Environmental, Social and Economic Sustainability in Mining Companies as a Result of the Interaction between Knowledge Management and Green Innovation—The SEM Approach
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors,
The paper is deal with an interesting topic and covers a good idea. In order to further development, the following concerns should be addressed in the next version:
A-The theoretical issues should be improved by the most recent studies; some are listed here:
A-1- Analyzing the Concept of Corporate Sustainability in the Context of Sustainable Business Development in the Mining Sector with Elements of Circular Economy
A-2- Knowledge sharing barriers and knowledge sharing facilitators in innovation
A-3- Sustainability Reporting and Corporate Reputation: The Moderating Effect of CEO Opportunistic Behavior
A-4- The effect of COVID 19 on risk-taking of small and medium-sized, family and non-family firms
A-5- Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals in Mining Companies Listed on The Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2018-2020
B-In the conclusion section you need to compare own findings with the prior studies.
Author Response
Answer to Reviewer 1
The paper is deal with an interesting topic and covers a good idea. In order to further development, the following concerns should be addressed in the next version:
Thank you for your support and helpful comments.
A-The theoretical issues should be improved by the most recent studies; some are listed here:
The theoretical part is supported by new references.
A-1- Analyzing the Concept of Corporate Sustainability in the Context of Sustainable Business Development in the Mining Sector with Elements of Circular Economy
The following sentences have been added in the research background:
“The question of integrating elements of the circular economy in the mining industry was considered in [28]. The authors of this study concluded that the implementation of circular business models in the mining companies strategies will contribute to the sustainable operations of these companies, as well as the achievement of sustainable development goals.”
…
A-2- Knowledge sharing barriers and knowledge sharing facilitators in innovation
The following sentence have been added in the research background:
“Knowledge sharing facilitators that can improve organizational innovation are also important [50].”
A-3- Sustainability Reporting and Corporate Reputation: The Moderating Effect of CEO Opportunistic Behavior
The following sentence have been added in the research background:
“In addition to providing information about companies' impact on the environment, such reports have a positive impact on corporate reputation [30].”
A-4- The effect of COVID 19 on risk-taking of small and medium-sized, family and non-family firms
The following sentence have been added in the research background:
“The importance of sustainable business became greater during the COVID 19 pandemic, which significantly affectd the business of small and medium-size family and non-family firms [14], but also the large companies from the mning sector [15].”
A-5- Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals in Mining Companies Listed on The Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2018-2020
The following sentence have been added in the research background:
“The adequate data on the achievement sustainable development goals and the impact of mining companies on the environment can be obtained from the Sustainability Reports that mining companies should publish [29].”
B-In the conclusion section you need to compare own findings with the prior studies.
The following sentences have been added in the conclusion section:
“In addition, the obtained results indicate a significant positive and direct impact of green innovation on sustainable business. The obtained results are in accordance with the results of earlier research, which also concluded a positive, direct and significant relationship between knowledge management and green innovation, as well as knowledge management and sustainable business, which is in accordance with the results of previous studies [11, 41, 62].“
„The direct effects of knowledge management dimensions on the dimensions of sustainable business are indicated by the results of earlier studies [11, 41]. When it comes to indirect effects, Shashard et al. [41] obtained results according to which knowledge management, through green innovation, has a significant indirect effect on sustainable business. However, based on the review of the existing literature, it can be noted that earlier research did not examine the role of green innovation, as a mediator of the relationship between knowledge management and sustainable business, on a dimensional level.“
Best Regard,
Authors
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
My observations are the following:
1. The research methodology should be presented in the abstract (information about the sample and SEM, for instance).
2. In the end of the introduction section, a short paragraph related to the reminder of the paper should be introduced.
3. In the research background section, it is not clear presented if there are similar studies in the past and what added values brings this current research paper. The conclusions are linked to previous studies.
4. Table 1 - from my point of view, education is wrong splitted in medium (highschool), high (university - bachlor and master) and post-university (PhD). Could you check again?
Author Response
Answer to Reviewer 2
Thank you for your helpful comments.
- The research methodology should be presented in the abstract (information about the sample and SEM, for instance).
The following sentences have been added to the abstract:
“The research, including the pilot test, was carried out in the period May - August 2022, whereby a convenient sample included 626 employees in six mining companies in Serbia. The Structural Equation Modeling approach was used to evaluate the causal relationship between knowledge management, green innovations and sustainable operations of the mining industry.”
- In the end of the introduction section, a short paragraph related to the reminder of the paper should be introduced.
The following paragraph was added in the end of the introduction section:
”The basic organization of the work's content is determined by the objectives established as well as the research methods. The paper is divided into six sections as a result. The subject and objectives are discussed in the first section of the paper. The research background is presented in the second section. This section gave a quick summary of prior studies that looked at this issue, specifically how knowledge management, green innovation, and sustainable business are intertwined. In the third section of the study, the research methodology is presented. This part includes the description of the research data, the model, the research hypotheses and the applied data analysis method. The fourth section of the paper includes the research results. Within this part, the results of testing the assumptions of the model, namely the adequacy of the sample, multicollinearity, and common method bias test, were first presented, then the measurement and structural model were analyzed and, finally, the results of testing the mediator role. In the fifth part, the results of the research were discussed. The sixth part contains the key conclusions of the research, the limitations of the current research are pointed out and recommendations are given to future researchers of this topic.”
- In the research background section, it is not clear presented if there are similar studies in the past and what added values brings this current research paper. The conclusions are linked to previous studies.
for instance).
The following sentences have been added in the research background:
“Namely, studies have shown that both knowledge management and green innovations can influence the sustainable operations of companies [11, 41, 62], and their positive connection is most often mentioned. Also, the findings of earlier studies indicate a positive influence of knowledge management on green innovations [11, 41]. In this sense, the results of the current research are expected to confirm these relationships.”
“Only a few empirical studies, such as [11] and [41], investigate the dimensions of knowledge management and green innovations, as determinants of the dimensions of sustainable business, and this paper can contribute to the body of existing literature by empirically investigating the role of the dimensions of green innovations, as a mediator of the relationship between the dimensions of knowledge management and the dimensions of sustainable business of mining companies in Serbia.”
In Conclusion:
“Empirically, this study examines the previously unresearched mediating role of the green innovation dimensions between the knowledge management and sustainable business dimensions, which can contributes to the existing literature that covers these topics.”
- Table 1 - from my point of view, education is wrong splitted in medium (highschool), high (university - bachlor and master) and post-university (PhD). Could you check again?
Table 1: Education is splitted according to the reviewer's suggestions.
Best Regard,
Authors
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
