Digital Transformation and ESG Finance: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

Digital transformation has become a strategic capability that enables organizations to enhance competitiveness, sustainability, and long term value creation, while Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) finance has emerged as an important framework for responsible investment and corporate sustainability. Despite the growing body of literature, existing studies remain fragmented across multiple disciplines and lack an integrated synthesis of emerging research trends, theoretical perspectives, and future research directions. Therefore, this study aims to systematically review the current literature on digital transformation and ESG finance to identify dominant research themes, theoretical foundations, methodological developments, and future research agenda. This study employed a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) following the PRISMA 2020 guideline. The literature search was conducted in the Scopus database, covering publications from January 2021 to June 2026. After applying predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, 114 peer reviewed journal articles were selected for qualitative synthesis. The findings reveal that digital transformation has evolved beyond technological adoption into a strategic organizational capability that strengthens ESG implementation, sustainability reporting, corporate governance, green innovation, and sustainable finance. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, FinTech, and digital governance have emerged as key technologies supporting ESG performance and organizational resilience. The bibliometric analyses further indicate that digital transformation, ESG, sustainability, and artificial intelligence constitute the core intellectual structure of this research field, while generative artificial intelligence, stakeholder engagement, blockchain ecosystems, and green innovation represent promising directions for future research. This review contributes by integrating fragmented evidence into a comprehensive conceptual framework and providing practical insights and future research opportunities for scholars, practitioners, investors, and policymakers in advancing digitally enabled sustainable finance.

Keywords:  Digital transformation, ESG finance, Sustainable finance, Artificial intelligence, Systematic literature review, PRISMA 2020