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B Corp certification is considered a viable instrument to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in adopting sustainable practices. However, there is a lack of evidence to what extent this instrument can anchor sustainability at the core of SMEs. This study investigates the B Corp certification process of a SME, a craft brewery in southern Sweden, regarding the extent to which it helped infusing sustainability into the business’ mission, practices, corporate form, certificates, and capacities. Results show that the B Impact Assessment, as part of the certification process, positively influenced the business’ mission, practices, and capacities. Limited influence on social commitment and adoption of a sustainable corporate form can be explained through regulatory context and time required for deep organizational change. To enhance the effectiveness of B Corp certification, we recommend making it even more adaptable to different geographical and social contexts and increase focus on impact business models.

The main goal of this article is to analyze the level of differentiation of awareness and knowledge among managers of small, medium and large enterprises in the scope of the essence and meaning of intellectual capital as well as the influence of its elements on the sustainable development of enterprises in Poland. Intellectual capital is perceived as a key resource of an enterprise. It is also one of the most valuable resources of an enterprise, which enables its sustainable development. It is critical base of organization’s innovative and strategic sustainability. This article is based around the results of a survey conducted in 2019 among 1,067 enterprises operating in Poland. For the purposes of the verification of the statistical hypothesis, the classical chi-squared test of independence has been applied along with the analysis of variations for fuzzy numbers (FANOVA) with an assumed level of significance α = 0.05. The assessment of the influence of the elements of intellectual capital on the sustainable development of enterprises has been conducted with the application of fuzzy conversion scales. In fuzzy conversion scales, points are most often expressed as triangular or trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. The conducted research indicates a difference between theory and practice in the field of intellectual capital management among enterprises in Poland. On the one hand managers declare awareness of the importance of the influence of intellectual capital on the development of enterprises in Poland, whereas on the other hand, a significant majority of them state that they have not implemented an intellectual capital management strategy at their enterprises and neither identify nor measure this capital or its elements.

The research addresses the problem of identifying the impact of the labor force, of the investments and the research and development on the direction of the long-term growth strategy, in order to achieve the business sustainability of some countries of the European Union. The paper addresses the main challenges and macroeconomic developments at European level, as well as, relevant aspects reflected in some research, representative studies for the analysed issues. It also includes the empirical study conducted for 24 European countries, over a 22-year period, in which, based on the use of the multiple regression model, we analysed the correlations between the Export and Import indicators ? endogenous variables, considered to be the promoters of business sustainability, and the macroeconomic indicators Labour force, FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) and R&D - exogenous variables. In the short term, the research reflects the fact that the two indicators R&D expenditures and the number of researchers have a statistically significant positive impact on the exports of the states. In addition, the participation of the Labor force and FDI helps to increase the share of exports in GDP, too. According to the results of the research, the advanced economies register a benefit in the export activity, supported also by the large number of researchers, involved in the research and development activity. In the long term, R&D expenses and Labor force participation have a bigger impact on exports compared to other factors taken into account, given that the level of unemployment in an economy does not have a significant impact on foreign trade. Our work adds value to existing research by addressing the issue of evaluating the impact of innovation (through the variables: research and development expenses, researchers involved in research and development, patent applications - nonresidents and patent applications - residents), of labor force (through the variables: labor and unemployment - % of total labor force) and of investments (through the variable: foreign direct investment) on foreign trade of some countries of the European Union.

Globalization, as a response to the accelerated developments in recent decades, has shifted the world economy to a direction in which the adaptation to uncertainty conditions has been one of the most important manifestations of rational behavior. Human activity has always been subject to risks and uncertainty, and environmental pressure naturally generates selection and adaptation. The risk profile analysis in insolvency proceedings, as an indicator of managerial and financial health, represents a challenge to complement the gaps in the literature, given the limited studies in the field, compared to the bibliography in the field of risk management, for the companies in the economic circuit. This topic is of major importance for all business environments, having in view the disasters generated by economic crises on companies. In terms of judicial reorganization and insolvency proceedings, the situation in Romania proves to be different from the practices in the countries with tradition in this field and we are referring here to the USA, Germany and France. Comparative studies have indicated dysfunctions in the reorganization procedures in Romania, related to the lack of a coercive system to remove the insolvency debtors from the economic circuit, and the lack of models for analyzing the reorganization capacity of companies in insolvency proceedings. Regarding a possible reorganization of a company, creditors do not have approved analysis models in order to vote on reorganization plans and most of the time, at least as far as public creditors are concerned, their vote is negative and unfounded. The purpose of this research is to generate a model of internal risk analysis specific to the companies undergoing insolvency proceedings and of external risks related to the activity sector, a model able to predict the possibility of reorganizing a company undergoing insolvency proceedings. The main tool used is the interview, conducted on a sample of insolvency experts in Romania, with an average experience of approx. 10-20 years in insolvency and reorganization activities. Based on the analysis of the obtained results, we will refine and restructure a model, and then we will test it on a sample of companies undergoing insolvency proceedings.

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.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is having an unprecedented and unpredictable impact on the world's economy. The pandemic has driven the world toward adapting to the current circumstances regardless of the business, sector, or industry. The coronavirus epidemic (COVID19) has affected the global economy and service sector. The purpose of the current study is to assess the effect of COVID-19 on service sector growth and sustainability. Global sectors and industries are trying to anchor themselves amidst the pandemic. The study focuses on the sectors that are badly hit by the outbreak and discussed the strategies and responses different countries are taking to sustain their economies. This study concludes that the vital role of Information Technology and digitization supports the economies in their fight against the pandemic and helps them sustain themselves amid crises. This study also contributes to the body of literature by suggesting IT-based solutions for various industries to elevate effective responsiveness and avoid significant losses.

Small food businesses have difficulty accessing banks for financing. The growth of the sharing economy through financial technology (FinTech) makes it possible for small enterprises to receive access for credit. However, not all small business owners want to receive financing from FinTech companies. This study aims to analyze factors affecting FinTech adoption in small enterprises and its impact on business sustainability. The modified UTAUT 2 model was applied in this study. There were 184 small food business owners participating as respondents. To analyze the causal relationship between variables, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was implemented using a Partial Least square (SEM-PLS). The results of the research found that knowledge, safety perceptions, performance expectations, social influence, facilitation conditions and price values affect FinTech adoption by small food business owners. Moreover, FinTech adoption influences small food business sustainability. Several important recommendations for researchers, the FinTech industry and policy makers are formulated.

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link. This study extends the existing work on corporate governance and business sustainability by exploring corporate governance pillars comprising board functions, structure, strategy, compensation and shareholder rights utilizing data from listed S&P 500 firms. Using panel fixed effects and two-step GMM, we discovered that environmental, social and financial sustainability dimensions of the business sustainability are impacted positively by board functions and board structure. Our findings further reveal that low stakeholder engagement adversely impacts companies’ bottom-line performance. The results are robust to outliers, model specifications, statistical estimations and alternative measures of performance. Most importantly, the inferences from the moderating result suggest stakeholder engagement as a strategic approach to improve performance. The study is relevant for business sustainability practitioners and policy makers in advancing principles of corporate governance to promote enhanced performance.

In this research, we demonstrate that business sustainability can be a model to foster in order to reach real development, as it is shown that business sustainability has both an ethical and economic logic. Even though, from an ethical point of view, sustainability can be well-founded on human rights and civic ethics, our goal in this paper has been to sustain and enrich business sustainability based on the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church, which can be shared in its advises by many non-Catholic people, as it is a rich source of wisdom. We have also studied its economic logic, analyzing why it is justified for sustainable companies to obtain good results, formulating the model to alleviate the agency problem (which allows it to overcome the traditional stakeholder model), studying empirical analyses that demonstrate the good financial performance of sustainable companies, and making a new analysis that confirms the above.

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.

Business sustainability refers to economic sustainability performance that promotes profitability and to non-financial sustainability that may or may not create profitability. This paper concentrates on the relation between business sustainability and insolvency proceedings by asking what role business sustainability plays when choosing between restructuring (rescue) and liquidation proceedings. This choice is based on two tests: a viability test and a best interest of creditors test, the latter meaning that no dissenting creditor should be worse off in restructuring than in liquidation proceedings. In addition, the paper asks what role business sustainability plays when making the choice between restructuring and liquidation and what the consequences of this choice are for business sustainability elements. In addition, the paper asks who the stakeholders for business sustainability are in insolvency situations. The finding of the study is that creditor interest should be better balanced with non-financial sustainability, but with the requirement that creditors know the risks beforehand and are able to protect their interests, for example, through securities. Regarding environmental hazards, the paper suggests a “super responsibility” of bankruptcy estates to handle environmental problems, according to the precedent of the Canadian Supreme Court.

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.

Business sustainability aims to combine market logic with social welfare logic. In literature, it is commonly assumed that sustainability and the social welfare logic associated with it are characterized by a long-term orientation. However, this assumption is problematic because this principle may not apply in certain contexts. This qualitative study challenges this assumption and focuses on the mechanisms by which time affects the adoption of sustainability practices in the context of socially responsible investing (SRI) practices in Swiss banks and insurance companies. The article provides insights into the mechanisms associated with different time horizons and investigates their effects on the adoption of SRI in financial intermediaries. It also shows how the dimension of time shapes interactions between the two institutional logics underlying SRI in business organizations through specific mechanisms.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the conceptual construct of social innovation in business as distinct from social innovation implemented by civil society and the state. The general absence of sustained research and analysis of this phenomenon, and the dominance of grey and policy-oriented literature, mean that a broadly accepted definition of how social innovation theorises the changing role of business in society is missing Design/methodology/approach An integrative review of the representative literature on social innovation was conducted. The analysis focused on the key arguments made about the involvement of business actors in processes of social innovation and interweaved in this study to build a logically coherent definition of what social innovation in business means for the bulk of those who write and speak about it today. The scope of the literature review was expanded by integrating insights from the extant “business in society” and social innovation literatures, thereby adding clarity to the authors' conceptualisation. Findings The findings indicate that social innovation is best understood as a process driven by human relations, morality and creative capacity breaking routines and path dependencies. It fundamentally relies on the socially constructed dynamics between business and social actors who carry ideas, focus their energies, mobilise competences and create new complementarities to tackle social problems. Economic gain, in this approach, is at best an outcome of social innovation, not its engine. Originality/value What this literature review unveils that is unique about social innovation, and contributes to an enrichment of the “business in society” debate beyond the business case and win-win scenarios depicted by most scholars in this field, is that it best manifests itself as an informal social process that comes into existence at the margins of conventional ways of thinking and organising business activities. Business actors involved in social innovation are framed as self-directed and self-organised around the moral purpose of fostering social progress.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to address how wine businesses build sustainability – the ability to survive and be successful over the long-term – in a complex market environment. Design/methodology/approach To understand how managers in a wine supply chain (i.e. from grower to consumer) are trying to sustain business within a hyper-competitive industry, the authors used a standard grounded theory, constant comparative research method using formal depth interviews along with additional data sources from wine businesses in nine global wine regions in the USA, Australia, Italy and New Zealand. Findings A framework emerged from the data to improve business sustainability and counteract the complexity in the wine market by developing resilience through innovating and experimenting, obtaining resources/developing capabilities and relying on supply chain connections. Research limitations/implications This conceptual framework contributes to the existing theory on institutional transitions and resilience in business, and extends and broadens it by proposing that resilience is needed to combat entropy in the wine industry for businesses in this industry to survive and thrive. Practical implications Managers can learn from and apply the examples mentioned in this study and follow the framework presented to implement the strategies to build resilience to increase their chances of sustainability. Originality/value This study is one of the first empirical studies to the authors’ knowledge that identifies the impact of entropy in the wine industry and examines resilience as a means to combat an entropic market and obtain business sustainability.

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.

International audience; This article explores the concept of syncretism to articulate the construct of a novel theoretical approach that may help to accelerate progress in developing substantively more sustainable business activities. One reason why the integration of environmental and social responsibility in business has been so difficult to achieve in practice is that it is not just a battle of competing business logics but a battle of faiths. The concept of syncretism, with its roots in religious synthesis, may be far more relevant and useful than conventional approaches to combining the two, which rarely seem to rise above a “win–win” appeal to logic. The connectionist logic of syncretism may show us a way beyond paradigmatic conformity in business sustainability research so that scholars with diverse theoretical backgrounds might have a common ground for discussion, find constructive connections, and engage in potentially more insightful and creative interactions to develop our understanding of corporate sustainability.

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.

Part 3: Open Innovation; International audience; In order to respond to new market challenges, companies have attempted to develop open innovation processes with other organizations such as research centers and higher-education institutions. However, it is also frequently mentioned by several companies that the lack of models that support open innovation in a sustainable way, involving higher-education institutions or research centers and companies in the context of a collaborative environment, is an obstacle for a wider acceptance of this way of promoting innovation processes. Starting with some discussion about innovation models in a collaborative context, this paper discusses the developed of an electric vehicle based on an open-innovation approach among several companies and a Portuguese university.

This study explores, from managers' perspective, transformative management activities in mobilising sustainability transformations. Sustainability transformations are fundamental changes in cultures, structures and practices that move socio-technical systems towards more sustainable forms of production and consumption. Sustainability managers across different sectors are increasingly searching for new ways to advance such transformations, as conventional management appears ill-suited to tackling complex sustainability challenges, such as climate change. This research posits transformative management activities as an alternative approach. The framework of transformative management activities is based on an explorative study of managerial framing; that is how managers make sense of their actions, role, and purpose in managing sustainability initiatives. Data were generated from in-depth interviews with 10 sustainability managers who had facilitated sustainability transformations in their respective contexts. The nine activities were framed as: challenging the dominant environment through reflexivity; creating space for multi-vocal collaboration; aligning collaborators' future visions; restructuring principles, processes and practices; removing mental, physical and cultural barriers; designing effective feedback loops; influencing public discourse and action; ensuring the transparency of sustainability efforts; and co-constructing a new environment. Categorising these activities according to different management levels and management styles reveals the breadth and depth of managers’ professional capacities required to mobilise such transformations. The research extends previous literature on sustainability transformations by combining a transition management (TM) perspective with management activities and by introducing the managerial framing approach. The nine transformative management activities help practitioners reframe their management activities vis-a-vis TM principles, gaining alternative means of mobilising the sustainability transformations needed in this era.

Climate change, population growth, and current rate of consumption at global scale have prompted academic and business communities to challenge the current models of production towards more circular approaches. This study aims at understanding what actions small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are taking to meet the challenges and opportunities of the circular economy (CE), analysing actions, barriers, enablers and the connection between CE, business strategy and performance. This research involved 254 Italian SMEs through a multi-method approach, including interviews, surveys, and focus groups. Twenty different CE practices related to waste management, packaging, supply chain and product/process design have been explored. The results show that several CE practices are simultaneously implemented by SMEs, thus supporting the notion that CE implies a systemic approach to company’s value creation. In particular, waste management was widely applied (e.g. separated waste collection was carried out by 84% of the companies surveyed), while resource saving practices were implemented by only 14% of the sample. Higher costs are the main barrier to CE for early adopters (5.13 on a 7-point Likert-type scale). However, companies implementing CE practices perceive them as a business opportunity rather than a cost, thus showing that CE may represent a source of value creation for companies, particularly SMEs.

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.

© 2016 Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) Press. Much has been written about the need for more humane, ethical, socially just and transparent ways of doing business and performing entrepreneurial activities. Consistent with this, concepts such as sustainable development, corporate citizenship, corporate sustainability (CS), sustainable entrepreneurship, business ethics, and corporate social responsibility (CSR), among many others, have emerged. This diversity of expressions raises the need to development a new typology for to CS. This paper addresses this gap and describes a framework typology for corporate sustainability, by analysing sustainability drivers and the interactivity factors in the context of sustainability. It also describes the various types of sustainable emphasis given by companies and their associated levels of CS, which may pave the way for a new framework typology.

The purpose of this study was to define community strategic relationship and marketing (CSRM) as a relevant tool to foster the development of communities and the sustainability of organizations. The method was rationalist, theoretical, and conceptual; it comprised the analysis of a propositional structure. Articulated propositions provided a framework for analysis, discussion, and conclusions. After giving a definition of CSRM, several analyses were conducted that determined the uniqueness and usefulness of this approach. These analyses were: 1) the usefulness of the community concepts and strategies in CSRM, 2) the existence of a community approach to different strategic areas or marketing, and 3) the relevance of the use of community concepts and strategies to foster the development of communities and the sustainability of organizations. The conclusion was that CSRM and the use of these concepts and strategies have the potential to be a fruitful research and strategic approach in marketing and in all of organization activities.

International audience; This article offers a conceptual framework that comprehensively describes essential aspects of corporate water responsibility. What heretofore has been essentially regarded as an issue to be tackled by governmental institutions, and therefore not perceived as an important component of the value that is created for the institutional and private owners of profit-driven companies, is explicitly treated here as a corporate responsibility. Bridging knowledge domains, I review major research works conducted by management, corporate sustainability, and (welfare) economics scholars and focusing on water management issues to unveil the conditions under which corporations are likely to manage, or to be challenged in managing, water in responsible/ sustainable ways. Three types of "tensions" that confront academics and managers alike are discussed: voluntary actions versus coercion, free riding versus cooperation, and economic versus corporate water responsibility motives. I propose a three-dimensional framework of corporate water responsibility for thinking through the managerial response patterns contemplated to address these tensions.

The purpose of this study is to examine how business ethics can support business sustainability in hospitals. Business ethics is associated with: Hospital professional ethics, medical professional ethics, professional accounting ethics, and Islamic business ethics. This study used a qualitative approach with phenomenological analysis techniques to process the data collected from key informants, through Focus Group Discussions (FGD) with 20 supervisors, in-depth interviews with six members of the management, 11 outside observations, and documentation over a period of six months. The business ethics theory was used to guide the research’s findings. The business sustainability theory was used to find the relationship of the research’s findings with the opinions of four expert informants for the purpose of triangulation on the reasons for conducting Islamic business ethics for a sustainable business. The finding of this study is the reason for running the hospital ethically. The finding of this study can be used to redesign the vision and mission of the hospital as a basis for achieving better performance. The implication of the finding of this research is the need for business ethics in the design of internal systems.

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.

Corporations in the 21st century play a decisive role in the future of society. Their power and influence in world affairs often seems devoid of ethics and seems to exceed the reach and the means of many nations. As a result, the strategic positions they take towards value, creation and ethics affects every individual on the planet. This paper explores strategic routes that organisations could apply to facilitate economic growth while ensuring their ecological integrity and ensuring social enhancements generates benefits to a wider scope of organisational stakeholders. By conducting a critical analysis and clarifying common misconceptions between corporate social responsibility (CSR), creating shared value (CSV) and sustainability, it is possible to determine how these interrelated strategic approaches have evolved. This article argues the importance of transforming the purpose of organisations to encapsulate stakeholder value creation as the main reason for their existence.

This research evaluates the relationship between innovation and sustainability in Latin American early-stage entrepreneurship. Besides, the study seeks to recognize differences in the relationship between innovation and sustainability by the perception of opportunities, the fear of failure, and companies’ perceived social role, in early-stage entrepreneurs. Responses obtained in 11 Latin American countries are analyzed using correlation parameters and multinomial regressions. The results indicate a low association between innovation and sustainability in new businesses. Additionally, the findings demonstrate that entrepreneurs’ perceptual conditions affect this connection. Notably, it is evidenced that entrepreneurs who perceive good opportunities, less afraid of failure, and identify an active social role of enterprises, tend to incorporate, jointly, higher innovation and sustainability in their new ventures. These outcomes extend the understanding about the effects of entrepreneurs’ psychological characteristics on the development of innovation and sustainability in Latin American countries.

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.

On a macro level, a concept of sustainable development was fi rst known in context of the larger societal development and the assurance of future generational needs. Nowadays many of individuals, companies, and other organizations are becoming aware of a need of another specifi c approach to living, manufacturing and doing business. The term of sustainable development has also increasingly been used on a micro level. For a business, these practices imply an effort to incorporate the social and environmental issues into the business model while simultaneously achieving longterm business growth and effi ciency. The aim of the paper is, based on the analysis of sustainability concept implementation by businesses in selected industries, to identify the underlying motives and barriers to concept implementation in practice. The motives leading to sustainability concept implementation were found by means of comparison with foreign research. Another objective was to underline the most frequently used tools supporting business sustainability in particular areas and as a whole. By means of a hierarchical cluster analysis we provide a more comprehensive view of businesses´ approach to a sustainability concept. Through the objectives of this paper we have formulated six hypotheses. To verify the hypotheses we used the statistical method of analysis. By use of a questionnaire survey, we analyzed 455 businesses belonging to selected industries. The results indicated several options to improve the current state of sustainability implementation which would be benefi cial for both businesses as well as the wider environment. The solution for the indicated problems, however, requires not only participation of the business sector but also the interaction of the state.

Organisations are becoming increasingly aware of the need to include the concepts of economic, social and environmental sustainability within their different management models. To help them achieve this, they have a number of different CSR management tools available to them. However, despite offering recommendations on how and where to contemplate the concepts of sustainability within organisations, such instruments do not define a set of guidelines or a structured framework for implementing those concepts. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to enhance one of the tools that is most widely known and used in strategic management, the Balanced Scorecard, so that the concepts of sustainability can be implemented within the strategy and the day-to-day management of the enterprise. To do so, the case methodology was applied to 16 organisations in order to obtain what could be called a Sustainable Balanced Scorecard Las organizaciones son cada vez más conscientes de la necesidad de incluir los conceptos de sostenibilidad económica, social y ambiental dentro de sus diferentes modelos de gestión. Para ayudarles a conseguirlo, tienen un número de diferentes herramientas de gestión de la RSE a su disposición. Sin embargo, a pesar de ofrecer recomendaciones sobre cómo y dónde contemplar los conceptos de sostenibilidad en las organizaciones, tales instrumentos no se define un conjunto de directrices o un marco estructurado para la aplicación de esos conceptos. En consecuencia, el objetivo de este trabajo es mejorar una de las herramientas que es el más ampliamente conocido y utilizado en la gestión estratégica, Balanced Scorecard, por lo que los conceptos de sostenibilidad se pueden implementar dentro de la estrategia y el día a día la gestión de la empresa. Para ello, la metodología de los casos se aplicó a 16 organizaciones con el fin de obtener lo que podría llamarse un Cuadro de Mando Integral Sostenible

The objective is to describe the applicability and relevance of the consensus formula in the context of the triple bottom line (TBL) approach. A bipolar approach with an empirical example is provided to introduce an extended approach of TBL, namely TBLx2. TBLx2 extends the standard TBL, thus demonstrating a counterview, compatibility and counterview to TBL. The approach provides opportunities for further research beyond contemporary practices and previous studies, shifting the focus from current status towards future direction in the implementation, assessment, reporting of sustainable business models and sustainable business practices. TBLx2 contributes to expanding the current approach of TBL that is mainly unilateral in theory and practice, so as to become bilateral through addressing the other side of the coin - namely, what is not implemented, assessed and reported in company efforts at business sustainability in the marketplace and society as a whole.

Purpose This paper aims to describe and discuss a balance model of theoretical business sustainability, to leverage the inferior side, so as to enhance performance. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual description and discussion are provided, along with an empirical depiction. Findings The empirical illustration presents one organization that embodies the goals of theoretical business sustainability in the marketplace and society. Research limitations/implications Further research is needed to enhance our understanding of the phenomenon and performance of business sustainability in supply chains. Practical implications Findings highlight that there is no justification for practitioners to strive consistently for anything other than theoretical business sustainability, and stakeholders need to push organizations in that direction. Originality/value The paper contributes to our understanding of what should be done and why business sustainability performance should be improved in supply chains.

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.

In his quote from the 1940s, Joseph Schumpeter highlights the enormous transformative potential of entrepreneurship.[...]