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Customers are prominent resources in every business for its sustainability. Therefore, predicting customer churn is significant for reducing churn, particularly in the high-churn-rate telecommunications business. To identify customers at risk of churning, tactical marketing actions can be strategized to raise the likelihood of the churn-probable customers remaining as customers. This might provide a corporation with significant savings. Hence, in this work, a churn prediction system is developed to assist telecommunication operators in detecting potential churn customers. In the proposed framework, the input data quality is improved through the processes of exploratory data analysis and data preprocessing for identifying data errors and comprehending data patterns. Then, feature engineering and data sampling processes are performed to transform the captured data into an appropriate form for classification and imbalanced data handling. An optimized ensemble learning model is proposed for classification in this framework. Unlike other ensemble models, the proposed classification model is an optimized weighted soft voting ensemble with a sequence of weights applied to weigh the prediction of each base learner with the hypothesis that specific base learners in the ensemble have more skill than others. In this optimization, Powell’s optimization algorithm is applied to optimize the ensemble weights of influence according to the base learners’ importance. The efficiency of the proposed optimally weighted ensemble learning model is evaluated in a real-world database. The empirical results show that the proposed customer churn prediction system achieves a promising performance with an accuracy score of 84% and an F1 score of 83.42%. Existing customer churn prediction systems are studied. We achieved a higher prediction accuracy than the other systems, including machine learning and deep learning models.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the company’s contribution to sustainable development. In Indonesia, CSR is generally implemented by large companies in the form of limited liability companies (LLCs) and state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Regulations do not accommodate other forms of companies, such as cooperatives, to perform such social responsibility, which in terms of cooperatives is known as cooperative social responsibility (CoopSR). Instead, the cooperatives are only viewed as the implementing object by the LLCs and SOEs, while not encouraged to perform their social and environmental responsibilities. This article uses a legal dogmatic analysis research method, with the aim to analyze and assess the prevailing regulations concerning CSR and cooperatives. The study shows that, in Indonesia, there are no comprehensive regulations on CSR, but they are spread across various regulations incompletely based on the type of business entity. In the Indonesian Cooperative Law, there is no provision concerning cooperative values and principles on concern for the community, therefore cooperatives are not encouraged to implement CoopSR. To implement CoopSR, the legal and policy strategy needed is through the amendment to the Indonesian Cooperative Law, including CoopSR in the cooperatives’ articles of association and by-laws, and discussing and agreeing to its implementation at the meeting of cooperatives’ members.

The development of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) retail has demonstrated an evolution of buyer–seller interactions. In the era of digital transformation, FMCGs and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can easily use website applications to shop for various products from suppliers, make payments, and access a wider variety of products with more efficient delivery. However, empirical studies on loyalty drivers on B2B relationships for business sustainability in the retail industry have not received much attention. This research aimed to examine the factors that influence loyalty and analyze the mediating role of MSME loyalty by discussing a new conceptual framework designed based on the buyer–seller relationship theory and relational marketing. Data were collected from 500 owners or managers of FMCG retail stalls in various provinces in Indonesia and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed that merchandising, website quality, commitment, and satisfaction have a positive effect on loyalty, as opposed to service quality and trust. There are also different roles in the mediating variables of trust, commitment, and satisfaction on retail store loyalty. These findings were useful for policymakers, managers, and practitioners to clarify the influence of service quality, merchandising website quality, and the role of relationship quality on loyalty in the era of digital transformation.

This paper investigates how firms can enjoy a sustainable business even during the COVID-19 pandemic. The adoption of lean coordination mechanisms over the supply chain (SC) and lean approaches in omnichannel strategies can guarantee the business sustainability and resilience. Furthermore, we investigate whether business sustainability, along with digitalization through mobile apps, Artificial Intelligence systems, and Big Data and Machine Learning enable firms’ resilience. We first explore the background on the subject, identify the research gap, and develop some research hypotheses to be tested. Then, we present the data collection process and the sample, which finally consists of firms from different sectors, including retailing, electronics, pharmaceutics, and agriculture. Several logistic regression models are developed and estimated to generate findings and managerial insights. Our results show that a lean omnichannel approach is an effective practice to preserve production costs, SC visibility, inventory available over the SC, and sales. Furthermore, lean coordination with contracts can make a business sustainable by preserving quality, ROI, production costs, customer service, and inventory availability. Finally, firms can be highly sustainable through resilience when they engage in sustainable ROI, SC visibility, and sales, in contrast, the adoption of mobile apps worsens firms’ resilience, which is not influenced by Artificial Intelligence and Big Data and Machine Learning.

This paper develops a framework for a generic retail stakeholder charter that addresses expectations of relevant retail business stakeholders to achieve success and sustainability. Hevner’s design science research model was used for the development of this framework. Relevant literature on retail business management, stakeholder theory, and existing charters was reviewed and used for the design of a draft generic retail charter framework. The draft framework was submitted to expert practitioners and academics for verification in terms of correctness, completeness, and relevance to develop the final retail charter framework. The framework addresses stakeholder expectations regarding relevant categories, and the structure of the retail charter addresses the identity, elements, and the management of the retail charter. The elements in the generic retail charter are structured to achieve stakeholder support by ensuring compliance, satisfaction, and excitement. This generic retail charter framework creates research opportunities for the development of detailed retail charters for every stakeholder category, and customized retail charters for individual retail businesses. The framework provides further research opportunities for retail businesses operating in a particular industry, ecommerce, various Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes, and other countries.

This article looks at studies on how to use business continuity management for Hong Kong’s virtual banks in order to reduce customer information risks, so as to maintain business sustainability. Firstly, the development of virtual banks in Hong Kong were investigated, the laws and regulations and regulatory policies of Hong Kong and the Mainland were benchmarked, and the main risks that may occur and be harmful to the bank business sustainability were analyzed. Considering the characteristics of virtual banks, the main concerns of public customers about the IT risks of virtual banks through questionnaire surveys were collected and analyzed. Moreover, the importance of business continuity management to virtual banks was drawn. Secondly, in the case studies, via understanding the overall situation of WeBank, its performance during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the regulations of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the practice standards of virtual banks in business continuity management were further clarified. At the end, three suggestions for virtual banks in Hong Kong were put forward to reduce customer information security risks through business continuity management, thereby maintaining its business sustainability.

Monitoring the satisfaction of sales representatives is a major challenge in business based on multi-level marketing systems (MLM), as a high level of satisfaction could determine the sales representatives’ loyalty and subsequent business growth. The purposes of this study are (i) to measure the sales representatives’ satisfaction with various experiences they face within the MLM system, (ii) to identify the main satisfaction factors that synthetically illustrate the sales representatives’ experiences with the MLM system, and (iii) to determine the influence of satisfaction factors with MLM experiences on the intention to recommend the system to other people interested in joining the business. The research was based on a survey among 412 sales representatives of companies that use an MLM system in various fields of activity. The main factors that summarize the experiences that sales representatives have within the MLM systems have been identified by using an exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Further, the satisfaction with these factors was analyzed in relationship with the intention to recommend the system for the development of their individual business. The research results indicate three major experiences of the sales representatives: (i) experiences within the MLM system, (ii) experiences with customer relationships, and (iii) experiences with the product. The results also show that the higher satisfaction with these factors is, the higher the likelihood to recommend the MLM system. This study provides a contribution to the body of knowledge in using experiential marketing for sustainable business development and provides management insights for companies that use MLM systems.

In the Big Data age, businesses in every industry must deal with vast volumes of data. Several experts and practitioners have lately emphasized the need of understanding how, why, and when Big Data Analytics (BDA) applications may be a valuable resource for businesses seeking a competitive edge. However, BDA pays off for some firms while failing to pay off for others due to the fact that investment in Big Data continues to present significant challenges due to the missing link between analytics capabilities and firm performance. According to a recent survey, many businesses spend the bulk of their time analyzing data, with only a tiny fraction employing Big Data Analytics to forecast outcomes and even fewer utilizing analytics apps to enhance processes and strategies. As a result, BDA is not widely used, and only a few companies have seen any benefit from it. To address this issue in the telecommunications domain and in light of the paucity of research on the subject, this study focused on the BDA Pillars (BDAP) in order to achieve benefits through increased revenues and cost savings. For the purpose of this research we have adopted qualitative approach with case study method, and technique of data collection includes semi-structure interview and document analysis. The Delphi technique and in-depth interviews conducted confirmed the existence of five critical elements that contribute to the sustainability of BDAPs and their impact on firm performance.

The long-term survival of a company depends on its economic sustainability. It costs several times more to acquire new customers than retain current ones, and loyal customers spend more than new ones. Unfortunately, consumers are increasingly becoming less loyal to brands/products than before. Unearthing the underlying reasons for this diminishing consumer loyalty is critical. This forms the motivation of this study, which aims to examine the moderating role of loyalty among consumers of technology products. Specifically, the study explores the heterogeneity in the factors (antecedents) influencing brand-loyal attitudes and behavior among consumers of different loyalty levels. A total of 355 survey responses were obtained from an administrated survey across three loyalty groups (high loyalty&mdash, 155, medium loyalty&mdash, 99, low loyalty&mdash, 90) in the United Arab Emirates. Structural equation modeling and multi-group moderation tests were used to test the hypothesized differences in the relationships between antecedents (trust, self-image, quality, and perceived ease of use) and customer attitude, and between customer attitude and repurchase intentions among the different loyalty groups. The results show that the different levels of loyalty have a moderating impact on the relationships. The findings are useful for marketers to better understand and manage customer attitudes, and subsequent purchase/repurchase intention depending on the levels of loyalty they may be in, as well as maneuver their customers through the different levels of loyalty to achieve business sustainability.

This paper is based on an analysis of the content of management reports (annual, integrated), on the activity of European multinational companies (listed on the Stock Exchange). For this purpose, we conducted a content analysis of company management letters which open integrated and annual reports of European multinational listed companies. The data comprised a corpus of letters and statements of chairmen and/or executive directors in five environmentally sensitive industries that were analysed using Wmatrix4 software. The identified key words, the preferred semantic domains and the tone of emotional register from the letters of managers provide significant evidence on what kind of information they contain and how these managers want to share it with their stakeholders. Our results show that managers are interested in the optimistic presentation of the mission, results and future plans of their companies. We found that words such as like, confidence, proud or trust are common on the emotional map of these letters, but the preferences in use are unequally distributed among the five analysed sectors. We also report that the word &ldquo, sustainability&rdquo, is among the key terms found in letters and statements of managers. Finally, for each of the five corpuses, our study proved that, beyond common issues, different economic domains prefer different topics, using a significantly different lexical register both in terms of relative frequency of common key-words and diversity of words within the same semantic domain. The study systematizes a set of key-words and semantic domains used to convey positive emotions, avoiding those with negative connotations, in order to provide an image of a company that acts in a sustainable manner. This could be successfully used by corporate communicators of a wide range of companies who want to comply with the best practices of integrated reporting.

The growing interest in fitness services is demanding optimal service management and operation. This research aims to identify the best practices in fitness center management for increasing customer engagement and for long-term stability and sustainability of the business. A qualitative approach through 23 semi-structured interviews to fitness center managers was performed in Spain, covering private centers with diverse business models (7 low-cost, 13 mid-market, and 3 premium). The managers were asked about their characteristics, the fitness center characteristics, and the managerial decisions and individual opinion. The results showed the best practices divided into five sections: customer service, offered service, marketing, facilities, and general terms and conditions. Kind customer service, the existence of loyalty programs, enough tangible quality, and online marketing strategies are essential for fitness centers&rsquo, success. Additionally, a fair fee and a maximum of a 15 min trip to the center should be guaranteed. This information has clear implications for promoting sporting habits and for engaging more people in physical activity, complementing the extensive quantitative data in the existing literature.

Time series models are used to determine relationships, spot patterns, and detect abnormalities and irregularities among data. We explore the application of time series analyses in business research by discussing the differences among correlation, association, and Granger causality and providing insight into their proper use in the sustainability literature. In statistics, two correlation coefficients are typically calculated. The first one is the Pearson correlation coefficient and the second is the Spearman correlation coefficient. In the commonly used correlation analysis (the Pearson and the Spearman correlation coefficients), the focus is primarily on the changes in two variables regardless of the effects of other variables. On the contrary, in association analyses, the researcher examines the relationship between two variables while holding the effects of other related variables constant (ceteris paribus). In the study of the causation, or the cause&ndash, effect relationship between two variables, researchers are concerned about the effect of variable X on variable Y. The difficulty of achieving the third condition of causation is believed to be the main reason that in business literature causations are rarely used. The difficulty of achieving a causal relationship between two variables has moved researchers toward a special form of causation called &ldquo, Granger causality&rdquo, We offer practical examples for correlation, association, causation, and the Granger causality and discuss their main differences and show how the use of a linear regression is inappropriate when the true relationship is non-linear. Finally, we discuss the policy, practical, and educational implications of our study.

In facing fierce competition, fitness centers have encountered challenges of generating long-term economic sustainability. The construct of switching costs, which has garnered considerable attention as a sustainable strategy, suffers from conceptual confusion in the literature, limiting the applicability of the concept to fitness centers. The purpose of the study is to conduct a conceptual analysis of switching costs, thereby clarifying conceptual confusion and providing implications for fitness centers. To achieve the purpose, a conceptual analysis method was adopted, in which 376 switching costs articles were analyzed. The results show that (1) several terms have been used individually and interchangeably, (2) there is no consensus on the definition, (3) both unidimensional and multidimensional conceptualizations have been used, (4) model specification has rarely been done, and (5) a paucity of studies have been conducted in the context of the sport industry. Overall, we highlight the conceptual weaknesses of previous switching costs research and offer several recommendations and approaches to scholars who are interested in this line of research. Furthermore, the conceptual analysis brings attention to the importance of conceptualization (e.g., choosing a term, defining a construct) and how conceptual confusion might impinge on future research in the marketing literature.

Many organizations choose business sustainability to meet environmental, social, and financial demands to ensure responsible and long-term success. In order to achieve this, enterprises have to fully and optimally apply their resources. Intellectual capital is one of their most important resources creating market value and reinforcing sustainable competitive advantages. The main goal of the paper is to indicate which elements of the intellectual capital of small and medium-sized enterprises in Poland have the greatest impact on their sustainable development in the opinions of managers. The study took into account 1041 economic entities. Managers of small and medium enterprises operating in Poland have been asked to assess the elements of intellectual capital. The paper utilizes a new approach to the importance assessment of the impact of each characteristic on business sustainability. It is based on intuitionistic fuzzy sets. The proposed method is especially useful when variables are measured on an ordinal scale. In accordance with the classical theory of measurement, it does not allow the majority of arithmetic calculations to be performed. Based on the results of the research it has been determined that the most important factors are those which constitute human capital. Moreover, the observation has been made that there is a high degree of coherence of opinions expressed by managers of small and medium enterprises. The results of the research can be applied by both managers of enterprises in managing intellectual capital and employees of companies, by increasing their awareness of the topic of the influence of intellectual capital on business sustainability.

Social media platforms such as Facebook have been a crucial web traffic source for content providers. Content providers build websites and apps to publish their content and attract as many readers as possible. More readers mean more influence and revenue through advertisement. As Internet users spend more and more time on social media platforms, content websites also create social media presence, such as Facebook pages, to generate more traffic and thus revenue from advertisements. With so much content competing for limited real estate on social media users’ timelines, social media platforms begin to rank the contents by user engagements of previous posts. Posting content to social media that receives little user interaction will hurt the content providers’ future presence on social media. Content websites need to consider business sustainability when utilizing social media, to ensure that they can respond to short-term financial needs without compromising their ability to meet their future needs. The present study aims to achieve this goal by building a model to predict the advertisement revenue, which is highly correlated with user engagements, of an intended social media post. The study examined combinations of classification methods and data resampling techniques. A content provider can choose the combination that suits their needs by comparing the confusion matrices. For example, the XGBoost model with undersampled data can reduce the total post number by 87%, while still making sure that 49% of the high-performance posts will be posted. If the content provider wants to make sure more high-performance posts are posted, then they can choose the DNN(Deep Neural Network) model with undersampled data to post 66% of high-performance posts, while reducing the number of total posts by 69%. The study shows that predictive models could be helpful for content providers to balance their needs between short-term revenue income and long-term social media presence.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been an articulated practice for over 7 decades. Still, most corporations lack an integrated framework to develop a strategic, balanced, and effective approach to achieving excellence in CSR. Considering the world’s critical situation during the COVID-19 pandemic, such a framework is even more crucial now. We suggest subsuming CRS categories under Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) be used and that they subsume CSR categories since SDGs are a comprehensive agenda designed for the whole planet. This study presents a new CSR drivers model and a novel comprehensive CSR model. Then, it highlights the advantages of integrating CSR and SDGs in a new framework. The proposed framework benefits from both CSR and SDGs, addresses current and future needs, and offers a better roadmap with more measurable outcomes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a great impact on the fitness centers industry. The purpose of this study is to analyze the preference of gym-goers on fitness centers in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic by utilizing a conjoint analysis approach. One thousand gym-goers voluntarily participated in this study and answered 22 queries created from the orthogonal design. The results indicated that Price was the highest attribute considered (21.59%), followed by Ventilation (17.56%), Service (16.59%), Trainer (14.63%), Payment Method (11.95%), Operating Hours (8.90%), and Login (8.70%). The results also indicated that comfort, security, and fitness center services were the main aspects that gym-goers would consider as their main preference. The study highlighted how gym-goers are sensitive to the price set by the fitness centers. Moreover, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ventilation and size are considered highly important attributes among gym-goers. Comfort, safety, and security are the main consideration to have sustainable fitness centers during and even after the COVID-19 pandemic. The outcome of this study may benefit fitness centers and increase their business market by considering the preference of customers. Finally, the result of this study can be utilized by fitness centers to promote a generalized fitness center for gym-goers of different generations, statuses, and even socioeconomic status during and even after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sustainability of SNSs (social networking services) is a major issue for both business strategists and those who are simply academically curious. The &ldquo, network effect&rdquo, is one of the most important theories used to explain the competitive advantage and sustainability of the largest SNSs in the face of the emergence of multiple competitive followers. However, as numerous cases can be observed when a follower manages to overcome the previously largest SNS, we propose the following research question: Why are the largest social networking services sometimes unable to sustain themselves? This question can also be paraphrased as follows: When (under what conditions) do the largest SNSs collapse? Although the network effect generally enables larger networks to survive and thrive, exceptional cases have been observed, such as NateOn Messenger catching up with MSN Messenger in Korea (Case 1), KakaoTalk catching up with NateOn in Korea (Case 2), Facebook catching up with Myspace in the USA (Case 3), and Facebook catching up with Cyworld in Korea (Case 4). To explain these cases, hypothesis-building and practice-oriented methods were chosen. While developing our hypothesis, we coined the concept of a &ldquo, larger population social network&rdquo, (LPSN) and proposed an &ldquo, LPSN effect hypothesis&rdquo, as follows: The largest SNS in one area can collapse when a new SNS grows in another larger population&rsquo, s social network. For the validity and reliability of our case studies, we used an evidence chain and case study protocol with a publicly-accessible LPSN index to determine which SNS is better for participating in or adding offline social networks to their platform.

Although it is widely accepted that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is key to obtaining business sustainability, there is a significant lack of empirical tests on the longer-term benefits of CSR in academic literature. The objective of our study was to examine the effects of chief executive officer (CEO) governance on CSR in service firms. We used CEO pay slice (CPS) to measure CEO governance and the Korea Economic Justice Institute Index (KEJI) to measure the level of CSR activities. CPS was measured using the compensation information of the board of directors in their business reports. The KEJI was obtained from the website of Citizens&rsquo, Coalition for Economic Justice. The sample selected from listed firms consisting of 260 observations was collected from 2013 to 2015 at the TS-2000 and the FnGuide. The results showed that the CPS has a significant negative impact on the level of CSR activities in service firms. Specifically, CPS has a significant negative impact on the level of CSR activities in the areas of human, environment, and society at a significant level of one percent. Based on these results, higher CEO governance is expected to mean lower CSR in service firms. This paper contributes to the field of research in that it is the first research on the relationship between CEO governance and the level of CSR activities in service firms.

Given high business risks and interdependency with various organizations in biopharmaceutical industry, business model has become a key element for firms that aim to be more sustainable and profitable. Despite its growing importance, research on the business model design in biopharmaceutical industry is limited. In particular, there is a lack of research dealing with business models or strategies for latecomers. In the face of drastic changes such as market expansion and patent expiration, there has been growing interest in latecomer&rsquo, s business model in the biopharmaceutical industry. This study identifies different types of business model designs using hierarchical clustering. Based on an empirical study of 313 biopharmaceutical firms in Korea, we find three types of business models: business diversified research firm, non-diversified research firm, and mature firm. We then compare the general characteristics and performances of each cluster. The findings indicate that business diversification of biopharmaceutical firms is beneficial in terms of profit. This implies that the biopharmaceutical firms in latecomer countries such as Korea are recommended to consider business diversification for sustainable management.

How to exploit the precipitated internal and external knowledge to build dynamic capability in the era of big data remains a big challenge for innovation and business sustainability. This paper documents a novel perspective to address this challenge by exploring the double screen innovation knowledge management practice in Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd. (COMAC). Drawing from the literature on knowledge management and knowledge-based view, this paper elaborates how the new type of knowledge management practice represented by the case of Double Screen Innovation (DSI) in COMAC could help enterprise build sustainable core competence, which provides new perspective for multi-level knowledge management towards business sustainability. DSI, as a novel way of knowledge management, optimizes the micro-level knowledge co-creation and sharing and macro-level organizational learning mechanisms to accelerate the knowledge accumulation and dissemination within the organization. The process of knowledge creation, transformation, and application helps to integrate and transform big data into useful business information, thus provides an endless driving force conducive to the establishment and promotion of the core competencies of enterprises.

Transformation from a centrally planned economy to a market economy in 1989 created new challenges for the enterprises in Poland. Free market brought economic liberty, but also the need to take responsibility for the business&rsquo, impact on the environment. The last 20 years have brought intensive development of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Polish conditions: The institutional context supporting CSR has improved and so did the implementation of the CSR by the business. Intensive growth of CSR practices demands a reflection on the effectiveness of the implementation. This study&rsquo, s contribution is a comprehensive diagnosis of CSR maturity of the enterprises in Poland using a conceptual CSR maturity model. The model is comprised of three perspectives: CSR process maturity, CSR formal maturity and CSR developmental maturity. CSR practices of 93 listed companies from nine industries were studied in 2016&ndash, 2017. A qualitative content analysis of the enterprises websites was used as the method of study. The main finding was that the level of CSR practices of the enterprises in Poland is still rather low. Forty-seven percent of the enterprises implement incidental CSR, 30% tactical CSR and 23% apply strategic CSR. CSR maturity level is company size- and industry-dependent.

Slovak spa services are not given sufficient attention directly following the support and sustainable development. The paper focuses on the evaluation of the overall development and current level of efficiency of the Slovak spas in 2013–2018, through the application of DEA models. Input variables (total number of beds, employees, medical staff) and output variables (use of bed capacity, number of treated clients) within the structure of DEA models analyzed (CCR-I, CCR-O, BCC-I, BCC-O) are determined by results of the correlation analysis. The data were obtained from the annual reports of the spa enterprises. By the results, the average efficiency score for all enterprises reached 0.7527, i.e., the average spa enterprise would need only 75.27% of currently used inputs for a given output production to move to the efficiency frontier. The development of the average efficiency score confirmed a positive growing trend until 2015, however, the efficiency decreased by 1.84% in a year-to-year comparison in 2016–2018. In each year of the analyzed period, the number of inefficient enterprises (66.67%) exceeded that of the efficient ones (33.33%). Through research carried out in spa facilities, the authors contributed to expanding the application of the DEA method in another tourism sector.

An extremely dynamic and fast-moving environment is pushing enterprises to continuous innovation and change. Managing sustainability in a digitalized environment seems to be of central importance for policy makers, as information technologies (IT), in combination with sustainability objectives, offer a wide range of opportunities for positive change. Through a systematic literature review and the application of automated content analysis, this study aims to provide insights into the latest research in the interdisciplinary field of sustainable business models and information systems. The results of the analysis, combined with a researcher’s perspective, suggest that IT, which can be used to achieve sustainability objectives, are already in place and have an infinite number of potential implications in the future. The results suggest that positive economic, social, and environmental changes can be achieved by using IT as long as they are used to identify unsustainable actions and enable positive change. The analysis of research trends revealed a discrepancy between the research in the European Union and the rest of the world and pointed to several avenues for future research.

While the importance of corporate governance has been broadly acknowledged in global financial markets and academic research, how to devise a&nbsp, practical&nbsp, evaluation system is relatively unexplored. This paper attempts to refine the Corporate Governance Evaluation System (CGES), constructed by the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) since 2014. The current CGES has several debatable issues in its complicated design (e.g., it comprises over 80 indicators in different types). To resolve those issues, this study invited ten senior domain experts (including several CEOs of financial holding companies) to retrieve 13 essential criteria from the CGES in four dimensions. Additionally, this study integrates several multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods (i.e., decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), modified VIKOR, DEMATEL-based analytical network process (DANP)) and the fuzzy evaluation technique to rank the exemplary companies. The final ranking is consistent with the one released from the CGES in 2017. This study conducted additional experiments to ensure the robustness of the findings. The newly devised model not only assists the ranking decisions but also supports a company in discussing the plausible action plans to strengthen corporate governance based on the analytics. These findings enrich the understanding of corporate governance and contribute to gaining business sustainability for financial holding companies.

Corporate sustainability (CS) literature has gone through a period of intense development. The moment is favorable to gather these contributions to consistently advance the state-of-the-art in CS and, also, discuss them in application to real contexts. The main objective of the paper is to systematize, through a literature review using content analysis of the 30 most cited articles from 2007 to 2017, the guiding pillars of CS management. A systematic search for papers was carried out in Scopus and Web of Science, and the initial screening of the papers was assisted by the coding software, MAXQDA 2018, through which the authors structured and analyzed their main insights, contributions, and conclusions. After getting acquainted with the sample, an in-depth reading of the texts was conducted and 60 CS elements were identified. The elements cited in the relevant literature were grouped into six pillars related to corporate sustainability strategy, corporate governance, human resources management, knowledge and innovation management, measurement, disclosure, and independent assurance, and management systems, and integrated management systems. The main contribution of this paper is to identify the management pillars of CS in a systematic way to consistently advance the state-of-the-art in the subject. Also, this study provides understanding to managers on the main aspects that make up the integration of this construct in the companies.

This study focuses on stakeholder-oriented behavior, throughout organizational culture and organizational behavior, and its effects on the performance of sustainable organizations managed according to Corporative Social Responsibility (CSR) criteria. The investigation demonstrates that the sustainability efforts of a wide range of stakeholders exert various effects on business performance. This investigation tests two integrated conceptual models: (a) Stakeholder Orientation Model estimates the relationships among organizational culture components and their effects on stakeholder-oriented organizational behavior. That is, it estimates the influence of values on norms and artifacts, and their effects on stakeholder-oriented organizational behavior, (b) Performance model estimates the association between stakeholder-oriented organizational behavior and financial and market performance, reputation, and commitment. Using Structural Equation Modelling, both models were estimated from primary data collected from large- and medium-sized multi-sector Colombian companies involved in business sustainability practices. The findings reveal that values are antecedents of norms, but neither values nor norms are predictors of artifacts. Furthermore, norms and artifacts exert direct effects on stakeholder-oriented organizational behavior. In turn, stakeholder-oriented organizational behaviors are predictors of both market performance and commitment. Nevertheless, stakeholder-oriented organizational behaviors are not direct antecedents of both financial performance and reputation.

The purpose of this study is to analyze different types of supply chain uncertainties and suggest strategies to deal with unexpected contingencies to deliver superior operational performance (OP) using symmetrical and asymmetrical modeling approaches. The data were collected through a survey given to 146 supply chain managers within the fast moving consumer goods industry in Thailand. Symmetrical modeling is applied via partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in order to assess the theoretical relationships among the latent variables, while asymmetrical modeling is applied via fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to emphasize their combinatory causal relation. The empirical results support the theory by highlighting the mediating effect of supply chain strategy (SCS) in the relation between supply chain uncertainty (SCU) and firms’ OP and, hence, deliver business sustainability for the firms, demonstrating that the choice of SCS should not be an “either-or” decision. This research contributes by providing an illustration of a PLS-SEM and fsQCA based estimation for the rapidly emerging field of sustainable supply chain management. This study provides empirical support for resource dependence theory (RDT) in explaining the relation between SCU and SCS, which leads to sustainable OP. From a methodological standpoint, this study also illustrates predictive validation testing of models using holdout samples and testing for causal asymmetry.

Since the mid-2000s, start-ups have increasingly become the driving force of new jobs and growth engines for advanced countries, and emerging nations are striving to vitalize start-ups through active government support policies. However, approximately 30% of start-ups shut down within two years of their foundation. Accordingly, this study determines the factors affecting the business sustainability of start-ups as based on available government support and provides suggestions to increase the effectiveness of the government-supported projects. This study conducted a survey of 273 start-ups in Korea, and empirically analyzed whether factors such as entrepreneurship, market orientation, and network affected business sustainability by using flow experience and entrepreneurial satisfaction as mediators. The results found that entrepreneurship affected business sustainability with flow experience and entrepreneurial satisfaction as the mediators, while market orientation affected business sustainability using flow experience as the mediator, and network affected business sustainability with entrepreneurial satisfaction as the mediator.

Organisations have been disclosing environmental and social information through different tools, including their websites. However, the type of environmental and social information that organisations disclose online, and what are the characteristics of those organisations is still not fully understood. This research aims to (a) identify which environmental and social information organisations disclose online, and (ii) explore drivers of the specific information disclosed. We collected data on sustainability disclosures from 2008 Italian organisations. Results show that overall the amount of environmental and social information disclosed online is low. However, organisational characteristics explain different contents of disclosure. Bigger organisations (in terms of revenues and number of employees), and with environmental and social certifications in place tend to disclose more environmental and social information. Also, consumer goods&rsquo, organisations disclose mostly information related to the supply chain, whilst resource-intensive industries disclose mostly information on corporate social responsibility. This research shows that overall there is still a reserved attitude towards disclosing environmental and social information in Italian organisations, providing little information to stakeholders about environmental and social policies, strategies and practices. This study provides researchers and practitioners information on the content of sustainability information disclosed and possible drivers for their disclosure, this supports their understanding of the conditions where voluntary sustainability disclosure is more expected.

The importance of research and development (R&D) for business sustainability have gained increasing interests, especially in the high-tech sector. However, the efforts of R&D might cause complex and mixed impacts on the financial results considering the associated expenses. Thus, this study aims to examine how R&D efforts may influence business to improve its financial performance considering the dual objectives: the gross and the net profitability. This research integrates a rough-set-based soft computing technique and multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods to explore this complex and yet valuable issue. A group of public listed companies from Taiwan, all in the semiconductor sector, is analyzed as a case study. More than 30 variables are considered, and the adopted soft computing technique retrieves 14 core attributes—for the dual profitability objectives—to form the evaluation model. The importance of R&D for pursuing superior financial prospects is confirmed, and the empirical case demonstrates how to guide an individual company to plan for improvements to achieve its long-term sustainability by this hybrid approach.