Marcos Filho Lima Bastos, Clandia Maffini Gomes, Ana Paula Perlin, Jordana Marques Kneipp
Purpose – This study aimed to analyze the impact of innovation and sustainable governance on the socio-environmental performance of companies in the Brazilian capital market by focusing on those listed on the Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE).
Theoretical framework – The theoretical framework of this study, designed to substantiate the research hypotheses, comprises two sections that address the influence of sustainable corporate governance and innovation on socio-environmental performance.
Design/methodology/approach – This descriptive, quantitative study used documentary data sources and four multiple linear regression models to analyze the relationship between the variables.
Findings – The results revealed that innovation and sustainable corporate governance significantly influence the social and environmental performance of the listed companies. The study demonstrated that sustainable governance and investments in innovation can improve organizational socio-environmental performance. Overall, sustainable governance and innovation had a greater impact on social performance than environmental performance, indicating a stronger alignment with the social pillar of sustainability in the context analyzed.
Practical & social implications of research – The contributions of this study reach different stakeholders and have the potential to help companies improve their sustainability approaches by considering governance and innovation. Furthermore, the study contributes to the state of the art in the field of research on governance, innovation, and socio-environmental performance in Brazil and other emerging economies.
Originality/value: Notably, no other analyses investigating the impact of innovation and sustainable corporate governance performance on socio-environmental performance in the context of the ISE were identified. In this sense, the research reinforces our understanding of the relationship between sustainable corporate governance, innovation, and socio-environmental performance.