With the integration of sustainable development into all aspects of the economy, politics, society, culture, and ecology, the effectiveness and innovation of enterprises in sustainability have become global research issues. Internal control affects the current operation and management as the main means for enterprises to maintain normal production and operation and prevent risks. Therefore, it is closely related to the future development of enterprises. This study uses 84 papers from Web of Science to systematically trace the determinants of enterprise sustainability using Vosviewer software and the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) as a manifestation of internal control to analyze the role and controversies of internal control in the process of enterprise sustainable strategic planning. The results show that internal control has, on the one hand, positive effects on enterprise sustainability by improving the quality of financial information, derived effects, and spillover effects. However, on the other hand, internal control can be detrimental to enterprise sustainability by increasing compliance costs and legal liabilities. This study points out opportunities and directions for improving enterprise internal control regulation and empirical research in response to such results. Finally, this study provides implications for enterprises seeking to achieve a sustainable level of development regarding the proper implementation of internal controls, as well as avenues for further research.

The mixed ownership reform aims to improve the performance of firms, which is important for optimizing the overall economic layout and promoting firms to sustainable development. Therefore, an important issue is whether state ownership participation in private firms improves their performance in the context of the mixed ownership reform. This study investigates whether and how state ownership participation affects the performance of private firms using Chinese listed private firms from 2010 to 2020. The results of this study indicate that state ownership participation significantly eliminates the performance of private firms. Further results show that there is a U‐shaped relationship between the mixed ownership model and the performance of private firms. At the same time, firm transparency and financing constraints play a negative moderating role in the relationship between the mixed ownership model and the performance of private firms. The findings of this study enrich the literature on factors influencing the performance of private firms, provide empirical evidence for mixed ownership reforms in China, and further reveal the characteristics of Chinese accounting practices and the logical rules behind the operation of these practices.