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Circular economy (CE) has garnered increasing attention in political circles and practitioner literature thanks to its potential to overcome the harmful consequences of linear patterns of growth. Nonetheless, the adoption of sustainable practices entails a holistic approach requiring businesses to make significant changes to their production, technologies and stakeholder management. These challenges resulted in limited progress in terms of the practical implementation of CE. This paper addresses the need for more literature focused on the pragmatic aspects of applying this paradigm to incumbent firms. The author presents the journey that Lucart S.p.A., a major European tissue paper manufacturer, has undertaken between 2014 and 2020 to apply CE principles to its practices. Insights from the transformation process, reconstructed through interviews with the firm's management and environmental impact data, suggest that to succeed it takes innovating (plants, products and marketing strategies) and setting up supply chains that reconcile environmental and economic sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The third and fourth papers shift the focus from the companies' internal dynamics to those concerning the relationships that companies must operate with external stakeholders to implement circular business models. Finally, the fifth and sixth papers further shift the focus on the business model concept towards the business ecosystems, which include all the other stakeholders in the organizational environment that concur to the circular business model operations. Circular business models explicitly link the business model to the product life-cycle (Hansen et al., 2009) and are a vehicle to slow and/or close (additionally also narrowing) resource cycles (Bocken et al., 2016). Through a multiple case study involving three large Swedish manufacturing companies, the paper develops a circular business model implementation framework composed of two parts. [Extracted from the article]

Recently, business models for environmental sustainability have gained increasing attention in the management field and among practitioners and stakeholders. This study aims to analyse the state of the art on the topic by reviewing the growing but mainly phenomenon‐driven research. In particular, by identifying main research trends and relevant gaps in the literature and by providing future research avenues, this paper advances the debate on the need for alternative concepts of doing business that go beyond the creation of economic value for a company in a way that generates value for the society. Our article undertakes two stages of screening the available literature and selects 151 peer‐reviewed articles published between 2007 and early 2019 for the review. The paper provides the first comprehensive systematic review of business models in the field of environmental sustainability with a detailed descriptive and critical analysis and with a discussion of future research opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How the export strategy affects corporate environmental performance (CEP) is an integral part of trade and environmental issue. This paper investigates the impact of the go‐with‐the‐flow export strategy on CEP during the period 2000 to 2013 by the Chinese Industrial Firms Green Production Emissions Database and the China Customs Database. The study shows that the go‐with‐the‐flow export strategy increases firms' pollution emissions, that is, the more the firms follow the market, the higher their SO2 emission intensity. However, this environmental degradation effect is only found in small and domestic‐owned firms. Furthermore, this study finds that the go‐with‐the‐flow export strategy could lead to a conservative production strategy and low survival pressure, which makes firms shortsighted in terms of less investment in clean innovation and sustainable production. Based on these empirical results, the government should reduce firms' cost of clean innovation and ameliorate the problem of market information asymmetry. Such efforts would allow firms to devote more resources to sustainable production rather than information gathering. In addition, environmental regulations should go hand in hand with the promotion of green technology to avoid the expelling effect of regulation and for firms' sustainable production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of drivers in the development of eco‐innovation from a system dynamics perspective. While previous literature has made important contributions in identifying factors that influence the development of eco‐innovations, there remains limited understanding of how these drivers act and interact in promoting its development. Therefore, there is a need to develop a framework of relationships and drivers that encourage and support eco‐innovation in companies. This paper develops an integrated framework encompassing key internal, market and governmental factors and their complex interactions using principles of system dynamics and machine learning to address this gap. The research questions how these drivers interact in a dynamic and non‐linear manner to influence the development of eco‐innovation in companies and how can these interactions be effectively modelled and understood, considering the complexities of sustainable business practices and the limitations of traditional linear approaches. We empirically test these questions by using the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel database. The findings demonstrate that eco‐innovation is not solely driven by isolated factors; instead, it emerges from the complex interplay between internal capabilities, governmental policies and market dynamics. By emphasising the synergistic effects of these drivers, the research offers a nuanced understanding of their systemic interactions. Furthermore, our analysis highlights the varying efficiency levels of different drivers, underscoring the pivotal role of environmental corporate policies and the strategic allocation of financial resources. In contrast, cooperation, market forces and regulations exhibit lower efficiency in driving eco‐innovation processes. These insights not only advance theoretical knowledge but also provide valuable guidance for businesses and policymakers, offering a more holistic approach to fostering sustainable innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, scholars have extensively investigated the topic of leadership, contributing to the development of diverse leadership theories and contemporary managerial practice. However, the emergence and renewed focus on societal grand challenges warrant an alternative approach to leadership such as sustainability leadership. Despite the critical importance of sustainability leadership in addressing these global concerns, scholarly research in this field of inquiry, by and large, remained scant and fragmented, lacking conceptual coherence and theoretical integration. While the existing literature provides insights into sustainability leadership characteristics, competencies, behaviors, and actions, it failed to integrate a holistic understanding of how these aspects are connected and affect each other. Accordingly, the purpose of this review paper is to provide conceptual synthesis and critical appraisal of the extant literature on sustainability leadership. Drawing on a systems theory perspective on paradox, we developed an integrative multilevel sustainability leadership framework, which demonstrates the linkages between individual‐level mechanisms (micro), organizational‐level mechanisms (meso), and societal context (macro). The framework explicates the key underlying mechanisms of sustainability leadership functioning embedded in paradoxical tensions to address complex and multifaceted sustainability issues. The paper concludes by offering implications for research and managerial practice and avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a stakeholder perspective to study tensions in hybrid organizations (HOs). In this study, we investigate social enterprises (SEs) as emblematic cases of HO. The paper responds to literature that calls for studies about the interactions with stakeholders and proposes the relational paths SEs can implement to alleviate the emerging tensions between environmental–social and business goals. It also contributes to the academic debate offering empirical evidence on HO‐related tensions. Solving these tensions is beneficial for HOs and in terms of sustainable development. The paper presents a longitudinal case study of a leading SE in the fair trade industry. Fair trade represents an industry where economic, social, and environmental goals may be jointly achieved through the action of SEs. The main paper's contributions regard a stakeholders‐generated view of tensions and the identification of stakeholders‐tailored solutions to managing them. In addition, the proposed ad hoc approach contributes to a deeper understanding of how an SE deals with its hybrid nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though resilience and sustainability are the two overarching strategic goals of contemporary supply chain management, very few studies have investigated the relationship between resilience and sustainability practices. To increase our theoretical understanding of this important relationship, this paper examines the extent to which supply chain managers perceive tensions and complementarities between both sets of practices. Using a paradox theory lens, the paper conducted in‐depth interviews with 31 supply chain managers in Western Europe and the Middle East that reveal a complex and multifaceted relationship. Namely, our findings indicate that some supply chain managers perceive the relationship as conflictive, others as synergistic, whereas a third group sees them as fundamentally orthogonal to each other. Furthermore, our findings uncover specific perceived complementarities and tension areas. Taken together, in responding to calls for research on the topic, our findings contribute to the advancement of theory regarding supply chain resilience and supply chain sustainability practices and address the need to shed more light on the tensions faced by supply chain managers when implementing distinct sets of supply chain practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing literature on paradox theory in corporate sustainability (CS), there is a lack of systematic analyses of both the antecedents and the maintenance of the active strategy for managing paradoxical tensions. This systematic literature review examines the individual, organisational and inter‐organisational antecedents, hereinafter roots of paradoxes (RPs), behind the active strategies aimed at managing paradoxical tensions in CS. The paper also analyses the active and defensive strategies used to manage paradoxical tensions at the organisational level, considering the role of both organisational strategic levels (corporate, business, tactical and operational) and inter‐organisational relationships. This review provides an integrative framework of the individual, organisational and inter‐organisational RPs and practices favouring the adoption of active strategies for managing paradoxical tensions. The analysis of the dynamics of transition from active to defensive strategies also highlights that the long‐term implementation of the active strategy requires its stratification within the organisational strategic levels. This study contributes to the literature on paradox theory in CS by understanding the mechanisms that sustain active management. Managerial implications are also illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this conceptual paper, we examine current theories of natural capital approach implementation and identify areas where further research is needed to help humanity live within planetary boundaries. Natural capital and ecosystem service approaches offer an advanced understanding of Earth's life‐support systems and their interaction with human well‐being at multiple scales, particularly organizations. The insights they offer are present in conservation and accounting literature but are not yet reflected in corporate environmental sustainability literature, a gap this paper seeks to bridge. Without considering scale, it is difficult to understand how micro (individual) and meso (organizational or national) actions contribute to global goals (planetary boundaries). We suggest a multi‐level natural capital implementation framework for corporate environmental sustainability and explain how it can advance natural capital implementation by including scoping and monitoring phases and increasing awareness of natural resource dependencies and how it advances multi‐level environmental management theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to assess small and medium‐sized enterprises' (SMEs') readiness to initiate a mature dialogue with stakeholders in the exceptional context of a strategic crisis, when information on business model sustainability has become universally material for all stakeholders. A quantitative study is carried out by developing a business model content analysis and applying it to a data sample of 109 manufacturing SMEs in Italy with annual revenues ranging from €10 to €50 million. After analyzing the literature on SMEs stakeholder communication and arguing the conflicting influences of stakeholder and legitimacy motivations in the context of a strategic crisis, three hypotheses are tested by collecting data from annual reports. Despite increased stakeholder expectations, the level of communication was limited to a minimum amount of information, demonstrating no relationship with the firms' relative size and proving a prominent influence of legitimacy motivations, with a specific relevance of legal pressures. Under the stress of the crisis, all SMEs, particularly those that were strategically and financially vulnerable, provided extremely limited information, demonstrating the tendency to conceal strategic risks and the difficulties in engaging in mature dialogue with stakeholders. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first quantitative study focusing on unlisted SMEs' sustainability communication. The paper contributes to the policymaker debate on the possibility of extending the current legal obligation on sustainability reporting and transparency to smaller businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounting has been identified as a key area to inform managers seeking to transform businesses towards sustainability. Empirical research, however, shows that management accountants are scarcely involved in sustainability accounting. This paper contributes to understanding their barriers, using path dependence theory as a theoretical framework to empirically investigate how accountants have become "locked in" by self‐reinforcing mechanisms. Based on semistructured interviews with 33 management accountants in Germany, the paper identifies three interrelated self‐reinforcing mechanisms that inhibit accountants from sustainability involvement. A strong focus on financial priorities and incremental improvements driven by top management expectations hinder the consideration of sustainability beyond its direct costs. Specialization is another barrier, as is an understanding of sustainability as peripheral rather than a core business. Contrary to prior literature, accountants express eagerness to learn, though rarely about sustainability. They rarely question assumptions about sustainability and their role, leading to missed opportunities for double‐loop learning and more transformative change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the backbone of the national innovation system, enterprises are the key drivers of economic development and environmental sustainability. However, at the microlevel, research in this area is lacking, as attention is paid on the comprehensive capabilities of top managers, industrial heterogeneity, and heterogeneous green innovation (GI), including inventive innovation and utility innovation. Based on Upper Echelons Theory, this paper constructs a research framework to explore and empirically analyze the specific impact of managerial capacity (MA) of top managers, as "gatekeepers" of enterprise decision‐making, on the heterogeneous enterprise GI, as well as its potential mechanism. Our results shows that (1), overall, MA can significantly promote GI of enterprises. Interestingly, compared with green strategic innovation, managerial capacity has a greater effect on green inventive innovation; (2) based on industrial heterogeneity, in heavy‐polluting industries, managerial capacity is more likely to promote green strategic innovation rather than green inventive innovation; (3) further analysis shows that enterprise value, internal control quality, and financing constraints are important mechanisms; and (4) the moderating effect of external environment shows that to some extent either the regional marketization level or management capabilities can drive GI. This paper has practical implications for policymakers and corporate managers adopting the management heterogeneity perspective and suggests areas for future studies in this field to promote green low‐carbon transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low‐carbon sustainable development is considered an essential strategy for achieving economic growth and environmental protection, requiring a fundamental transformation of the industrial structure, including developing clean technologies, promoting energy efficiency, and adopting sustainable production and consumption patterns. Simultaneously, the evolving digital economy is acknowledged as an essential driver in optimizing the industrial structure. Therefore, can digital economy development reshape the industrial structure and lead to low‐carbon sustainable development? The main purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of industrial structure upgrading in the relationship between the digital economy and low‐carbon development. Its ultimate purpose is to explore more possible paths to achieve low‐carbon development. This paper builds a regression model based on the data of cities. We found that digital economic development can directly promote low‐carbon sustainable development, a conclusion that still holds after endogeneity discussion and robustness testing. Additionally, digital economy development can promote industrial structure upgrading and thus promote low‐carbon sustainable development, meaning that industrial structure upgrading is an effective mechanism for digital economy development to promote low‐carbon sustainable development. This paper provides empirical evidence for the positive environmental externalities of digital economic development and establishes a basic research framework of "digital economic development → industrial structure upgrading → low‐carbon sustainable development." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe, micro‐firms contribute significantly to both the economy and the environmental impact on ecosystems. Helping them become greener and stimulating innovation toward new sustainable and circular solutions could substantially contribute to the European goal of achieving carbon neutrality and environmental sustainability, as promoted by the European Green Deal and Next Generation EU programs. Nevertheless, eco‐innovation (EI) by micro‐firms is studied little in the literature. In this paper, we analyze the main determinants of conventional and EI adoption by micro‐firms. We used an ad‐hoc survey developed for enterprises in Emilia‐Romagna (Italy), an important region in terms of innovation where micro‐firms play a significant role in the economy. The paper analyzes whether human capital, training, R&D activities, collaboration activities to improve learning, and the environmental culture within the firm act as main determinants of innovation adoption, in addition to other standard drivers and barriers to innovation adoption studied in the extant literature. Moreover, we compare innovation adoption strategies between micro‐firms and SMEs. While our results highlight differences in the determinants of EI and conventional innovation adoption, there are important heterogeneities when it comes to innovation adoption strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theoretical foundation of (sustainable) supply chain management (SSCM) is an issue of frequent debate. Integrating it with the Global Production Networks (GPN), which is a kind of stepsibling, can help expanding the theoretical foundations of SSCM. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the GPN approach links to SSCM in analysing and explaining interorganizational sustainability. This paper is conceptual. Five central GPN constructs are identified: (1) the emerging supply chain structures and sustainability; (2) the importance and relevance of embeddedness and governance; (3) power dynamics; (4) the stakeholder approach; (5) the sustainability dimensions and the implementation strategies. They are explained in detail and then contrasted with how the related topics are dealt within SSCM. The paper provides insights into the ongoing discussions in GPN and integrates the political economy debate into SSCM research. Findings reveal that GPN offers an alternative and yet complementary explanation about network and cluster formation in supply chains, the effect of embeddedness (geopolitical, social, and cultural) power relationships and governance mechanisms and their role in implementing ecological and social sustainability across the supply chains. The comparison of these complementary disciplines allows for the exchange of ideas between the SSCM and GPN approaches, thereby providing an enriched understanding for managing supply chain sustainability. The selective comparison of the SSCM and GPN constructs is the first of its kind and should trigger further research at this intersection. Five propositions capture core directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper combines theoretical sustainable business models and conflict indices in making practical sustainable (i.e., participatory decisions involving economic, social, and environmental features within weak or strong sustainability paradigms) and rational (i.e., informed and consistent decisions within substantive or instrumental rationality) decisions with respect to what, who, where, when, and how to act. The case study, focused on an offshore gas platform, identified when (i.e., the end as opposed to the beginning of extraction activities) and where (i.e., the economic, social, and environmental contexts of the Adriatic Sea in Abruzzo region, Italy). A face‐to‐face questionnaire, submitted to stakeholders, produced the relative weights required by the tested sustainable business models (Lüdeke‐Freund et al., 2018), and it reached a conclusion about how (i.e., in favor of the majority as opposed to average decisions). An application of a linear conflict index (Fasth et al., 2018) highlighted a lack of stakeholders' representativeness and knowledge and solved these issues with a 50% increase of stakeholders involved and an additional discussion with originally invited stakeholders on specific topics, respectively. In summary, the methodology suggested in this paper produced a (strong) sustainable and (substantive) rational decision about what and who based on relative weights expressed by representative and informed stakeholders being engaged at the smallest cost and with the largest support. Thus, the contribution of this paper is twofold: Theoretically, choices among alternative sustainable businesses depend on the adopted sustainability paradigm, and practically, choices among alternative sustainable businesses should be identified according to the adopted sustainability paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Going public (or initial public offering IPO) is a corporate strategic decision for value enhancement. Underpricing is a phenomenon related to going public and has been studied from a purely financial perspective. In this paper, we investigate whether underpricing incorporates sustainability performance pre‐IPO by establishing an original linkage between underpricing and ESG factors before the firm's listing on stock markets. Using informational asymmetries and quality signaling frameworks, we track the journey of going public by Italian Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) from 2009 to 2017 and show how sustainability issues are incorporated into the IPO underpricing. We demonstrate that underpricing is strongly related to financial and sustainability variables only in the year just before the IPO, indicating better informational efficiency, quality signaling, and image‐improving practice. The post‐IPO stock return is less correlated with the firm's financial and ESG variables, suggesting that markets can incorporate such information into stock returns in the long run. This paper provides novel insights by delivering an original linkage between a firm's public listing attributes and sustainability performance, offering a temporal tracking of the SMEs before and after the IPO, emphasizing the role of sustainability in the IPO process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk management in the base of the pyramid (BoP) environment is needed to ensure that firms performance objectives are met. Accordingly, integrating sustainability performance measurement in the supply chain risk management would offer interesting avenues for managing risks in BoP supply chain. Therefore, the paper conceptualizes an intersection between supply chain risk/uncertainty management and sustainable performance measurement. This intersection is then tested by a literature review of 164 BoP SC articles between the years 2000 and 2022. Descriptive, frequency, and correlation analysis identify various risks factors studied in the BoP literature so far, their management strategies and respective performance measures. The findings show a broad strategical aspect of managing SC risks and proffered the tactical or operational level performance measures which along with these practices can manage the related risks. Therefore, their incorporation into the risk management process should be considered. The correlation findings highlight the important role of performance process measures and the impact of these along with the management practices on firm's performance outcomes. The study contributes to supply chain risk and performance management literature by capturing the nexus between BoP and supply chain management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food waste is a tremendous systemic challenge, mainly at all stages of consumption and the supply chain process. In recent years, the global food supply challenge has called for new methods to decrease food waste or recover them to more valuable materials. Indeed, understanding the techniques for reducing and recovering food waste provides insights into exploring the impact of waste food recovery on the environment. This paper aims to review the literature on food waste in production processes. Hence, we employ a bibliometric and thematic analysis to explore a total number of 163 scientific articles published between 2000 and 2021. The present research uses the theoretical model of circular economy to analyse the literature on the topic both thematically and with cluster analysis. The results provide significant implications for academics and practitioners, drawing attention to a closer relationship between people and food waste, increasing the culture of the value of waste in all processes from agricultural production to distribution and consumption. Finally, it reiterates the need to emphasise the pollution caused by food production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of developing sustainable business models has recently received increased interest in society and among scholars. While firms attempt to innovate their business models towards sustainability or create new businesses to address sustainability issues, it becomes clear that there is no one‐size‐fits‐all model when it comes to sustainable business models. Consequently, firms often struggle to identify, develop, and implement sustainable business models that suit them. This paper aims to address this problem by drawing on the wealth of recently published empirical studies and reviewing 87 cases where firms have performed business model innovation to achieve sustainable business models. Four main sustainable business models are identified that have been achieved through different business model innovation strategies. The review contributes to managers by offering a portfolio of strategies to achieve sustainable business models and to research by clarifying the relation between the business model innovation and sustainable business model concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the global economy not yet 10% circular, businesses are key stakeholders in designing new forms of resource use, especially large multinationals. However, compared with the wealth of studies on 'born sustainable' start‐ups, there is minimal case study or interview based research into how incumbent companies are approaching this transition. Focusing on plastics, we ask: how does one incumbent multinational company approach the circular economy transition? This paper presents a case study of the incumbent multinational chemical company Dow, a leading plastics manufacturer. Varied external stressors and drivers for the circular economy act upon a company (which also has its own imperatives), resulting in tentative steps towards circular economy. To date, these steps have tweaked the existing system rather than radically altering the business model. For companies, like for the entire global economy, this transition has only just begun. This paper identifies key drivers, enablers and barriers of the circular economy, none of which are fixed or immutable. Knowing which levers for change are available and effective could help policy makers to shift gear to enable quicker progress towards circularity. Overall, broad based support and engagement is needed to progress the circular economy, hence all stakeholders have roles to play in demanding and enacting circular practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This multidisciplinary paper examines the sustainability of supply chain partners from a foreignness perspective. The arguments draw from the research on institutional theory to explain the underlying mechanisms. We propose and discuss a comprehensive conceptual framework evaluating the relationships of foreignness to economic, social, and environmental sustainability. In addition, we consider contingent factors such as the level of development of supplier's nation, level of global integration of buyer, and type of industry, on sustainable development of focal firms. The direct and contingency frameworks introduced in this paper are presented along with research propositions that provide valuable insight into the sustainable supply chain management from the international business perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst the number of studies on sustainable purchasing and supply management (PSM), we have yet to learn how sustainability becomes a logic for organisations and their stakeholders. Thus, this paper offers an extended approach on the emergence of an institutional logic of sustainability (ILS). Our contribution includes the macro mechanisms supporting the robust and continuous adoption of an ILS for procurement. Three distinct trajectories of an ILS emerged from the literature, and their application to sustainable PSM is illustrated using real‐world examples. The trajectories rely upon the evolution of (1) institutional entrepreneurs or (2) PSM structures but also can happen through (3) the co‐evolution of both. By offering a conceptual model and a set of research propositions for future theory and empirical testing, this paper helps scholars and practitioners to advance their knowledge on managing purchasing departments according to sustainability values and making it a competitiveness factor. Lastly, this paper adds value to both implementation and formulation of sustainable business strategies as the application of our conceptual framework can lead to better strategic alignment of PSM practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the content and quality of circular economy (CE) and environmental information (CEEI) disclosure in sustainability reports. Additionally, it provides suggestions for heightening CEEI disclosure. Using the content analysis, we analysed the changes that took place after the European Union (EU) action plan (2015) selecting a sample of sustainable reports in the cosmetic industry in Italy in 2014 and 2019 years. We applied the Climate Disclosure Standard Board (CDSB) framework focused on 12 reporting requirements designed to encourage corporate standardized disclosure of environmental information. Our analysis is performed through a frequency term analysis. Additionally, to measure the general shift of semantic over the two years towards CEEI, a semi‐supervised topic modelling approach was applied, whose topics were obtained by aggregating all terms with a significant variation from the content analysis. Findings show that the recent reports (2019) include terms related to the environment in a slightly more frequent way compared to 2014. We provide stronger evidence of the shift in the origin of the topics, being coherent with the changes introduced from the EU 2015 act, and the requirements of the CDSB framework nevertheless the CE seems still under‐reported in the area of governance, strategy, management and performance. The paper discusses the need for further Institutional (EU directives), regulatory (CDSB framework) and stakeholders' pressure (on companies. Finally, the implementation of an integrated reporting for social, economic and environmental disclosure is suggested as a way to ensure an effective CEEI disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital technologies (DTs), such as the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, or blockchain, are considered as enablers for a more sustainable and circular economy. So far, literature on these topics has mostly focused on specific DTs and subareas of sustainable product management (SPM). The aim of this paper is to provide a more comprehensive overview of current and potential examples of DT applications in SPM (e.g., product design/assessment, supply chain management, and business models). The collected examples (n = 146) were analyzed based on a systematic literature review, using quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Deductive and inductive analyses of the examples revealed the potential of DTs in terms of their usability along the product life cycle, their role as enablers for circular economy strategies and in specific SPM activities. DT application often entails only incremental improvements, for example, increased efficiency of existing processes, with more radical forms of improvement remaining relatively scarce. There is clear room for greater adoption and optimization of DTs, in various areas of SPM, so as to accelerate the transition towards a more sustainable and circular economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain is a disruptive technology that is revolutionizing information technology and represents a change of cultural paradigm for the way in which information is shared. Companies are rushing to understand how they can use blockchain distributed ledger technology to innovate processes, products and transactions. In a globalized world where environmental sustainability is a critical success factor, what is the role of the blockchain? By using a systematic review approach and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) protocol, this study attempts to identify whether and how blockchain technology is considered able to affect environmental sustainability. Findings from 195 studies from 2015 to 2020 were analysed after the search protocol was applied. The results indicate that blockchain technology could contribute to environmentally sustainable development goals (SDGs) from different points of view, such as supporting the realization of a sustainable supply chain, improving energy efficiency and promoting the creation of secure and reliable smart cities. Furthermore, the investigation highlights the sectors where to focus research investments, providing a way to reward sustainable behaviour and increasing environmental sustainability. On the other hand, blockchain has no negligible negative effects on the environment that need to be considered before adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to identify and gain insights into small and medium‐sized enterprises' (SMEs) rationales (why) for engaging in sustainable social and environmental practices (SEPs) that influence social and environmental policy and sustainability changes. Specifically, we depart from the predominately quantitative‐orientated SEPs literature by conducting in‐depth interviews and analysis of owners and managers of SMEs in the United Kingdom within a legitimacy theoretical framework. Our findings from a comprehensive number of interviewees show that SMEs employ a complex mix of both symbolic and substantive SEPs with the aim of enhancing the legitimacy and sustainability of their operations. The results emphasise the strengths of social engagement, reputation and image, environmental embeddedness, industry differentiation and education facilitators. In particular, the paper shows that legitimating strategies can have a dual purpose of being symbolic in nature but also inferring a substantive legitimacy claim. Evidence of SMEs maintaining their legitimacy position stretches further via either a moral and/or a pragmatic standpoint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to institutional pressures faced by companies in their business environment, this paper investigates how sustainability certification adoption affects global suppliers' competences. Using multiple case studies, managers of 20 export‐oriented firms were interviewed, and secondary data were collected and analysed through inductive content analysis. Findings show normative and mimetic pressures as central for sustainability implementation by coffee suppliers. Additionally, we found that as a result of suppliers' sustainability improvement in their own operations, during the certification adoption, new competences emerged going beyond the triple bottom line dimensions, including improvements in aspects of institutional dimension of sustainability. In contrast to previous research in supply chain sustainability that emphasises coercive pressures, this paper demonstrates the role of normative and mimetic institutional pressures in developing new supplier competences. In doing so, we draw on the role of certification adoption in influencing global suppliers and hence sustainability throughout the supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically examines the effect of biomass energy consumption and economic complexity on environmental sustainability in G7 economies. The current study attempts to report a comprehensive analysis of biomass energy and economic complexity on ecological and carbon footprints and carbon emissions. We employ data from 1990 to 2019 and adopt robust panel econometric techniques that account for the analysis's cross‐sectional dependence. We conduct cointegration analysis, pooled ordinary least squares (OLS), system generalized method of moments (GMM) and conditional quantile model for our empirical analysis. The empirical findings show that both biomass energy consumption and economic complexity are detrimental to the ecological footprint and carbon footprint. Additionally, we find that globalization positively affects the environment, while we find some evidence that bureaucratic quality improves environmental quality. Finally, in line with other research, we find that economic growth has detrimental effects on the environment. Our results suggest that policymakers should be more cautious in promoting biomass as a clean energy source and that the G7 economies should take advantage of their leading position in innovation to invest more in sustainable practices and investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building a green and healthy economic system and achieving high‐quality economic growth have long been the development goals pursued by the Chinese government. Under the local government competition system, coordinating the relationship between economic growth and ecological sustainability is a decisive factor for China's high‐quality development. As a former state planned economy, China inherited a legacy of setting economic growth targets at various levels of government. This paper analyzes the relationship between economic growth targets and ecological efficiency by using panel data models and spatial econometric techniques. Moreover, the mediating effect model and dynamic threshold effect model are used to study their influence mechanism and the possible nonlinear relationship. The results indicate that there is an inverted U‐shaped relationship between economic growth targets and ecological efficiency. Optimizing industrial structure and R&D investment can improve regional ecological efficiency. The economic growth targets in neighboring regions have a "U"‐shaped relationship with local ecological efficiency. The mechanism test results suggest that economic growth targets affect ecological efficiency by influencing financial development, foreign direct investment, infrastructure investment, environmental regulation, and technological innovation. The impact of economic growth targets on ecological efficiency shows a significant threshold effect when economic growth targets, industrial structure, R&D levels, financial development, foreign direct investment, infrastructure investment, and environmental regulation are at different threshold values. Therefore, to promote regional healthy competition and ecological efficiency, the government should formulate scientific and reasonable economic growth goals and improve the official evaluation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to review the state of the art on the topic of business models for sustainability. The paper screens 1744 peer‐reviewed papers with no temporal limitation and undertakes three stages of literature review analysis of a final set of 134 papers with a combination of systematic, bibliometric and multivariate techniques. The first output is the identification of six wide different but interconnected research streams of business model for sustainability: namely, elements and structure; applications; different types of business model for sustainability; transition process; circularity as sustainability; and technical aspects of innovation. A theoretical framework that allows to understand the themes explored by the literature so far and gives an interpretation of the evolution of the literature has been produced. Finally, the analysis provides opportunities and research directions for future research. The paper originality lies in providing the first co‐citation analysis of business models for sustainability with a descriptive and critical study by identifying main research trends and relevant gaps in the literature and by providing future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of the power of the chief executive officer (CEO) on environmental decoupling. We define environmental decoupling as a gap between firm's claims about the environmental sustainability and actual environmental sustainability performance. Based on the managerial power theory, we argue that powerful managers are more involved in environmental decoupling and use environmental reporting in a more opportunistic manner than their less powerful peers. We analyse a dataset of 4576 firm‐year observations of US‐listed firms for the period 2002–2017. We find that powerful CEOs decouple firm's environmental performance from environmental reporting. These findings are robust to a battery of analyses and show that powerful CEOs do not show true commitment towards corporate environmental sustainability. The results provide important implications for investors, policymakers and fund managers. Useful future research recommendations are also provided to guide the research in the domain of environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate environmental sustainability requires two complementary types of green practices—environmental protection hardware (EPH) and environmental protection software (EPS). Stakeholder greening pressures drive implementation; however, corporate responses vary, often lacking the balance and intensity of EPS and EPH needed. This paper explores the role of green human resource management (GHRM) in explaining variations in the implementation of EPH and EPS in response to stakeholders' pro‐environmental pressures. Drawing on stakeholder theory and the ability, motivation, and opportunity (AMO) framework, a mediating role is hypothesized. Empirical findings from Brazil using structural equation modeling reveal that increased green pressure from stakeholders drives the adoption of both types of green practices through a partial mediating role of GHRM that is stronger for EPH than for EPS. The value of this study lies in the consideration of EPH and EPS practices in the same model and expanding stakeholder theory on how stakeholders can improve environmental protection through GHRM. Implications are that organizations can level the field for the balanced application of EPS and EPH with a system of green human resource management practices—training, assessment, rewards, and teamwork—to channel the translation of stakeholder pressures into workplace green outcomes. Limitations, future research ideas, and policy and practice implications are detailed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The business world is becoming increasingly complex, disrupted, and uncertain. As Industry 4.0 (I4.0) takes shape, to endure this change and focus on growth, industries must learn to embrace change and move quickly; this is particularly so for the automotive industry, which is a major sector of any economy. Agility is needed to embrace this change and promote sustainability across every industry. To face these contingencies, it is essential to identify and understand the strategies that can aid industries in sustaining real‐time scenarios. In this paper, we aim to assess the agility indicators that bring resilience to the inclusion of I4.0 and sustainability in the automotive sector. The unexpected changes in the environment related to sustainability and technological disruptions of I4.0 require the identification of sustainable agile mitigation strategies to manage such situations. The fuzzy Delphi methodology assesses agility indicators based on a questionnaire for prioritization. Further, the fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) is utilized to prioritize these agility indicators with the agility strategies that manufacturing industries can deploy to enhance the sustainability of their operations. The fuzzy extension to the methodologies helps in incorporating vagueness and ambiguity in the decision‐making process. A fuzzy approach to prioritizing agile strategies as the industries are changing is helpful. The decision makers have only a few clear ideas about how best to integrate them. Among the agile strategies, "resilience," "technological capabilities," and "customer‐centric innovation" are the top strategies. By executing the strategies suggested in the study and understanding the agility indicators, practitioners can ensure resilience in the work systems and minimize the impact of the disruptions caused by the industrial revolution. Thus, this research has been underpinned by the organizational change theory and discusses all mitigation strategies concerning the rapid changes organizations are facing with the fourth industrial revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a highly competitive and changing environment, manufacturers are called to adopt the paradigms of smart, sustainable, resilient, and lean manufacturing (SSRL). However, despite the growing interest in the topic and the potential of smart manufacturing features to enable sustainable development, little is known about these interactions in the system of SSRL. Therefore, to address this gap, this study investigates the moderating effect of SM on lean manufacturing and resilient manufacturing for SP while examining the existing relationship between lean and resilience. Drawing upon a hybrid methodology including the partial least squares‐structural equation modeling (PLS‐SEM) and machine learning algorithms, this research paper develops and tests the hypothetical model using collected data from 399 organizations in China, Africa, and Europe. The findings reveal important implications regarding the fostering effect of SM on the components of the SSRL system and how firms can be both lean and resilient and achieve high sustainable performance simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organisations have been driving sustainability, where some efforts have focussed on the organisation itself and some on how organisations contribute to society, such as addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Although organisations have been working to address the SDGs, there has been limited integration of the SDGs in organisation systems. This paper aimed at analysing how organisations have been addressing the SDGs. A survey was developed to investigate the impacts and contribution of organisations to sustainability, where 294 responses were obtained for the questions on organisations' impacts to the sustainability. The data were analysed using descriptive analysis: Friedman test to rank the impacts on the SDGs and divided into quartiles; a ratio analysis between positive impacts and negative impacts; and correlations. The results show that organisations' impacts on the SDGs are quite generalisable to all types of organisations, with three exceptions (SDGs 4, 5 and 16). The results also served to develop an SDG impact categorisation. The correlation analysis showed that organisations address the SDGs through a compartmentalised approach. The results helped to propose the 'organisations' impacts on the SDGs framework' focussing on the contribution of organisations to sustainability. This research shows that organisations can contribute directly to some of the SDGs, but not to others. Therefore, the discourse must change from integration of SDGs on organisations to the contribution that organisations can have on the SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply chain practitioners are striving to improve the performance of agri‐food supply chains (AFSC) due to the lack of understanding of the mutual impacts of lean, agile, resilience, and green (LARG) practices in improving the performance of AFSC. There is a lack of specific methods to assess the power of their subsequent attributes. This paper identifies 12 unique challenges related to the implementation of LARG practices under the context of AFSC. The identification of challenges and the interdependency relationships among the LARG challenges are developed using a multistage approach. The multistage approach is composed of the generalized interval‐valued trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (GIVTFNs), the degree of similarity method, and the decision‐making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method. The finding of the study indicates that "Lack of understanding between the customer and other stakeholder requirements" and "Lack of transparency and trust" are the most significant challenges in the cause group and are the driving elements for implementing LARG practices. Furthermore, "Lack of competitive advantages" and "Lack of monitoring and auditing the ongoing supply chain activities" fall under the effect category, which are influenced by the cause groups' challenges. The identified challenges can be controlled and handled strategically on a priority basis for successfully implementing LARG practices in the agri‐food industry. The finding of study will help practitioners to overcome the LARG challenges and to improve the overall performance of AFSC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research posits that there are tensions in addressing divergent sustainability issues which need to be managed and embraced by firms. However, if these tensions cannot be addressed adequately, it will not only have negative impacts on individuals' interests but also on the development of organisations and ultimately the prosperity of the society, ultimately resulting in unethical consequences. Hence, this paper empirically examines tensions in addressing divergent sustainability issues and how to manage them between Chinese and New Zealand firms in business partnerships. Guided by an interpretivist philosophy, this research adopts a qualitative and abductive approach as the preferred research method. In doing so, 33 in‐depth individual interviews alongside one informal group discussion were carried out at 16 relatively large Chinese and New Zealand firms known for their commitment to sustainability that are in business partnerships. Interestingly, we find that these companies are faced with complex and multiple sustainability tensions. In order to better manage these tensions, we found that these firms adopt integrative approaches with opening, surfacing, collaborative and synergistic strategies which can help these companies to enhance their organisational ambidexterity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the competitive advantages of sustainable business models, developing management solutions to systematically support sustainability integration into organizational strategy is still a challenging approach for most organizations. Based on a critical analysis of existing tools to support sustainable business models, the present paper describes the development of a practical management tool to guide the strategic integration of sustainability in organizational business models. The proposed management tool results from the synergistic combination of the Sustainable Value Exchange Matrix and the Integrative Sustainable Intelligence Model, in a cyclic and continuous process supported by the periodic diagnosis of the key organizational factors with relevance for successful sustainability integration processes. The management tool described in this paper is expected to guide the strategic adaptation of organizations toward results with a positive impact on sustainability, with an effective contribution to the development of more sustainable business models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco‐innovation has gained currency as an effective means of addressing corporate environmental impacts. Yet the literature is inconclusive as to how different types of eco‐innovation influence different types of firm performance. This is problematic, as practitioners and policymakers will not embrace eco‐innovation unless there is clear evidence that through its implementation companies can achieve returns, not only on their environmental performance but also on their economic, social and operational performance. This paper aims to improve our understanding of this relationship by conducting a meta‐analysis and drawing on a much broader sample than previous meta‐analytic efforts in this field. The paper analyses 569 effects based on 160 studies and more than 124,000 firms (N=124,077). Our results provide solid evidence of the positive impact eco‐innovation has on all types of firm performance but also highlight types of eco‐innovation that do not contribute to this relationship and the role moderators play in explaining discrepancies found in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last years, sustainability has become a successful, relevant, critical factor in several food industries. The adoption of a sustainable marketing strategy contributes positively to changes in society in terms of environmental, social and economic development. The relationship between sustainability and business performance has been widely debated in management and organisational studies. However, despite its importance and relevance, fishery sustainability has not been systematically considered by scientific studies. This paper identifies and analyses the critical factors that describe the propensity towards sustainable development for large companies within the Italian fishery sector. For this purpose, the relationships among the following latent variables were analysed: sustainable social behaviour, sustainable environmental behaviour, sustainable marketing, and return on investment. A theoretical research model has been proposed and empirically tested using a methodology based on structural equation modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular economy (CE) has become one of the most recent ways to address environmental sustainability. CE activities focus exclusively on one of three levels (macro level, meso level and micro level). The majority of CE research has focused on the macro and meso levels, whereas research on the micro level has been limited. This paper focuses on the latter by analysing how organisations have implemented the four Rs (reduction, repairing, remanufacturing and recycling). A survey was sent to a database of 5,299 contacts from different organisations, from whom 256 complete responses were obtained. The results show that organisations focus on reducing and recycling more than repairing and remanufacturing and in particular on internal CE efforts. Some organisations that engage with the 4Rs do not do it under the CE umbrella, whereas some that claim to apply CE have low levels of engagement with the 4Rs. The results indicate that organisations are using the 4Rs to contribute to CE, but not all of them are aware that they are applying CE principles. The paper highlights that organisations need to improve their 4Rs efforts to contribute more to CE by better linking its theory with practice. CE also has to be implemented outside the organisations, in a more holistic way, for example, through better collaboration with stakeholders on CE efforts and activities. This research stresses that the gap between CE theory and practice needs to be closed to make CE circular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an urgent call for action by all countries that provide a global framework for achieving global development while balancing social, economic, and environmental sustainability. SDGs are addressed to all actors in society, but both academia and professional recognize the particular importance of businesses. However, research is still needed to understand the role of companies as sustainable development agents. Relying on Scopus database consultation, the current research adopts an interdisciplinary systematic literature review to investigate, analyze, and present state‐of‐the‐art academic literature on the role of businesses in tackling SDGs. The final sample comprises 101 papers published between 2015 and 2020. It provides evidence that the main topics discussed by scholars are related to aspects of strategy execution. Recognizing different streams that are currently unexplored—despite strictly related to strategic business activities and to the sustainable development as a whole—the study provides many insights for future research on business and SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a conceptual framework on green initiatives adoption in companies operating in freight transport and logistics industry and presents an overview on the emerging green practices and information systems adopted. On the basis of a literature review on the topic, a research question was identified and addressed through an analysis conducted in a sample of freight transport and logistics companies. This research question regards the behaviours of freight transporters in adopting green practices and information systems. As for the adoption of both green practices and information systems, the paper shows that freight transporters are not a homogeneous industry, but different types of behaviour emerge. As for the relationship between the degree of adoption of green practices and information systems, the paper proposes a taxonomy bringing together sustainable strategies for adopting green initiatives. Specifically, four strategies are identified: sustainability leaders, green practice adopters, information system adopters, and sustainability followers. These sustainable strategies highlight the different phases of the process of adoption of green initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaboration in green product innovation (GPI) is becoming increasingly important, and research on such innovation has grown in recent years. This study reviews literature on external collaborations in GPI to investigate drivers, inter-organizational factors and intra-organizational factors for such collaborations. The review includes a total of 67 papers. Survey studies and case studies are the methodologies applied most in the reviewed papers. The most common collaborators are suppliers and customers. Drivers include economic factors, regulations, customer demand, competitiveness and firm performance. Numerous inter-organizational collaboration factors are presented and summarized in terms of partner selection, relationship management, knowledge access and agreements. Intra-organizational factors mainly concern cross-functional collaboration, capabilities and internal practices. Implications for policy and practitioners are presented. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate how stakeholder groups engaged by the company contribute to the value flow of business models for sustainability. The research aims to expand the knowledge on business models for sustainability by highlighting the most important contributions of stakeholders that are relevant from a value flow and sustainable development perspective. The research methodology is a multiple case study in five Italian B corporations. The paper contribution is a stakeholder value flow model of business models for sustainability that categorizes the stakeholders engaged in the specific value flow dimension, namely, value intention, value proposition, value creation, value delivery and value capture. The stakeholder value flow model can facilitate a systematic and deeper analysis of stakeholder contributions to the company business model. Moreover, the stakeholder value flow model can be used to map from the company perspective the most significant relationships and to facilitate the stakeholder engagement towards sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable packaging is a pivotal aspect of sustainable development, involving multi‐faceted issues such as stakeholder management and environmental policy compliance. Despite the efforts to find packaging solutions, the extant literature is largely fragmented, featuring a high level of heterogeneity among studies that spread across different disciplines, with the majority examining important packaging issues in isolation. A study that systematically consolidates findings of different important areas of sustainable packaging implementation is lacking. This challenges companies' adoption of research findings in business strategy development. Thus, this paper conducts a systematic literature review combining keyword co‐occurrence analysis, thematic analysis and qualitative content analysis to uncover major research domains, consolidate important findings and reveal unsolved research gaps, which are crucial to advancing sustainable packaging management. The findings reveal four major research domains: (1) sustainable packaging materials and properties, (2) management practices of sustainable packaging, (3) consumer behaviours towards sustainable packaging and (4) packaging waste management. Drawing on the natural‐resource‐based view (NRBV) theory and the review findings, this study proposes four future research directions: (1) identifying ways to enhance the commercialisation of sustainable packaging technological innovations, (2) uncovering reasons for insufficient social aspect investigation in sustainable packaging research, (3) exploring strategies to enhance stakeholder integration in sustainable packaging management and (4) examining contingency factors of packaging waste management effectiveness. The research agenda is important to provide practical and managerial insights for business strategy development in sustainable packaging to achieve pollution prevention, product stewardship and sustainable development capabilities to gain future growth and competitive advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings were developed to account for the multidimensional nature of the sustainability of firms. Research on ESG ratings suggests that working towards sustainability means engaging in a utopian effort, as in the chimera myth. We developed a conceptual framework of corporate activities that guides a systematic literature review based on 79 papers. Our analysis confirms that ESG ratings remain a black box, explored mainly from a purely monetary perspective and with contradictions on value created for companies and collective well‐being. Therefore, we deduce that research is still "chasing a chimera," being this incomplete knowledge due to divergences in (1) theories, (2) regulations, (3) geographic and (4) corporate culture, (5) constructs/metrics, and (6) corporate attitude towards disclosure. Consequently, we identify research gaps and avenues for future research to foster corporations' responsible behaviours and socially responsible investing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]