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Productivity, Efficiency, and Green Growth for Sustainability
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Productivity, Efficiency, and Green Growth for Sustainability

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: 30 November 2026 | Viewed by 1338

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Dong-hyun Oh

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Industrial Engineering, Inha University, Incheon 22212, Republic of Korea
Interests: productivity analysis; green indicators; industrial policy; technological efficiency; management of technology; applied microeconomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The pursuit of sustainability requires a delicate balance between economic growth, environmental stewardship, and social well-being. Productivity and efficiency have traditionally been regarded as drivers of competitiveness and development, yet their role in enabling green growth and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is now of critical importance. In an era of resource constraints, climate change, and ecological pressures, productivity gains must be redefined to incorporate environmental and social dimensions. This Special Issue invites theoretical, empirical, and policy-oriented contributions that examine how productivity and efficiency can be aligned with sustainability transitions across industries, regions, and nations.

We welcome studies that advance the measurement of green productivity, eco-efficiency, and environmentally adjusted performance indicators. Methodological innovations—including frontier analysis, stochastic approaches, life-cycle assessments, and applications of big data or machine learning—are especially encouraged. Equally, empirical studies and case analyses that assess the compatibility (or conflict) between productivity improvements and reductions in carbon emissions, resource use, or ecological footprints will be highly valued. Contributions may highlight how energy, water, and manufacturing sectors are undergoing transformation, how circular economy practices can enhance resource efficiency, and how public policy can integrate productivity and efficiency into strategies for sustainable industrial development.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Concepts and measures of green productivity and eco-efficiency;
  • Methodological advances in productivity and efficiency analysis;
  • Technology, innovation, and digitalization as enablers of green growth;
  • Firm-, industry-, or country-level evidence on the sustainability–productivity nexus;
  • Policy frameworks aligning productivity, efficiency, and the SDGs.

Dr. Dong-hyun Oh
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-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

  • sustainability
  • productivity
  • efficiency
  • green growth
  • eco-efficiency
  • green productivity
  • sustainable development goals (SDGs)
  • environmental performance
  • frontier analysis
  • circular economy
  • innovation and technology
  • energy and resource efficiency
  • sustainable industrial transformation
  • policy and governance

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

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 481 KB  
Article
Advancing Sustainability Through Democratic Leadership: Effects on Job Satisfaction and Job Performance of Knowledge Workers
by Izabela Marzec and Robert Wolny
Sustainability 2026, 18(10), 5042; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18105042 - 17 May 2026
Viewed by 55
Abstract
The dynamic development of the digital economy, accompanied by changes in the employment structure and the rise in the knowledge workforce, has led to growing interest in the concept of democratic leadership as a foundation for organisational sustainable development. Highly skilled knowledge workers [...] Read more.
The dynamic development of the digital economy, accompanied by changes in the employment structure and the rise in the knowledge workforce, has led to growing interest in the concept of democratic leadership as a foundation for organisational sustainable development. Highly skilled knowledge workers seek to participate in decision-making processes, value autonomy, and expect their work to provide satisfaction and a sense of fulfilment. The transition towards sustainable development requires a new approach by leaders in managing knowledge workers. This paper presents the results of a study aimed at identifying the relationships between democratic leadership style, job satisfaction, and performance of knowledge workers. These goals are achieved through the analysis of a survey of 396 knowledge workers whose work involved the extensive use of IT in Polish companies. Structural equation modelling is used to analyse the survey data. The results indicate that the democratic leadership style has a positive effect on job satisfaction, which in turn positively influences employee job performance. The analysis further reveals that job satisfaction mediates the relationship between democratic leadership and employee performance. The findings are discussed in the context of the leadership challenges associated with sustainable organisational development in the digital economy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Productivity, Efficiency, and Green Growth for Sustainability)
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23 pages, 463 KB  
Article
Robust Estimation of CO2 Shadow Prices for Korean Energy Firms: Integrating Bootstrapping into the Conventional LP Framework
by Sesil Lim and Dong-hyun Oh
Sustainability 2026, 18(4), 1810; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18041810 - 10 Feb 2026
Viewed by 343
Abstract
Estimating the shadow price of undesirable outputs is an important topic in production and environmental economics, as it provides information on the economic cost of environmental regulation. Directional distance function (DDF) approaches have been widely employed for this purpose; however, conventional DDF estimation [...] Read more.
Estimating the shadow price of undesirable outputs is an important topic in production and environmental economics, as it provides information on the economic cost of environmental regulation. Directional distance function (DDF) approaches have been widely employed for this purpose; however, conventional DDF estimation methods are largely limited to point estimation, which constrains statistical inference. This study proposes a bootstrap procedure integrated into a parametric linear programming-based DDF framework that explicitly incorporates undesirable outputs. The proposed methodology is applied to Korean firm-level data. By allowing interval estimation of DDF values, the approach makes it possible to conduct statistical inference on the estimated parameters. The empirical results indicate that DDF estimates obtained using the bootstrap approach differ from those derived from the non-bootstrap method. The resulting shadow prices of CO2 are economically interpretable and comparable in magnitude to observed emission permit prices, suggesting their relevance for policy analysis. The results indicate that incorporating bootstrapping into a parametric DDF framework enhances statistical inference in the estimation of shadow prices for undesirable outputs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Productivity, Efficiency, and Green Growth for Sustainability)
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30 pages, 514 KB  
Article
Synergistic Digitalization and Greening for Corporate Total Factor Productivity Growth: Evidence from Chinese A-Share Firms
by Wei Xiao
Sustainability 2026, 18(3), 1678; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18031678 - 6 Feb 2026
Viewed by 546
Abstract
China’s dual pursuit of a “Digital China” and its carbon-neutral goals has driven a coordinated strategy of digitalization and green transformation. Yet the extent to which firms have realized this synergy—and its effect on total factor productivity (TFP)—remains underexplored. Using panel data from [...] Read more.
China’s dual pursuit of a “Digital China” and its carbon-neutral goals has driven a coordinated strategy of digitalization and green transformation. Yet the extent to which firms have realized this synergy—and its effect on total factor productivity (TFP)—remains underexplored. Using panel data from 2011 to 2025 on all A-share listed companies, we construct a composite index of digital–green coordination and estimate firm-level TFP via the Levinsohn–Petrin method. Employing fixed-effects panel regressions and mediation analyses, we find the following: (1) the digital–green synergy significantly enhances TFP growth, with robustness confirmed across alternative measures, propensity score matching, city fixed effects, and instrumental variable approaches; (2) this effect is stronger for non-SOEs and firms with higher baseline TFP and exhibited an “inverted-U” pattern over China’s 13th and 14th Five-Year Plans; (3) corporate social responsibility (CSR), cost stickiness reduction, and green technological innovation each mediate this relationship—CSR and cost stickiness play larger roles in SOEs, while green innovation mediates across all firm types and TFP levels, also showing an “inverted-U” temporal trend; and (4) over time, CSR’s mediating effect wanes in the 14th Five-Year period, cost stickiness mediation gradually declines, and green innovation mediation is continually strengthened. These findings provide evidence of the association between digital–green alignment and firm productivity in China, using an index that summarizes the joint orientation toward digitalization and greening. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Productivity, Efficiency, and Green Growth for Sustainability)
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