Corporate sustainability is considered a fundamental paradigm and solution in creating a prosperous future for organizations. However, social sustainability issues and pandemic problems from COVID-19 ...have affected corporations and interrupted plans for sustainable development. To date, corporate sustainability frameworks have taken a relatively narrow view of this paradigm. This study highlights serious challenges to corporate sustainability while providing a framework in an attempt to enable more sustainable business practices. To fill the gap in the literature, we have developed a framework to organize and prioritize important sustainability indicators. The first phase of the study involves the classification of 45 sub-criteria of corporate sustainability under nine main categories by using a literature review and novel Fuzzy Delphi method. The resulting categories are Corporate Governance, Product Responsibility, Transparency and Communication, Economic, Environmental, Social, Natural Environment and Climate Vulnerability, Energy Consumption along with Energy Saving, and includes Pandemic COVID-19 as a new aspect of social sustainability. Next, we applied the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchical Process (FAHP) to help determine the weights and prioritizing the criteria and sub-criteria. The results revealed that the Pandemic, along with the Natural Environment and Climate Vulnerability, ranked higher among the main criteria category. Whereas, emergency response planning, social distances, modification of working hours, and just-in-time delivery are the most influencing sub-attributes among the 45 sub-barriers of different categories. Contributions of this study include new insights regarding corporate sustainability criteria and subcriteria, application of novel methods, and integrated framework for dimensions of corporate sustainability. This study is among the first of its kind to consider the COVID-19 pandemic as an essential category and social sustainability attribute of corporate sustainable business practices. Outcomes of this study can help assist scholars, corporations, and decision-makers in understanding sustainable development initiatives while simultaneously improving social sustainability practices.
Emission forecasting is vital for policy-making and emission reduction goals globally. This research aimed to perform an accurate model for forecasting and assessing CO
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emissions and the production ...of renewable electricity for the top two countries contributing to these emissions, the USA and China. In this study, we employed three novel advanced mathematical grey models: optimized discrete grey model (ODGM), nonhomogeneous discrete grey model (NDGM), and variable speed and adaptive structure grey model (VSSGM) to estimate the future trends of CO
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emissions and renewable electricity production. These breakthrough models added value in this field of research by reducing uncertainty surrounding ambiguity and numerical ranges and improving accuracy in assessments by using small samples and imperfect information. The findings showed that, by 2026, China’s electricity production based on renewable sources would be higher than that of the USA. We find CO
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emissions in a downward trend, with more significant reductions in the USA than in China by the year 2026. The contributions of this study are the application of novel VSSGM and the use of synthetic relative growth rate modeling for predicting the overall growth of CO
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emissions and the production of renewable electricity in analyzed countries. The originality of this study lies in proposing a novel synthetic doubling time model to compute how long it will take, for China and the USA, to reduce their CO
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emissions and doubling their increase in renewable electricity production.
•Climate goals need for a regenerative and integrative model in which natural systems are self-renewed.•New rationales between circular economy (CE) and climate change mitigation policies by ...examining the five actors of the QHM.•New insights on which eco-innovations may benefit the achievement of climate change mitigation goals.•CE eco-innovations at micro level indirectly relate to climate change mitigation through changes at meso and macro levels.•Policymakers must reinforce the necessity to simultaneously consider CE and climate change goals.
Climate change represents an increasing threat to society and demands collaborative actions for changing technologies, production methods, and consumption. The concept of Circular Economy (CE) emerged aiming to increase the resource use efficiency and minimize resource inputs, waste and emissions generation. However, the contribution of CE eco-innovations to climate change mitigation goals, pushed by the Quintuple Helix Model (QHM) actors, is still unknown. This analytical review intends to fulfil this gap by investigating the main elements of the QHM that contribute to CE eco-innovations, namely companies, government, society, academia, and the natural environment. An analytical framework and theoretical propositions for future research are proposed. Eco-innovation technologies from energy, waste, transportation, construction and manufacturing sectors are discussed. Practical recommendations and implications for policymakers associated with CE and climate change policies and their interrelationship in terms of eco-innovations are also provided.
SMEs are a significant portion of global corporations and, while individually, might not compare to larger corporations in total emissions, holistically have a significant impact. Therefore, ...understanding how the founder's and the company's values influence its ability to be sustainable is a theme not fully covered in the literature. This research focused on the influence of the founder's values on social, environmental, and economic values on a company's sustainability. The Agency Theory was used as a theoretical lens to analyze the values and sustainable-oriented behaviors of the founder and the company. An exploratory case study was implemented through qualitative data collection and analysis. The main findings revealed that, by comparing the founder and company profiles, the inherent values of Veganism, Ethical Drive, and Ecological Consciousness influenced mainly the environmental and economic dimensions of the company's sustainability to be more sustainable. Moreover, comparing their values according to Schwartz (1994) and Axsen and Kurani (2013), the founder and the company matched six over nine values. The inherent values influenced the growth in environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability. This research contributes by highlighting the need to translate the inherent values to practice fostering sustainability in the private sector.
Purpose
This study aims to explore the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on exports of goods and services, logistics performance, environmental management system (ISO 14001) certification and quality ...management system (ISO 9001) certification in top affected Asian countries of India, Iran, Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach
A novel grey relational analysis models’ approach is used to examine the inter-relationship between COVID-19 economic growth and environmental performance. Moreover, the authors applied a conservative (maximin) model to investigate which countries have the least intensifying affected among all of the top affected COVID-19 Asian countries based on the SS degree of grey relation values. The data used in this study was collected from multiple databases during 2020 for analysis.
Findings
Results indicate that the severity of COVID-19 shows a strong negative association and influence of COVID-19 on the exportation of goods and services, logistics performance, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications in all the six highly affected countries during a pandemic outbreak. Although the adverse effects of COVID-19 in exporting countries persisted until December 31, 2020, their magnitude decreased over time in Indonesia and Pakistan. During the COVID-19 outbreak, Pakistan showed comparatively better performance among the six top highly affected Asian countries due to its smart locked down strategy and prevents its economy from severe damages. While India and Iran export drastically go down due to a rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths.
Research limitations/implications
The research findings produce much-required policy suggestions for leaders, world agencies and governments to take corrective measures on an emergent basis to prevent the economies from more damages and improve their logistics, environmental and quality performance during the pandemic of COVID-19.
Originality/value
This study develops a framework and investigates the intensifying effects of COVID-19 effects on economic growth, logistics performance, environmental performance and quality production processes.
Water scarcity is becoming a global concern for many reasons as its consumption increases. This research aimed to analyze sustainability inequalities in the water consumption of EU countries. ...Descriptive statistics using data for four AQUASTAT periods (2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017), and quotients for the AQUASTAT 2017 period, were calculated using a proposed econometric model. The main results were that countries with high GPD and population showed high water stress and total water withdrawal. Countries with lower industry-value-added-to-GDP quotients were among those with higher industrial water use efficiency, while low water-services-use-efficiency quotients were associated with high services value added to GDP. Suggestions for policymakers are provided and formula application guidelines for regional-level comparisons are described.
The literature on the Circular Economy (CE) has shown considerable expansion over recent years, with various studies striving to guide corporate entities in transitioning from linear to circular ...production paradigms. While larger businesses and multinational corporations have been a central focus, a significant gap exists in understanding the transformation journey of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) towards circularity. This research aims to enhance the existing body of knowledge by mapping the knowledge at the intersection of SMEs and the CE. This study utilizes an exploratory approach and leverages network analysis and content analysis to scrutinize 126 academic papers indexed on Scopus. The findings indicate that the field is bifurcated into nascent and early-growth stages. Although CE appears as the prevalent theme in most of the papers surveyed, an emerging group of academics has begun to delve into the domain of SMEs and CE. Further to identifying thematic clusters, this research explores the main references from these two phases by exploring their contents. The study provides a series of recommendations for future research alongside methodological guidelines for theoretical and empirical investigations.
In a global context of change and uncertainty, the innovation capacity of organizations is key to their sustained development. The objective of this study is to empirically analyze the relationship ...between innovation and firm performance of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in emerging countries and to study the moderating role of investment and collaboration in these relationships. The least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) analyzed a sample of 104 SMEs in the wearing apparel sector in Peru and Colombia. Product Innovation together with Business Process Innovation, explained 47.1 % of organizational performance, 41.0 % of economic performance, 39.5 % of commercial performance and 36.9 % of productive performance. However, Product Innovation was not a significant predictor of productive or organizational performance. The moderating effect of Investment on the relationship between Product Innovation and Business Process Innovation and Firm performance was only significant for organizational and productive performance and with respect to the moderating effect of Collaboration on the relationship between Product innovation and Business Process Innovation and Firm performance, in the quantitative analysis no significant prediction was obtained, supported by the results of the surveys where 62.8 % of the MSMEs never received supported from others actors for the development of innovation activities. The application of the findings of this study can contribute to the validation, updating or implementation of public policies that promote collaboration between actors of the innovation ecosystem, as well as in proposal of investment strategies for the development of innovation in emerging countries.
Our research explores how Stakeholder Capitalism can contribute to global governance to achieve all the 17 SDGs. We performed a mixed study through research synthesis, categorization, and network ...analysis. The main findings revealed that Stakeholder Capitalism and its principles are favorable to foster a friendly environment for achieving most of the SDGs and can contribute to global governance in achieving mainly the SDGs 8, 9, and 17. However, Stakeholder Capitalism literature is incipient for the SDGs 6, 14, and 15, needing further research development by considering non-human stakeholders and the environment. Findings also revealed that Stakeholder Capitalism could promote partnerships and consensus worldwide and be an optimal source for promoting decent work, economic growth, innovation, infrastructure development, and industrial dynamism in a sustainable manner. We also discussed how the primary constructs of Stakeholder Theory related to Stakeholder Capitalism could contribute to achieving the SDGs: stakeholder construct, stakeholder salience (power, urgency, legitimacy, and proximity), corporate social responsibility, and value creation. Furthermore, we proposed a novel comprehensive methodology helpful in analyzing literature and categorical variables by enhancing the explanatory power of results through research synthesis, categorization, exploratory data analysis, degree centrality, and cross-network visualization. Finally, we suggested an agenda for future studies.
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•Stakeholder Capitalism (SC) is discussed with the main Stakeholder Theory constructs.•A new comprehensive methodology analyzes literature and categorical variables.•SC can strongly foster economic growth, innovation, and partnerships.•SC lacks to reach clean water, sanitation, fauna, flora, and non-human stakeholders.•SC can contribute to global governance to achieve most socioeconomic-oriented SDGs.
Responding to environmental concerns is a new indication of innovativeness, allowing businesses to achieve competitive advantages by executing innovative activities that benefit individuals and the ...entire community. Much intention has been retained in this perspective on "green employee creativity." However, few studies have examined the combined effect of green creativity from relations between people and organizational practices. As a result, we sought to explain the variation in employees' green creativity by investigating relations of four factors outside of the organizational context (transformational leadership, green innovation strategy, green human resources management-GHRM, and green process engagement) with individual factors (such as employees' green creativity). Data were retrieved from 150 employees pertaining to electronic companies. Data were statistically analyzed by SmartPLS software. Main results revealed that green transformational leadership positively affects employee green creativity, GHRM, and green process engagement play a significant mediating role in the relation between green transformational leadership and employee green creativity. Furthermore, the green innovation strategy significantly moderates transformational leadership and green process engagement. This effect is improved when the level of green innovation strategy is high rather than low.
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