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Towards SDGs and Sustainable ESG Performance: The Synergistic Influence of Industry 4.0 and Governance Structure

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Development Goals towards Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2025) | Viewed by 5616

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. Lincoln International Business School, University of Lincoln, Lincoln LN6 7TS, UK
2. Gulf Finance Center, Gulf University for Science & Technology (GUST), Mubarak Al-Abdullah, Kuwait
Interests: green finance and green strategic investment decision-making; corporate governance; corporate narrative disclosure measurement of strategic changes; business innovation strategies and corporate transformation in UK companies towards Industry 4.0 and sustainable performance and SDGs; accounting and governance of state-owned enterprises; public sector accounting and budgeting reform
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Business and Law, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 3DE, UK
Interests: corporate narrative reporting; international financial reporting standards (IFRS); Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI); extensible business reporting language (XBRL); market-based accounting research; auditing, corporate governance; earnings management; corporate investment efficiency; corporate finance; Islamic accounting and finance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability is an international inter-disciplinary domain of research attracting scholars, government regulatory bodies, standards setters and other stakeholders. Global warming and other environmental issues have led to corporate business model transformations towards ESG and sustainable performance and revolutionized the conventional practices of supply chain management to green sustainable supply chain management practices (Jabbour and de Sousa Jabbour, 2016).

The study of Song et al. (2022) articulates related topics underpinning green, sustainable supply chain management in platform economies, including technological innovations. In a more recent study, Bustinza et al. (2024) offer valuable insight into the intricate nexus between product–service innovation and green supply chain management and shed lights on the influence of Industry 4.0 in improving environmental performance. Other studies (e.g., Belhadi et al., 2022) explore the influence of Industry 4.0 on closed-loop supply chains. Industry 4.0 technology adoption facilitates corporate transformation towards SDGs and ecosystems. Industry 4.0 enables companies to increase flexibility and production efficiency, quality of manufacturing processes and amalgamating product innovation management practices with stakeholders (Meindl et al., 2021; Marantes et al., 2023).

Circular economy strategies enable reducing the environmental impact of the linear economy by reducing, reusing and recovering resources through production and consumption systems (see Alkaraan et al., 2022; Blackburn et al., 2023). Industry 4.0 technologies empowering sustainability initiatives, including restoration, waste management and emission reduction, raw material recycling, and water and energy conservation (Kumar et al., 2024). The extant literature has witnessed various domains of research regarding the influence of Industry 4.0 and governance structure on current practices of green business innovation and strategies and corporate transformation towards ESG performance and sustainability (see Alkaraan et al., 2024). To maintain the ESG investment trend, governments will observe ESG data and rating code of conduct mechanisms to promote best practice in the markets. However, the question remains open for debate; does ESG investing pay off  (Asteriou et al., 2023)?

This Special Issues contributes to the current debates on sustainability and articulates current issues surrounding corporate transformation towards ESG performance. This is through holistic perspectives with multi-theoretical lenses. We encourage colleagues to adopt multi-datasets with an integrated/amalgamated approaches utilizing quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods paradigms to examine various spheres underpinning sustainable performance maximization. Submissions are invited on, but not limited to, the following topics: 

  • The influence of green finance on ESG performance.
  • Carbon budgeting, control and companies’ performance.
  • Boardrooms commitment to climate change and net-zero economy.
  • The influence of FinTech adoption on ESG performance.
  • The influence of green supply chain management on boardrooms commitment to climate change.
  • The influence of corporate governance mechanisms on climate-related disclosure.
  • Key pillars reinforcing ecosystems including Industry 4.0 technologies and circular economy strategies.
  • The influence of governance structure, socio-economic and political factors on corporate transformation towards SDGs and sustainable performance maximization.
  • Green business innovation strategies and ESG performance.
  • The influence of environmental initiatives on SDGs and sustainable performance.
  • The influence of green supply chain management on life cycle assessment and sustainable performance.
  • Monitoring and evaluating ecosystems maintenance strategies.
  • Accounting for waste management, water management and biodiversity and their influence on sustainability.
  • Environmental management accounting and control system.

References

Asteriou, D., Pilbeam, K. and Pouliot, W. (2023). Does ESG investing pay off? An analysis of the Eurozone area before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. International Journal of Finance & Economics.  https://doi.org/10.1002/ijfe.2865

Alkaraan, F., Elmarzouky, M., Hussainey, K., Venkatesh, V.G., Shi, Y., Gulko, N. (2023).
Reinforcing green business strategies with Industry 4.0 and governance towards sustainability: Natural-resource-based view and dynamic capability. Business Strategy
and the Environment, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3665

Alkaraan, F., Elmarzouky, M., Hussainey, K., Venkatesh, VG. (2023). Sustainable strategic investment decision-making practices in UK companies: the influence of governance mechanisms on synergy between Industry 4.0 and circular economy. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 187 ,122187,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.122187

Alkaraan, F. Albitar, K, Hussainey, K, Venkatesh, V.G. (2022) Corporate transformation towards Industry 4.0 and financial performance: The influence of environmental, social and governance (ESG), Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 175, February 2022, 121423, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121423.

Belhadi, A., Kamble, S. S., Jabbour, C.J.D., Venkatesh, M., Sayed., A.R. Khan, F. & Touriki, E .(2022). A self-assessment tool for evaluating the integration of circular economy and industry 4.0 principles in closed-loop supply chains, International Journal of Production Economics 245 108372,  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2021.108372

Blackburn, O, Ritala, P. and Keränen, J. (2023). Digital platforms for the circular economy: exploring meta-organizational orchestration mechanisms. Organization & Environment, 36(2) 253-281, https://doi.org/10.1177/10860266221130

Bustinza, O. F., Vendrell-Herrero, F., and Jabbour, C. J. C. (2024). Integration of product-service innovation into green supply chain management: Emerging opportunities and paradoxes. Technovation, 130, 102923, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2023.102923

Jabbour, C. J.C., de Sousa Jabbour, A.B.L. (2016). Green Human Resource Management and Green Supply Chain Management: linking two emerging agendas, Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, 3, 1824-1833, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.01.052

Song, M., Fisher, R, de Sousa Jabbour, A.B. L., Santibañez Gonzalez, E. (2022). Green and sustainable supply chain management in the platform economy, International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, vol. 25, 4-5, 349-363. https://doi.org/10.1080/13675567.2022.2045763

Kumar, M.  Raut, R.D., Mangla. S. K., Chowdhury, S., Choubey. V. K. (2024). Moderating ESG compliance between industry 4.0 and green practices with green servitization: Examining its impact on green supply chain performance, Technovation, 129 (2024), 102898, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2023.102898

Dr. Fadi Alkaraan
Prof. Dr. Khaled Hussainey
Guest Editors

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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57 pages, 1459 KiB  
Article
Sustainable Digital Banking in Turkey: Analysis of Mobile Banking Applications Using Customer-Generated Content
by Yavuz Selim Balcioglu and Furkan Evranos
Sustainability 2025, 17(15), 6676; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17156676 - 22 Jul 2025
Abstract
This study addresses a critical gap in understanding how mobile banking applications contribute to sustainable development by introducing a novel text mining framework to analyze sustainability dimensions through user-generated content. We analyzed 120,000 reviews from six major Turkish mobile banking applications using an [...] Read more.
This study addresses a critical gap in understanding how mobile banking applications contribute to sustainable development by introducing a novel text mining framework to analyze sustainability dimensions through user-generated content. We analyzed 120,000 reviews from six major Turkish mobile banking applications using an ownership-sensitive analytical approach that integrates structural topic modeling with four sustainability dimensions (environmental, social, governance, and economic). Our analysis reveals significant institutional differences in sustainability approaches: government-owned banks demonstrate substantially stronger overall sustainability orientation (23.43% vs. 11.83% coverage) with pronounced emphasis on social sustainability (+181.7% growth) and economic development (+104.2% growth), while private banks prioritize innovation-focused sustainability. The temporal analysis (2022–2025) shows accelerating sustainability emphasis across all institutions, with distinct evolution patterns by ownership type. Institution-specific sustainability profiles emerge clearly, with each government bank demonstrating distinctive focus areas aligned with historical missions: cultural heritage preservation, agricultural sector support, and small business development. Mapping to Sustainable Development Goals reveals that government banks prioritize development-focused goals (SDGs 1, 8, and 10), while private banks emphasize innovation-focused goals (SDGs 9 and 17). This research makes three key contributions: demonstrating user-generated content as an effective lens for authentic sustainability assessment, establishing ownership-sensitive evaluation frameworks for digital banking sustainability, and providing empirical evidence for contextualized rather than universal sustainability strategies. The findings offer strategic implications for financial institutions, policymakers, and app developers seeking to enhance sustainable digital banking transformation. Full article
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18 pages, 248 KiB  
Article
Sustainability Reporting and Market Uncertainty: The Moderating Effect of Carbon Disclosure
by Ahmed Saber Moussa and Mahmoud Elmarzouky
Sustainability 2024, 16(13), 5290; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135290 - 21 Jun 2024
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 3936
Abstract
This research examines how ESG disclosure influences market uncertainty through carbon disclosure. It uses a 10-year dataset from 2012 to 2021 of non-financial U.K. companies in the FTSE All-Share index. This study employs four regression methods to scrutinize the interplay between ESG disclosure, [...] Read more.
This research examines how ESG disclosure influences market uncertainty through carbon disclosure. It uses a 10-year dataset from 2012 to 2021 of non-financial U.K. companies in the FTSE All-Share index. This study employs four regression methods to scrutinize the interplay between ESG disclosure, carbon disclosure, and market uncertainty. The research findings uncover a notable reduction in market uncertainty associated with ESG disclosure, aligning with the Information Asymmetry Theory. Interestingly, this study also uncovers that carbon disclosure amplifies this negative relationship, a finding that resonates with the Signaling Theory. These results hold true across various measures of ESG and market uncertainty. This study enriches the sustainability reporting literature with implications for theory and practice. It extends Information Asymmetry and Signaling Theories to U.K. non-financial firms, emphasizing the need for more research on sustainability disclosure. It underscores the role of ESG and carbon disclosure in reducing cost of capital, enhancing firm value, and boosting investor confidence. It calls for transparent ESG reporting by managers, regulatory promotion of such disclosures, and stakeholder utilization of these to evaluate a firm’s impact and contribution to the SDGs, fostering collaboration on sustainability. This study offers key insights for stakeholders such as managers, investors, regulators, researchers, policy makers, and educators in the realm of sustainability reporting and market dynamics. Full article

Review

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21 pages, 2740 KiB  
Review
Industry 4.0, Circular Economy and Sustainable Development Goals: Future Research Directions Through Scientometrics and Mini-Review
by Maximo Baca-Neglia, Carmen Barreto-Pio, Paul Virú-Vásquez, Edwin Badillo-Rivera, Mary Flor Césare-Coral, Jhimy Brayam Castro-Pantoja, Alejandrina Sotelo-Méndez, Juan Saldivar-Villarroel, Antonio Arroyo-Paz, Raymunda Veronica Cruz-Martinez, Edgar Norabuena Meza and Teodosio Celso Quispe-Ojeda
Sustainability 2025, 17(14), 6468; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17146468 - 15 Jul 2025
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Abstract
The global pursuit of sustainable development has intensified the need to integrate Circular Economy (CE), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) as mutually reinforcing frameworks. This study explores the scientific evolution and interconnections among these pillars through a dual approach: (i) [...] Read more.
The global pursuit of sustainable development has intensified the need to integrate Circular Economy (CE), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) as mutually reinforcing frameworks. This study explores the scientific evolution and interconnections among these pillars through a dual approach: (i) a scientometric analysis using CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and Bibliometrix in RStudio (2024.12.1+563), and (ii) a targeted mini-review of high-impact literature. A dataset of 478 Scopus-indexed articles (2016–2024) was analyzed, revealing CE and I4.0 as key technological and strategic enablers of the SDGs—particularly SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), and SDG 13 (Climate Action). Moreover, the results underscore an increasing role of enabling digital technologies—such as IoT, blockchain, and big data—in shaping sustainable production systems. An important insight from this work is the growing relevance of policy frameworks as catalysts for implementing CE and I4.0 strategies, especially within national and international sustainability agendas. However, the low citation frequency of “policy” as a keyword indicates a gap in the literature that merits further exploration. Future research is encouraged to conduct in-depth bibliometric studies focused on sustainability-related policies, including regulations that operationalize CE and I4.0 to support SDG achievement. This study contributes a comprehensive overview of emerging research trends, identifies strategic knowledge gaps, and highlights the need for cohesive governance mechanisms to accelerate the digital–ecological transition. Full article
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