Sustainable Development and the Green and Social Economy: Management Systems, Digital Transformation, and Tourism Transitions
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Tourism, Culture, and Heritage".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 December 2026 | Viewed by 52
Special Issue Editors
2. School of Social Sciences, Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece
Interests: organizational sustainability; management systems; business excellence; service quality; environmental management; digital transformation; societal quality; lean; society 5.0
Interests: special interest tourism; tourism seasonality; sustainable tourism; destination marketing; sport events and tourism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue will bring together research examining how corporate sustainability models, management system standards, and digital transformation practices can support sustainable transitions across industries. Adopting stakeholder and resource perspectives can provide valuable insights into the mechanisms that foster sustainable development. Current holistic quality management and business excellence initiatives combine these perspectives with Sustainable Development Goals promoting innovation and agility. The latest trends, such as eco-innovation in product and service design, the green supply chain, green 4.0, and society 5.0 integrate digital technologies and AI with business intelligence and human–machine collaboration with performance-driven approaches. As these frameworks are becoming increasingly influential in the service sector, this Special Issue will pay particular attention to their relevance for tourism, a field with unique sustainability opportunities and challenges. This Special Issue, therefore, will explore how tourism destinations adopt, adapt, or extend these frameworks in order to build resilience, reduce the pressures of seasonality, enhance accessibility and inclusivity, and advance community-centered development.
Contributions that illuminate how green and social transitions can be designed, implemented, and sustained at either organizational or destination levels through sustainability tools in service ecosystems and regional development are encouraged. We also welcome submissions investigating how tourism and hospitality organizations balance environmental objectives with social context and integrate sustainability standards, digital tools, and other social and green practices into service design, visitor experience management, and event planning.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Maria Gianni
Dr. Sofia Gkarane
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-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 management
- management systems
- quality, environmental and social standards
- digital transformation
- tourism development
- destination resilience
- event-based development
- regional sustainability
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