From financial performance to sustainable development: A great evolution and an endless debate

Abstract

The concept of ‘Performance’ is one of the most used words, both in the academic and professional spheres, due to its importance in all fields. In addition to its very high frequency of use, its definition is polysemous. This paper aims to focus on the surrounding of the performance, by listing several definitions and tracing its evolution over time. This paper also proposes the treatment of performance in all its facets, from the financial one to the global and sustainable one, and by highlighting the complementary aspect of the different approaches of treatment of this concept. To do this, we were interested in articles and books referenced in the Scopus, Cairn, Electre and Google Scholar databases, and we selected the scientific production between 1960 and 2020, which deals with either the definition or the link between the concepts ‘Performance’, ‘CSR’, ‘CSP’ and ‘Sustainable Development’, to synthesize them in this article following a chronological and logical order. This article is intended as a synthetic guide for any researcher or professional interested in the concept of performance, since it traces its evolution and its ramifications through the highlighting of the complementarity and the relevant use of this concept.