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Eco-Innovation Practices and Sustainable Business Performance

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 June 2023) | Viewed by 4409

Special Issue Editors

Department of Accounting, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
Interests: eco-innovation; sustainable finance and reporting
Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NZ, UK
Interests: eco-innovation; sustainable finance and reporting; corporate governance; corporate social responsibility
Accounting and Finance, De Montfort University, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK
Interests: eco-innovation; sustainable finance and financial market development
Department of Accounting, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
Interests: sustainable finance and reporting; corporate governance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Although the multi-disciplinary concept of ‘innovation’ has been debated in a wide range of contexts, recent calls for net-zero greenhouse gas solutions have meant ‘eco-innovation’—a relatively new topic, is an essential ingredient that can extend the frontiers of innovation research. There is a growing interest in understanding the interplay between eco-innovation practice and sustainable business performance. Until recently, much of the innovation research tended to focus on adopting cutting-edge technology, which normally occurs in the context of firms’ productivity, growth and performance in industrialized economies (Caliendo, 2020; Parrilli, 2020; Lim and Morris, 2022). However, as the climate crisis worsens, the importance of innovations that reduce the impact of business operations on the environment has come to the forefront of academic research. To initiate and derive sustainable business performance, firms need to consider enablers that connect economic goals to their environmental performance. This implies a series of changes affecting the entire organizational architecture, from core operational activities to reporting and the disclosures of accounting information and even changes in organisational governance. Looking at the innovation data, there is a lag in the recent peer-reviewed literature that systematically crystallizes these emerging themes. The large informal sector within emerging economies has little incentive to innovate, which compounds the challenge. Thus, this Special Issue seeks to extend and offer novel insights relating to cross-cutting themes on eco-innovation and sustainable business performance in emerging markets. The call elicits cutting-edge research in sustainability, including, but not limited to: 

  • Eco-innovative practices and sustainability business performance;
  • Eco-innovative practices and sustainability reporting/reports and disclosures;
  • Eco-innovative practices, governance and sustainable growth/performance;
  • Climate change and eco-innovation;
  • AI and eco-innovation as they influence sustainable business performance;
  • Environmental performance and corporate governance;
  • Green technology and business performance;
  • Sustainable finance, energy efficiency and SME performance.

Dr. Ishmael Tingbani
Dr. Godfred Afrifa
Dr. Samuel Salia
Prof. Dr. Venancio Tauringana
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

  • sustainability
  • eco-innovation
  • sustainable finance
  • sustainable investment policies
  • sustainable business growth and performance

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 1134 KiB  
Article
Innovation and the Sustainable Competitive Advantage of Young Firms: A Strategy Implementation Approach
by Uyen Nguyen Thi, Manh Hoang Van, Imran Mahmud and Linh Vu Thi Thuy
Sustainability 2023, 15(13), 10555; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310555 - 04 Jul 2023
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Abstract
This study examines the impact of innovation at the strategy level on innovation at the process and system levels, which are considered to be forms of function-level innovation, based on the strategy implantation approach. The study also reveals the effect of process and [...] Read more.
This study examines the impact of innovation at the strategy level on innovation at the process and system levels, which are considered to be forms of function-level innovation, based on the strategy implantation approach. The study also reveals the effect of process and system innovation on the sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) of young firms in Vietnam. The research used primary data from a survey of 289 young firms’ leaders in Vietnam. PLS-SEM using SmartPLS software was employed to assess the ability of the measurement model and structural model to test hypotheses. The findings indicated that the four hypotheses about the effects of strategy innovation on process and system innovation and the effects of process and system innovation on the SCA of young firms in Vietnam were all confirmed. These crucial results fill the research gap of innovation in young firms, especially the gap in the context of developing countries. The current study addresses an important implication for the use of innovation practices in young firms to sustain the firm’s SCA. Accordingly, young firms are able to significantly strengthen their sustainable competitive advantage through innovation practices at both strategy and function levels. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Eco-Innovation Practices and Sustainable Business Performance)
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Review

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15 pages, 940 KiB  
Review
Proposal for an Eco-Innovation Concept for Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)
by Juan Manuel Bucheli-Calvache, Alexander Zuñiga-Collazos, Fabian Osorio-Tinoco and María de los Ángeles Cervantes-Rosas
Sustainability 2023, 15(13), 10292; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310292 - 29 Jun 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1432
Abstract
Eco-innovation is an important factor not only for the competitiveness of companies in the face of the greening of markets but also as one of the primary means on the road to sustainable development. However, there is a remarkable conceptual diversity in the [...] Read more.
Eco-innovation is an important factor not only for the competitiveness of companies in the face of the greening of markets but also as one of the primary means on the road to sustainable development. However, there is a remarkable conceptual diversity in the subject given the theoretical perspective from which eco-innovation is analyzed. Therefore, this research aims to establish an integrating concept of eco-innovation, based on elements of acceptance in the scientific literature, for its application in SMEs. To this end, 40 articles from recognized scientific databases such as ScienceDirect, Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) were reviewed, resulting in a concept that covers the economic approach, definition, dimensions and drivers of eco-innovation. It was found that the implementation of eco-innovation is dependent on the degree of formalization in each element according to the institutional context in question. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Eco-Innovation Practices and Sustainable Business Performance)
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