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Performance Benefits of Circular Economy: Between Convergent and Conflicting Interests

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 8481

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Riccardo Tiscini

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Guest Editor

Business Economics, Universitas Mercatorum, 00186 Rome, Italy
Interests: circular economy; performance indicators; firm performance, family business

Prof. Dr. Laura Martiniello

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Economics, Universitas Mercatorum, 00186 Rome, Italy
Interests: circular economy; sustainability, public policy; public investment and public private partnerships

Prof. Dr. Alberto Dello Strologo

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Guest Editor

Business Econmics Dep., Università Roma Tre, 00186 Rome, Italy
Interests: sustainability; public policy; reporting; performance indicators and digital technologies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Environmental changes and resource shortages have become serious problems for the planet. In recent years, the topic of Circular Economy “CE” has become high on the European political agenda, and the attention of companies to sustainable practices has become relevant for a rapid development of CE. However, what are the incentives that are useful to boost it, what are the dimensions of performance (economic, environmental, social, …) that are possible to improve, and how do we measure them?

This call for papers asks authors to investigate the transition of governments and companies toward a circular approach identifying the incentives and benefits (social, economic, environmental, …) of CE and analysing the convergent and conflicting interests of the different public and private stakeholders. The main goal of this Special Issue is to fill the knowledge gap regarding benefits and incentives in light of performance goals.

Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

Theoretical and empirical analysis of entrepreneurship in the Circular Economy;
Recovery processes for industrial wastes and their economic impacts;
Companies’ environmental impact minimization policies (e.g., GHG emissions from wastes transportation) and environmental benefits;
Benefits of cyclical re-introduction of wastes into the production systems;
Benefits of innovation in production and processes;
Investigation into the links between the Circular Economy and the SDGs;
Contribution of digitisation and new technologies to the Circular Economy, etc.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Riccardo Tiscini
Prof. Dr. Laura Martiniello
Prof. Dr. Alberto Dello Strologo
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.

Keywords

circular economy
sustainability, reporting
performance
public policy
KPI indicators
digital technologies

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 366 KiB

Open AccessArticle

How Circular Economy Disclosure Responds to Institutional Determinants Empirical Evidences in Non-Financial European Firms

by Matteo Pozzoli, Raffaela Nastari, Sabrina Pisano and Marco Venuti

Sustainability 2023, 15(22), 16069; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152216069 - 17 Nov 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 883

Abstract

Despite the increasing attention that the circular economy (CE) has received at the international level in recent years, the literature has paid limited attention to the importance of institutional factors that may influence firms’ disclosure of CE. Thus, there is a gap in the study of CE disclosure, especially when compared with other studies dedicated to environmental disclosure. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the institutional pressures, in terms of coercive, normative, and mimetic factors, that influence firms’ behavior with respect to CE disclosure. This research focuses on a sample of 366 nonfinancial firms, operating in 14 EU countries between 2015 and 2020. The results show that coercive and mimetic institutional pressures positively influence the level of CE disclosure issued by the firms. More specifically, the stringency of the environmental policy (coercive pressure) and the belonging to an environmentally sensitive sector (mimetic pressure) have a positive impact on the CE disclosure provided. With respect to normative pressure, the results are mixed. In fact, only the adoption of Global Reporting Initiatives’ (GRIs) standard requirements is positively and significantly related to CE disclosure. The presence of an external assurance, as well as the commitment to the SDGs, is not significantly related to the CE disclosure. The absence of an analytical standard that organically addresses the issue of CE, by guiding companies in their disclosure, may explain the irrelevance of these factors in the process of convergence of the information produced. This research contributes to this area by filling a gap in the CE literature, providing some insights into the determinants of disclosure and the role of institutional pressures in influencing the level of CE information. In addition, the research adds to previous studies on disclosure by measuring the CE information provided by companies with an indicator developed based on specific environmental items collected from the Refinitiv Eikon database, which could be used in future research. The findings of this paper have some important practical implications. In particular, the results confirm to policymakers that stricter regulations have a positive impact on disclosures related to the CE. Thus, a new specific European regulation should promote more homogeneous and analytical CE disclosure, increasing the sensitivity among firms and practitioners on this topic. A similar approach may be followed for the same purpose by other regional or local policymakers. The paper also emphasizes the necessity of introducing more stringent regulations on assurance and SDGs by the regulatory or professional bodies to achieve greater uniformity of behavior by firms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Performance Benefits of Circular Economy: Between Convergent and Conflicting Interests)

15 pages, 773 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainability Disclosure and IPO Performance: Exploring the Impact of ESG Reporting

by Salvatore Ferri, Alberto Tron, Federico Colantoni and Riccardo Savio

Sustainability 2023, 15(6), 5144; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15065144 - 14 Mar 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5255

Abstract

Investors are increasingly concerned with the sustainability of firms and their impact on global development, resulting in a rise in Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) that considers environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. Integrating sustainability into company strategies can affect various aspects of an organization, including IPOs (initial public offerings). Given the growing importance of ESG information disclosure, this study wants to examine the potential effect of an ESG report disclosure on IPO performance, since there are not studies focused on analyzing how ESG factors and IPO performance are correlated. The purpose of this study is to examine how ESG disclosure affects IPO underpricing and increases transparency for stakeholders to reduce information asymmetry. This study explores the impact of disclosing ESG information on IPO underpricing using a sample of 100 European IPOs from 2017 to 2021, with 50 firms disclosing an ESG report prior to the IPO and 50 that did not. The results showed that the publication of a sustainable report before an IPO has a positive effect on underpricing by reducing it. This finding suggests that companies that publish sustainability reports are perceived to be less risky, and investors value ESG disclosure as a tool to reduce the risks associated with ESG issues. The work contributes to the research on firms’ incentives to disclose ESG information. Our study is limited by the size of the sample, which is limited and only focused on European companies; therefore, future studies should consider companies from other parts of the world, and with more data related to IPO performance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Performance Benefits of Circular Economy: Between Convergent and Conflicting Interests)

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Review

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19 pages, 2104 KiB

Open AccessReview

How Is the Utilities Sector Contributing to Building a Sustainable Future? A Systematic Literature Review of Sustainability Practices

by Gabriella D’Amore, Maria Testa and Luigi Lepore

Sustainability 2024, 16(1), 374; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16010374 - 31 Dec 2023

Viewed by 1448

Abstract

Utilities have a key role in the transition to a more economically and socially sustainable future. Driven by pressures from investors, regulators, government and society, companies across all sectors are setting bold ambitions for sustainability. However, they strongly depend on the utility industry meeting their own sustainability goals. Despite the relevance of their role, the determinants and obstacles to the adoption of sustainability practices by utility companies have been little investigated by scholars. This article aims to bridge this gap through a systematic literature review of 72 articles published from 1990 to 2023 in the accounting and management fields. After the analysis of bibliometric data and keywords used for science mapping, this study developed an in-depth review of the literature. Five different clusters, corresponding to the main research topics on which management and accounting literature has focused over the last 30 years, were identified. The results highlight that the expanding regulation and institutional pressures coming from governments, financial investors, consumers and society represent the primary factors that are driving utility companies toward sustainability. However, there are still several obstacles preventing utility companies from radically changing their business models, including the high costs associated with the technological and process innovations required. This study offers theoretical and practical contributions and policy implications. It contributes to systematizing literature on this topic, evidencing existing gaps and future research guidelines. It also outlines some managerial propositions that may be useful for practitioners, governments and policymakers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Performance Benefits of Circular Economy: Between Convergent and Conflicting Interests)

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