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A Special Issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050) belonging to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 2 December 2026 | Viewed by 3926

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Dr. Vilelmine Carayanni

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Department of Tourism Management, University of West Attica, 12243 Athens, Greece
Interests: statistics; socio-economic evaluations
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability-oriented innovation and technology studies have received increasing attention over the past two decades. In particular, a relatively new research field dealing with “sustainability transitions” has received increased attention in the literature as well as in the policy arena. The transition to sustainability is a macro-scale process that requires the deep transformation of the economy, society, and technological systems. In parallel, there has been a growing recognition in policy studies and innovation policy fields that sustainability transitions require new approaches. As numerous researchers have pointed out, transitions are inherently boundary-spanning and affect multiple domains (social, political, cultural, and technical). The aim of this Special Issue is to offer a multidisciplinary approach by covering issues around sustainability transitions in terms of their social, technological, economic, and legal aspects, respectively. Our purpose is to reassert the conviction that the politics of transitions requires more attention and better integration into transition studies, and the papers included are expected to shed light on this from a range of fields, such as health, energy, and the environment, and to contribute to the advancement of science by providing appropriate information and selecting the best methods for evaluating sustainable transition policies.

We welcome quantitative studies, including primary and secondary studies such as empirical studies, metaanalyses, and systematic reviews, as well as methodological studies, including, but not limited to, socioeconomic evaluations of policies, explorations of citizens' perceptions, and the tools and methods to capture change across such wide-ranging domains.

Dr. Vilelmine Carayanni
Guest Editor

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-anonymized 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 transitions
public policy
socioeconomic evaluations
primary and secondary studies

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

40 pages, 3019 KB

Open AccessArticle

How Does New Energy Policy Affect Corporate Sustainability? Evidence from ESG Performance

by Xuemei Peng, Keyu Chen and Ao Wang

Sustainability 2026, 18(16), 8580; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18168580 - 21 Aug 2026

Viewed by 187

Abstract

Amid the global energy transition, whether city-level energy policies can improve firm-level sustainability remains insufficiently understood. Using panel data on Chinese A-share listed firms from 2009 to 2023, this study examines the relationship between China’s New Energy Demonstration City (NEDC) Pilot Policy and corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance within a difference-in-differences framework. The results show that firms registered in pilot cities experienced greater post-designation improvements in ESG performance than firms in non-pilot cities, and this finding remains robust across a range of identification and sensitivity analyses. Channel analyses provide evidence consistent with green technological innovation and improved external financing conditions as two potential firm-level channels associated with the NEDC–ESG relationship. The estimated relationship is more pronounced among firms with greater analyst coverage, non-state-owned enterprises, and high-tech firms, as well as among firms located in the eastern and central regions and in areas with stronger pre-existing environmental regulation. Dimension-specific analyses yield positive and statistically significant estimates for environmental and governance performance, but not for social performance. Distance-band estimates further suggest localized spillovers to nearby non-pilot firms. These findings extend the evidence on the firm-level consequences of city-level energy-transition policies and highlight the roles of firm characteristics, local institutional conditions, and external information environments in shaping corporate sustainability responses. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Public Policy and Economic Analysis in Sustainability Transitions)

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56 pages, 1249 KB

Open AccessArticle

Country ESG Sustainability Index as a Management and Regulatory Feedback Tool

by Venera Zarubina, Mikhail Zarubin, Zhauhar Yessenkulova, Zhanar Dyussembekova, Olga Valentinovna Andreeva and Artur Zarubin

Sustainability 2026, 18(14), 7145; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18147145 - 13 Jul 2026

Viewed by 639

Abstract

Contemporary ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) regulation creates costs and risks for businesses, which are associated with the stringency of requirements. This article demonstrates that the key source of these problems is the fragmentation of legal regulation, the inconsistency of reporting standards, and the methodological heterogeneity of ESG indices. Based on a comparative legal analysis of eight jurisdictions (the US, EU, China, India, Brazil, Russia, South Africa, and Kazakhstan), three models of ESG regulation are identified: prescriptive, market-oriented, and state-centralized. It is shown that extraterritorial pressure (CBAM, CSDDD) and internal regulatory conflicts (e.g., in the US) are associated with increased compliance costs, especially for emerging economies. An empirical analysis revealed significant divergence in the assessments and dynamics of ESG ratings from various agencies. The results obtained are consistent with the findings of other researchers who document discrepancies in ESG assessments reaching approximately 50–60%. This makes global indices of limited applicability for regulatory purposes. In response to the identified issues, a country-specific ESG index integrated into a closed-loop feedback management system was proposed. A two-stage methodology was developed: calculating a company index (taking into account regulatory burden, extraterritorial pressure, and adaptability) and aggregating it into a country index based on macrostatistics, with the ability to transition to big data aggregation. The results can be used by national regulators to improve the comparability of ESG data and differentiate government support measures. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Public Policy and Economic Analysis in Sustainability Transitions)

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24 pages, 14909 KB

Open AccessArticle

Environmental Laws and Sustainable Development of Green Technology Innovation: Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms

by Lu Xu and Yizhi Zhang

Sustainability 2026, 18(3), 1420; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18031420 - 31 Jan 2026

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1071

Abstract

The revision and implementation of the Environmental Protection Law signaled a major transformation in China’s environmental regulatory paradigm—from a traditional command-and-control model to a more diversified and market-oriented approach. This shift has raised critical questions regarding the actual impact of regulation on green technological innovation. Using panel data from A-share listed firms in China between 2011 and 2022, this study employs a propensity score matching–difference-in-differences (PSM-DID) model to identify the causal effect of environmental regulation on green innovation. Results reveal that the enactment of the law significantly enhances firms’ green innovation capacity. Robustness tests confirm the stability of these findings. Further analysis identifies several potential transmission mechanisms. Specifically, we find robust empirical evidence that environmental regulation exerts its effects through elevated R&D investment levels and strengthened executives’ environmental awareness, while the financing constraint and environmental information disclosure channels yield suggestive yet less statistically robust results in indirect effect tests. Moreover, heterogeneous effects are more evident among non-state-owned enterprises, firms in the eastern region, and those in highly market-oriented provinces. This study contributes empirical evidence to the literature on environmental regulation and green innovation, and offers policy insights for improving environmental governance in emerging economies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Public Policy and Economic Analysis in Sustainability Transitions)

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15 pages, 1374 KB

Open AccessArticle

Stylometric Analysis of Sustainable Central Bank Communications: Revealing Authorial Signatures in Monetary Policy Statements

by Hakan Emekci and İbrahim Özkan

Sustainability 2025, 17(20), 8979; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17208979 - 10 Oct 2025

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1139

Abstract

Sustainable economic development requires transparent and consistent institutional communication from monetary authorities to maintain long-term financial stability and public trust. This study investigates the latent authorial structure and stylistic heterogeneity of central bank communications by applying stylometric analysis and unsupervised machine learning to official announcements of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT). Using a dataset of 557 press releases from 2006 to 2017, we extract a range of linguistic features at both sentence and document levels—including sentence length, punctuation density, word length, and type–token ratios. These features are reduced using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and clustered via Hierarchical Clustering on Principal Components (HCPC), revealing three distinct authorial groups within the CBRT’s communications. The robustness of these clusters is validated using multidimensional scaling (MDS) on character-level and word-level n-gram distances. The analysis finds consistent stylistic differences between clusters, with implications for authorship attribution, tone variation, and communication strategy. Notably, sentiment analysis indicates that one authorial cluster tends to exhibit more negative tonal features, suggesting potential bias or divergence in internal communication style. These findings challenge the conventional assumption of institutional homogeneity and highlight the presence of distinct communicative voices within the central bank. Furthermore, the results suggest that stylistic variation—though often subtle—may convey unintended policy signals to markets, especially in contexts where linguistic shifts are closely scrutinized. This research contributes to the emerging intersection of natural language processing, monetary economics, and institutional transparency. It demonstrates the efficacy of stylometric techniques in revealing the hidden structure of policy discourse and suggests that linguistic analytics can offer valuable insights into the internal dynamics, credibility, and effectiveness of monetary authorities. These findings contribute to sustainable financial governance by demonstrating how AI-driven analysis can enhance institutional transparency, promote consistent policy communication, and support long-term economic stability—key pillars of sustainable development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Public Policy and Economic Analysis in Sustainability Transitions)

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