<p>Over the last two decades, there has been a meteoric rise in academic interest in ESG research, which has gained significant relevance in policymakers' agendas, investment decisions, and asset allocation strategies. Despite the growing corpus of research and its significance, it has received insufficient attention in terms of conducting a comprehensive review. Drawing on the hybrid review of the framework, which includes the TCCM approach and Thematic evaluation, this research aims to offer a thorough comprehension of the major themes, prevailing theories, contexts (i.e., sectors and countries), characteristics (i.e., key variables and their relationships) and methodology (i.e., analysis techniques) utilized in ESG research over the past five decades. We retrieve all the documents containing the pertinent keywords associated with ESG in the title, abstract, and keywords available in Scopus. To present an overview of the most significant research, our study centers on the most cited documents to delve into the methodological approaches and key findings. The findings indicate that researchers continue to work in silos and concentrate on specific themes. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to provide a thorough analysis of research on ESG from diverse perspectives. The findings shed light on certain existing gaps in the current body of literature, which may serve as a guide for future investigations. Therefore, this study is expected to offer researchers interested in investigating ESG to unearth a wealth of valuable information.</p>