Sustainability Orientation Research Articles

What motivates the purchasing of green apparel products? A systematic review and future research agenda

AbstractThe contemporary business landscape is witnessing an ever‐increasing concern for environmental sustainability, which has also surfaced in the apparel industry through the introduction of green apparel. Whether the adoption of green apparel is as a result of growing external pressures on firms to adopt green practices or due to deliberate strategies to incorporate sustainable orientation in the making of products, it remains a topical subject—making a comprehensive account of the existing academic literature indispensable. Furthermore, while academic research on green apparel is undoubtedly at an all‐time high, the literature is largely disjointed, necessitating a robust synthesis of the exiting literature to illuminate the existing shortcomings and to provide direction to the future research efforts. A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to gauge the existing literary work in this field and to identify research gaps. After the critical review of 90 selected studies, four major themes were extracted: consumer apparel purchase, circular economy, consumer awareness, and barriers. After we identified theme‐based critical knowledge gaps in the existing literature, we posed corresponding research questions that provide avenues for future research. The study also constructed a framework with significant practical and theoretical implications. Researchers can obtain a comprehensive understanding of the broader contours of this academic field and, with our meticulously tabulated gaps and potential research questions, explore new dimensions and broaden the horizons of this field.

Market dynamism and sustainability in heritage tourism destinations: The enhancing role of bridging capital

PurposeIn recent years, interest in analysing the conceptualisation, measurement, determinants and consequences of sustainability orientation (SO) has intensified. The authors respond to a growing demand for research that delves into external and relational factors of SO in the context of hospitality and tourism industry. This paper aims to analyse how market dynamism (MD) influences the SO of firms in heritage tourism destinations (HTDs) and how bridging capital affects this relationship.Design/methodology/approachThe authors empirically analysed a sample of 238 companies in the UNESCO World Heritage Cities of Peru. The proposed hypotheses have been tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling.FindingsThe results show a curvilinear relationship between MD and SO. Furthermore, bridging capital enhances the effects of MD, reducing the focal width of the U-shaped curve. Specifically, when hospitality and tourism firms (HTFs) in tourist destinations operate in environments with low-medium levels of dynamism, the diverse links generated slow down the development of an SO. However, the more dynamic the environment, the greater is the SO of firms with large amounts of bridging capital.Practical implicationsThe findings highlight the importance of conducting an analysis based on a contingent approach that considers the coherence between external elements of the environment and internal factors. Such an approach helps to understand how HTFs in developing countries establish their SO. Managers should be aware of changes in demand and seek coherence between the level of MD and their inter-organisational relationships, and so be able to assess potential opportunities through developing an SO.Originality/valueThis study contributes to a better understanding of the sustainability commitment of HTFs in the sustainability of HTDs. This study connects the population ecology and social capital approaches, explaining this relationship from a disaggregated perspective – social and environmental – in the context of a developing country.

Going from attitude to action: Analyzing how the orientations of sustainable food businesses influence their business strategies

AbstractFollowing an increasing interest in sustainable food systems, businesses have begun to look for ways to incorporate sustainability practices into their business models and strategies. However, the ability to follow through with their ambitions is obstructed by the attitude–behavior gap, a phenomenon that refers to the discrepancy between a decision‐maker's attitudes and beliefs and their resulting actions. This research studies the attitudes (including motives and intentions) of food‐related businesses in Thailand and their subsequent business decisions by conducting semi‐structured interviews with companies of varying sizes and types. The aim is to analyze possible gaps between attitudes and behaviors along the value chain management and explore relevant business practices. This study categorizes firms into profit, performance, and partnership orientations towards sustainability and concludes that different orientations result in differing degrees of attitude–behavior gap and divergent business strategies. Furthermore, business strategies in various markets are proposed to transition between sustainability orientations.

Untangling the influence of perceived sustainability orientation on value-co-creation behavior in crowdfunding process: investigating a mediation model

PurposeSustainability-oriented projects are prevalent on crowdfunding platforms nowadays. The relationship between crowdfunding and sustainability has attracted the attention of many scholars. This study aims to examine the effects of perceived sustainability orientation on value-co-creation behavior from the perspective of backers and explore the mediation effects of three psychological factors: perceived affective reaction, perceived self-effectiveness and perceived risk.Design/methodology/approachThe study recruits 455 backers to evaluate 100 projects on a crowdfunding platform. Structural equation modeling based on partial least squares is used to analyze data and test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that perceived sustainability orientation influences value-co-creation behavior through perceived affective reaction and self-effectiveness. Furthermore, perceived sustainability orientation impacts participation behavior through perceived risk.Research limitations/implicationsOur study mainly focuses on sustainability-oriented and reward-based crowdfunding projects. Future research can examine other types of projects and other crowdfunding platforms.Practical implicationsThese findings can provide implications for project creators to improve the values co-created with backers in future sustainability-oriented projects. Furthermore, the findings can provide implications for backers and help them evaluate crowdfunding projects.Originality/valueThe existing studies are mostly concerned with project creators’ perspectives. This paper is one of the few to investigate how a project’s sustainability orientation influences backers’ psychological factors and value-co-creation behavior.

Materiality of supplier sustainability assessment for buyer companies in a global context

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the materiality of supplier sustainability assessment (SSA) on four sustainability dimensions and seeks to reveal the associations of some company (sustainability orientation, supply-chain position, stock exchange membership, and size) and country-level variables (fundamental rights protection, regulatory enforcement, environmental policy stringency, and business ethics) with the materiality of SSA for buyers. Using secondary data from multiple sources and permutation tests, the study also makes methodological contributions to the literature dominated by case- and survey-based research. Findings show that the variables associated with SSA materiality change with sustainability dimensions: while both country- and company-level variables such as regulatory enforcement and sustainability orientation have strong associations with the materiality of SSA on newer dimensions (e.g. social impact), these variables have no association in case of traditional dimensions (e.g. environment). These imply that emphasis put on SSA only on newer dimensions may differentiate companies in sustainability orientation and serve as order winners, and for other dimensions the same observation is not possible.

Sustainability orientation of entrepreneurs: From intentions to actions

Goal: to reveal the relationship between Russian entrepreneurs’ sustainability orientation and implementation of relevant actions within their businesses. Methodology: data from the Russian part of the GEM project were used to test the study hypotheses. The data were gathered in 2021 while the COVID-19 pandemic was still active. Findings: in Russian entrepreneurial businesses, a positive association between entrepreneurs’ sustainability orientation and pertinent activities has been found. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy, on the other hand, has a detrimental impact on the conversion of sustainability intentions into actions. The link between entrepreneurial sustainability attitude and the execution of related activities is also negatively moderated by income-driven motivation. Originality contribution of the authors: this study broadens our understanding of the relationship between socially responsible conduct intentions and implementation of social and ecological obligations.

CSR Initiatives of Controlling Shareholder in Share Pledge Firms: Sustainable Orientation or Interim Plan?

This paper investigates the effects of share pledge by controlling shareholder on corporate social responsibility and the mechanism through which stock pledge affects CSR. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2008 to 2020, we find that firms with pledging controlling shareholders are more likely to invest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) than other firms. Their CSR also perform better even when all pledge funds are invested to shareholders themselves rather than to the company’s operation. We then provide evidence to show that the motivating effect of stock pledge by controlling shareholder on CSR is related to controlling shareholder’s incentives to improve corporate value to prevent loss of corporate control and reduce the risk of stock price crash. These results consistently suggest that controlling shareholders employ corporate social responsibility as an effective way to reduce the risk of controlling right transfer.

Founder-CEO Extraversion and Sustainability Orientation in Initial Coin Offerings

Founder-CEO Extraversion and Sustainability Orientation in Initial Coin Offerings

The role and function of digital technologies in the sustainability perspective: Evidence from the football organizations in the Italian context

This paper investigates the Italian football clubs adopting a double perspective: the point of view of sustainability and technology innovation. In the last decades, the increasing implementation and spread of digital technologies worldwide in any economic settings, including the sport industry, especially the football business, has been playing a crucial role in supporting managerial, work out and training processes and making them much more competitive and high performing. At the same time, sport organizations, including football clubs, must achieve the UN Agenda 2030 with its 17 SDGs trying to improve their performance in the sustainability perspective. This paper, through a multiple case study of the Italian football clubs in the Serie A for the year 2021/2022, provides a portrait of these sport organizations and their way to be sustainable and much more technologically advanced in one specific county, where football industry has high relevance for volume of affairs and impact on sustainability. Thus, we match the two perspectives especially considering the role and function of digital technologies in making football clubs much more sustainable. After a brief review of the literature on the topic, we investigate the Italian football clubs mapping them considering their degree of sustainability and technology orientation. Our qualitative research provides useful insights about specific technologies able to improve the overall performance of the sport organizations, as well as knowledge about best practices already adopted by organizations for being sustainable, creating a kind of guideline for operators in the football industry.

Экология Карла Маркса: историчность социального метаболизма

The purpose of this article is to attempt a conceptual reconstruction of Marx’s ecological doctrine of the historicity of social metabolism. Based on the texts of Karl Marx and the works of other authors, using the methods of textual analysis, contextualization, extrapolation and dialectical historicization, the article reconstructs in the very first approximation the dynamics of three historical forms of social metabolism – pre-capitalist, capitalist and post-capitalist. It is shown how in each of these three forms, due to changes in the production and labor energy metabolism between humanity and nature, unique social and ecological formations (totalities, universes) are gradually formed. In the pre-capitalist formation as a whole, there were forms of social metabolism mediated by traditional methods of production, in which simple reproduction is aimed at creating consumer values and natural exchange, which ensured the lack of motivation for large-scale technological and resource pressure on nature and, accordingly, the preservation of relative ecological balance and metabolic equilibrium. In the capitalist formation, there are forms of social metabolism mediated by expanded industrial reproduction, included in the system of private ownership of the means of production, mass wage labor, total commodity-money market relations and the production of exchange values for the purpose of unlimited valorization of capital. Such a system determines the growth of anti–ecological resource and technological exploitation of nature, the desire to “conquer nature”, understood as an “inexhaustible storehouse”, which leads to metabolic gaps – systemic contradictions between the universal metabolism of nature and the productivist-Promethean logic of capitalist social metabolism. Metabolic gaps (for example, between man and nature, city and village, production and consumption, market and biological cycles) lead capitalism to ecological imbalances in all spheres of the social universe. In the future post-capitalist formation, according to Marx, emerge will be forms of social metabolism mediated by nature-saving methods of production; reorientation from the exchange economy to the consumer economy and the transition from expanded reproduction to its sustainable forms; convergence of the city and the countryside; elimination of unnatural needs and practices of their satisfaction; increasing the importance of reproductive and restorative forms of activity; sustainable development and orientation to future generations. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that the identified mechanisms of changes in past and present forms of social metabolism, which constitute the immanent historicity of the socio-ecological universe, allow not only to predict the ecometabolic features of the post-capitalist future, but also to contribute to a gradual practical movement towards this future. Key words: ecology of K. Marx, social metabolism, historicity, social formations, capitalism, post-capitalism, praxis, metabolic rift, ecological imbalance, sustainable reproduction.

Sustainable development and entrepreneurship in emerging countries: Are sustainable development and entrepreneurship reciprocally reinforcing?

PURPOSE: Entrepreneurship seen as an engine for economic development is especially desirable for emerging countries to support rapid growth. Moreover, entrepreneurs can support social transformation in favor of more sustainable products and services. Sustainable orientation of entrepreneurship contributes to sustainable development goals and prevents environmental deprivation. However, the sustainable development agenda can also influence entrepreneurship. METHODOLOGY: The conducted bibliometric analysis confirmed the growing interest among scholars in the correlation of entrepreneurship to sustainability in the last years. Furthermore, panel regression (static model) was used to explore the variables on entrepreneurship influencing the sustainable development goal (SDG) index in emerging countries, and Levin, Lin and Chu (LLC), W-Stat – IPS, ADF-Fisher Chi-Square, and PP-Fisher Chi-Square tests were applied to analyze the variables stationarity. In order to examine the existence of structural breaks, the robustness was checked on single cross-section units and on the whole panel dataset. In addition, the Hausmann test was used to select between random and fixed effects, and heteroskedasticity of residues, autocorrelation of residues and dependence of residues between the panels were conducted. Data was analyzed through Eviews 13. FINDINGS: This paper investigates the relationship between sustainability and entrepreneurship in emerging countries. It discusses the impact of sustainable development on entrepreneurship and the influence of entrepreneurship on sustainable development. IMPLICATIONS: The study results can be used by governments and policymakers to plan their strategies and policies concerning entrepreneurship and implementation of sustainable development goals. They should promote entrepreneurial activity and control the negative environmental impact of enterprises simultaneously. ORIGINALITY AND VALUE: The research addresses the gap in the literature concerning the relationship between sustainable development and sustainable entrepreneurship. The paper examines the reciprocal relationship between sustainable development and entrepreneurship with an emphasis on emerging countries.

Effects of sustainability orientation, integration, and value addition on food cold chain performance: a Thai perspective

Effects of sustainability orientation, integration, and value addition on food cold chain performance: a Thai perspective

Effects of sustainability orientation, integration, and value addition on food cold chain performance: a Thai perspective

Effects of sustainability orientation, integration, and value addition on food cold chain performance: a Thai perspective

A qualitative study on sustainable marketing and strategy applied to creation of value according to SDG’s 2030

The main purpose of this research is to highlight the role of sustainable marketing and strategy as business disciplines, oriented to develop solid strategies aimed at meeting the corporate objectives and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 of the United Nations. This work, in its initial stages, is focusing on documenting the experiences of entrepreneurs and organizations from various industries in Baja California, Mexico, such as medical, maquila, transportation, electronics, electro domestics, restaurants, quality, entrepreneurship, among other relevant local industries. With this, it ca n be implied that sustainable precepts, according to SDGs 2030, are a parameter of certainty that companies and the private sector can take advantage to rethink their traditional objectives and generate strategies focused on sustainable development. And it is in this balance where the efforts of those companies defined or conceptualized as sustainable are mainly concentrated. To visualize how the companies participating in the study plan to integrate their objectives and strategies into the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (UN), a qualitative study (focus group session) with 11 participants of different industries and corporate concepts is presented with its results. Participants are part of an academic course (Sustainable Business), which is aimed to improve conscience and value of sustainable precepts applied to business. The main results of the focus group establish the testimony of participants, who enhance the strategic planning elements of their companies and their business objectives that can be matched with the United Nations (UN) SDGs 2030. Also, results show the application of these objectives to create innovative strategies of business and marketing with a sustainable approach and orientation.

Enhancing green radical product innovation through sustainable entrepreneurship orientation and sustainable market orientation for sustainable performance: managerial implications from sports goods manufacturing enterprises of China

In the scenario of grappling the ecological threats and challenges, when the organizations have entrepreneurial and market orientations, they will make the organizations innovate their product offering in accordance with sustainability principles, whereas it will also assist them in excelling towards achieving a higher level of sustainable performance. Hence, the current study explores the role of sustainable entrepreneurial and market orientations in improving innovation and sustainability, in the context of Sports manufacturing organizations belonging to China. Through the survey methodology, the current study analyzed the data from 318 professionals from Chinese sports manufacturing companies, upon which ‘Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling’ is applied for hypotheses testing. The analysis results in a positive association of ‘Sustainable Entrepreneurship Orientation’ and ‘Sustainable Market Orientation’ with ‘Green Radical Product Innovation’ and all of the three elements of Sustainable Performance. In addition, ‘Green Radical Product Innovation’ is also reported to increase all three elements of Sustainable Performance. Based on the findings, the sports manufacturing organizations are recommended to re-visit their organizational strategies by incorporating the elements of sustainability in their objectives.

Gender in sustainability transition studies: Concepts, blind spots and future orientations

Gender is a vital factor of societal organisation and transformation, and figures prominently in global sustainability agendas. Its social construction and interaction with technological change have been studied extensively. Within the field of sustainability transition (ST) research, however, the complex roles gender plays in socio-technical change are still rarely addressed or conceptualised. Based on a systematic review covering scientific publications from 2010 to 2020 we illustrate this overall gap and explore how gender is operationalised. We draw on Harding's notion of gender as structural, symbolic and behavioural expression to consider implications for understanding regimes, niches, and regime/niche interactions. Our results recognise a variety of conceptual approaches accounting for the diverse implications of gender relations for transition dynamics and their sustainability orientation. In conclusion we recognise the usefulness of the suggested analytical lens for strengthening gender-sensitive inter- and transdisciplinary ST research systematically, and suggest promising avenues for future studies.

Blockchain Technology and Sustainability in Supply Chains and a Closer Look at Different Industries: A Mixed Method Approach

Background: This study presents a comprehensive review of blockchain technology with a sustainability orientation in supply chains and logistics. Methods: The publications are extracted from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, comprising 552 publications between 2017 and 2022. Several bibliometric laws and techniques, namely three-field analysis, Bradford’s Law, Lotka’s Law, and thematic maps, are applied in R with the bibliometrix package. Content analysis is also carried out based on 185 publications to appreciate the industry-based view of the field. Results: The bibliometric results indicate that this field is on the rise. Authors, sources, affiliations, countries, keywords, and their relationships are also addressed. The findings of the content analysis and thematic maps reveal that some of the most highlighted themes in the literature include traceability, COVID-19, the internet of things, and Industry 4.0. The most popular industry in this field is discovered to be food and agriculture. Conclusions: This paper contributes to the still relatively scarce literature on how blockchain technology fosters sustainable supply chains and logistics, providing a closer look at blockchain use, methodologies, and future directions for different industries concerning food, agriculture, fashion, textile and apparel, manufacturing, automotive, maritime and shipping, healthcare and pharmaceutical, mining and mineral, and energy.

The sustainability orientation in the wine industry: An analysis based on age as a driver

AbstractFew studies probe small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the context of sustainability. Thus, this study examines the sustainability orientation in SMEs and its impact on financial performance, considering the ‘ageing effect’. It employs a sample of Italian SMEs operating in the wine sector, using a survey questionnaire to collect qualitative and quantitative data for analysis. Accordingly, although sustainability remains typically unembedded within such SMEs, when it is embedded, a positive correlation with performance is evident. Furthermore, age is a relevant variable that can explain a different sustainability orientation and its impact on financial performance. This research contributes insight into sustainability orientation in SMEs, extending the sustainability, age, and SME performance literature. Managerial implications suggest the need to better emphasise social issues and invest more in skilled human resources and training programmes.

Features of Sustainability-Oriented Innovations: A Content Analysis of Patent Abstracts

This article aims to identify the features of sustainability-oriented innovation starting from the content analysis of patent abstracts. An automatic tool was developed capable of finding the keywords, or groups of keywords, related to the 169 targets of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Once the patents deemed useful for pursuing SDGs were selected through the tool, they were analyzed to obtain information on their features in terms of breadth, scope, novelty, openness, prior art and scientific base. Among the most significant results, it is found that a larger number of applicants, suggesting the adoption of “open innovation” strategies, contributes to sustainability orientation. Moreover, patent originality contributes to the probability of pursuing sustainable objectives, especially related to environmental issues. On the contrary, claims are inversely correlated with the attitude to pursue SDGs, i.e., the larger number of areas in which a patent claims to intervene, the lower the probability that such innovation is sustainable. The results obtained by adopting a quantitative approach are in line with suggestions proposed by the literature and, so far, only supported by logical arguments or case studies. The potential of the tool developed, applied to the field of innovation and sustainability, is demonstrated as significant.

Research on Fabric Surface Effect Techniques to Design Men’s Garments for Sustainable Development

Along with the development of industrialization and modernization, the rapid development of fast fashion has made the source of raw materials exhausted by the continuous purchasing and production in order to promptly meet the needs of customers. garment. In addition, the emissions from the garment industry as well as the huge amount of discarded clothes that cannot be decomposed in time cause serious pollution. In the context that the world environment is at an alarming rate, the production of fashion products following sustainable fashion trends is a method of special interest. Sustainable fashion is being researched and applied more and more in the field of fashion design. In this article, the research team explores the sustainable fashion development orientation of companies and groups in the world and analyzes the development situation of sustainable fashion trends in Vietnam. The main method of research is using Boro and Sashiko techniques. This is one of the techniques that does not waste materials and creates interesting surface effects from the stitching technique. The research results are a combination of synthetic materials and recycled denim and stitching techniques to design a sustainable fashion collection. The study contributes to the development of a sustainable fashion product line serving the needs of society shortly, creating a new process that minimizes waste and harmful substances to the environment in the future.