Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability has become a management imperative for modern organizations that are increasingly required to tackle sustainability challenges characterized by high complexity. Such challenges refer to a wide spectrum of issues ranging from managing diversity, equality, and inclusion programs to the development of clear social policies as well as the implementation of Net Zero initiatives in managing relationships with internal and external stakeholders. The requirement for sustainability has forced organizations in changing their values, mission, vision, attitudes, behaviors at all levels, activities, and processes.

Additionally, new advancements in using digital technologies have empowered stakeholders, especially those belonging to the new generations such as Millennials and Generation Z, who are able to quickly join or form online communities and activist groups or distribute digital content reporting incorrect organizational behavior, inevitably affecting management operations. However, new digital advancements have also stimulated new opportunities for organizations. The term “sustainable digitalization” has emerged, and it is related to the process of digitalizing the economy by adopting a long-lasting, environmentally friendly, and feasible perspective. Moreover, organizations can exploit new technologies to better communicate with stakeholders and to engage with them more effectively to meet their sustainable needs and expectations.

Within this challenging context, strategic communication plays a relevant role as a missing link for operationalizing sustainability and catalyzing the development of sustainability-oriented organizations legitimized by stakeholders.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to gather multidisciplinary studies investigating how the strategic communication of sustainability deals with the digital advancements characterizing the extant competitive context.

The topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

• Digital transformation processes to support sustainability improvement
• The role of big data for the sustainable development and assessment
• The multimodal communication approach for promoting sustainability
• The use of augmented reality for building long-term sustainable processes
• The potential of the metaverse for promoting sustainable growth
• The use of AI-powered chatbots for driving a sustainable society
• Machine learning and decision making within the sustainability field
• The role of digitalization as an enabler of a circular economy
• The multi-stakeholder approach for supporting sustainable innovation
• The use of algorithms for segmenting online stakeholders
• Digital workplace suites and social intranet tools for a sustainable workplace
• Virtual technologies in assisting sustainable consumption

Dr. Stefania Romenti
Dr. Grazia Murtarelli
Dr. Martha Friel
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.

• strategic communication
• digital sustainability
• sustainable communication
• corporate communication
• CSR
• online CSR
• circular economy
• online social responsibilities
• digital transformation
• augmented reality
• big data
• artificial intelligence
• machine learning
• algorithms
• digital workplace
• virtual technologies
• social intranets
• metaverse
• chatbots