Effect of social and environmental sustainability on SME competitiveness: a meta-analytic review

This research work conducted a study that sought to prove the connection between the implementation of social and environmental sustainability with the profitability of enterprises and the creation of economic added value. Expressing social and environmental sustainability as numerical indicators is quite undefined, because companies in Croatia do not have a legal obligation to state them in their business reports and notes. It is just a measure to improve and raise business and market ratings. Therefore, for this research, data on social and environmental sustainability as measurable variables were obtained after a survey conducted among employees and company management on a sample of 126 Croatian companies. The obtained measurable variables for environmental and social sustainability were ultimately put into comparative analysis with the company’s profitability indicators and the created economic added value. This research obtained data that there is a connection between environmental and social sustainability with the profitability of the company and the creation of economic added value, but it is extremely small, social sustainability 0.212 and environmental sustainability 0.243.

A public–private partnership (PPP) upgrades airport services, infrastructures, space, and ground handling systems. The participation of private entities could provide significant sustainability‐related issues since they typically have a profit‐making mindset. Private entities mainly focus on maximising their profits, but public entities are more concerned about attaining social objectives. The differences in their approaches lead to sustainability issues in a PPP airport project. However, studies on the impact of PPP on sustainability are very scarce and limited to other infrastructure sectors like health, education, and so forth. To examine the impact of PPP on Mumbai and Delhi International Airport's sustainability, this study used partial least squares structural equation modelling. The direct impact of private ownership, investment distribution, risk sharing, regulatory intervention, stakeholder engagement, and reputation and credibility on environmental, economic, and social sustainability was examined. The study revealed that PPP improved Mumbai and Delhi's airports' economic sustainability but have a smaller impact on social and environmental sustainability. Existing airports lag in social and environmental sustainability. To achieve social, environmental, and economic sustainability, the government must directly formulate and implement programmes. Regulators regulate JV activities and encourage social and environmental sustainability. Policymakers are likely to benefit most from building a favourable legal framework, commercial viability, and solid economic policies for effective private participation in PPP airports. The study focuses on institutional aspects. It will also help understand the mechanism's impact and how constructions and indicators are managed in PPP airport development.

The study's goal was to determine how financial performance is affected by social and environmental sustainability. In this work, a valid technique was employed to examine existing theories, resulting in quantitative analysis. Carbon emissions and climate action, environmental management practice and policies, and green economics and investment were the determinants of independent variables for environmental sustainability, while gender diversity and welfare Innovation in green technology and corporate social responsibility were the determinants of social sustainability. The study's dependent variables include environmental sustainability, social sustainability, and financial performance. 393 bank employees make up the sample, which was chosen using a basic random sampling technique. To gather the primary data, a systematic questionnaire was also given out. To investigate the hypothesis, regression analysis and correlation were employed. Results indicated that Social and Environmental sustainability have a statistically noteworthy effect on Financial performance at 0.05 significant level, while correlation analysis indicated a constructive relationship between financial performance and social and environmental sustainability. The enhancement of the efficacy of organizations is essential to mitigate adverse impacts on the environment and secure a viable future for them. In particular, the banking sector is essential to this effort since it fosters the development of a strong, prosperous low-carbon economy. Furthermore, financial organizations should use non-financial facts while making decisions. greater account when deciding which loans and investments to make in order to enhance their performance and promote sustainable corporate growth.

Innovation has been a major growing driver of sustainability. The topic addressed in this study is a much-required transition to environmental and social sustainability considering the role of innovation in pacing up those changes. Digital evolution has greatly helped in dealing with climatic changes and promoting sustainability. This has helped the entrepreneurial organizations to adopt innovative approaches to tackle the inflexible challenges. Few developed and developing countries are at the forefront regarding technological innovation that encounter significant challenges in terms of innovation and adoption of new technologies and there is still a study vacuum as to whether the influence of technical innovation on achieving social and environmental sustainability differs depending on the stage of sustainability. This quantitative study has explored these effects collecting data from the SME's (small and medium enterprises). The findings of the study show that attitude toward technological innovation has a strong role to play in organizational innovation, digital entrepreneurship, environmental and social sustainability. Organizational innovation has been found a strong mediator between technological innovation and sustainability while digital entrepreneurship could not find significant results as mediator. This study will be useful for the countries and organizations involved in adopting new technologies considering their organization's role in achieving an overall eco-friendly and social sustainability.

This paper empirically examines the relationship between business sustainability and firm competitiveness and the role of sustainability partnerships in the relationship between business sustainability and firm competitiveness. By classifying two dimensions (environmental sustainability and social sustainability) that are needed to realize business sustainability, this study suggests that a sustainability partnership serves as a moderator in the relation between business sustainability and firm competitiveness. Three developed hypotheses were tested using regression analysis to find the relationship between business sustainability, sustainability partnership, and firm competitiveness. Using a structured survey questionnaire, the data were collected from 135 firms that operate in construction industries in Finland. The findings suggest that investing in environmental sustainability will directly improve firm competitiveness, but investing in social sustainability will not. In addition, sustainability partnerships serve as a promoter in the relationship between social sustainability and firm competitiveness but inhibit the relationship between environmental sustainability and firm competitiveness.

The article is concerned with studying the impact of soft components of total quality management (TQM) on the company’s environmental and social sustainability. The subject of the research is a set of theoretical, methodical and practical recommendations for implementing the concept of total quality management to ensure sustainable development of a company. The purpose of the article is to theoretically substantiate and develop practical recommendations for identifying the impact of soft TQM on the sustainable development of a company. Achievement of this goal is ensured by fulfilling the following interrelated tasks: to summarise the existing soft TQM practices in the research of scientists, to allocate the features of soft TQM functioning in Ukrainian companies and their success in achieving environmental and social sustainability, to develop recommendations for improving the level of environmental and social sustainability of companies through the implementation of soft TQM practices. The research used general scientific and special methods of cognition: structural-logical, systemic and process approaches, the method of generalisation and comparison, questionnaires, methods of correlation and regression analysis, logical method, method of tabular presentation of data, scientific generalisation. The following results have been obtained: having analysed the work of scientists on the research’s subject, the work of the European Foundation for Quality Management, the aspects of TQM that cover the company’s business activities, as well as the problems that are specific to each of them, have been identified. To identify the level of implementation of detailed issues, a questionnaire was developed and completed by the heads of 68 Ukrainian companies between November 2022 and March 2023. It included a Likert scale assessment of each of the soft TQM dimensions (business management system, HR practices, continuously evolving processes, leading procurement procedures, stakeholder identification, and product competitiveness) based on 28 statements. Five hypotheses were proposed based on the literature on the research topic and our own analytical developments. The data obtained in the course of the survey were analysed using correlation and regression analyses. The results show that two practices – business management systems and human resource management practices – are related to environmental sustainability, while only the business management system is related to social sustainability. The article provides recommendations for supporting the sustainable development of the company. Conclusions. The study demonstrates the effectiveness of TQM practices in ensuring the sustainability of a company’s activities. The business management system affects both environmental and social sustainability of the company. Human resource management practices have a positive impact on environmental sustainability, but not on social sustainability, i.e. organisational factors are key to achieving environmental sustainability. Raising awareness of sustainability is the best way to promote the implementation of procedures that contribute to sustainability. Other TQM practices, such as continuously evolving processes, leading procurement procedures, stakeholder identification, and competitive products, do not affect a company’s environmental and social sustainability. The article raises topics for future research: why human resource management practices and continuously evolving processes do not affect sustainability. It is appropriate to deepen the case studies to identify the mechanisms by which TQM practices contribute to both environmental and social sustainability.

Cooperative economics looks at market failures as areas for development. The cooperative development process, however, requires member engagement or cohesion in the process according to the Cooperative Management Equilibrium Theory. This cohesion requires an awareness and understanding by the cooperative members of the market failure to develop the capacity to address the failure. This article looks at the effects of government agricultural programs on economic, environmental and social sustainability. The questions we ask is how does a focus on economic development push against social and environmental sustainability within the agricultural sector in Togo? Does member cohesion within a cooperative represent a form of Polanyian double movement through social and environmental cohesion? The current development models utilize what Sen refers to as an austere mode of development which forgoes social or environmental considering them luxuries. Does the focus of economic development build capacity only for economic performance within the Togo agricultural sector at the expense of social and environmental sustainability? Utilizing Deep Participatory Indicator Approach (DPIB) approach this paper examines the economic, environmental and social indicators within two prefectures in the Plateaux Region of Togo. Indicators were separated to show the differences between individual or cooperative producers. As cooperatives it was anticipated that a greater emphasis on social and environmental sustainability would be created through cohesive social action. This study found that the emphasis on economic development included in government programs built development capacity within cooperatives emphasizing their cooperative market cohesion.

Purpose Given their ownership model and mandates, state-owned companies (SOEs) are expected to be guardians of sustainability principles encompassing environmental, social, governance and economic considerations, as sustained by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This implies that they have a responsibility to act responsibly socially and operate with transparency and accountability. Within this premise, this paper aims to explore the voluntary sustainability disclosure of SOEs in New Zealand and Australia from 2020 to 2022. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a content analysis approach to examine the voluntary sustainability disclosure of the selected SOEs in the respective nations. The analysis focused on the annual/integrated sustainability reports, as well as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reports of the SOEs. A disclosure index developed from the 2021 revised GRI Standards indicators was used to assess the level of compliance of the sampled SOEs with the sustainability disclosure requirements outlined in the GRI Standards. The authors used Atlas.ti (Version 24), a qualitative data analysis software, for organizing data points (annual/integrated/GRI/sustainability reports) for data analysis. Findings The findings suggest that the sustainability disclosure of the selected SOEs in both nations is generally inadequate, given the uneven pattern observed across the three-year period. Overall, the results of the study appear to suggest that Australian SOEs exhibit superior sustainability disclosure compared to their New Zealand counterparts, except in environmental sustainability. Among the four sustainability practices considered using the GRI index in New Zealand, environmental sustainability had the greatest disclosure, followed by governance sustainability and then social sustainability, before economic sustainability. Australia’s disclosure on governance sustainability ranked best, followed by environmental and social sustainability, with economic sustainability trailing behind. Generally, the results further indicate that the SOEs also inadequately disclose the generic indicators that may be considered key to all organizations and their operations. The authors gave insights into the likely events of the results before further discussing the results in terms of what the focus of SOEs regarding sustainability disclosure should entail, before analyzing the research, policy and practical consequences of this work and then offering suggestions for further study. Practical implications Considering the characteristics and mandates of SOEs, part of being socially responsible is using public resources in the form of taxpayers’ money in an efficient, effective and accountable manner. The discussion in this paper indicates that paying attention to sustainability issues is part of a broader accountability mechanism expected from SOEs. In this context, the study following its findings noted that for sustainability disclosure to improve in SOEs, owning departments should endeavor to be transparent in constituting the executives of SOEs as well as the board members, as this has direct implications on the activities of the executives, including attention to sustainability practices. Social implications Most SOEs’ mission statements urge them to be socially responsible and improve their owning states’ economies. This rationale alone suggests SOEs should consider sustainability practices, whether they are mandatory or not. Accounting for and disclosing sustainability issues ensures that SOEs pay adequate attention to these issues, thereby improving the impact of SOEs on sustainability disclosure. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper appears to be the first SOE comparative analysis on this topic in Oceania, and it contributes to the developing literature on sustainability disclosure in SOEs, considering that the notable earlier contribution on this topic is in the private sector with only one similar study on sustainability reporting/disclosure in SOEs, acknowledging that there are studies that focused on environmental, social and governance and corporate social responsibility. In this regard, the authors contribute to the developing literature on social, environmental, governance and economic sustainability practices, especially regarding sustainability accounting and disclosure in SOEs, by extending the previous study on sustainability in the context of SOEs, which is about five years.

This study explores the relationship between organizational spirituality and corporate sustainability within the Sri Lankan context and in a relatively unexamined area. Although organizational spirituality is increasingly relevant, many organizations hesitate to integrate it. This paper addresses the ways to incorporate spirituality into organizations and its implications for environmental, social, and economic sustainability. The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the relevance of organizational spirituality, particularly in the face of bankruptcy and sustainability challenges. A quantitative approach was employed, with data collected via Google questionnaires from management-level employees (HR managers, CEOs, HR executives, etc.) across Sri Lanka’s banking, insurance, and diversified finance sectors. The analysis covered 61 companies, with organizational spirituality as the independent variable as well as economic, social, and environmental sustainability as the dependent variables. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics, frequency analysis, and the Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression model analysis via SMART PLS 4.0. The findings reveal a significant positive relationship between organizational spirituality and corporate sustainability, indicating that higher levels of organizational spirituality positively impact economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Theoretical implications include contributions to stakeholder theory development, while practical implications suggest that company owners can leverage this relationship to enhance economic conditions. Policymakers can also use these insights to guide policy development and implementation in Sri Lanka.

Objective: This article offers an extensive review of Sustainable Competitiveness as an integrating concept bridging current understandings around sustainable development and encompassing the aspects of economic, social and environmental sustainability. Research Design & Methods: Concepts related to sustainable development are reviewed and their relationships to Sustainable Competitiveness are considered. The concept of Sustainable Competitiveness is related to a set of effective metrics. Findings: The Sustainability Adjusted Global Competitiveness Index (SGCI), which comprehensively measures cross-country sustainable competitiveness, is identified as a credible synthetic metric for measuring separate aspects of sustainable development across a range of countries. Implications & Recommendations: The approach enables disaggregation between three separate elements which have an impact on sustainable competitiveness, namely Basic Conditions, Efficiency Enhancers and Innovation Conditions. It is concluded that extending the measurement from GCI to SGCI offers a potential for considering international competitiveness performance from the environmental and social sustainability perspectives. Extensions to SGCI are also proposed. Contribution & Value Added: The conceptual discussion indicates that the main features relevant to sustainable development appear in the concept and the measure of sustainable competitiveness. The application of the measure to a time-series of data would permit an analysis of the relationships between economic, social and environmental aspects (separately) with measured sustainable competitiveness.

PurposeThis paper investigates the impact of sustainability information disclosure on consumers' choice of order-to-delivery lead-time in relation to consumers' sustainability concern.Design/methodology/approachBased on two choice experiments with participants from the Netherlands (n = 348) and the United Kingdom (n = 1,387), the impact of sustainability information disclosure was examined in connection with consumers' concerns for environmental and social sustainability. Information on environmental impact (carbon emission) and social impact (warehouse workers and drivers' well-being) was considered and compared.FindingsDisclosing sustainability impact information significantly increased consumers' preference and choice for longer delivery times, with equivalent effects for environmental and social impact information. Consumers' relevant (environmental or social) sustainability concern as personality traits enhanced effects on preferences, as did priming of environmental concern.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research may consider differences between product categories or e-commerce companies' reputation in sustainability activities.Practical implicationsThe findings provide opportunities for online retailers to influence consumer choice of delivery time, especially through disclosing environmental and/or social sustainability information.Originality/valueThis study fills a gap in the literature on sustainability information disclosure to actively steer consumer choice of delivery time, particularly regarding the effect of social sustainability impact information in comparison to its environmental counterpart.

PurposeWhereas in developed countries, sustainability primarily focuses on environmental topics, in developing countries the issues of poverty, development and equity are equally, if not more, important. The purpose of this paper is to apply measures of social and environmental sustainability to assess sustainable development for the period 2005–2015 across a sample of 94 countries for which relevant data are available. Countries include two groups: developed and developing countries.Design/methodology/approachUsing the index-based approach introduced by the World Economic Forum in its Global Competitiveness Project, a range of indicators are collected for estimating trends in both social and environmental sustainability. For the panel of data identified, a dynamic panel data estimator method is applied to the data set constructed. This paper presents the empirical results identifying key competitiveness factors related to social and environmental sustainability (separately and combining both aspects in a comprehensive sustainability framework).FindingsThis study explores how sustainable competitiveness offers a comprehensive assessment of the inter-related dynamics of the social, the environmental and economic building blocks of sustainable development simultaneously. Performance impacts are found to differ substantially across two groups of countries depending on their development level. This highlights the challenges in shaping and achieving sustainable development goals.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is novel in examining the intersections between economic competitiveness and environmental and social sustainability addressing an identified research gap. In addition, the paper investigates the most important competitiveness pillars focusing on both strengths and weaknesses in sustainable competitiveness across developed and developing countries.

In today's world of turbulence and repeated economic crisis, firms, as well as industries, face new challenges and opportunities. This complexity req uires thinking in a systemic way of the whole system, rather than looking at few parts of the system. Countries and regions that are too costly for doing business with a little focus on competitiveness and innovation throughout the entire legislative process are losing global leadership and ground towards main competitors. The industry that is being studied here, real estate, represents 70% of global wealth and touches everyone's life being an investor/owner or tenant. Multi-stakeholder's centered sustainable competitiveness this industry is advocated as current traditional business centered competitiveness may not work anymore. Few studies touched on real estate industry level competitiveness apart from the application of Porter's diamond model. Not only that but these competitiveness models focused mainly on economic performance. With the introduction of Sustainable Development Goals, new thinking about competitiveness of this industry is becoming more important. In light of the above complexity and dynamism of the world, there is a need to have a new thinking about real estate industry's competitiveness beyond business centered economic definition to more of inclusive multi-stakeholder approach. Thus the research aims at reaching a comprehensive multi-stakeholder's definition while developing a dynamic framework of Real estate industry level competitiveness The methodology presented here seeks to uncover and understand stakeholders’ expectations and needs in real estate industry competitiveness, which aligns with the research question: How does a more stakeholder-oriented understanding of real estate industry competitiveness look like?. We study real estate competitiveness from different perspectives, looking to shared experiences of multiple stakeholders. In particular, we look at experiences of stakeholders who have experienced aspects of (un)sustainable real estate competitiveness, to find common themes in these experiences. Thus, phenomenological qualitative research design was chosen as our main paradigm. To select interviewees, the different industry stakeholder groups were clustered (i.e. developers, tenants, investors, policy-makers, consultants, and brokers) and interviewees were chosen to represent these groups. The city of application is chosen to be Dubai given its nature as a booming cosmopolitan city that attracted more than many international investors and witnessed a booming real estate market. By analyzing different stakeholders responses about challenges, opportunities, and the future of the real estate industry, the following key areas stand out as key determinants of real estate industry’s inclusive competitiveness: Real estate cost and quality tradeoff, Economic sustainability, Environmental sustainability, government and legal certainty, Political sustainability, Resilience and Social sustainability. These determinants can be clustered into three major pillars which are : Economic sustainability ; Central government role Beyond economic sustainability (social and environmental sustainability) . The research findings confirm the importance of dealing with real estate industry as a system with interconnected parts. On one side, quality and affordability are central determinants of real estate industry's competitiveness which is in line with traditional competitiveness theories. However, by following a stakeholder focused approach , new themes such as sustainability, system thinking and central government role come to play important role in driving competitiveness. Different stakeholders look beyond economic value of buildings to the total offerings of the neighborhood and city ; beyond economic to social and environmental pillars of sustainability. Moreover, government's role is believed to be central to enhance real estate industry's competitiveness that goes from providing an enabling legal environment to employing better proactive tools to manage the real estate industry. Although different stakeholders have conflicting interests concerning expectations and priorities, common ground can be reached based on creating a sustainable real estate industry. Cities' success in creating a competitive real estate market depends on their ability to build quality of life infrastructure that attracts people, while offering sustainable economic opportunities without compromising on social and environmental performance. To conclude, the proposed model can help governments in understanding city's competitive advantages by applying a multi-stakeholder approach to understand determinants of real estate industry level competitiveness and thus to enhance it.

ABSTRACTThe United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasize the integration of environmental, social, and economic sustainability into business operations to foster positive societal impact. While environmental sustainability has been widely studied, social sustainability in consumer behavior remains underexplored, with existing research scattered and fragmented. This gap makes it challenging to extract meaningful insights and develop a cohesive understanding of the field. To address this gap, the paper systematically synthesizes the available literature on the brand social sustainability domain and consumer behavior by reviewing 90 papers published between 2009 and 2024. This study employs the SPAR 4 protocol and TCCM framework to conduct the domain‐based systematic literature review. Further, a bibliometric analysis is conducted using R Studio, Biblioshiny, and VOSviewer, along with a systematic thematic analysis. The systematic thematic analysis uncovers five key themes: brand outcomes of social sustainability, artificial intelligence and brand social sustainability, communicating and marketing socially sustainable brands, brand social sustainability in achieving sustainable development, and consumer behavior and perceptions of brand social sustainability. Additionally, content analysis is employed to examine theoretical perspectives, contextual factors, key variables, and methodological approaches, offering valuable insights into the knowledge dimensions of this field. By consolidating fragmented research, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of brand social sustainability and provides a roadmap for future research, ultimately promoting responsible, ethical, and inclusive business practices. The study also suggests theoretical and managerial implications to contribute meaningfully to the domain of brand social sustainability.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) Safeguard Policies have been the basis for IFC's leadership and approach to environmental and social sustainability. Based largely on the World Bank's operational policies, IFC adopted its current set of Safeguard Policies in 1998 in order to manage environmental and social issues in the private sector business environment in emerging markets. IFC embarked on an ambitious two-year process in FY04 to update all of the Safeguard Policies through a single initiative to develop the next generation of a policy framework based on a clear, concise and comprehensive policy on social and environmental sustainability. Following an intensive review and analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in coverage of the current Safeguard Policies, IFC has recast the Safeguards as a Policy and Performance Standards on Social and Environmental Sustainability. The Performance Standards are often considered the defacto standards even in the absence of IFC participation in the project. They could potentially apply to all projects in developing countries. The Performance Standards contain clear and concise requirements geared toward project outcomes and promote performance improvement through monitoring, reporting and feedback. They place new emphasis on implementation through management systems, deal with social and environmental issues in a more integrated manner, and strengthen policy coverage of issues such as pollution, climate change, and biodiversity. In addition, the Performance Standards address a number of additional subjects of direct concern to the private sector such as labor and working conditions and community health and safety. IFC's social and environmental standards are the building blocks for our approach to sustainability and are embodied in IFC's Safeguard policies, Environmental Health and Safety Guidelines, and Disclosure Policy. Together these provide a framework to help our clients manage project risks and improve their performance, and help IFC improve development outcomes and maximize the development impact of our investments.