Research on Sustainable Business Ecosystems and Corporate Governance

Dear Colleagues,

Recently, there has been increasing agreement that the corporate sector prioritizes environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. What strategies may firms use to address investors who are unwilling to accept diminished revenues in the pursuit of ESG goals? Global investors ranked ESG-related outcomes, including the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and robust corporate governance, in their top five expectations for firms. Corporations may encounter opposition and volatility in short-term stock prices when they undertake ESG initiatives, including the development of the technologies and systems necessary for compliance with forthcoming regulations and net-zero obligations. The cumulative cost of disregarding ESG investments will be markedly inferior to that of a robust ESG strategy, as climate change increasingly impacts the ability to achieve stable earnings and maintain value.

It is essential to design a long-term ESG strategy that is compelling and value-generating, while concurrently meeting the short-term KPIs that fulfill investors' performance expectations. Organizations may align immediate issues with long-term prospects by including stakeholders in the pursuit of a sustained vision. The narrative of that journey must exhibit significant consistency, which is achievable only if firms create a clear link between their ideal strategic stance on ESG and value creation. By elucidating decision-making processes and resource allocation, organizations that embrace a strategically defined stance on ESG will be capable of facilitating investors and stakeholders in the understanding of their operational frameworks, particularly their ESG commitments, areas of involvement, and the skills they will develop internally rather than depending on ecosystem partners. A coherent story which is essential for investors is supported by a clear articulation of the core principles of businesses, which clarifies the unique value that companies provide to society and customers. Is the company's strategy entirely dictated by ESG considerations? Is their primary aim to comply with legal and regulatory obligations? Is their role categorized as intermediate?

Understanding the ESG position of businesses enables them to evaluate the business ecosystems in which they need to engage. What is the significance of ecosystems? The results of competition are progressively shaped by ecosystems. These networks of enterprises and organizations permit the coordination of several stakeholders, perhaps serving as the only means to tackle intricate, large-scale issues such as ESG. Such networks also assist in the alleviation of strategic, regulatory, and several other forms of risk. The capacity of firms to develop and extract value is profoundly affected by ecosystems. Nevertheless, certain ecosystems essential for the progression of ESG goals, such as those focused on mitigating Scope 3 emissions in supply chains or those related to transportation and energy, are either nascent or need comprehensive redevelopment.

Numerous companies must cultivate the capacity to manage the interplay between their organization and the ecosystems in which they operate, maybe for the first time, to shape the development of both new and existing ecosystems and use the value pools that emerge within them. This capacity exceeds the ad hoc collaborative approaches previously used by most companies. This Special Issue will outline the procedure for building an appropriate strategic stance and obtaining the ecosystem competencies necessary to manage ESG risks and seek new value opportunities.

Thus, the aim of the current Special Issue is to investigate the essential theoretical, empirical, and contextual elements associated with the development and execution of sustainable business strategies, ESG strategies, sustainable models, and practices from a business ecosystem perspective. We want to understand how businesses define sustainability and their subsequent impact on the environment. Additionally, the current Special Issue seeks to examine the strategic way that businesses define the boundaries of their ecosystem and the implications for stakeholder management and engagement. It is essential to analyze how corporations develop sustainability policies and strategies under varying socioeconomic conditions. We concentrate on the framework, execution, and development of business sustainability within corporate ecosystems.

The submissions invited include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Interactions between ESG, sustainable development, and digital marketplaces;
• evaluation of ESG in digital markets at the corporate, sectoral, and/or macroeconomic level;
• impact of ESG and sustainability on online marketplaces and its stakeholders, including government, employees, customers, communities, and suppliers;
• assessment of ESG expenditures and efficacy in the decision-making processes of online marketplaces;
• consequences of proficient or deficient ESG practices and communications by digital markets;
• ESG and sustainability measures for small and medium-sized enterprises and startups in digital marketplaces;
• challenges pertaining to ESG and sustainability for expanding online platforms within the media and entertainment sectors;
• business models for digital marketplaces, with ESG factors and sustainable development.
• interrelations among macro-level, industry-level, and firm-level factors influencing sustainable development and environmental concerns in online marketplaces.

Dr. Konstantina Ragazou
Prof. Dr. Nikolaos Sariannidis
Dr. Georgia Zournatzidou
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 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 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.

• sustainability
• ESG
• efficiency
• sustainable governance
• SMEs
• resilience
• business ecosystem