Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
7.7
3.3
Journals
Sustainability
Special Issues
Innovative Industrial Policies for Sustainable Development: Challenges and Opportunities
sustainability-logo
Submit to Special Issue Submit Abstract to Special Issue Review for Sustainability Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

Innovative Industrial Policies for Sustainable Development: Challenges and Opportunities

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: 31 August 2026 | Viewed by 4387

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Xiaohong Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Interests: innovative economics; environmental economics; digital transformation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Shaopeng Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Economics and Management, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150006, China
Interests: innovative economics; environmental economics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce a call for papers to feature in the "Innovative Industrial Policies for Sustainable Development: Challenges and Opportunities" Special Issue. This collection will delve into policy making’s critical role in fostering sustainable industrial growth and innovation, alongside potential policy implications and practical applications of research findings in real-world settings. The focus will be on understanding how strategic policies can drive industries towards more sustainable practices while also promoting technological advancements and economic development, such as, for example, digital transformation, its role in sustainable development, and the importance of circular economy principles in industrial policies. The scope of this Special Issue is multifaceted, encompassing a broad range of topics pivotal to the discourse on industrial and innovation policies and sustainable development, and its interdisciplinary nature makes us very hopeful to attract contributions from fields such as environmental science, economics, and technology studies.

This Special Issue builds upon the existing literature by manufacturing current research on industrial and innovation policies with sustainable development outcomes, while also aiming to fill any gaps by exploring the synergies and challenges in policy implementation across different sectors and economies. This collection will advance theoretical and empirical understanding, providing a comprehensive update on the state of sustainable industrial policies and innovation strategies.

Prof. Dr. Xiaohong Wang
Dr. Shaopeng Zhang
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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

  • sustainable industrial growth
  • green technologies
  • digital transformation
  • innovative industrial policies
  • cross-sectoral collaboration innovation
  • sustainable industrial policy
  • green supply chain management
  • digital transformation
  • circular economy
  • sustainable digitization

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

27 pages, 929 KB  
Article
The Impact of China’s R&D and Innovation Strategy on Total Factor Productivity of Listed Intelligent Manufacturing Firms
by Mingli Chen, Han Xu, Fa Tian and Li Ji
Sustainability 2026, 18(10), 5128; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18105128 - 19 May 2026
Viewed by 231
Abstract
Total factor productivity (TFP) acts as the core micro-foundation for enterprises to enhance resource allocation efficiency, thereby fundamentally boosting their sustainable development capability and long-term sustainability performance. Based on differentiated exposure to the R&D additional deduction policy (the R&D policy), this paper explores [...] Read more.
Total factor productivity (TFP) acts as the core micro-foundation for enterprises to enhance resource allocation efficiency, thereby fundamentally boosting their sustainable development capability and long-term sustainability performance. Based on differentiated exposure to the R&D additional deduction policy (the R&D policy), this paper explores TFP disparities and heterogeneous responses among intelligent manufacturing enterprises, together with potential mechanisms. The results indicate that enterprises with access to the R&D policy present higher TFP levels on average and show noticeable differences in TFP performance relative to non-affected enterprises. Mechanism tests suggest that the R&D policy is associated with relieved financing constraints, strengthened R&D willingness, and optimized allocation of R&D resources, which may jointly correlate with the variation in enterprise TFP. Further heterogeneous analysis demonstrates that such disparities in TFP performance are more pronounced in enterprises with high labor intensity, low capital intensity, slow industrial technology iteration, eastern regional distribution, and large scale. This paper clarifies the differential performance characteristics and potential influencing pathways of enterprise TFP under the context of the R&D policy, and provides empirical evidence and practical references originating from China for relevant policy research in other countries and regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Industrial Policies for Sustainable Development: Challenges and Opportunities)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

25 pages, 891 KB  
Article
Digital Government Construction, High-Quality Development of the Low-Altitude Economy, and Regional Energy Intensity: Evidence from the Development of China’s Low-Altitude Future Industry
by Yujie Lang, Shiyi Zhu, Mingchao Yin, Ruitao Cai and Kun Lv
Sustainability 2026, 18(10), 4657; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18104657 - 7 May 2026
Viewed by 781
Abstract
Mitigating energy intensity stands as a core linchpin for fulfilling China’s “dual carbon” strategic goals and facilitating the low-carbon green transition of the economic system. Against the backdrop of the in-depth convergence of the digital economy and the real economy, a critical unresolved [...] Read more.
Mitigating energy intensity stands as a core linchpin for fulfilling China’s “dual carbon” strategic goals and facilitating the low-carbon green transition of the economic system. Against the backdrop of the in-depth convergence of the digital economy and the real economy, a critical unresolved research question persists: whether and through what pathways digital government construction can improve energy utilization efficiency by enabling the development of emerging strategic industries. Against this background, this study systematically investigates the combined effects and intrinsic transmission mechanisms between digital government construction, the high-quality development of the low-altitude economy (hereafter referred to as LAE), and regional energy intensity. Specifically, this study addresses four core research gaps: first, whether digital government construction can exert a direct curbing effect on energy intensity; second, what functional role the high-quality development of the LAE plays in this causal relationship; third, whether spatial spillover effects exist between the two core factors on regional energy intensity; and fourth, whether the industrial, market, and policy dimensions of LAE development have heterogeneous influences in the above transmission mechanism. To answer the above research questions, this study constructs a unified analytical framework that incorporates digital government construction, high-quality LAE development, and regional energy intensity. We employ panel data covering 30 provinces in China from 2012 to 2022, taking the institutional reform of provincial big data management authorities as a quasi-natural experiment to identify the policy effects of digital government construction. Meanwhile, we build a comprehensive evaluation system to quantify the high-quality development level of the LAE from three core dimensions: industrial development, market maturity, and policy support. On this basis, the spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) model and double machine learning (DML) model are adopted to carry out systematic empirical tests. The empirical results reveal the following core findings: First, both digital government construction and the high-quality development of the LAE have a significant direct inhibitory effect on regional energy intensity. Second, the spatial spillover effects of the two factors present pronounced heterogeneous characteristics: the radiation effect of digital government construction on adjacent regions depends on the dual premise of geographical proximity and economic development similarity, while the technology spillover effect of LAE development can be effectively realized under the single condition of economic similarity. Third, the high-quality development of the LAE plays a significant mediating role in the causal chain of digital government construction affecting regional energy intensity, and this transmission mechanism remains statistically robust after a series of robustness tests, including algorithm replacement, adjustment of sample splitting ratios, and exclusion of interference from concurrent policy shocks. Fourth, further decomposition tests of the transmission path demonstrate that the industrial dimension plays the most core and fundamental role, acting as the “material basis” for transforming the governance efficiency of digital government into actual energy-saving effects, while the market and policy dimensions function as key supporting collaborative mechanisms, whose transmission intensity is highly dependent on the foundation of industrial development. This study unpacks the intrinsic transmission mechanism through which digital government construction enables the LAE to curb regional energy intensity, offering solid theoretical underpinnings and actionable policy implications for emerging market economies to advance energy “dual control” targets and foster the development of new quality productive forces. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Industrial Policies for Sustainable Development: Challenges and Opportunities)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

22 pages, 1403 KB  
Article
How Eco-Participating Firms Can Increase Their Willingness to Cooperate Sustainability: A Perceived Contractual Equity Perspective
by Yaoyao Yao, Meng Li and Hongda Lian
Sustainability 2024, 16(23), 10541; https://doi.org/10.3390/su162310541 - 1 Dec 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1662
Abstract
In the era of digital intelligence, sustainable ecological cooperation in cross-border integration has become a trend, and the willingness of sustainable cooperation is the key to stabilising the cooperative relationship between enterprises and partners and obtaining more profits. Due to the heterogeneity of [...] Read more.
In the era of digital intelligence, sustainable ecological cooperation in cross-border integration has become a trend, and the willingness of sustainable cooperation is the key to stabilising the cooperative relationship between enterprises and partners and obtaining more profits. Due to the heterogeneity of enterprises, the sense of fairness of enterprises in a relatively disadvantaged position can only be improved to achieve the sustainable development of the cooperative relationship between the two parties. In the business ecosystem, there are some enterprises with obvious differences in resource endowment, market influence, innovation engines, and technology leadership, etc. Enterprises with core competitive advantages occupy the ecological high position and become the ecological core enterprises, while enterprises with relatively weak competitive advantages need to depend on the core enterprises in order to survive in the business ecosystem and become the ecological participating enterprises. This paper takes ‘core enterprise–participating enterprises’ as the main body, establishes a dynamic evolutionary game model to explore the factors affecting the two parties ‘willingness to sustain cooperation, and finds that the increase in the coefficient of willingness to sustain cooperation and the coefficient of maintaining the relationship between core enterprises and participating enterprises, as well as the decrease in the losses caused by opportunistic behaviours of the other party’s enterprises to their own enterprises, will promote the two parties’ willingness to sustain cooperation. In order to verify the connection between the numerical model derivation and the actual situation, we refer to the research of domestic and international scholars, design the scale, and finally obtain 242 valid questionnaires through the research of 263 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China. The results find that the sense of distributive fairness, procedural fairness, and interactive fairness positively promote the willingness to cooperate on a sustainable basis; the sense of contractual fairness increases the willingness to cooperate on a sustainable basis through the relationship value enhancement; and the risk of opportunism negatively moderates the relationship value’s impact on the willingness to cooperate on a sustainable basis. The findings can provide lessons for Chinese SMEs to achieve cross-border integration and for SMEs to improve their ability to manage partnership uncertainty. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Industrial Policies for Sustainable Development: Challenges and Opportunities)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop