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Sustainability
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Business Innovation and Sustainable Development
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Business Innovation and Sustainable Development

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2021) | Viewed by 28746

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Antonio J. Verdu-Jover

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Economics and Financial Studies Department, Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche, Elche, Spain
Interests: strategic flexibility; fit; environment; innovation; technology; strategic entrepreneurship; learning; strategic alliances
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Lirios Alos-Simo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Economics and Financial Studies Department, Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche, Elche, Spain
Interests: eco-innovation; innovation processes; leadership; culture; sustainability; performance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There is widespread social and governmental concern about sustainable development. The key to development is business innovation, but institutions, society, and the market are pressing for innovation to be committed to sustainability. Business innovation—whether in processes, products, or services—must have a positive impact on the natural environment for stakeholders to validate the innovation. This Special Issue addresses sustainable development from different perspectives (strategic, organizational, operations, technology, etc.) while considering the central axis of business innovation. We welcome papers that reveal the role of business innovation in sustainable development as it meets most stakeholder expectations. Sustainable value creation is at the root of innovations that contribute to improving human beings and nature.

Prof. Dr. Antonio Verdu-Jover
Dr. Lirios Alós-Simó
Guest Editors

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.

Keywords

  • Environmental management
  • Business innovation
  • Sustainable development
  • Process innovation
  • Sustainable international business
  • Stakeholders
  • Sustainability strategy
  • Sustainability operations
  • Sustainability technology
  • Open innovation
  • Innovation strategies
  • Eco-innovation

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 1067 KiB  
Article
Teleworking as an Eco-Innovation for Sustainable Development: Assessing Collective Perceptions during COVID-19
by Francesca Loia and Paola Adinolfi
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 4823; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094823 - 25 Apr 2021
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 5744
Abstract
Due to the spread of COVID-19, new challenges and opportunities for business innovation have emerged, including the way work is organized and designed. In particular, pandemic created the conditions for the most extensive mass teleworking experiment in history. While there is a wide [...] Read more.
Due to the spread of COVID-19, new challenges and opportunities for business innovation have emerged, including the way work is organized and designed. In particular, pandemic created the conditions for the most extensive mass teleworking experiment in history. While there is a wide literature on the effects of teleworking as a business innovation, mainly from an environmental perspective, there are few studies investigating the public perceptions regarding teleworking and, in particular, studies that draw from social media analyses. Based on these considerations, a big data analysis has been carried out in order to frame the public perceptions about teleworking on Twitter. The six-months sentiment analysis of about 11,000 tweets shows that the ecological value of telework is not perceived by people; surprisingly, in a pandemic context of growing ecological concern, there is no significant evidence of environmental awareness in relation to teleworking. However, the positive and negative concepts which emerge in relation to teleworking and similar terms can be assimilated to the benefits and pitfalls highlighted in the literature, which are related to economic or social sustainability. This has important implications for practice in organizations employing teleworking, which are highlighted in the conclusion, together with the limitations and future research avenues. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Business Innovation and Sustainable Development)
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23 pages, 4974 KiB  
Article
Toward the Dynamic Modeling of Transition Problems: The Case of Electric Mobility
by Mohammadreza Zolfagharian, Bob Walrave, A. Georges L. Romme and Rob Raven
Sustainability 2021, 13(1), 38; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010038 - 22 Dec 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3690
Abstract
Transportation systems are transitioning to e-mobility, but scholars and policymakers are struggling to understand how to accomplish this transition effectively. In response, we draw on the technological innovation systems perspective and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology to develop a [...] Read more.
Transportation systems are transitioning to e-mobility, but scholars and policymakers are struggling to understand how to accomplish this transition effectively. In response, we draw on the technological innovation systems perspective and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology to develop a theory-guided and entity-based simulation model to better understand, among others, electric vehicle (EV) adoption processes as a specific yet core element driving business innovation. By doing so, our model is among the first to capture and combine the macro-and micro-level interactions associated with the EV transition process. Our simulation results shed light on the impact of alternative innovation policies, notably by explaining relations between EV market dynamics and changes in e-mobility policies, such as EV-related subsidies and resource mobilization. As such, the simulation modeling approach adopted in this paper enables a more in-depth study of transition problems related to e-mobility. Notably, the resulting modular model can be adjusted to other e-mobility transition problems by changing the specified entities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Business Innovation and Sustainable Development)
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16 pages, 253 KiB  
Article
Capacity Reduction Pressure, Financing Constraints, and Enterprise Sustainable Innovation Investment: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Companies
by Huan Chen, Tingyong Zhong and Jeoung Yul Lee
Sustainability 2020, 12(24), 10472; https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410472 - 15 Dec 2020
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 2701
Abstract
Resolving the problem of excess production capacity through sustainable technological innovation is an important issue facing the Chinese economy in achieving high-quality development. The Guiding Opinions of the State Council on Resolving the Contradiction of Severe Overcapacity promulgated by the government in 2013 [...] Read more.
Resolving the problem of excess production capacity through sustainable technological innovation is an important issue facing the Chinese economy in achieving high-quality development. The Guiding Opinions of the State Council on Resolving the Contradiction of Severe Overcapacity promulgated by the government in 2013 undoubtedly had a huge external impact on the traditionally competitive manufacturing market. This paper uses 6680 company-year sample observations of 1609 A-share manufacturing listed companies in China from 2010 to 2017 to examine the impact of capacity reduction pressure on ‘corporate sustainable innovation’ (the strategic response made by the enterprise administrator to cope with the impacts of the external environment including economic, social and environmental aspects) investment and the moderating role of financing constraints on this relationship. The research shows that after the promulgation of the Guiding Opinions, the degree of overcapacity had a significant positive effect on the R&D investment of enterprises, indicating that the policy to resolve overcapacity promoted their sustainable innovation investment. Such a phenomenon indicates that, to a certain extent, in the context of capacity reduction, companies have strong pressure and motivation to seek a way out through sustainable innovation. However, financing constraints have a significant inhibitory influence on the anti-forcing effect of the capacity reduction policy, indicating that the ability of enterprises to respond to external capacity reduction policies is subject to their own limited financing. Further investigation shows that capacity reduction pressure mainly promotes the sustainable innovation investment of private enterprises and has no significant impact on that of state-owned enterprises. This may be because private enterprises struggled more for survival during the transition period. The results of this paper provide a theoretical basis and reference value for the formulation of government policies and the development of enterprises. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Business Innovation and Sustainable Development)
20 pages, 3619 KiB  
Article
The Relationship between Innovation and Sustainability: A Bibliometric Review of the Literature
by Dorin Maier, Andreea Maier, Ioan Așchilean, Livia Anastasiu and Ovidiu Gavriș
Sustainability 2020, 12(10), 4083; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104083 - 16 May 2020
Cited by 64 | Viewed by 11648
Abstract
The research conducted in this paper is directed towards a bibliometric review and a visualization analysis of the relationship between innovation and sustainability. The main objective is to empirically document the intellectual structure, the volume and the knowledge-development directions. For this objective, we [...] Read more.
The research conducted in this paper is directed towards a bibliometric review and a visualization analysis of the relationship between innovation and sustainability. The main objective is to empirically document the intellectual structure, the volume and the knowledge-development directions. For this objective, we used the VOS Viewer software and the scientific databases ISI Web of Science (WoS). We identify that there is a big increase in volume of articles on innovation and sustainability published in the last 10 years, from 2010 up to 2019, compared to the entire period before 2010. Given the large amount of the literature, we form an ample database of 436 peer-reviewed articles published in the last 10 years. The bibliometric analysis reveals the most influential journals, authors and papers in the studied field. This research reveals that by combining the main aspects of innovation and sustainability in a single concept like “sustainable innovation”, an emerging topic can appear, and it can offer new research directions in the very big field of innovation and in the new and actual field of sustainability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Business Innovation and Sustainable Development)
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19 pages, 801 KiB  
Article
Proactive Divestiture and Business Innovation: R&D Input and Output Performance
by Kyungsuk Lee and Taewoo Roh
Sustainability 2020, 12(9), 3874; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12093874 - 9 May 2020
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3757
Abstract
We investigate the impact of proactive divestitures on innovative activities at a firm-level. Research concerning the relationship between proactive divestiture and innovation performance remains unexplored and requires a close investigation. Furthermore, we argue that proactive-divestiture is an essential means to achieve corporate sustainability [...] Read more.
We investigate the impact of proactive divestitures on innovative activities at a firm-level. Research concerning the relationship between proactive divestiture and innovation performance remains unexplored and requires a close investigation. Furthermore, we argue that proactive-divestiture is an essential means to achieve corporate sustainability by fostering innovation outcomes. To explore such a relationship, this study integrates research on knowledge-based view and organizational inertia and encompasses the model of financial distress. We hypothesize that proactive divestiture increases both the firm’s R&D intensity and the number of patents and propose that prior divestiture experiences and divested-unit size would moderate this relationship. Results indicate that proactive post-divestiture firms have increased in R&D inputs but not significantly in output. We found mixed results for such a relationship as prior experiences increased, but interestingly, the relationship revealed to be more significant for both input and output as divested-unit size decreased. This study contributes to our understandings of how proactive divestiture can reinforce knowledge capacity, distant from a traditional resource-based view that mainly regarded divestiture as a mere responsive action vis-à-vis financial pressure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Business Innovation and Sustainable Development)
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