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Abstract This study uses agency theory to examine how board size, compensation committee, and CEO duality align the pay-performance relationship with long-term sustainability performance. We examined companies from nine Asian emerging economies with a sustainability score greater than 0.50 between 2010 and 2019. The findings support the pay-performance relationship proposed by agency theory in the presence of a robust governance structure. The relationship is more significant in firms with high ESG scores. Our study claimed that the compensation committee has a significant role in aligning sustainability objectives with CEO compensation, which improves the firm's market and financial performance. However, board size has no discernible impact on the CEO pay-performance relationship. CEO duality negatively affects this alignment since the CEO misuses their power to influence the compensation committee's role in tying sustainability agendas with the CEO's pay performance framework. Furthermore, CEO compensation is significantly impacted by firm size, which is justified by the complexity and increased responsibilities associated with managing larger firms. Conclusively, this investigation suggests that the inconclusive evidence on CEO compensation around the world should be studied with governance mechanisms. This study advances knowledge of agency theory and the connection between sustainability performance and compensation. The findings of the study highlight the role of governance structure in aligning executive compensation with sustainability to improve long-term performance. These findings suggest policymakers promote strong governance mechanisms that reduce the CEO's power to influence the board and enhance the independence of the compensation committee to independently design the executive compensation package essential for aligning executive pay with sustainability performance.

This study investigates the relationship between board characteristics and firm efficiency in emerging Asian economies, using stochastic frontier analysis and a panel dataset of 5829 firm-year observations. The results suggest that companies with strong monitoring boards concerning diversity, size, and independence achieve higher efficiency. This study provides more specific results on the importance of board characteristics for firm-level governance and highlights the Asian emerging markets’ focus on good governance practices. The study’s use of firm efficiency as a proxy for performance is a unique framework that mitigates endogeneity issues common in corporate governance variables. This approach is an improvement over previous research that has relied on financial ratios, which need to consider the value of management’s actions and investment decisions affecting future performance. The results contribute to the literature on corporate governance and provide valuable insights for investors in emerging markets.

The business sector is rife with unethical managerial practices, such as blaming subordinates for organizational failings, along with the exploitation of colleagues, favoritism, and conflicts of leadership. In light of this, numerous researchers have endeavored to explain the phenomenon of ethical perspectives and concerns. It is recommended that organizations in the SME sector adopt ethical practices in order to achieve their long-term objectives. This study stresses the influence of ethical leadership and technological innovation, particularly the mediating role of a positive attitude in encouraging good performance. This study, which was conducted in the SME sector of Malaysia in the state of Selangor, employed a convenience sampling technique for data collection and reports that ethical leadership, technological innovation, and attitude significantly influence performance. A mediating role of attitude in relation to technological innovation and innovative performance is hereby reported, and attitude towards performance was found to have an insignificant effect on ethical leadership and innovative performance. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by explaining the role of ethical leadership and technological innovation in expressing and assessing the revolutionary business practices required to ensure organizational success.