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Sustainable Organizational Adaptation: Nurturing Ecosystems for Innovation and Resilience

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: closed (31 May 2025) | Viewed by 7614

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Business Management, Girne American University, Kyrenia, Cyprus
Interests: business strategy; upper echelons; competitive intelligence; ecosystem strategies; strategies for relevance in management research

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

To ensure long term sustainability and viability, organizations must continuously adapt to overcome the plethora of challenges emerging from the accelerated rates of change taking place in today's business environment. Over the last two decades, ecosystems have gained popularity as a mechanism for sustainable organizational adaptation. This has been followed by the growing extant body of literature comprising myriads of studies examining it through a diverse and multi-faceted lens. Despite the growing attention, the extant literature is yet to fully address pertinent research questions bordering around strategies for nurturing ecosystems for innovation and resilience value gains. Such research areas that require further research include ecosystem innovation (creation, improvement, expansion, contraction or transformation), ecosystem dynamism, embeddedness and internationalization, among a host of others.

This Special Issue explores the mechanisms surrounding the creation, nurture, and evolution of ecosystems for the engenderment of innovation and resilience which are pivotal for sustainable organizational adaptation. We invite original manuscripts (research articles and reviews) covering, but not limited to, the examination of how complex adaptive systems—particularly ecosystems—can be nurtured to maximize innovation and resilience values for sustainable organizational adaptation and other related topics. We welcome studies deploying quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods as well as timeless (conceptual/theoretical) and timely (practitioner-oriented and readily deployable) studies.

Prof. Dr. Okechukwu Lawerence Emeagwali
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • innovation ecosystems
  • ecosystem innovation
  • ecosystem management
  • business ecosystems
  • innovation ecosystem management
  • strategic adaptability
  • sustainable adaptation
  • complex adaptive systems
  • organizational resilience
  • open innovation
  • value networks
  • absorptive capacity
  • co-innovation

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 2099 KiB  
Article
Leveraging Innovation Capability and Organizational Resilience for Business Sustainability Among Small and Medium Enterprises: A PLS-SEM Approach
by Banji Rildwan Olaleye, Joseph Nembo Lekunze, Tsediso Joseph Sekhampu, Ntseliseng Khumalo and Adebanji Adejuwon William Ayeni
Sustainability 2024, 16(21), 9201; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16219201 - 23 Oct 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3534
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of innovation capability on business sustainability in Nigerian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as consider the effects of organizational resilience, sustainable competitive advantage, and environmental dynamism as mediators in succession. A [...] Read more.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of innovation capability on business sustainability in Nigerian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as consider the effects of organizational resilience, sustainable competitive advantage, and environmental dynamism as mediators in succession. A quantitative approach was adopted to collect data from 401 employees in SMEs in the Lagos Metropolitan Area of Nigeria. We conducted the analysis of the collected data using the partial least squares approach (PLS-SEM). This research establishes that innovation capabilities are beneficial for ensuring business sustainability. The findings further corroborate the importance of sustainable competitive advantage and environmental dynamism for business sustainability. Finally, the results show that environmental dynamism is important for helping small business owners sustain their businesses and increase their innovation capabilities. Similarly, the indirect paths also showed that resilience organizations, like SMEs, play a role in the paradigm. However, businesses can benefit from this study’s findings by crafting strategies that adapt more quickly to changing market dynamics and capitalize on emerging possibilities. This way, businesses may take the necessary measures to stay ahead of the competition while guaranteeing sustainability. Even though the heuristic model emphasizes originality, the current research on how to successfully link innovative capacity to sustainability and build sustainability in dynamic environments is sparse. Full article
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18 pages, 798 KiB  
Article
The Mediating Role of Strategic Adaptability on the Relationship between Human Resource Management Strategies and Innovation
by Zaid Megdad and Dilber Çaglar
Sustainability 2024, 16(20), 8729; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16208729 - 10 Oct 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3228
Abstract
Dynamic environmental changes continue to impact organizations’ performance and goals, prompting them to adapt and develop strategies that foster innovation continually. Thus, HRMS enables talented, retaining skilled, and innovative employees who contribute with creative ideas and creative problem-solving problems to enhance innovation practices [...] Read more.
Dynamic environmental changes continue to impact organizations’ performance and goals, prompting them to adapt and develop strategies that foster innovation continually. Thus, HRMS enables talented, retaining skilled, and innovative employees who contribute with creative ideas and creative problem-solving problems to enhance innovation practices in organizations. Therefore, the findings of previous studies are insufficient and considered as empirical evidence to investigate the research constructs relationship. This study aims to examine the gap in strategic adaptability via HRM strategies and innovation in Jordanian banks. The study employs data analysis and hypotheses testing, descriptive analysis approach, and (SEM) structural equation modeling through SPSS-24 and PLS-SEM-4 software. The research population includes 16 Jordanian banks, and a stratified sampling method conducted on 468 respondents resulted in 455 completed ones, the respondents are middle level managers and department heads. The findings reveal a positive significant impact of HRMS and innovation (INN), a significant positive impact of HRMS and strategic adaptability (SA), and a significant positive effect between strategic adaptability (SA) and innovation (INN). In addition, the findings indicate a partial indirect relationship effect between strategic adaptability (SA) via HRMS and innovation (INN). The conclusion shows that the bank’s performance is highly improved by strategic adaptability, which allows the bank to quickly respond to local and global environmental changes, challenges, crises, and market trends, and provides valuable theoretical and practical insights regarding the role of strategic adaptability (SA) relationship between HRM strategies (HRMS) and innovation (INN). These findings are relevant to the global banking sector due to the similar operating conditions and environments. Moreover, a better understanding of these relationships by practitioners and researchers for future studies in different environments, and sectors. Full article
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