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Does Sustainability Orientation Drive Financial Success in a Non-Ergodic World? A Systematic Literature Review

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  • Edgars Sedovs

    (Department of Management, BA School of Business and Finance, Krisjana Valdemara 161, LV-1013 Riga, Latvia)

  • Tatjana Volkova

    (Department of Management, BA School of Business and Finance, Krisjana Valdemara 161, LV-1013 Riga, Latvia)

  • Iveta Ludviga

    (Business Department, RISEBA University of Applied Sciences, Meza 3, LV-1048 Riga, Latvia)

Abstract

In today’s environment of increased uncertainty, firms face new challenges in aligning sustainability orientation (SO) with financial performance (FP). In this non-ergodic world, past trends offer limited insight into the future due to economic instability, geopolitical conflicts, trade wars, environmental and social disasters, sustainability policy and commitment reversals, etc. To investigate this, we conducted a systematic literature review and topic modelling with a latent Dirichlet allocation of 117 English peer-reviewed articles in management, business, economics, and finance related to SO and FP *. These articles, obtained from Scopus and Web of Science, were open-access and had reached the final publication stage. By integrating resource-based, institutional, and stakeholder theories, we aim to identify the current understanding of the SO concept and the mechanisms linking it to FP. Our findings show that sustainability-oriented firms are better equipped to achieve financial success in a non-ergodic world. However, outcomes vary widely based on context and duration, with existing literature revealing positive and negative relationships or no impact. Topic modelling identified 17 themes, such as stakeholder engagement, business performance, sustainability-oriented innovation and corporate sustainability. We propose five theoretical propositions and forward-looking research directions based on these findings. As a result, our study contributes to the existing academic literature by providing an integrated resource-based, institutional, and stakeholder theory view of the relationship between SO and FP for organisational resilience and outlining future research directions for managing this relationship in a non-ergodic world.

Suggested Citation

  • Edgars Sedovs & Tatjana Volkova & Iveta Ludviga, 2025. "Does Sustainability Orientation Drive Financial Success in a Non-Ergodic World? A Systematic Literature Review," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-29, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:18:y:2025:i:6:p:339-:d:1682662
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Milind Kumar Jha & K. Rangarajan, 2020. "Analysis of corporate sustainability performance and corporate financial performance causal linkage in the Indian context," Asian Journal of Sustainability and Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-30, December.
    2. David Meder & Finn Rabe & Tobias Morville & Kristoffer H Madsen & Magnus T Koudahl & Ray J Dolan & Hartwig R Siebner & Oliver J Hulme, 2021. "Ergodicity-breaking reveals time optimal decision making in humans," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(9), pages 1-25, September.
    3. Chaoyuan She & Giovanna Michelon, 2023. "A governance approach to stakeholder engagement in sustainable enterprises—Evidence from B Corps," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5487-5505, December.
    4. Robert G. Eccles & Ioannis Ioannou & George Serafeim, 2014. "The Impact of Corporate Sustainability on Organizational Processes and Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(11), pages 2835-2857, November.
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