ABSTRACT This study examines how environmental initiatives undertaken by supply chain partners influence multidimensional efficiency and whether national long‐term orientation moderates these relationships. Using panel data from 30 counterparts of Merck & Co. Inc. (180 firm–year observations, 2018–2023), innovation efficiency, eco‐efficiency, and market efficiency are estimated using a three‐stage range directional measure network data envelopment analysis model. Firm and year fixed‐effects regressions with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors are employed to evaluate the effects of resource use, emissions reduction, and environmental innovation initiatives. Results reveal distinct nonlinear relationships across environmental dimensions. Resource use initiatives exhibit diminishing returns, whereas emissions reduction and environmental innovation involve initial efficiency losses before generating positive outcomes at higher implementation levels. Long‐term orientation strengthens these later‐stage benefits, indicating that the institutional context shapes the timing and magnitude of environmental investment returns. Findings demonstrate that environmental initiatives should be evaluated according to their specific dimensions and implementation horizons rather than as uniformly efficiency‐enhancing strategies.
ABSTRACT The study focuses on the relationship between green technological innovation and corporate financial performance in the Chinese forestry industry, with an emphasis on the moderating role of board environmental expertise. Based on Upper Echelons Theory and Resource Orchestration Theory, board environmental expertise is considered to be a corporate governance ability to help firms better identify, allocate, and use green resources. Empirical evidence obtained by using panel data from Chinese listed forestry and related firms from 2010 to 2023 tends to show that green technological innovation has a significant positive impact on corporate financial performance. This finding reveals that board environmental expertise can also play an important role in improving the association between green technological innovation and corporate financial performance. We find that among the different types of board environmental expertise, the environmental expertise of the chairman has the highest moderating effect. In contrast, the environmental expertise of the overall board is relatively weak, and the environmental expertise of independent directors does not have a significant effect. This study makes contributions to the literature by pointing out that board environmental expertise is an important corporate governance ability to realize the value of green innovation.
ABSTRACT Firms face increasing pressure from investors and stakeholders to enhance environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, yet the mechanisms through which market sentiment shapes ESG outcomes remain unclear. This study examines how investor sentiment influences ESG performance, focusing on the mediating role of CEO power and the moderating role of board gender diversity. Drawing on a panel of 770 nonfinancial Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2022, we integrate data from the China Stock Market and Accounting Research (CSMAR) database with ESG ratings from the Wind database. Investor sentiment is measured using a composite index derived from principal component analysis; CEO power is captured across five organizational dimensions, and board gender diversity is assessed by the proportion of female directors. Our findings show that positive investor sentiment enhances ESG performance, while simultaneously constraining CEO power, which partially mediates the sentiment–ESG relationship. Moreover, board gender diversity amplifies the positive impact of investor sentiment on ESG outcomes. These results advance understanding of how behavioral and governance factors interact to shape sustainability practices. From a policy perspective, the findings underscore the need for governance systems that limit excessive CEO dominance, encourage board diversity, and align corporate strategies with investor expectations to foster sustainable and transparent capital markets.
ABSTRACT This study examines the role of emotional capital resources in driving sustainable human resource management (HRM) decisions and their integration into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDGs 3 (Good Health and Well‐Being) and 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). A quantitative methodology was employed, consisting of a survey of 96 human resource managers from various sectors in Spain. The mediation model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS‐SEM) with 10,000 bootstrapping subsamples. To validate the sample size ( N = 96), a post hoc power analysis was performed via G*Power, showing a strong statistical power of 92.7%. A full collinearity assessment approach was employed within SmartPLS to rule out common method bias, with all inner VIF values exactly 1.000, substantially below the 3.3 threshold, and the use of single‐item measures was methodologically justified. Emotional capital is a pivotal mediating factor in sustainable HRM decision‐making. Results indicate that sustainable HRM decisions have a positive relationship with emotional capital (H1, p < 0.004), and emotional capital has a positive relationship with SDG 3 (H2, p < 0.001). Furthermore, emotional capital acts as a full mediator in the relationship between sustainable HRM decisions and SDG 3 (H4, p < 0.013). However, the relationship between emotional capital and SDG 8 was not supported (H3, p > 0.073), and the path between sustainable HRM decisions and SDG 8 through emotional capital was also rejected (H5, p > 0.145), highlighting distinct microfoundational boundaries when mapping emotional resources onto macroeconomic targets. This study provides empirical justification for a microlevel pathway by linking the emotional capital of HR managers to SDG outcomes through sustainable HRM decisions. Results indicate that while sustainable HRM decisions successfully translate into SDG 3 through the full mediation of emotional capital, the mechanisms do not statistically map onto macroeconomic targets like SDG 8. Therefore, the practical model is strictly recommended for social sustainability (health and well‐being) frameworks.
ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate how smart tourism destination attributes influence destination coolness and prestige and how these perceptions subsequently affect travel experience satisfaction, eudaimonic well‐being, and passionate desire to revisit. It further examines the moderating role of security and privacy concerns in these relationships. Data were collected from tourists who had visited a smart tourism destination in the past year, and the proposed model was tested using “partial least squares structural equation modeling” (PLS‐SEM). The results reveal that accessibility, informativeness, interactivity, and personalization influence destination coolness, whereas smart tourism resources, informativeness, interactivity, and personalization significantly affect destination prestige. Both destination coolness and prestige positively influenced travel experience satisfaction, which in turn enhances tourists' eudaimonic well‐being and passionate desire to revisit. Security/privacy concerns were found to weaken the positive effects of smart tourism resources and personalization on destination coolness and prestige. This study contributes to smart tourism research by proposing a comprehensive model that integrates core, augmented, and facilitating destination attributes; empirically demonstrating how these attributes shape destination coolness and prestige and revealing their subsequent effects on satisfaction, eudaimonic well‐being, and passionate desire to revisit; and finally introducing security/privacy concerns as a key moderating factor influencing these relationships.
ABSTRACT Understanding the evolving emotional landscape surrounding climate change is critical for developing effective environmental strategies and communication. This study offers an analysis of public emotions toward human‐induced climate change by leveraging big data analytics and machine learning techniques on social media content from platform X. Grounded in the collective emotions framework, we trained a model to classify emotional responses—joy, anger, fear, sadness, disgust, and surprise—based on emotion‐related hashtags. We then analyzed climate change–related posts collected from the first week of each year between 2013 and 2022 to predict emotional trends. The findings reveal substantial year‐to‐year fluctuations in emotional expression, with fear consistently emerging as the dominant sentiment. Although no clear linear trajectory was identified, the results highlight patterns of public concern and awareness. By integrating computational methods with social theory, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of how collective emotions surrounding climate change evolve, offering implications for policymakers, communicators, and organizations aiming to enhance climate engagement and sustainable behavior.
ABSTRACT Based on signaling theory and information asymmetry theory, this study uses a sample of Chinese A share listed firms from 2012 to 2023 to examine the effect of climate risk disclosure (CRD) on institutional on‐site research and its economic consequences. The results show that high‐quality CRD significantly increases both the frequency and the depth of institutional research. This conclusion remains robust after a series of endogeneity tests. The mechanism analysis indicates that CRD promotes institutional research through two channels: a reputational compensation effect and an information guidance effect. The heterogeneity analysis further shows that these effects are more pronounced among firms with greater ESG rating divergence, firms facing stronger EP, and firms with a lower proportion of female executives. Moreover, the effect mainly stems from the disclosure of transition risks rather than physical risks. Further analysis reveals that the institutional research induced by CRD can ultimately promote corporate environmental investment, enhance market valuation, and improve investor structure. Overall, this study integrates signaling theory and information asymmetry theory into a unified analytical framework of disclosure, verification, and value. It highlights the theoretical role of institutional research as the core verification mechanism and provides practical implications for corporate disclosure strategies, investor due diligence, and regulatory standard setting.
ABSTRACT Family businesses face increasing pressure to integrate sustainability into strategic decision‐making; however, existing strategic management frameworks remain insufficiently adapted to operationalizing sustainability within the specific context of family businesses. Using a design science research approach, this study proposes the ECOFAMILY Framework, which extends the balanced scorecard by embedding environmental, social, governance, and circular economy dimensions across its four perspectives. The framework enables the alignment of family values with measurable sustainability outcomes. An exploratory expert assessment provides preliminary insights into experts' perceptions of the framework's relevance, clarity, and applicability while also identifying implementation challenges in resource‐constrained contexts. This study contributes by operationalizing sustainability through a family‐business‐specific strategic management system, extending existing Sustainability balanced scorecard literature and redefining the strategic architecture through which family businesses integrate sustainability into strategic decision‐making.
ABSTRACT As companies increasingly define success by measures beyond financial returns, leaders in recent decades have faced a pressing challenge: translating stakeholder‐driven purpose into sustainability strategies that employees genuinely understand and enact. This exploratory study, framed in stakeholder theory and transformational leadership theory, investigates how B Corp leaders design and internally communicate B Corp strategies through stakeholder interaction. Fifteen semi‐structured interviews with leaders of Italian B Corps and 24 structured interviews with employees of their organizations were analyzed using the Gioia methodology; the findings show that leaders integrate stakeholder insights within a cocreation process, involving internal and external actors in strategy development. Internally, consistent with transformational leadership theory, leaders act as role models and rely on direct communication to involve employees in sustainability initiatives. The results also suggest that longer employee tenure may heighten resistance to sustainability‐oriented change, whereas higher organizational status facilitates understanding and alignment with sustainability strategies.
ABSTRACT Adopting an institutional‐theory lens, this study explores Italian companies' progress in disclosing their contributions to the environmental Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their non‐financial reports (NFRs). Using an Environmental SDGs Disclosure Index, the study examines whether an integrated corporate architecture shaped by common institutional pressures influences the extent of SDGs disclosure. The analysis focuses on Italian organizations operating in environmentally sensitive industries over the period 2018–2023. The findings reveal that the presence of a sustainability committee and the inclusion of a sustainability expert on that committee are positively associated with more extensive environmental SDGs disclosure. The results also indicate that disclosure is more extensive when environmental issues are integrated into corporate strategy and identified as material through the materiality assessment process. In addition, disclosure is more comprehensive when progress towards environmental goals is monitored through clearly defined short‐ and long‐term targets. This study contributes to the sustainability accounting literature by conceptualizing integrated corporate architecture as the coherent organizational configuration through which governance structures, strategic integration mechanisms, managerial processes, and accountability systems jointly enable firms to translate institutional sustainability pressures into substantive environmental SDGs disclosure. It also provides a framework for understanding the organizational mechanisms through which institutional pressures are internalized and translated into disclosure outcomes, thereby contributing to the broader debate on the implications of mandatory sustainability reporting requirements.
ABSTRACT Healthcare systems face rising expenditure and growing scrutiny over their environmental impact, to which single‐use medical devices contribute substantially. Because procurement determines which devices enter clinical use, it is a key lever for addressing both pressures. Yet healthcare procurement remains cost‐driven, with limited guidance on incorporating environmental aspects and reprocessing considerations. Developed through and applied in Portugal's National Health Service, this study develops a novel, generic, case‐driven multimethodology embedding Problem Structuring Methods (specifically cognitive mapping) within a Delphi process to support multiple stakeholders in identifying value aspects beyond unit price. Findings highlight life cycle cost evaluation, waste management costs, reprocessing feasibility, environmental impact and multiple‐use alternatives as central yet underused aspects for implementing circular medical device procurement. This study contributes methodologically by operationalising cognitive mapping within Delphi, empirically by identifying stakeholder‐supported circular procurement aspects, and practically by proposing a Portuguese roadmap for sustainability‐oriented medical device procurement.
ABSTRACT Mobility‐as‐a‐Service (MaaS) offers an integrated solution for sustainable urban transport. However, user adoption remains limited, and individuals' valuation of environmental performance is poorly understood. This study empirically examined sustainability‐oriented preferences in MaaS adoption using a stated‐preference choice experiment and a mixed logit model. From data collected from potential users, we estimated willingness to pay for diverse attributes, including demand‐responsive transport and CO 2 reduction. Results indicate that while users assign positive utility to environmental performance, this effect is considerably weaker than preferences for convenience and cost. CO 2 reduction ranked lowest in marginal willingness to pay and became nonsignificant for long‐distance routes. This demonstrates that nonenvironmental factors primarily drive adoption. These findings offer a critical policy insight. Achieving decarbonization goals through MaaS requires strategic interventions, such as bundling environmental objectives with tangible personal benefits, rather than relying solely on users' environmental goodwill.
ABSTRACT Waste management remains a persistent sustainability challenge in Indonesia, where community‐based and policy‐led interventions often underperform due to organisational, relational and capacity constraints. Despite growing interest in circular economy ( CE ) approaches, limited empirical evidence explains how social enterprises integrate environmental, social and economic objectives through their business models. Addressing this gap, this study examines how CE ‐oriented social enterprises in Indonesia's waste management sector configure business models to create, deliver and capture multi‐dimensional value. Using a qualitative multiple‐case design, documentary analysis was conducted on the websites of five social enterprises operating across waste collection, recycling, digital platforms and upcycling. Data were analysed using a business model lens focusing on value creation, delivery and capture. The findings reveal three key insights. Three complementary business model configurations emerge, forming a multi‐model circular‐economy ecosystem in a Global South context. Environmental objectives act as the central organising logic across business model components, supported by social mechanisms enabling participation and behavioural change and economic mechanisms stabilising impact. Partnerships and community engagement are embedded as structural elements shaping value creation and delivery. These findings advance CE and business model research by introducing a multi‐model ecosystem perspective that explains how such configurations enable integrated value creation in emerging economy contexts.
ABSTRACT The rapid proliferation of chemicals and nanomaterials (CNMs) has resulted in significant cross‐sector innovation, delivering product enhancements such as improved UV protection and waterproof textiles. However, these advances present urgent challenges regarding human safety, environmental hazards, and regulatory compliance. Despite the recent emergence of various evaluation strategies, the field currently lacks harmonized guidelines, leading to an uneven distribution of expertise and potential risks in safety and sustainability assessments. To address this gap, this study critically examines the methodological maturity of the two most prominent assessment frameworks applied to CNMs: life cycle assessment (LCA) and the safe and sustainable by design (SSbD) framework. Adopting a systematic literature review (SLR) methodology, this research analyzes a final corpus of 64 publications categorized into (i) methodological development, (ii) industrial application, and (iii) regulatory analysis. The findings reveal a marked asymmetry in the maturity, presented as the comparison of application across research sectors, of these frameworks. While scientific literature demonstrates a progressive refinement of assessment tools, their operational maturity in industrial and regulatory contexts remains constrained. The analysis identifies critical bottlenecks, including data scarcity, a lack of standardized descriptors for CNMs, and a “translation gap” between laboratory evidence and current metrics. Furthermore, the study highlights a misalignment between institutional pressures and organizational capabilities, which hinders the transition from theoretical SSbD concepts to routine industrial practice. The paper concludes that achieving true methodological maturity requires a paradigm shift from fragmented compliance efforts toward integrated assessment architectures, supported by robust data infrastructures and socially accountable governance.
ABSTRACT While the circular economy ( CE ) has gained traction, this paper argues that mainstream CE approaches risk being misaligned in the African context. Drawing on a mixed‐methods synthesis of empirical studies, policy documents and cross‐country examples, the study shows that Africa's CE transition is fragmented and uneven, leaving the continent at a critical crossroads. Although some countries (Rwanda, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Morocco) have adopted ambitious measures, large‐scale implementation is constrained by limited recovery infrastructure and technical capacity, weak financing, geopolitical instability, low consumer demand and socio‐cultural resistance. These barriers create a polarised African CE landscape. Study findings reveal that CE transitions in Africa follow multiple, contextually grounded pathways shaped by scarce resources, dense informal economies, plural actor networks and political constraints. To achieve equitable, effective CE transitions in Africa, sustained political leadership, coordinated multistakeholder action and context‐sensitive policies that integrate informal actors, mobilise blended finance and monitor social and material impacts are essential. The study concludes with theoretical and policy suggestions to guide future research and practice in African CE transitions.
ABSTRACT Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations have moved from peripheral rhetoric to the center of firm evaluation, yet our understanding of how firms translate ESG performance feedback into strategic organizational responses remains limited. Drawing on the behavioral theory of the firm (BTOF), we examine whether performance feedback in the noncore domain, namely, ESG performance, predicts substantive nonmarket action through environmental management system (EMS) adoption. Using a sample of listed US firms, we find that negative ESG performance discrepancies are associated with a higher likelihood of EMS adoption. In contrast, positive ESG performance discrepancies are associated with a lower likelihood of EMS adoption. We further show that board gender diversity moderates this feedback–response relationship by strengthening the negative association between positive ESG discrepancy and EMS adoption. However, board gender diversity weakens the positive relationship between negative ESG discrepancy and EMS adoption. Overall, our study extends BTOF to ESG performance feedback, contributes to EMS certification literature, and identifies board gender diversity as a governance‐related boundary condition.
ABSTRACT Extended producer responsibility (EPR) has been widely adopted across European circular economy governance yet three decades of implementation reveal a persistent and underexplained gap between formal compliance and upstream environmental outcomes. This systematic review of 45 studies spanning packaging and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment schemes asks why producers comply with EPR obligations without undertaking substantive ecodesign change. Applying means‐ends decoupling theory to mandatory regulatory contexts, the review identifies the following three interacting mechanism layers: behavioural mechanisms including cost pass‐through, satisficing and status quo bias; organisational mechanisms including principal‐agent fragmentation and collective cost averaging; and structural opacity conditions that prevent effective monitoring and correction. Together these mechanisms produce compliance without transformation as a stable organisational equilibrium rather than an isolated implementation failure. The review extends decoupling theory beyond voluntary sustainability standards into binding regulatory regimes and generates practical implications for UK packaging EPR, showing that fee modulation alone is insufficient and must be reinforced by complementary measures targeting transparency, organisational capability and supply chain incentives.
ABSTRACT The shift to the systems of the circular economy more and more relies on the capacity of organizations to mobilize resources, coordinate the actors of the ecosystem, and derive value out of sustainability‐oriented innovation. Nonetheless, there is a dearth of empirical data describing the combined effects of institutional, technological, and collaborative processes on the process of development of capabilities that can convert the idea of a cycle of innovation into economic results. The paper discusses the role of institutional flexibility of circular innovation and platform‐based adoption of eco‐design and stakeholder data co‐creation in the mobilization of reverse resources and the following logic of circular value capture, which leads to the well‐being of the regional economy. Based on the dynamic capabilities view, the paper suggests a capability‐based model that connects ecosystem enablers to the results of circular economy. The gathered survey data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS‐SEM), which was performed based on the data collected on organizations that have implemented circular innovation initiatives. The findings suggest that institutional flexibility, adoption of eco‐design using digital platforms, and stakeholder data co‐creation have a significant empowering effect on reverse resource mobilization capability and, consequently, on the logic of circular value capture. Circular value capture also leads to the economic viability of a region. The results indicate the significance of organizational aptitudes that bring to life the circular resource flows and convert sustainability plans into economic worth. The research adds to the literature on circular economy and platform ecosystem, by showing that capability development is an intermediate that connects the relationship between ecosystem drivers and economic performance in circular innovation systems.
ABSTRACT While many firms struggle to monetize circular economy ( CE ) strategies due to high costs and capability gaps, understanding the specific capabilities required to effectively implement these strategies remains a critical challenge. Addressing this gap, this study explores how firms develop and institutionalize such capabilities to achieve both environmental and economic goals. The research identifies five distinct 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) implementation capabilities: circular logistics coordination, parts sorting, cleaning technology, recycling design, and manufacturing capability. The findings reveal that these capabilities are developed through long‐term, cumulative organizational learning, supported by enablers such as strategic leadership, cross‐functional cooperation, technological innovation, and external partnerships. By proposing an integrated framework and 10 related propositions, this study bridges the gap between CE theory and practice, offering strategic insights for firms aiming to build circular business models and emphasizing that successful CE implementation is a long‐term capability‐building process rather than a short‐term cost‐oriented initiative. These insights are generated through an inductive single case study of FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp. (FUJIFILM BI), a leading Japanese manufacturing firm that successfully demonstrated a dual achievement: reaching a 99.9% recycling rate by 2000 (environmental feasibility) and securing stable profitability by 2003 (economic sustainability). Data were primarily collected through semi‐structured interviews with the Senior Manager of the Corporate Planning Division and the Factory Manager at the Suzuka plant, triangulated with extensive secondary records, including environmental reports and corporate histories.
ABSTRACT The importance of climate risk for business and finance is increasingly recognized in the literature. However, little is known about the nexus between climate change and dividend policy. The goal of the paper is to examine the relationship between climate vulnerabilities (CVUL) and the dividend policy adopted by European listed firms over the period 2010–2021. The results of the random‐effects panel logit model show that firms are less likely to pay dividends if they are located in countries more exposed to CVUL. In the second part of the empirical analysis, the nexus between CVUL and the level of dividend payments is analyzed. The results of the Prais–Winsten regression model with panel‐corrected standard errors (PCSE) show that CVUL is associated with lower cash dividend payments. The robustness of these findings is tested by employing different subsamples of firms and different estimation methods (e.g., system GMM). Furthermore, the results show that in financially developed economies, firms respond more strongly to climate‐related risks by reducing dividend distributions. Overall, the empirical results highlight the importance of climate change for the decision‐making framework at the firm level, emphasizing the need for policymakers to develop targeted strategies that support corporate resilience and financial stability in the face of CVUL.
