Rethinking Sustainability Through Emerging Markets

Emerging markets (EMs) are rising [1]. And the sustainability issues across economic, social, and environmental dimensions in these markets are also receiving more attention. Academics, practitioners, and governmental and other public organizations at different levels have been increasingly paying attention to emerging markets and how they can integrate sustainable development into their competitive strategies [2,3,4]. The past two decades have seen the rise of emerging markets in the globalization phase, moving from the periphery of global business discourse to its center of focus [5,6]. Once dominated by theoretical perspectives that emphasized institutional voids, latecomer disadvantages, and the risks and volatility of their environments, EMs are now increasingly recognized as dynamic arenas of innovation, experimentation, and institutional transformation [7]. Meanwhile, sustainability has also evolved from a marginal consideration or mere compliance requirement into a mainstream paradigm and a strategic as well as societal imperative. It has been increasingly repositioned at the strategic core of organizations and theorized as a central dimension of corporate strategy and value creation [8,9]. The convergence of these two domains has created a fertile intellectual space for exploration: the study of emerging markets’ competitive advantages in sustainable management.

This Special Issue is motivated by a simple but powerful observation: emerging markets are not merely catching up in sustainability, but they are increasingly shaping global sustainability trajectories [4,10]. From renewable energy deployment in China and India, to circular economy innovations in Latin America, to frugal and inclusive business models across Africa and Southeast Asia, EMs are producing distinctive approaches to sustainability that challenge long-held assumptions in international business (IB), management, and development studies [11,12].

However, despite this growing recognition by practitioners and public institutions, the academic literature still tends to frame EMs through deficit-based narratives: weak institutions, governance gaps, resource constraints, and environmental vulnerabilities [5,13]. These are yet real and challenging, but the coexisting facts have not been fully captured with the strategic, organizational, and institutional advantages that EM firms, governments, and communities bring to sustainable management [14,15]. Nor do they reflect the ways EMs are redefining what sustainability means in practice, often in ways that diverge from advanced economy logics [16,17].

Since a sizable portion of the world’s poverty is concentrated in these developing economies, economic sustainability, particularly poverty reduction, remains a priority in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. Emerging markets need to tackle issues of environmental and social sustainability in addition to economic ones. For example, ecological concerns are frequently raised by rapid expansion capabilities, requiring proactive environmental strategies [18]. Similarly to this, social stability can be disrupted by economic growth, underscoring the necessity of inclusive and responsible policies and actions. Sustainable management is not only essential for emerging markets but also a critical paradigm for global business, as reflected in discussions on gender equality, labor practices in international supply chains, and governance frameworks [19,20]. The challenge for EMs is to balance economic growth with environmental stewardship and social responsibility while leveraging their unique competitive advantages [21,22].

The purpose of this Special Issue is to show how EMs create distinct competitive advantages in sustainability, how local institutional contexts influence these advantages, and how they support global sustainability transitions. Together, the articles in this Special Issue demonstrate that EMs are active adaptors, creators, and exporters of sustainable practices, innovative technological and strategic solutions, and governance models, rather than passive consumers of sustainability norms.

We illustrate different sustainable development models of EMs and their firms by examining various aspects of sustainability-driven competitive advantages. Emerging markets run the risk of vulnerabilities that could undermine long-term competitiveness in the absence of strategic management in sustainability. The thirteen articles in this collection, which use qualitative, quantitative, and review methodologies, provide insights into sustainability in a variety of fields, including supply chain management, international business, innovation, digitalization, insurance, and stakeholder engagement. The Middle East, Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe are all included in the geographical scope. This editorial summarizes the Special Issue’s intellectual underpinnings, highlights the unique sustainability advantages that emerging markets have, and discusses the contributions of the accepted papers. In the end, it suggests a research agenda for the future that pushes academics to shift from deficit-based thinking to a more complex, opportunity-oriented understanding of sustainability in EMs. In order to achieve this, we structure the editorial as follows: (1) why EMs are important for sustainable management; (2) a summary of the papers, divided into environmental, social, economic, and innovation dimensions with a particular emphasis on management; (3) a synthesis of the most important findings and implications in sustainability research pertaining to emerging markets; and (4) a conclusion for advancing an inclusive and thorough understanding of sustainability in emerging markets.

Emerging countries are home to the majority of the world’s population, the fastest-growing consumer bases, and many resource-intensive industries; hence, they play a central part in current debates on sustainable management. They also have uneven exposure to climate risks, environmental degradation, and social injustice. Emerging economies are paradoxically the most affected by unsustainable development yet also the most important for finding solutions for global sustainability [23]. This mix of scale, vulnerability, and dynamism results in this. Rather than just imitating models from developed countries, their growth trajectories must strike a compromise between economic development and environmental and social needs while also innovating under limitations and adapting to local institutional conditions. These forces have produced original kinds of sustainability-focused innovation, governance, and strategy that are increasingly steering the direction of world sustainability. This paradox has profound consequences. That is, EMs cannot just repeat sustainable development models from advanced nations; rather, they must balance expansion with environmental and social demands, adapt to local circumstances, and innovate under constraints. Demand for sustainability-oriented innovation, management, tactics and strategy has created particular kinds of sustainability [24].

The rise of emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) as major sustainability players is one of the most obvious signs of this change. Companies including Mahindra, Haier, Natura, Tata, and BYD have emerged as worldwide leaders in renewable energy, electric mobility, circular economy methods, and inclusive business models. Their sustainability strategies often mirror the institutional duality of working across home-country institutional voids and meeting worldwide sustainability demand [25]. Their latecomer status enables them to leapfrog legacy technologies and swiftly embrace green innovations, while their strong ties to local communities give distinct insights into inclusive and context-specific sustainability solutions. State–business linkages in many cases exacerbate sustainability changes, thereby undermining the idea that sustainability leadership is confined to rich countries.

Emerging markets’ governments have become another catalytic agent for sustainable changes. Many have enacted ambitious policies that, in some areas, surpass those of advanced economies. State-led strategies can propel green industrial upgrading, improve energy security, and increase world competitiveness [26,27], as shown by China’s renewable energy subsidies, India’s National Solar Mission, Brazil’s long-standing biofuel program, and South Africa’s community-based sustainability initiatives. These policies go beyond mere reactive responses to environmental concerns; they represent strategic visions of development that position sustainability as a source of competitive advantages.

Apart from companies and governments, developing countries are ideal for local and community-based sustainability innovations. Frugal innovations lowering resource use, community-based renewable energy systems, informal-sector recycling networks, inclusive business models aimed at low-income consumers, and indigenous knowledge systems all add to a rich scene of bottom-up sustainability activities [28,29,30]. While many of these innovative ideas emerge from necessity, they give globally relevant lessons on resilience, circularity, and social inclusion—dimensions increasingly seen as vital for sustainable development.

These dynamics encourage a rethinking of the institutional scene in emerging markets. The traditional literature on international business has given much emphasis to institutional voids, i.e., inadequacies in formal market-supporting institutions such as regulation, finance, and enforcement [5]. Although they certainly exist, such gaps do not fully capture the institutional complexity of developing and emerging markets. Institutional voids frequently provide room for experimentation that allows companies and communities to innovate more freely in the absence of strict and rigid legal rules and structures. Often filling these voids and facilitating sustainability-oriented collaboration are informal institutions—trust networks, community norms, and relational governance [31]. Furthermore, developing and emerging markets often show hybrid institutional logics combining state-led development models, market-based mechanisms, community values, and international sustainability goals. These hybrid logics produce unique sustainability pathways that are distinct from Western regulatory or market-driven systems and sometimes prove more flexible in response to fast-shifting social and environmental circumstances.

State-owned enterprises, or SOEs, are a particularly good example of this complexity. In many developing and emerging countries, SOEs are strategically important for energy, infrastructure, and heavy industry, i.e., sectors essential for sustainability transitions, despite being often associated with inefficiency or political influence. Strong catalysts for sustainability are made possible by their capability to mobilize substantial resources, alignment with national sustainability goals, and long-term investment horizons. Still, their contributions call for clear theorizing and empirical study—they are not automated; this Special Issue tries to improve academic knowledge in this regard [32].

Together, these dynamics highlight a few areas of competitive edge in sustainable management that developing and emerging countries have. EM businesses may avoid obsolete technologies and embrace cutting-edge, environmentally friendly technologies thanks to latecomer benefits and technological leapfrogging. China’s dominance in solar photovoltaics and EV batteries, India’s quick solar expansion, and Kenya’s mobile-based clean energy financing models show this. Resource limits sometimes motivate frugal and circular innovation, which results in low-cost renewable energy options, modular and repairable product designs, and circular activities embedded in informal economies. Social embeddedness enhances companies’ legitimacy and helps community-based sustainability initiatives as well as inclusive business models. Strong state capability and green industrial policy foster local green champions and hasten the diffusion of sustainable technologies. Institutional flexibility and adaptive governance ultimately provide rapid policy experimentation, cross-sector collaboration, and pilot zones for green innovation—advantages more inflexible advanced-economy institutions usually lack.

Emerging markets are important for sustainable management overall, not only because of their size and vulnerability but also because of their distinctive institutional setting, innovative trajectories, and governance capabilities. Rather than seeing emerging markets through a deficit-based perspective, scholars and practitioners increasingly recognize them as laboratories of sustainability innovation and as major players in the worldwide sustainability transformation. Building on this idea, this Special Issue stresses how growing markets provide distinctive competitive advantages in sustainable management and presents fresh theoretical and empirical analyses of the institutional, organizational, and community-level dynamics influencing these advantages.

The papers in this particular Special Issue collectively advance our knowledge of EM sustainability benefits across multiple levels of analysis—firm, industry, institutional, and society. Although every study provides original ideas, a number of recurring themes develop that point the way for more investigation and practice (see

Table 1. Summary of Special Issue articles.

Category	Article	Author(s)	Key Findings
Green Competitiveness and Environmental Strategies	Stakeholder Engagement and Green Competitiveness in Ukraine	Lyulyov et al.	Stakeholder communication and conflict management enhance corporate environmental performance and green competitiveness.
	Environmental Orientation and Strategies in Pakistani SMEs	Saleem et al.	Proactive environmental strategies are driven by internal environmental orientation, while reactive strategies are influenced by external environmental orientation.
	Green, Social, and Sustainability (GSS) Bonds in Latin America and the Caribbean	Argandoña et al.	Despite high issuance costs and complicated regulations, GSS bonds stimulate economic growth.
Social Dimension of Sustainable Development	Social Enterprises and Labor Market Outcomes in Vietnam	Nguyen et al.	Social enterprises increase employment and earnings, especially for female employees.
	MNEs and Corporate Social Responsibility in Emerging Markets	Bu & Liu	Through institutional development and knowledge transfer, the presence of MNE in EMs improves CSR engagement.
	Life Value Assessment Methods in China	Tan et al.	Calls for improved methodologies, including AI-driven approaches, to assess human capital valuation.
Economic Sustainability for Emerging Markets’ Competitiveness	Manufacturing, Exports, and Economic Growth in Developing Countries	Wan et al.	Export-led growth may cause premature deindustrialization, harming economic stability in resource-rich nations.
	Export Potential of Vietnamese Bottled Coconut Water	Sharkasi et al.	Supply chain stability, brand awareness, and trade policies all affect export success.
	Global Value Chains (GVCs), Institutional Quality, and Economic Competitiveness	Nan et al.	Participation in GVCs, strong institutions, and a skilled workforce improve industrial diversification and competitiveness.
Sustainable Management and Innovation	Sustainable Strategic People Management in China	Zhang-Zhang	Sustainable people management practices are influenced by Confucian values through humanistic, paradoxical, and responsible management.
	Innovation Inputs, Policy Support, and Regional Innovation in China	Song et al.	Government incentives and cultural values shape the effectiveness of regional innovation efforts.
	Digitalization in Accounting in Saudi Arabia	AlNasrallah & Saleem	Organizational support and job relevance enhance technology adoption in accounting.
	Regulatory Frameworks and Social Firm Internationalization	Montoya & Cervantes	Regulation shapes the growth and global expansion of social enterprises, with different effects across countries.

for a synopsis of major viewpoints by dimension of analysis).

Green Competitiveness and Environmental Strategies: In many academic studies, the environmental dimension is usually taken as the equivalent to sustainability [33]. Thus, in developing and emerging countries, specific environmental strategies are increasingly important for sustainable development since they help to define firms’ competitive stance in a globalized economy [4,34]. Growing focus on sustainability shows increased ecological pressures and evolving social norms [35]. Research on green competitiveness from three somewhat underexplored emerging-market settings—Ukraine, Pakistan, and Latin America and the Caribbean—is compiled in this Special Issue.

Lyulyov et al. look at how stakeholder engagement helps Ukrainian firms become more environmentally competitive. Their analysis shows how effective conflict resolution and early stakeholder communication greatly improve a company’s environmental performance. Stronger alignment between corporate policies and sustainability goals therefore helps companies forward their environmental agendas by means of stakeholder engagement.

The authors adopt a stakeholder-oriented stance, stressing how important it is for business to comprehend and incorporate stakeholder values and interests into their environmental strategy. Since it fosters trust, lessens conflict, and ensures stakeholder support for sustainability initiatives, targeted and personalized communication stands out as being especially crucial. The study also demonstrates that the social dimension of green competitiveness has the greatest impact among the corporate, environmental, and social dimensions, highlighting the significance of relational and communicative elements in promoting sustainability results.

Saleem et al. investigate how Pakistani SMEs’ environmental strategies are influenced by organizational commitment and environmental orientation. The different functions of internal and external environmental orientations are highlighted by their findings. Strong internal environmental orientation increases a company’s likelihood of implementing proactive environmental strategies, which enhance sustainability performance and provide it with a competitive edge. On the other hand, reactive environmental strategies are the main outcome of external environmental orientation, which is frequently influenced by market or regulatory forces.

The study’s main contribution is demonstrating that environmental commitment mediates the relationship between environmental orientation and environmental strategy. This emphasizes how crucial organizational values and personal motivation are in forming effective environmental action. It appears that internal corporate culture has a greater impact on forward-thinking environmental practices than external forces, as seen by the relative strength of internal orientation in propelling proactive strategies.

By analyzing how green, social, and sustainability (GSS) bonds are transforming sustainable finance in Latin America and the Caribbean, Argandoña et al. broaden the discussion on environmental sustainability. According to their estimate, green-oriented capital flows are rapidly increasing; by 2020, GSS issuances reached USD 29.1 billion, with funds going toward low-carbon infrastructure, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and pollution reduction. The authors show that sovereign green bond issuance, private credit, and institutional quality are increasingly linked with economic growth using data from 14 countries between 2014 and 2020. This makes GSS bonds an essential tool for financing environmental transitions and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.

The paper also identifies the structural obstacles such as high issuance costs, complex procedures, and stringent reporting requirements, which still prevent green financing from expanding. However, increased institutional support for green capital markets is indicated by emerging regulatory reforms, such as lower registration fees in Costa Rica and Colombia and new issuance rules from regional stock exchanges. The authors show how capital markets can support firm-level sustainability initiatives, mobilizing resources for decarbonization and strengthening the institutional foundations required for long-term green growth, by including GSS bonds inside more comprehensive environmental strategies and policies.

When considered collectively, the studies in this section highlight the significance of enabling institutional contexts and internal organizational drivers in promoting environmental sustainability. Organizational commitment, environmental orientation, and stakeholder engagement emerge as crucial strategies for businesses to increase their green competitiveness. Simultaneously, the growth of sustainable finance instruments, such as green, social, and sustainability bonds, shows how financial markets may support firm-level initiatives by mobilizing capital for development that is focused on the environment. The combined research highlights the need for integrated approaches to environmental strategy and sustainable development by showing that substantial progress toward sustainability in EMs depends on both firm capabilities and supportive governmental and financial frameworks.

Social Dimension of Sustainable Development: In emerging markets, promoting inclusive growth, lowering inequality, and enhancing societal well-being all depend on social sustainability. The essays in this Special Issue demonstrate how various institutional contexts’ social development trajectories are shaped by social enterprises, corporate social responsibility (CSR), human capital valuation, and regulatory regimes. When taken as a whole, these studies shed light on the ways in which market institutions, policy frameworks, and social actors interact to support development outcomes that are more resilient, egalitarian, and opportunity-enhancing.

Nguyen et al. use instrumental variable estimates and pooled cross-sectional data to examine the impact of social enterprises on labor market outcomes in Vietnam. Their results offer strong proof that social enterprises enhance important labor indicators, such as earnings, employment status, and working hours. Through gender-disaggregated analyses, the study also provides subtle insights, demonstrating that female workers gain marginally more than male workers, particularly in terms of lower rates of unemployment and self-employment. These findings highlight social enterprises’ capability to promote inclusive growth, especially for underprivileged populations.

The authors contend that an increase in social enterprises is linked to longer working hours, decreased odds of unemployment and self-employment, and higher average labor earnings. Local governments are in a good position to assist the growth of social enterprises because of their close connection to local needs and capacity to mobilize community resources. The gender-specific findings further underscore the significance of gender-sensitive policy design by indicating that social enterprises can contribute significantly to resolving the enduring labor market disparities.

Bu and Liu investigate the impact of multinational enterprises (MNEs) on CSR adoption in 83 developing countries. Their research presents a dual agency model in which MNEs simultaneously function as institutional agents, developing formal institutions that promote CSR participation, and as CSR agents, exhibiting best practices, sharing information, and transferring knowledge.

The authors show that the existence of MNEs, as a proxy for economic globalization, significantly increases local firms’ CSR activity through a bootstrapped mediation analysis. This relationship is somewhat mediated by formal institutional development, suggesting that MNEs not only directly affect firm-level behavior but also contribute to the formation of the larger institutional environment. The findings underscore how crucial MNEs are to pushing institutional reforms and sustainable business practices in emerging markets.

Tan and colleagues examine the development of life value assessment methods in China and their implications for sustainable finance and social policy. Their analysis traces a trajectory of contemporary economic approaches, such as the human capital technique and willingness-to-pay (WTP) models, from historical practices, such as death-penalty ransom and government-set compensation standards. The authors show how life valuation influences policy design, resource allocation, and the larger social welfare system by placing these valuation frameworks within China’s emerging-market setting.

The paper identifies the main shortcomings of existing approaches, namely their propensity to undervalue non-market contributions like household labor and caregiving. Tan and colleagues suggest employing sophisticated statistical methods, such as neural network models, to capture non-linear correlations between incomes, risk, and demographic factors in order to close these disparities. They also suggest incorporating “hidden labor” into human capital estimates. By strengthening the evidence base for compensation, insurance, public investment, and the incorporation of social issues into sustainable finance, these improvements seek to increase the precision and equity of life valuation.

Together, these studies shed light on the various but interconnected ways that human-capital valuation processes, social enterprises, regulatory frameworks, and multinational entities influence the social aspect of sustainable development in emerging markets. They demonstrate how strong institutional foundations, flexible and supportive regulatory frameworks, and inclusive labor outcomes all work together to promote socially sustainable growth. The data also emphasizes the limitations that occur when institutional flaws, regulatory changes, or the undervaluation of human capital prevent social enterprises and organizations from having a positive social impact. The research in this Special Issue helps scholars, practitioners, and policymakers create organizational strategies and policies that promote resilient and equitable social development by shedding light on the opportunities and structural difficulties that emerging markets face.

Economic Sustainability for Emerging Markets’ Competitiveness: A key component of long-term competitiveness in emerging markets is economic sustainability. The studies in this section look at how countries’ ability to achieve resilient and inclusive economic growth is influenced by industrial development, export strategy, participation in global value chains, and institutional conditions.

Wan et al. challenge the traditional export-led growth paradigm by examining how export policies and manufacturing development affect economic dynamics in 130 developing countries. The authors show that export-oriented strategies can lead to premature deindustrialization, even though manufacturing expansion boosts economic performance. This is particularly true in lower-income and resource-rich economies where a heavy reliance on primary commodities causes real exchange rate appreciation and declining manufacturing competitiveness, which is consistent with Dutch disease effects.

According to their findings, higher-income economies are better positioned to mitigate such pressures because of their more diversified industrial structures, while lower-income countries with weaker technological capabilities and limited capacity to absorb displaced labor are most affected negatively. Sustainable growth, according to Wan and colleagues, necessitates a more balanced industrialization strategy that places an emphasis on domestic capability building, technological upgrading, and legislative frameworks that support manufacturing rather than increasing reliance on primary exports.

Sharkasi et al. assess the export potential of Vietnamese bottled coconut water using Multi-Criteria Decision Making methods combined with trade gravity analysis. Drawing on data from manufacturers of different scales—from a large industry leader targeting the U.S. market to a small family business exporting to Europe—the study identifies four categories of factors shaping export performance: industrial assets and investment, marketing and sales capabilities, potential profitability, and foothold in target markets. Within these categories, efficient distribution channels, brand awareness, contemporary manufacturing technology, and the quality and stability of raw material supply stand out as being very significant.

The study emphasizes that enterprises’ ability to position their products within health-oriented consumer segments, manage fluctuating input prices, and take advantage of trade agreements that lower market entry barriers are all important factors in export success, in addition to production capacity. For policymakers looking to boost export competitiveness through better supply chain infrastructure and supportive trade rules, these findings provide helpful advice. The findings highlight for managers the significance of giving technology, branding, and market-specific distribution strategies top priority in order to improve export performance and readiness.

Nan et al. examine how global value chain participation, institutional quality, and human capital shape countries’ capacity to produce diversified and complex goods. Using data from 131 countries over 12 years, they show that deeper GVC integration supports industrial upgrading by expanding access to advanced technologies, knowledge flows, and new markets. By lowering uncertainty and promoting investment, strong institutions, which are defined by political stability, effective governance, high-quality regulations, and the rule of law, further improve economic fitness. Since a skilled workforce increases productivity, global competitiveness, and technological adoption, human capital development is equally crucial.

In order to support long-term competitiveness, the study advises policymakers to invest in education and skills, expand GVC engagement, and reinforce institutional frameworks. The results show how important it is for businesses to prioritize workforce development and participate in global value chains in order to increase productivity and sustain competitive advantages.

Overall, these studies demonstrate the complexity and diversity of economic sustainability in developing and emerging economies. A multitude of interconnected elements, including as institutional improvement, human capital development, export strategy design, and industrial upgrading, affect long-term competitiveness. The data makes it abundantly evident that engaging in international markets is only one aspect of sustainable economic growth; another is developing the institutional foundations and local capabilities required to foster innovation, diversification, and long-term resilience.

Sustainable Management and Innovation: In EMs, where businesses must adapt to quick changes in technology, shifting institutional conditions, and growing societal expectations, sustainable management and innovation are critical to long-term competitiveness. In order to enhance organizational capabilities and promote sustainable development, the studies in this section show how people-centric management, cultural values, regional innovation systems, digital transformation, and regulatory frameworks collaborate. Together, they emphasize the necessity of coordinating policy assistance, technological advancements, and cultural foundations in order to strengthen innovation and resilience in emerging economies.

Zhang-Zhang’s study explores how Confucian cultural values influence sustainable strategic people management (SPM) in Chinese enterprises, drawing on qualitative evidence from 20 successful firms across multiple industries. The analysis identifies three interrelated approaches—responsible, paradoxical, and humanistic people management—that help explain how culturally embedded practices contribute to long-term organizational success. Humanistic management prioritizes harmony, benevolence, and employee well-being; paradoxical management blends seemingly incompatible managerial practices to promote flexibility and innovation; and responsible management places a strong emphasis on moral and ethical leadership and societal well-being. As a whole, these management strategies exhibit how Confucian principles may strengthen social and ecological sustainability and increase organizational resilience.

The study also underscores how crucial it is for EMs to have supportive institutions and culturally sensitive management systems in order to achieve sustainable development. The results highlight the need to promote moral, ethical, and socially conscious leadership for policymakers. Embedding cultural norms that encourage accountability, creativity, and humanistic development can improve practitioners’ long-term competitiveness.

Using data from 31 provinces over a 13-year period, Song et al. analyze how innovation inputs affect regional innovation performance in China. Their results show that while investments in R&D and technology imports consistently increase innovation output, institutional conditions have a significant impact on how strong this effect is. The impact of innovation inputs is greatly increased by governmental policy support in the form of funding, tax incentives, and regulatory frameworks. Cultural values also impact how regions collaborate, exchange knowledge, and utilize technological resources, which in turn shapes results. More successful innovation ecosystems are typically fostered by norms that prioritize autonomy and egalitarianism.

In order to optimize regional performance, the study emphasizes the necessity of aligning innovation strategies with institutional and cultural environments. By increasing financial incentives, removing obstacles to R&D investment, and fostering cultural conditions that promote transparency, openness, and collaboration, policymakers can boost innovation capability. Practitioners can create organizational strategies that maximize innovation inputs and support long-term regional competitiveness by comprehending how local cultural values influence innovation behavior.

AlNasrallah and Saleem investigate the digitization of accounting in developing and emerging markets, demonstrating how professionals’ willingness to adopt e-accounting technologies is influenced by organizational support and job relevance. They show how managerial backing, perceived utility, and simplicity of use have a significant impact on adoption by combining ideas from the Technology Acceptance Model, the Elaboration Likelihood Model, and Social Exchange Theory with survey data from 365 Saudi Arabian practitioners. When employees receive training, resources, and encouragement, they are more likely to view digital technologies as beneficial and integrate them into their daily jobs.

Job relevance is another important factor. Accounting professionals are more inclined to use digital technologies if they think they will directly enhance their work. The study also demonstrates that organizational support enhances the relationship between ease of use and adoption intentions, whereas perceived usefulness mediates this relationship. These results underscore the need for supporting organizational settings in addition to technology for successful digital transformation. While authorities can encourage investment in digital skills and raise awareness of the advantages of accounting digitization, managers should place a high priority on training and clear communication.

In order to demonstrate how regulatory contexts influence the growth, innovation, and global expansion of Mexican social enterprises, Montoya and Cervantes examine the case of Farmacias Similares. They discover that the company’s early expansion and integration of low-cost medical consultations with pharmacy operations were made possible by regulatory flexibility, particularly the 1997 reforms permitting direct sales of generic medications and the lack of stringent regulations on private medical services. Subsequent regulatory changes, including the establishment of Seguro Popular in 2003, introduced fresh competitive pressures, illustrating how changes in public policy can upend long-standing business models and necessitate strategic adaptation.

The intricate relationship between regulation and growth is further demonstrated by the company’s internationalization experiences in Guatemala, Chile, Argentina, and Peru. Success in Chile and Guatemala contrasted with challenges in Argentina, where market withdrawal was caused by bureaucratic obstacles and regulatory barriers. These examples imply that while cost-effective frugal innovations might spread internationally, social innovations in the pharmaceutical sector are still firmly ingrained in local institutional and regulatory frameworks, influencing the likelihood of global expansion.

When combined, these studies show how institutional support, organizational capabilities, and cultural underpinnings interact to produce innovation-driven sustainability in EMs. Sustainable people management practices ingrained in cultural traditions enhance ethical leadership and long-term resilience, while legislative frameworks that promote research and development increase the effectiveness of innovation inputs. Initiatives for digital transformation demonstrate that executive commitment and employee readiness are equally crucial to the use of technology as the technologies themselves. Cultural values also influence how organizations and regions convert these inputs into performance. Another element is added by the internationalization of social firms, which shows how regulatory stability, or lack thereof, can either support or impede innovation-oriented business models.

Jointly, these findings show that sustainable innovation ecosystems require organizational, institutional, and cultural congruency. Policymakers may build more resilient innovation ecosystems by strengthening institutional support, ensuring regulatory coherence, and promoting investment in human capabilities. Managers can improve competitiveness by integrating cultural values into organizational practices, developing adaptive systems, and establishing the technological and human resources and capacities necessary to sustain innovation in rapidly evolving EM conditions.

Building on the knowledge gained from this Special Issue, we suggest a number of interesting directions for future research. Many emerging economies still struggle with structural limitations despite international commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals, and the Social Progress Index indicates that SDGs’ full realization may take well beyond this century [36,37]. Particularly for EMs, where rapid economic expansion must be balanced with social equity and environmental preservation, sustainable development continues to be a defining challenge. Integrated strategies that incorporate innovative management practices, responsible governance, and proactive stakeholder engagement are necessary to achieve this equilibrium [38,39]. This underscores the need to treat economic, environmental, and social sustainability not as competing priorities as a trade-off but as mutually reinforcing dimensions of long-term development, although the inherent paradoxes also need innovative management.

Sustaining economic growth while safeguarding natural resources and ensuring equitable social outcomes lies at the heart of development strategies in emerging markets [40]. Until the transition to a holistic consciousness of a variety of sustainable development challenges, these economies largely face the dual imperative of accelerating industrialization and improving living standards, even as they confront mounting pressures from climate change, biodiversity loss, and persistent social inequalities [24]. Addressing these interconnected challenges requires development pathways that integrate economic, environmental, and social priorities rather than treating them as separate or competing domains, as highlighted by the trade-off paradigm in sustainable development planning [41,42].

There are practical solutions to reduce ecological deterioration while fostering economic growth, including green technologies, sustainable agriculture, the use of renewable energy, and effective waste and water management. Investments in green infrastructure, such as energy-efficient buildings, low-carbon transportation networks, and climate-resilient urban design, can improve long-term resilience, productivity, and employment [43,44]. These examples show how, when paired with thoughtful regulatory frameworks and deliberate public–private cooperation, environmental stewardship may advance rather than obstruct economic development [45].

However, sustainable development requires that the benefits of expansion are distributed widely. Social inclusion and equity are essential to building stable and prosperous societies that sustain long-term development [46]. Increasing access to social security, healthcare, and education improves human capital and reduces susceptibility to economic shocks. Through better access to financial services, entrepreneurship support, and skill development, targeted programs that empower women, youth, and underprivileged populations help ensure that economic opportunities expand beyond already-advantaged groups [24]. In addition to advancing social justice, these policies support better institutions, more vibrant labor markets, and greater social cohesiveness.

Viewed holistically, these social, environmental, and economic dimensions underscore the need for integrated development strategies that acknowledge their mutual reinforcement [40]. Sustainable, resilient, and equitable development trajectories are more likely to be attained by EMs that effectively integrate green growth with inclusive social policies.

Strong institutions, technological and strategic innovation, international cooperation, and effective governance provide an environment that makes it possible for sustainable development strategies to establish themselves [47] and potentially grow in these markets. These factors influence how policies are defined and carried out, how resources are distributed, and how social actions are mobilized toward long-term objectives.

Credible initiatives and effective sustainability are based on strong institutional competency and governance. Transparent policies are essential to coordinate across sectors and align private investment with government priorities, as the World Bank pointed out [48]. Similarly, coherent regulatory frameworks and reliable accountability mechanisms help ensure that development programs deliver their intended outcomes and maintain public trust. When institutions function well, they can coordinate across multiple levels, sectors, and dimensions to enforce and reinforce apparently divergent objectives from the perspective of each individual actor and dimension, where innovation across-sector could also be coordinated for its occurrence. Collaborative co-creation among governments, private firms, academia, and civil society organizations is especially important in emerging markets, where institutional infrastructure may not have matured, with the institutional void still claimed as one of the major characteristics. Complex sustainability challenges such as climate change versus economic development, urbanization versus environmental degradation, and social inequality versus industrial development pace, all require shared responsibility and pooled expertise [49].

Innovative ideas, methods, and business models are imperative for emerging markets to mold their own best practices among this sustainability paradox with inherent dilemma among economic, social, and environmental development. In order for EMs to successfully navigate this challenging sustainability water, innovation must transcend the technological dimension and extend to every aspect of human creativity. However, by providing fresh methods to address enduring development constraints, technology could support these governance initiatives. Artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, and digital platforms can strengthen environmental monitoring systems, improve public service delivery, and increase resource efficiency. The advancement in clean energy, precision agriculture, and circular economy solutions enables us to surpass conventional growth trajectories. By promoting entrepreneurial ecosystems, EMs can address local needs while advancing global sustainability goals by producing context-specific solutions and avoiding traditional, carbon-intensive methods [50]. These processes need to be supported by organizational, strategic, and process innovation.

Last but not least, international collaboration helps domestic efforts by providing the funding and technical know-how required to manage a low-carbon transition [47]. In this method, international organizations, development agencies, and MNEs could work together to expand individual efforts, benefit several EMs, and channel knowledge transfer. Cross-border collaboration helps countries navigate the transition toward low-carbon, inclusive economic models and ensures that progress is not disproportionately distributed across regions and areas. These collaborations also facilitate alignment with international frameworks while allowing flexibility in addressing regional and local issues.

Strong institutions, technological and strategic innovation, and international collaboration combine to create a synergistic ecosystem that supports sustainable development in a number of ways. They equip EMs to undertake ambitious reforms, adjust to shifting challenges, leverage new opportunities, and design solutions that reflect their specific institutional cultural contexts. A central insight emerging from this Special Issue is the need to reconceptualize sustainability in EMs as a dynamic, multidimensional process shaped by unique institutional contexts [51] and their own innovation pathways and development trajectories. The contributions show that instead of being viewed as peripheral or structurally weak, EMs are becoming more and more important to the global sustainability agenda. They are essential testing grounds for institutional experimentation and sustainability innovation because of their rapid economic transformation, demographic dynamism, and expanding entrepreneurial ecosystems.

A recurring theme in the Special Issue studies is that sustainability has become a major source of competitive advantage for firms operating in EMs. Businesses that incorporate sustainable supply chain management in the global production network, green technology and strategic business model innovation, and social and environmental responsibility into their strategic decision-making tend to perform better over the long run. In markets where consumer preferences, investor expectations, and regulatory requirements are increasingly shaped by sustainability considerations, these practices improve operational efficiency and social performance, lessen environmental impact, and strengthen firms’ positions [52].

Sustainability initiatives that create shared value can promote more inclusive growth [53], by engaging stakeholders of communities, employees, regulators, and civil society, and build the legitimacy needed for long-lasting impact. However, institutional and policy environments have a major role in their effectiveness. Supporting regulatory frameworks that promote renewable energy, circular economy practices, and green innovation enable businesses to adopt sustainable business models, even when inconsistent legislations, lax enforcement, and a lack of institutional capacity can impede development. Additionally, these limitations provide room for cross-sector collaboration, institutional reform, and testing of novel governance models. This Special Issue’s studies show how EMs are developing context-specific solutions that include community participation, official regulation, informal norms, and hybrid organizational setups.

Sustainability in EMs also encompasses social inclusion and equitable development. Contributions show how ethical labor practices, inclusive business models, and social enterprises can improve results for disadvantaged groups, boost employment, and fortify human capital. Sustainability is therefore not only about reducing harm but also about generating shared value and broadening opportunities. Yet firms still face structural barriers—financial constraints, technical skill gaps, and uneven access to sustainable technologies in some cases. In order to overcome these obstacles, concerted efforts must be made to expand sustainable finance (e.g., impact investing, blended finance, and green bonds) and build the managerial and technical skills required for successful implementation of sustainability initiatives [54]. AI-driven digital transformation also offers new tools to enhance resource efficiency, environmental monitoring, and sustainable entrepreneurship.

International collaboration further reinforces this forward-looking framework to comprehensively understand, design, and implement sustainable ecosystems in EMs and around the world. These are not fragmented domestic needs but interconnected global phenomena that require collaboration with development agencies, multinational firms, and international organizations that together provide access to and exchange of financial resources, technical expertise, and knowledge to cocreate and accelerate the transition toward sustainable growth models. As this is a new imperative and we are in a transitional paradigmatic shifting process, no single country, sector, or domain can handle it independently to achieve such a bold, complex, and intertwisted objective sets. These partnerships can help not only emerging markets but also advanced economies to align with global sustainability frameworks while tailoring solutions to local needs and institutional realities, where emerging markets not only play the role of knowledge adoption and adaptation but also act as initiators of new knowledge creation to benefit the entire world [55].

Taken together, the contributions in this Special Issue offer a more inclusive, nuanced, and globally relevant understanding of sustainability in emerging markets. They show that emerging markets are not merely adapting global sustainability norms but actively shaping them through innovation and institutional experimentation [56], as well as context-specific strategies. By integrating sustainability into core business strategies and fostering inclusive and innovative ecosystems, emerging markets can enhance competitiveness and build resilience in ways that align with local institutional realities [51,52], further contributing meaningfully to global sustainability goals.

Ultimately, understanding these dynamics is not only an academic imperative—it is inclusively essential for achieving the broader global sustainability goals for 2030 and beyond and building a more equitable global economy [57].