Achieving Sustainability: Role of Technology and Innovation

Dear Colleagues,

We invite you to submit papers to this Special Issue on “Achieving Sustainability: Role of Technology and Innovation” in Sustainability. There is increasing awareness of the importance of sustainability to people, organizations, the environment, countries, and societies around the globe. The interconnectedness and interdependency between man and nature is undisputable. The finite nature of resources and the rising demand for them has adversely affected the planet’s ability to rejuvenate and replenish its natural state. For example, soil degradation, chemical dumping, and toxic waste have adversely impacted the ability of future generations to have the same lifestyle and abundance as their parents. One of the many ways to address this is to rely on technology and innovation as solutions to recover and ensure more sustainable practices. Sustainable technology was named as one of the top strategic technology trends in 2024 by Gartner, a research and advisory committee, and offers significant opportunities for researchers and businesses. Hence, we call on potential authors to explicate the connection between sustainability, technology, and innovation. More importantly, we wish to receive diverse and multidisciplinary perspectives on the role of technology and innovation in driving and achieving sustainability. We welcome insights enriched from a variety of disciplines such as management, international business, entrepreneurship, technology and innovation studies, sociology, and more. We are open to theoretical and empirical papers as well as a variety of methodological perspectives that are both qualitative and quantitative.

Some relevant questions include but are not limited to the following:

• What is the role of technology and innovation in developing or attaining sustainability?
• What theoretical frameworks best explain the relationship between sustainability, technology, and innovation?
• What are the benefits of considering a technology/innovation angle for sustainability?
• What are the downsides of this angle?
• Who are the beneficiaries—is it corporations, individuals, society, the environment, or governments?
• What are the downsides of a technology and innovation management approach to sustainability?
• What does history indicate—the past, present, and future of such an approach?
• Are there any case studies or longitudinal assessments that can inform us?
• Are there any country-specific comparisons that would be useful?
• What are the similarities and differences between the global north vs. global south?
• What are the key sustainable technologies that are likely to drive future trends?
• How do digitization and digital technology impact sustainability efforts?

We encourage rigorous and thoughtful explorations of this Special Issue topic. We expect the published papers to contribute to the stream of literature on sustainable technology and innovation within the fields of management, strategy, entrepreneurship, and international business.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Manjula S. Salimath
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sustainability
• technology
• innovation
• digitization
• management