlinna Azizan & Rajesh Kumar Bhaskaran & Sujit K Sukumaran, 2019. "Corporate Social Performance and Firm Performance: Comparative Study among Developed and Emerging Market Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-21, December.
    4. Xue, Qinyuan & Jin, Yifei & Zhang, Cheng, 2024. "ESG rating results and corporate total factor productivity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PA).
    5. Raymond Kwong & Man Lung Jonathan Kwok & Helen S. M. Wong, 2023. "Green FinTech Innovation as a Future Research Direction: A Bibliometric Analysis on Green Finance and FinTech," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-27, October.
    6. Tobias Bauckloh & Stefan Schaltegger & Sebastian Utz & Sebastian Zeile & Bernhard Zwergel, 2023. "Active First Movers vs. Late Free-Riders? An Empirical Analysis of UN PRI Signatories’ Commitment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 747-781, January.
    7. Laura Fabregat-Aibar & Elena Escrig-Olmedo & Maria-Glòria Barberà-Mariné & María Ángeles Fernández-Izquierdo, 2025. "Advancing the assessment of sustainability risk in the equity investment fund industry," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, December.
    8. Ge Ge & Xiang Xiao & Zhenzhu Li & Qinghui Dai, 2022. "Does ESG Performance Promote High-Quality Development of Enterprises in China? The Mediating Role of Innovation Input," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-24, March.
    9. Muhammad Sani Khamisu & Achuta Ratna Paluri, 2025. "What’s past is prologue: reminiscing research on environment social governance (ESG) disclosures," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(2), pages 320-340, June.
    10. Gaurav Talan & Gagan Deep Sharma, 2019. "Doing Well by Doing Good: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda for Sustainable Investment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-16, January.
    11. Mathew Kevin Bosi & Nelson Lajuni & Avnner Chardles Wellfren & Thien Sang Lim, 2022. "Sustainability Reporting through Environmental, Social, and Governance: A Bibliometric Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-22, September.
    12. Salvatore Esposito De Falco & Raffaella Montera & Sabrina Leo & Francesco Laviola & Pietro Vito & Domenico Sardanelli & Gianpaolo Basile & Giulia Nevi & Raffaele Alaia, 2024. "Trends and patterns in ESG research: A bibliometric odyssey and research agenda," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 3703-3723, September.
    13. Benuzzi, Matteo & Klaser, Klaudijo & Bax, Karoline, 2024. "Which ESG+F dimension matters most to retail investors? An experimental study on financial decisions and future generations," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    14. Carlos Estevez‐Mendoza & Juan Infante, 2025. "Evolution and relevance of research on Environmental, Social, and Governance factors," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(2), pages 1545-1566, March.
    15. Soma Panja, 2022. "Does Risk Propensity of Investors Affect the Heuristic Choice of SRI Portfolio Selection?—A Comparison between a Market Portfolio and SRI Portfolio," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 23(6), pages 1481-1491, December.
    16. Liu, Xuexin & Tang, Xiaomeng & Kong, Xiaoxu & Gao, Jijun & Jiang, Lihua, 2026. "The impact of non-state shareholder governance on state-owned enterprises' ESG performance in China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    17. Zengfu Li & Liuhua Feng & Zheng Pan & Hafiz M. Sohail, 2022. "ESG performance and stock prices: evidence from the COVID-19 outbreak in China," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, December.
    18. Ann Susan Thomas & Ambili Jayachandran & Ajithakumari Vijayappan Nair Biju, 2024. "Strategic mapping of the environmental social governance landscape in finance – A bibliometric exploration through concepts and themes," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 4428-4453, September.
    19. Aziza Garsaa, 2025. "How Has the COVID‐19 Crisis Affected the Link Between ESG Disclosure and Firm Value? A Two‐Level Analysis of European Listed Companies," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(4), pages 2390-2407, October.
    20. Louis T. W. Cheng & Piyush Sharma & David C. Broadstock, 2023. "Interactive effects of brand reputation and ESG on green bond issues: A sustainable development perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 570-586, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:18:y:2025:i:5:p:268-:d:1656152. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.