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► Journal BrowserSpecial Issue "Business Strategies concerning the Sustainable Development Goals and the SDG Compass"
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2021.
Special Issue Editors
Interests: corporate social responsibility; corporate social reporting; sustainability business ethics; eco-innovation; management accounting
Interests: corporate social responsibility; corporate social reporting; sustainability assurance; business ethics; eco-innovation
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explicitly call for the active involvement of companies to transform political agreements into real environmental and social changes. This implies, at the same time, a challenge and an opportunity for companies which can lead to a “win-win” scenario in which their contribution to sustainable development provides companies with long-term competitive advantages and new business opportunities. However, achieving the SDGs not only requires companies to “do things differently” (i.e., behave in a way that is more compatible with sustainability) but also to “do different things”. Therefore, companies that rise to meet this challenge will find that the SDGs lend meaning and focus to their competitive strategies and value-creation process. Indeed, business contribution to the SDGs requires integrating the SDGs into companies’ core competitive strategy, organizational culture, and business model. In this sense, the SDG compass provides a guide to help companies in this process, explaining how to formulate, execute and communicate SDG-related strategies.
Researchers have highlighted the need to create and implement a sustainable business model based on the integration of the SDGs into long-term strategies and to search for innovative solutions to the challenges arising in this regard. However, more research is needed to understand how companies can contribute to the SDG being met and how their integration into business strategies can create value for the company and enhance firm performance. This Special Issue aims to fill this gap and calls researchers from various academic disciplines to address the study of a broad spectrum of topics related to busines strategies concerning the SDGs and the SDG compass, including:
- Business contribution to the SDGs;
- The SDGs as a strategic tool for corporate management and governance;
- Strategic change associated with the adoption of the SDGs by companies;
- The SDGs and value creation;
- Explaining factors of the adoption of the SDGs by companies (i.e., firm size, industry, country, profitability);
- SDGs implementation;
- Human resource management and the SDGs;
- Entrepreneurship as a means of tracking the SDGs;
- Collaborative approaches (e.g., public–private partnerships, alliances) as a means of pursuing the SDGs;
- The SDGs and product development;
- Eco-innovation as a means of tracking the SDGs;
- Integration of the SDGs into the companies’ information system;
- The reporting of corporate social responsibility (CSR) information in the framework of the SDG compass;
- The integration of SDG-related objectives into the companies’ performance evaluation system;
- Market opportunities from SDG-related strategies;
- The SDGs as a guide for investments and new business opportunities;
- The SDGs as a guide for reducing costs and risks;
- Capital markets and the SDGs.
All methodologies and research approaches (e.g., conceptual, empirical, and case studies) are welcome.
Prof. Dr. Beatriz Aibar-Guzmán
Prof. Dr. Cristina Aibar-Guzmán
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 papers will be 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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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 1900 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
- Sustainable Development Goals
- 2030 Agenda
- SDG compass
- SDG reporting
- sustainable development
- corporate social responsibility
- business trategy
- strategic change
- eco-innovation
- entrepreneurship
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Planned paper 1
Title: Supply chains’ failure in workers’ rights with regards to SDG compass: A doughnut theory perspective
Author: Maryam Lotfi
Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, UK
Abstract:
Many supply chains have pledged to prevent the violence in workers’ right as part of social sustainability with regards to SDG compass in their far-flung supply chains. This paper provides a way to understand why supply chain fails to overcome the violence in workers’ rights. Taking the lens of doughnut theory, the paper concludes that supply chains have shortfalls in all aspects of the social foundation when it comes to workers as one of their main stakeholders. Until supply chains are unsuccessful in overcoming all these shortfalls, moving to the next layer which is the safe and just space for all humans including workers is impossible.
Key words: Workers’ rights, SDG, Doughnut theory, supply chain, social sustainability
Planned paper 2
Title: Is New Wave of Credit-based Financial Platform Sustainable on Continuous Use Intention for Chinese Internet Shoppers?
Author: Yongrok Choi
Abstact:
The “buy now, pay later”, as a new internet financial model for untact era under the COVID19 pandemic, has been widely applied by online shoppers worldwide. Especially, the emerging micro-credit financial tool is luring younger generations deep into debt in China, who did not have any credit card experience. Thus, all the main players in the market are questioning the sustainability of this new micro-credit financial model. This paper analyzes continuous use intention of internet shoppers with the sustainability of this new micro-credit service, in the essential question of the public-private partnership perspective toward SDG. We expanded the expectation-confirmation theory with the additional role of impulsive buying in determining the continuous use intention of those users. We found significant effect of Impulsive Buying on Continuous Use Intention despite of the significant effect of Satisfaction. Not only, we further distinguish the main factors influencing Impulsive Buying. We find that Credit Limit Misconception (CLM) poses the largest impact on impulsive buying for Chinese users. Therefore, we recommend that credit-based financial platforms had better inform and educate internet shoppers with the implications of CLM, so as to manage their impulsive buying. Their user portrait and corresponding credit limit setting must not rely solely on consumers’ previous purchase behaviors, but also on other information, such as source of funds for monthly loan repayment to better depict users’ overall debt-paying ability. The appropriate regulation of the government on this new service is, therefore, necessary for sustainable entrepreneurship as a means of tracking the SDGs, because their sustainable growth must lean more on users’ satisfaction instead on seducing users’ impulsive buying behaviors. Market regulators must take consumers’ impulsive buying behavior into account and strengthen supervision on the abuse of financial platforms on credit issuing and better foster the sustainable entrepreneurship in this new financial platform business.
Key words: Internet consumer finance; Expectation-confirmation theory; Impulsive buying; Continuous usage