Business and the Environment: Critical Issues and Emerging Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, the academic discourse on environmental management and organizational sustainability has pursued more meaningful mechanisms for shared analytical frameworks and metrics at the interface between businesses and societies. The ‘inside-out’ lens has been devoted to the management of externalities, stemming from profit-seeking activities, on the environment. An inverse perspective, in order to better incorporate and demonstrate the ‘outside-in’ lens, indicates the emerging trend which places greater emphasis on addressing grand challenges which are impacting business entities, mainly under the scope of environmental perturbations reflecting high-impact–low-probability natural hazards.

In this Special Issue, we aim to provide ground for up-to-date, fruitful, and actionable insights from these two specific strands of the ‘business and the environment’ literature through conceptual models, analytical frameworks, as well as empirical studies on critical perspectives from different contexts. These inverse perspectives indicate their potential for bringing forth actionable insights and fruitful research outcomes. We welcome both theoretical and empirical contributions, under the scope of a multidisciplinary approach, which collectively may provide a reference for pressing issues describing the interaction between for-profit entities and the natural environment.

This is particularly important as policy-makers estimate sustainability transitions offer new market opportunities of $12Tn USD and, at the same time, the economic and social risks of not addressing the human impact on the environment remain far greater. Few of the questions emerging at this interface are: How does the natural environment potentially shape organizational practices and performance? How can businesses generate broader value and contribute to macro-level environmental and sustainability goals? How can the environmental impacts of business activities be contextually assessed and mitigated through policy, practice, and disclosure towards sustainability? How can innovative or technological solutions approved by business and environmental stakeholders across different industries improve shared responsibilities and accountability?

Prof. Nada Korac Kakabadse
Assist. Prof. Antonis Skouloudis
Dr. Nadeem Khan
Assoc. Prof. Konstantinos Evangelinos
Guest Editors

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