The Lenses of Indian Knowledge Systems to Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance: Indian pharmaceutical company’s evidence

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-615-4_13How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS); Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG); Corporate Sustainability; Firm Performance

Abstract

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance has emerged as a critical determinant of corporate sustainability; however, its theoretical foundations remain predominantly grounded in Western governance paradigms. This study extends the ESG financial performance literature by integrating principles from Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) specifically Dharma (ethical duty), Lokasangraha (collective welfare), and alignment with Prakriti (ecological balance) as culturally embedded governance mechanisms that may influence firm outcomes.

Using panel data from 77 Indian pharmaceutical firms over the period 2007–2023, ESG scores are obtained from Refinitiv ESG and financial data from CMIE ProwessIQ. The study employs firm and year fixed-effects panel regressions with firm-level controls to address unobserved heterogeneity.

The findings reveal a positive and statistically significant association between aggregate ESG performance and firm profitability, measured by Return on Assets (ROA). Component-wise analysis indicates that governance exhibits the strongest relationship with financial performance.

The study contributes to the literature in three ways: first, by offering a culturally grounded theoretical extension to ESG-performance research; second, by providing long-horizon emerging market evidence from a strategically important and highly regulated industry; and third, by highlighting the differential financial relevance of ESG components. The results offer implications for corporate strategy, investors, and policymakers seeking to align sustainability with financial performance in emerging markets.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Prerna Sharma
AU  - Priyanka Banerji
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/15
TI  - The Lenses of Indian Knowledge Systems to Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance: Indian pharmaceutical company’s evidence
BT  - Proceedings of the Anubhuti 4.0: Discourses in Indian Knowledge Systems – Pathways of Culture, Inclusion, and Sustainability (ICIKS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 150
EP  - 163
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-615-4_13
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-615-4_13
ID  - Sharma2026
ER  -