IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/corsem/v32y2025i5p6641-6657.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Sustainability Management on Fostering ESG Practices and Competitive Perspectives Among SMEs

Author

Listed:
  • Giovanna Ferraro
  • Ivana Quinto
  • Giuseppe Scandurra
  • Antonio Thomas

Abstract

The adoption of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices is spreading rapidly among all types of companies. Although many scholars are interested in the topic, there is not yet a shared framework exploring the factors that encourage companies—in particular, small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs)—to adopt ESG criteria and the possible expected benefits. This is probably due to the extreme heterogeneity that characterizes such companies. The contribution of this study derives from the investigation of two factors considered decisive for SMEs' ability to adopt ESG practices and improve their perception of competitiveness: artificial intelligence and sustainability management. For this purpose, the well‐known method of partial least squares structural equation modeling was applied to a homogeneous population of SMEs located in Italy. The results show that the two investigated factors increase the likelihood of adopting ESG criteria and directly affect competitive perspectives. In turn, the environment and governance pillars, but not the “S” pillar, affect the competitive perspectives.

Suggested Citation

  • Giovanna Ferraro & Ivana Quinto & Giuseppe Scandurra & Antonio Thomas, 2025. "The Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Sustainability Management on Fostering ESG Practices and Competitive Perspectives Among SMEs," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(5), pages 6641-6657, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:32:y:2025:i:5:p:6641-6657
    DOI: 10.1002/csr.70051
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.70051
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/csr.70051?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    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:wly:corsem:v:32:y:2025:i:5:p:6641-6657. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1535-3966 .

    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.