Strategic Leadership and Innovation in Sustainability: Driving Organizational Transformation in Complex Environments

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue on ‘Strategic Leadership and Innovation in Sustainability: Driving Organizational Transformation in Complex Environments’ explores how leaders shape, drive, and sustain innovation that supports long-term environmental, social, and economic value creation. While the existing literature has examined sustainability, leadership, and innovation largely as separate streams, there is still limited understanding of how strategic leadership behaviours, structures, and capabilities enable organisations to innovate for sustainability under conditions of uncertainty, technological disruption, and regulatory pressure. This Special Issue invites theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions that connect strategic leadership with sustainable business models, green technologies, circular economy initiatives, responsible innovation, and ESG-driven transformation. We particularly welcome multi-level and cross-sector studies that examine how leadership influences innovation outcomes across firms, supply chains, public organisations, and ecosystems. By integrating perspectives from strategy, organisational behaviour, innovation management, and sustainability studies, this Special Issue aims to advance both scholarly debate and practical insights on how leaders can turn sustainability challenges into opportunities for resilient, inclusive, and future-oriented growth.

(1) Introduction and scientific background

Organisations across the world are under increasing pressure to respond to climate change, social inequality, resource constraints, and shifting stakeholder expectations. In this context, sustainability is no longer a peripheral concern but a strategic priority that shapes competitiveness, legitimacy, and long-term survival. At the same time, rapid advances in digital technologies, data analytics, and artificial intelligence are transforming how organisations design products, services, processes, and business models.

These dynamics place strategic leadership and innovation at the heart of the sustainability agenda. Research has shown that leadership vision, values, and decision-making influence how organisations interpret sustainability challenges, allocate resources, and embrace or resist change. However, we still know relatively little about how different leadership styles, governance arrangements, and organisational capabilities enable innovations that are both economically viable and socially and environmentally responsible. There is also a growing need to understand these issues in diverse contexts, including emerging economies, public sector organisations, and cross-sector partnerships.

(2) Aim of the Special Issue and relation to the journal scope

This Special Issue aims to provide a platform for cutting-edge research on how strategic leadership fosters innovation for sustainability at the organisational, inter-organisational, and ecosystem levels. We welcome conceptual, qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods studies that perform the following:

• Examine the role of strategic, responsible, or transformational leadership in driving sustainable innovation and ESG performance;
• Explore how leadership shapes green technologies, circular economy initiatives, low-carbon strategies, and inclusive innovation;
• Analyse organisational capabilities, cultures, and governance mechanisms that link sustainability goals with innovation outcomes;
• Investigate collaboration between firms, governments, NGOs, and communities in advancing sustainable innovation.

The topic is closely aligned with the journal’s scope, which emphasises management, strategy, innovation, and sustainability as drivers of organisational and societal development. By bringing together diverse perspectives, this Special Issue seeks to deepen theoretical understanding and to offer practical guidance for leaders and policymakers working to integrate sustainability and innovation into core strategy and practice.

(3) Suggest themes.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following themes: 

• Strategic leadership for sustainable business models (how leaders integrate sustainability into core strategy, vision, and competitive positioning);
• Leadership, ESG, and responsible corporate governance (board and top management roles in driving ESG performance and accountability);
• Innovation for environmental and social impact (green technologies, circular economy, low-carbon strategies, and inclusive innovation);
• Digital and AI-enabled sustainability leadership (how digital transformation, data analytics, and AI support sustainable innovation and decision-making);
• Organisational capabilities and culture for sustainable innovation (dynamic capabilities, learning, and culture that link leadership with innovation outcomes);
• Sustainable entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship (leadership in new ventures and within established organisations that pursue sustainability-oriented opportunities);
• Cross-sector partnerships and ecosystem leadership (collaboration between firms, governments, NGOs, and communities to co-create sustainable innovations);
• Leadership in public sector and non-profit sustainability initiatives (how public and social leaders design and implement sustainability-driven reforms and services);
• Stakeholder engagement, communication, and legitimacy in sustainable innovation (leadership approaches for engaging employees, customers, investors, and communities);
• Measurement, impact assessment, and performance of sustainable innovation (indicators, frameworks, and empirical studies evaluating sustainability and innovation outcomes).

I/We look forward to receiving your contributions. 

Dr. Khalid Abed Dahleez
Dr. Mohammad Salah Alazzawi
Dr. Alhamzah Al Sayed Noor
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-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.

• strategic leadership
• sustainable innovation
• ESG performance
• sustainability
• corporate governance
• green transformation
• digital and AI-driven sustainability
• circular economy
• stakeholder engagement
• sustainable business models