Lighting the path to sustainable development: The impact of sustainability disclosure, corporate tax, and economic growth

•Global development has taken a new dimension with emphasis on addressing sustainable development in conjunction with economic growth and development.•This research aims to explore how well the current level of sustainability disclosure, corporate responsibility (tax), and economic growth in an emerging economy is positioned to help accomplish the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) based on the latest version of the globally accepted GRI-2022 environmental disclosure standard.•The study revealed a weak economic growth moderated effect for both sustainability disclosure and corporate tax on sustainable development.•Meaningful and inconsequential connection subsists on sustainable development for corporate tax and sustainability reporting.•The study endorses sustainability education and mandatory environmental disclosure together with the reduction in corporate tax as a means of strengthening their influences on sustainable development. Global development has taken a new dimension with emphasis on addressing sustainable development in conjunction with economic growth and development. The prime consideration of this research work is geared towards exploring how well the current level of sustainability disclosure, corporate responsibility (tax), and economic growth in an emerging economy is positioned to help accomplish the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) based on the latest version of the globally accepted GRI-2022 environmental disclosure standard. The model of this research work was constructed on the moderated association of economic growth amongst sustainability reporting, corporate tax, and sustainable development, taking cognizance of voluntary disclosure, contingency, and institutional theoretical frameworks. Based on a 15-year period of data spanning 2009–2023, the economy’s formal and informal sectors formed the dataset of this study with a total of 115,258,984 businesses. In our model, corporate responsibility (tax) and humanity (control variable) have also been introduced to know the extent of corporate and human influence on sustainable development. The study revealed a weak economic growth moderated effect for both sustainability disclosure and corporate tax on sustainable development. More so, that a vital, meaningful, and inconsequential connection subsists on sustainable development for corporate tax and sustainability reporting. Due to these weak affiliations, the study endorses sustainability education and mandatory en