Do institutional investors drive corporate transparency regarding business contribution to the sustainable development goals?

Institutional investors show increasing interest in how companies align their corporate social responsibility strategies with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations (UN). The information disclosed in this regard is essential to know and monitor business contribution to the 2030 Agenda. In this paper, we analyze the influence that institutional investors have on the adoption of the disclosure strategy established by UN and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)—GRI‐SDG Compass. The results obtained for a sample of 989 international companies, which prepare their sustainability reports following the GRI guidelines, show that ownership by foreign investors, pension funds, and “other” investors boosts the relevance of the information disclosed in relation to the 2030 Agenda. On the contrary, government, financial institutions, and cross holdings have no impact on the information systems developed.     

Analyzing companies' interactions with the Sustainable Development Goals through network analysis: Four corporate sustainability imperatives

The alignment between corporate strategies and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be an indicator of long-term sustainability success. But which types of companies are most, and which are least, aligned with the SDGs? This paper scores how 67 economic activities—as a proxy for companies' operations and the goods or services they deliver—interact with 59 SDG targets. It then uses network analysis to define which activities are most and least aligned with the SDG Agenda. The results reveal four types of corporate activities, each having a strategic sustainability imperative: (i) “core activities” predominantly generate positive, while having few negative, impacts on the SDGs, challenging companies to scale their contributions to further align with the SDG Agenda; (ii) “mixed activities” have moderate/high degrees of both negative/positive impacts, posing a decoupling imperative; (iii) “opposed activities” provide few benefits yet cause significant adverse impacts, implying that companies must transform in order to better align with the SDGs; and (iv) “peripheral activities” have immaterial positive and negative impacts, creating an imperative to explore innovative avenues for creating SDG contributions. Detailed network graphs are presented that map companies' interactions with the SDGs and guide the creation of corporate sustainability strategies. Policy implications include the potential for using companies' activities as a lever for adopting a “nexus approach” to the SDGs.     

Connecting strategic orientation,innovation strategy,and corporate sustainability: A model for sustainable development through stakeholder engagement

This paper aims to enhance our understanding of the relationship between organizations' strategic orientation (i.e., instrumental, equidistant, and stewardship) and their innovational strategy (i.e., organizational ambidexterity and open innovation), and this relationship's influence on their sustainability performance. We expected organizations' strategic orientation to influence their innovational strategy and exhibit better corporate sustainability. We focused on 12 different multinational organizations in the Eurozone and found that inbound open innovation acts as a driver for corporate sustainability while simultaneously positively enabling organizations to pursue both financial and social initiatives. After suggesting open innovation as a new corporate sustainability antecedent, we only found empirical evidence of inbound open innovation. However, we would suggest that if organizations incorporated outbound open innovation in their strategy, they could likely improve their corporate sustainability. Also, we found that achieving an equidistant or stewardship orientation paves the way for sustainability to become an integral part of an organization's innovational culture and actualizes the organization's strategic behavior. Our findings further contribute to a deeper understanding of organizations' characteristics as their sustainability commitment grows and as they move from an instrumental to a stewardship orientation and implement an open innovational strategy.     

Microfoundations of companies' dynamic capabilities for environmentally sustainable innovation: Case study insights from high‐tech innovation in science‐based companies

To achieve sustainable development, companies are increasingly putting an emphasis on the creation and the promotion of environmentally sustainable innovations. Environmentally sustainable innovation often involves a significant shift in a new strategic direction. This paper studies this shift from a dynamic capabilities perspective and aims to identify the microfoundations of science‐based companies' dynamic capabilities for high‐tech environmentally sustainable innovations. It investigates the development of high‐tech environmentally sustainable innovations in two distinctive science‐based companies. To scholars, this study provides an in‐depth process analysis, over time, of how and why microfoundations of dynamic capabilities influence the development of a science‐based company's high‐tech environmentally sustainable innovations. To practitioners in science‐based firms, this process study can function as a frame of reference, enabling the tailoring of a strategy for high‐tech environmentally sustainable innovation.     

Industry 4.0, innovation,and sustainable development: A systematic review and a roadmap to sustainable innovation

Despite the recent interest in the Industry 4.0 applications for sustainability, little is known on the processes through which digital transformation and Industry 4.0 technologies enable sustainable innovation in manufacturing. The present study addresses this knowledge gap by developing a strategic roadmap that explains how businesses can leverage Industry 4.0 technologies to introduce sustainability into innovative practices. For this purpose, the study conducts a systematic review of extant literature to identify Industry 4.0 functions for sustainable innovation and applies interpretive structural modeling to devise the promised roadmap. The results offer interesting insights into Industry 4.0 applications for sustainable innovation. The strategic roadmap developed reveals that Industry 4.0 enables sustainable innovation through 11 functions. Industry 4.0 and the underlying digital technologies and principles allow businesses to improve interfunctional collaboration and better integrate with internal and external stakeholders. Industry 4.0 further improves the knowledge base and advanced manufacturing competency and promotes organizational capabilities valuable to sustainable innovation such as green absorptive capacity, sustainable partnership, and sustainable innovation orientation. Through these functions, Industry 4.0 subsequently enhances green process innovation capacity and the ability to develop or reintroduce eco-friendly products economically and competitively. Overall, the roadmap explains the complex precedence relationships among the 11 sustainable innovation functions of Industry 4.0, offering important implications for businesses that seek to leverage Industry 4.0 sustainability implications and manage sustainable development.     

Interactive effects of brand reputation and ESG on green bond issues: A sustainable development perspective

This paper shows that brand reputation alone may not be sufficient to help firms successfully issue green bonds and that they may need superior corporate social responsibility performance in the form of high ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) scores to unlock the full potential of their brand reputation. Using a sample of 338 international green bond issues across 108 unique firms, we found significant positive effects of ESG disclosure score and its interaction brand reputation on the issuance of green bonds while controlling for other variables, such as fixed effects of industry, region, and time. We also show that it is the S (Social) component of ESG and the interactions of its E (Environmental) and G (Governance) components with brand reputation which drive successful green bond issuance. Besides extending the current research on the impact of brand reputation and ESG on green bonds, these results also have important managerial implications for analysts, fund managers, and firms planning to raise green capital.     

Sustainabilty integration in product portfolio for sustainable development: Findings from the industry

Many companies decide which services, products, and technologies to include in their product portfolio using evaluation criteria, which often consider cost, quality, risk, revenue, time, and market position. Incorporating sustainability in the portfolio evaluation criteria could ensure the development of sustainable solutions from the early stages of the product development process, where there is more room for innovation. The aim of this paper is to understand how sustainability can be integrated in the company portfolio development. Semi-structured interviews were performed with experts in the field and representatives from multinational manufacturing companies with operations in Sweden. Main findings from this study include a proposed definition of a sustainability product portfolio concept and suggested portfolio evaluation criteria from an industry perspective. Future research will develop a method to guide manufacturing companies in sustainability integration and implementation in product portfolios.     

A sustainable governance model to prevent corporate corruption: Integrating anticorruption practices,corporate strategy and business processes

Our paper investigates the integration of anticorruption practices, corporate strategy and business processes of contemporary organisations to provide a new and emerging sustainable governance model. Using the single case study approach to answer our research question, we provide novel evidence from the analysis of the Italian manufacturing company Acciai Speciali Terni Spa. Our case study interprets a consolidated entrepreneurial experience, constructing an integrated meta‐management framework of anticorruption practices. Enriching existing literature, we have adopted the frameworks by Asif et al., (2010) and Asif et al., (2011) to test results and obtain general perspectives and practical implications for organisations, regulators and governments, proposing a sustainable governance model to prevent corruption and bribery.     

科学发展观与资源型城市可持续发展

认为资源型城市是我国城市职能体系中的一种重要的城市类型,在我国社会经济建设过程中曾做出了重大的贡献.然而,由于其自身发展的特征以及知识经济、信息经济和经济全球化等新的经济形态和经济现象的出现,资源型城市面临着较为严重的经济、社会、生态可持续发展问题.在分析资源型城市的发展特征、新经济时代资源型城市所面临的可持续发展问题的基础上,提出了以科学发展观为指导的资源型城市可持续发展的对策措施.     

Can sustainable investments outperform traditional benchmarks? Evidence from global stock markets

To contribute to overcoming global sustainability challenges, investors have been increasingly interested in making sustainable investments and incorporating environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into their portfolio selection decisions and managerial activities. However, these investors and other agents interested in sustainable investment need updated and robust information to support their decision making. We analyzed the performance of several Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSIs) and compared them with their respective market benchmarks from 2013 to 2018. The indices comprise the following regions and countries: the world, the Asia‐Pacific, Europe, emerging markets and the US. The analysis was conducted based on both classic and modern portfolio metrics. The results suggest that sustainable investment performance is still heterogeneous worldwide, but there is a promising opportunity for investors to obtain superior risk‐adjusted returns in certain regions while incorporating sustainable investment practices. The findings are of utmost importance to financial market practitioners, business managers, academics and other stakeholders interested in promoting investments, corporate practices and scientific knowledge to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).     

COVID-19, ESG investing,and the resilience of more sustainable stocks: Evidence from European firms

Following the COVID-19 outbreak, orientation toward sustainability is a critical factor in ensuring firm survival and growth. Using a large sample of 1,204 firms in Europe during the year 2020, this study investigates how more sustainable firms fare during the pandemic compared with other firms in terms of risk–return trade-off and stock market liquidity. We also highlight the drivers of the resilience of more sustainable firms to the pandemic. Particularly, we document that higher levels of cash holdings and liquid assets in the pre-COVID period help these firms to perform and absorb the COVID-19 externalities better than other firms. Our results are robust to a host of econometric models, including GMM estimations and several measures of stock market performance. These findings contribute to the theoretical and empirical debate on the role of the sustainability as a source of corporate resilience to unexpected shocks.     

城市胁迫发展理论--城市可持续发展的生态学视角

将生态学的胁迫概念引入到城市的可持续发展领域中,探讨了城市的供应系统、生产系统、消费系统在面临资源、能源以及环境不足时产生的胁迫调整规律.同时对胁迫调整的作用力进行了分析,并进一步提出了城市胁迫发展的概念,对其核心问题进行了细致的阐述,从而为解决城市的可持续发展提供了一条行之有效的发展模式.     

Managing healthcare waste for sustainable environmental development: A hybrid decision approach

Healthcare waste management (HCWM) has become the most concerned issue for hospitals to enhance their environmental performance while reducing the waste disposal costs. The present study aims to standardize the evaluation criteria for the stakeholders to ensure sustainable environmental development by safe disposal of infectious healthcare waste (HCW). The present study applied the fuzzy-Delphi method to scrutinize the criteria identified from the literature and experts' opinions and resulted in 20 subcriteria under the following six main dimensions: experience, relationship, environmental factors, technology and qualification, economic factors, and firm's capabilities. Further, this study proposed a hybrid approach based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) under fuzzy environment to analyze the importance and interrelationships of these listed criteria. The study also showed that the experts have given approximately 70% weightage to three main criteria: firms' capabilities, economic factors, and technology and qualification. The implications of the study would help the healthcare administration and Pollution Control Boards to prepare check sheets for recording HCWM practices and, hence, contribute to sustainable environmental development in an efficient way. Understanding the prioritized cause-group criteria would further protect hospitals' environment from the spread of infection caused by the HCW in the long run.     

从可持续发展价值观透析城市生态化

可持续发展价值观本质上是一种创新发展观,生存发展危机本质上是价值观异化的危机.随着社会的发展,城市已经成为人类最主要的栖息地,也是社会变迁的决定因素,城市化促使社会各个系统进行调整与转变,致使其传统的价值观失去原有的合理性.城市生态化是人类可持续发展的必然选择.     

关于我国城市可持续发展的几点思考

在全球和区域视角下,对城市可持续发展进行了理性思考,并提出以下观点:统筹城乡发展,实现城乡协调化;发展城市群,实现经济发展的集约化;建立不同尺度的区域循环产业,实现城市发展的生态化;建设道路通讯网络,实现要素的流动化;划分重点区域,实现城市与区域发展的协调化;完善社会保障体系,实现市民社会等观点.     

Leveraging STARA competencies and green creativity to boost green organisational innovative evidence: A praxis for sustainable development

Radical technological advancements and the relentless progression of climate change compel organisations to ensure their workforce consistently exercise their creativity toward innovative green initiatives. These endeavours are essential to achieve the United Nations' (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs). To do so, organisations require competencies fundamental to smart technologies, artificial intelligence, robotics and algorithms (STARA). STARA competencies are relevant for leaders to bolster green organisational innovative evidence (GOIE). GOIE can help to attract potential investors keen on advancing the UN's SDG agenda on environmental sustainability. However, eclipsed by a volatile environment, and despite the green innovation potential of several manufacturing organisations, investors are reluctant to invest and commit funds without evidence of green innovation. We therefore, investigate how leader STARA competence (LSC), green creativity components (task motivation, creativity skills and expertise) and environmental dynamism can aid organisations to boost their GOIE. Our key findings are as follows: (a) though green task motivation shows a stronger association with green creativity skills, LSC has a large influence on green creativity skills; (b) green creativity skills exert a strong influence on GOIE while also playing a competitive and complimentary mediating role in our model and (c) environmental dynamism is negatively associated with green creativity skills and GOIE. Furthermore, to validate indirect (v) effects size in mediation analysis, we propose a new and more approachable benchmark for v effect size estimations. Organisational and environmental policy implications are discussed.     

Barriers to sustainability for small and medium enterprises in the framework of sustainable development—Literature review

The objective of this article is to analyze the barriers faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) when implementing initiatives for sustainable development. For this purpose, a search equation was designed, and the 50 highest cited articles from the search results in Scopus between years 2013 and 2017 were reviewed. The selected criteria for the article analysis were article name, article year, country, continent, journal, Scimago Journal Rank, Scimago Quartiles, Affiliated Universities, abstract, and keywords. Among the main results, 175 barriers to sustainability for SMEs were identified. The barriers that appeared most frequently were lack of resources, the high initial capital cost of implementing sustainability measures, and lack of expertise. At the end of the article, a proposal is included which shows the 175 identified barriers, classified by “sector,” “sustainability tool,” and “internal/external” which can aid in new qualitative and quantitative studies of barriers to sustainability in SMEs.     

The political bottom line: the emerging dimension to corporate responsibility for sustainable development

This paper explores the idea that businesses are being moved to proactively manage their political activities and influence in relation to their often‐expressed responsibility for promoting sustainable development, which we define as managing the ‘political bottom line’. We argue that three key drivers account for this shift: first, the growing criticism of voluntary corporate responsibility initiatives; second, the increasing awareness and targeting of corporate political activities, and third, a realization among certain corporate executives and financiers that, without changes to public policies, an individual company's own voluntary responsibility may not deliver sufficient commercial returns. We describe several initiatives on public policy dimensions of sustainable development, which indicate that some companies are beginning to manage their political power in light of societal concerns. In conclusion, we discuss the potential and limits of a ‘political bottom line’ concept by critiquing the mainstream triple bottom line discourse.Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.