Page 92 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

Rajni Bala, Sandeep Singh, Kiran Sood and Simon Grima : Sustainable Finance and Investment
Analytics: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis Approach

interdisciplinary academic literature. The decision to rely solely on Dimensions was
driven by its inclusive indexing of journals related to finance, sustainability, and
analytical sciences, as well as its compatibility with systematic screening tools.
A keyword-driven search strategy was employed to retrieve literature relevant to the
intersection of sustainability and finance. Keywords were selected to reflect the
evolving terminology in the field and included: "sustainability”, “finance", and
“investment,".
The search was restricted to:
• Peer-reviewed journal articles
• English language publications
• Publication period: 2019–2025
• Academic studies focusing on finance or investment with explicit
consideration of sustainability metrics
Once the initial pool of 2,792 articles was generated, automated filters removed 525
records deemed ineligible due to outdated publication dates or indexing anomalies.
The remaining 2,267 articles were manually reviewed based on titles and abstracts,
using relevance to sustainable finance as the primary screening criterion. Articles that
did not explore financial aspects (e.g., purely environmental impact assessments or
CSR-focused papers without financial metrics) were discarded.
This process resulted in a refined dataset of 387 studies, which formed the foundational
literature for thematic analysis. Out of these, 77 studies were selected for detailed
evaluation and statistical synthesis. These papers were drawn directly from the Excel
file you provided and included empirical studies, meta-analyses, systematic reviews,
and analytical model papers.
Data Extraction Process
The primary database used for this systematic review was Dimensions, selected for
its extensive and multidisciplinary coverage of scholarly publications across finance,
economics, and sustainability sciences. A structured search strategy was employed
using a combination of targeted keywords, including “sustainability”, finance” and
“investment analytics”. To maintain academic rigour and relevance, the search was
restricted to peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2019 and 2025 and
written in English. This comprehensive search initially yielded a total of 2,792
records. Subsequently, the PRISMA framework was applied to conduct a systematic
and transparent screening process, ensuring the identification of high-quality and
thematically relevant literature.
Selection of Studies
From the pool of eligible records, a structured data extraction process was undertaken
to collect relevant information for analysis systematically. The extracted data included

92