Implementing Green Innovation for Environmental Sustainability: Opportunities and Challenges

Dear Colleagues,

Living within the ecological boundary of this planet is both a challenge and responsibility of all. In this respect, we require a global partnership and collaboration in line with the spirit of SDG-17: Partnerships for the Goal. We need to mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology, and financial resources to achieve the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals in all countries.  

In order to achieve the objectives of sustainable development, we need to establish a transformative model of circular economy [1,2] and an ecosystem for green innovation in all spheres of life. We need both traditional knowledge and modern innovation from across the regions of the world. Green innovation or innovation per se does not only happen in the costly laboratories of developed countries but also in developing countries. In addition, the same issue can have different challenges and solutions based on different economic, policy, cultural, and resource contexts.

We need to understand how green innovation is manifesting, its challenges and opportunities, and its implementation process under different economic, policy, cultural, and resource contexts in both developed and developing countries. Is there any opportunity to learn, adopt, and adapt in the reciprocal context?

Developments regarding the implementation of green innovation are largely from advanced nations, and there exists a limited understanding of how these practices are embedded in an emerging market context [3]. A comparative understanding of the different drivers and barriers for implementing green innovation under various contextual factors and economic conditions will facilitate smooth transition toward sustainable development.

Therefore, this Special Issue (SI) invites academics and practitioners from both advanced and emerging economies to offer insight into the differences that exist in the design and implementation of green innovation under different economic, public policy, cultural, and resource contexts. Sustainable development is a global commitment, hence contributions from all regions of the globe (Africa, Asia and Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America) [4] are welcome.

Research topics may include, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Green Innovation and Gender Equality: Women entrepreneurship in green innovation and how gender equality can play an important role in delivering green innovation.
• Green Innovation and Smart Cities and Communities: Green HRM and green buildings in the housing and construction industry sector [5] to elicit green behaviors, advancing the tiny house movement in the context of developed and developing countries. Can sustainably and esthetically designed tiny houses be a solution to the issue of urban slums, such as Dharavi in Mumbai, India, and Rocinha in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil? Conceptualizing public policy to advance the tiny house movement.
• Green Innovation and Higher Education: New educational and training contents for current and future generations to advance green innovation. Contributions may focus on cases of embedding in higher education curriculum aspects of SDGs or other frameworks such as PRME model- responsible education.
• Green Innovation and Accounting: Trends in sustainability practices [6], carbon capture accounting and frameworks, and nature and biodiversity dependency disclosures in business, including ESG, CSR, and branding issues. Integrating risk of biodiversity loss in business.
• Green Innovation in Food and Nutrition Industry: Research focusing on innovation in food production, supply chains, and public policies to support green innovation, given the increased changes in diet, lifestyle, climate change, biodiversity loss, and food wastage.

We welcome original research papers, case studies, and articles on new public policies, theories, and frameworks. The final acceptance of articles is contingent on the review team and Special Issue Editors’ judgements of paper contributions on four key dimensions:

(1) Empirical contribution: Does the article offers new and unique findings? Are the study design, data analysis, and results rigorous and do they address the stated hypotheses or research questions?

 (2) Theoretical contribution: Does the article offer new and novel ideas and insights or meaningfully extend existing theory?

(3) Practical contribution: Does the article contribute to the basic theme of the Special Issue “implementation of green innovation” and its drivers and barriers in the comparative context of developed and emerging economics?

 (4) Contribution to the Special Issue topic: Does the article extend our existing understanding of green innovation overall?

For review or conceptual articles, the novelty of the theoretical contribution must be clearly presented along with implications for theory and practice.

References

1. Malik, A.; Sharma, P.; Vinu, A.; Karakoti, A.; Kaur, K.; Gujral, H.S.; Munjal, S.; Laker, B. Circular economy adoption by SMEs in emerging markets: Towards a multilevel conceptual framework. Bus. Res. 2022, 142, 605–619, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.12.076.
2. Zhu, B.; Nguyen, M.; Siri, N.S.; Malik, A. Towards a transformative model of circular economy for SMEs. Bus. Res. 2022, 144, 545–555, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.01.093.
3. Chen, P.-C.; Hung, S.-W. Collaborative green innovation in emerging countries: a social capital perspective. J. Oper. Prod. Manag. 2014, 34, 347–363, https://doi.org/10.1108/ijopm-06-2012-0222.
4. Goswami, K. The Global Sustainable Development Goals: Are we progressing? In The Blue Planet—A Magazine on Sustainability; Australian Centre of Sustainable Development Research & Innovation (ACSDRI): Adelaide, Australia, 2021; Issue 3 Volume 1, pp. 12-23. ISSN: 2652-7987. Available online: https://acsdri.com/the-global-sustainable-development-goals-are-we-progressing/ (Accessed on 17 July 2022).
5. Parida, S.; Ananthram, S.; Chan, C.; Brown, K. Green office buildings and sustainability: Does green human resource management elicit green behaviors?. Clean. Prod. 2021, 329, 129764, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129764.
6. Goswami, K.; Gerritsen, R. Internal Sustainable Development Commitment of Public Agencies in Three Australian States: Evidence through Sustainability Reporting Practices. J. Sustain. Policy Pr. 2021, 17, https://doi.org/10.18848/2325-1166/cgp/v17i01/1-18.

For any queries, please email to: [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected]

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Ashish Malik
Dr. Subha Parida
Dr. Kuntal Goswami
Guest Editors

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• sustainability
• green innovation
• business models