Purpose
The growing trend in environmental, social and governance (ESG) research, along with its relevance to the financial performance of firms, has gained a lot of attraction in academia and industry. This study aims to fill the existing gap in the literature by conducting a thorough systematic review with the latest research articles in this area.

Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a blend of systematic literature review and bibliometric techniques. A proper search string was used to retrieve the data from the Scopus database. The final dataset comprises 296 documents used for science mapping, and the review was done of 60 articles finalised after further refining the documents.

Findings
The results of this study indicate that stakeholder, legitimacy and signalling theories are the foundation for ESG and financial performance. Social firms have a lower capital cost because of their low-risk potential. Moreover, this study provides the knowledge structure by framing four clusters, “CSR/ESG determinants and firm performance”, “Moderators and Mediators”, “Investors’ perception” and “CSR in the tourism sector”.

Originality/value
This study has reviewed the literature with both tools, that is, qualitative (systematic review) and quantitative (bibliometric). Moreover, this study presents the latest synthesis of the literature.