DRIVERS AND BARRIERS TO ESG IMPLEMENTATION IN ORGANISATIONAL AND PROJECT-RELATED MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN EMERGING COUNTRIES

T. S. Israzhdinova

Herald of Kazakh-British technical university, 2026

Full text Open access: Gold Metadata (CSL-JSON)
DOI 10.55452/1998-6688-2026-23-2-534-550
Data confidence 70 medium
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Abstract

This article examines the drivers and barriers to implementing Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles in organisational and project-related management practices in emerging countries. A systematic literature review based on the Scopus database was conducted using PRISMA logic and interpreted through institutional theory. The search identified 605 records, from which 40 peer-reviewed studies were included after screening and eligibility assessment. The findings show that ESG implementation is shaped by the interaction of regulatory pressure, organisational readiness, financial feasibility, stakeholder coordination and implementation capability. The main drivers include supportive regulation, stakeholder pressure and involvement, training, leadership commitment, governance arrangements and technological capability. The main barriers include high upfront costs, restricted finance, fragmented regulation, insufficient professional competence, low awareness, cultural resistance and weak stakeholder engagement. The results reveal an imbalanced distribution of attention across ESG dimensions. Governance emerges as the most visible, appearing in 62.5% of the reviewed sources. Environmental follows with 55.0%. Social receives the least attention, at only 32.5%. The article identifies a persistent translation failure between ESG adoption and its operational implementation across organisational and project-related contexts. The findings contribute to understanding ESG implementation as an institutionally conditioned and capability-dependent process and offer implications for project managers, organisations and policymakers.