Rethinking sustainable corporate governance in the anthropocene: conceptual fragmentation and structural tensions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7433/s130.2026.02Keywords:
sustainable corporate governance; board-level decision-making; institutional complexity; decision architecture; multi-objective governance; ESG integrationAbstract
Frame of the research: In the context of the Anthropocene, corporate governance is increasingly expected to reconcile economic performance with socio-ecological responsibility and systemic resilience within board decision processes. However, Sustainable Corporate Governance (SCG) remains conceptually fragmented, and the term “integration” is frequently invoked without explicitly specifying the decision architectures through which boards prioritise and legitimise trade-offs.
Purpose of the paper. This study develops a structured, concept-centric interpretative synthesis of SCG scholarship to clarify how sustainability has been theorised within governance architectures and to identify the structural tensions that constrain coherent multi-objective integration at board level.
Methodology: An integrative literature review was conducted on a conceptually selected corpus of 82 peer-reviewed contributions indexed in Scopus and Web of Science. Using abductive iteration and concept-centric coding, dominant governance configurations and their underlying decision logics were comparatively synthesised.
Findings: Four partially overlapping configurations are identified-instrumental, stakeholder-oriented, systemic, and disclosure-based-each grounded in distinct legitimacy premises. Their coexistence generates tensions concerning decision criteria and governance mechanisms, particularly in the shift from parallel oversight to substantive decision integration.
Research limitations: As a theory-oriented review, the study does not test causal mechanisms; empirical examination of board-level prioritisation architectures remains necessary.
Practical implications: Boards can strengthen integration by embedding explicit prioritisation criteria into strategic planning and resource allocation.
Originality of the paper: The paper reframes SCG as an architectural governance problem centred on the systematic under-specification of board-level decision architectures.
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