Where to Go with Corporate Sustainability? Opening Paths for Sustainable Businesses through the Collaboration between Universities, Governments, and Organizations

Abstract

This study aims to identify and analyze the Scientific–Technical Scenario on Corporate Sustainability (STS-CS) and propose a Triple Helix-based framework for its development and guidance of future scientific and technological investments. The study was developed using a combined method of bibliometric analysis and content analysis of scientific papers and technical publications (patents, white papers, publications from public bodies, etc.). The scientific papers were searched in the Scopus database and technical publications in the Orbit Intelligence, ProQuest, and UN Global Compact platforms. The STS-CS was analyzed in light of the scientific and technical literature and experience of the authors of the study, which allowed the proposition of the framework with initiatives expanded and adapted to the domains of the Triple Helix sectors “Universities,” “Governments”, and “Organizations” through a process of enriching the good practices identified in the CS scenarios. The main academic contribution of this work is the upgrade of the scientific block of knowledge on CS based on cooperation between the sectors of Triple Helix that expands and deepens the research aimed at contributing to sustainable business development. As for the applied contributions, companies can identify business opportunities to increase their profits in a sustainable way, governments can find suggestions for public measures for the development of CS, and universities can identify recommendations for training professionals capable of managing socio-economic issues and developing partnerships with companies for the innovation and development of sustainable products and processes.

1. Introduction

Population and economic growth have resulted in increasing damage to planet sustainability. As the need for consumption increased, the planet began showing signs that it would not support an unbridled human development. From here onward, alternatives for sustainable development (SD) began to be discussed [1]. The idea of sustainable development was first presented in the open letter of the World Commission for Environment and Development (p. 43), which defines SD as “development that meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [2]. Sustainability initially meant never harvesting more than the forest needs to generate a new harvest in the future [3]. The SD concept has evolved and today has different meanings, but most have the same essence of the initial concept, that is, society should not use natural resources at a rate higher than its regeneration [4]. This is how the long-term need for human well-being began to be understood [5].

Initially, the study of sustainability was restricted to areas such as geography and sociology [6]. However, it did not take long before sustainability research spread and was applied in different areas, such as those of the management of public and private power [7]. In this sense, Currie et al. (2010) argue that the increased interest in the study of sustainability in business may have been a consequence of the various social, environmental, and economic crises faced in today’s world [6]. Companies are being charged for having negative impacts on SD, as the “price” of extracting, using, and disposing of natural resources is quite significant, and its effects such as increased air pollution reduced biodiversity and the intensification of global warming impact not only the nature but also the survival of society [8]. Today, the global community is consuming the production of more than 1.7 planets per year. The Earth Overshoot Day is the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services each year exceeds what Earth can regenerate. In 2020, the Overshoot Day was 22 August [9]. All consumption after this date was taken from resources that should be saved for future generations. Thus, following the scientific vanguard, pressures from various groups, including environmentalists, government, and society, have become recurrent in order for companies to make changes to mitigate the negative impacts of their activities on the planet sustainability [8,10].

As a result of these pressures, the concept of sustainable development began to be applied to the reality of companies, being known as corporate sustainability (CS) [11]. According to Lo and Sheu (2007), corporate sustainability is a business strategy in which value is added to the product through risk management in the economic, environmental (or ecological), and social dimensions [12]. The improvement of companies performance in the three dimensions can be based on the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) [13]. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is often used as a CS synonym, which could be seen as working with SD on the company level. In this paper, we use CS to describe company sustainability embracing all its meanings. CS has gradually shifted from being a mere response to stakeholder pressure to becoming a powerful market differentiator [14]. The title of being a sustainable company has become increasingly coveted by organizations for a number of reasons—for example, the influence that sustainable management can play in defining value-added products and assessing company value in the financial markets [14,15]. In addition, changing the company’s view of itself by adopting “green” and innovative practices can result in new, more economically, socially, and environmentally efficient products and processes [16].

According to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC 2018) the market has also increased its interest in more sustainable companies, as exemplified by the increase of 22% in the US Sustainable and Responsible Investment (ISR) market in the US since 2009. In addition, in 2015, more than 8000 companies were part of the Global Compact, which is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative [17]. Another study published in 2013 by KPMG, a consulting firm that provides auditing and advisory services, showed that approximately 233 of the world’s 250 most valuable companies are committed to sustainability [18]. Consistent with this trend, sustainability reports are increasingly becoming, at a global level, an essential part of CS [19,20]. Companies plan, execute, and report their data on sustainability using sustainability-reporting guidelines. Among them, the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards are the most used for reporting sustainability worldwide [21]. They are openly accessible to stakeholders and stimulate competitiveness as organizations are driven to respond to the relevant benchmarks of their competitors [22].

Corporate sustainability indexes, such as the MSCI ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance global index from Morgan Stanley Capital International), DJSI (global Dow Jones Sustainability Index), and ISE B3 (Latin America B3’s Corporate Sustainability Index) are another important tool for CS. They are CS assessment tools that, as well as CS reporting tools, provide the users guiding frameworks that support CS implementation. Corporate sustainability indexes facilitate the understanding and evaluation of the companies’ performance over time through multidimensional and comprehensive indicators in the areas of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) [23]. The most used sustainability index is that of the Dow Jones Sustainability. It is composed of a set of criteria evaluated by the Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) group, to which eligible companies must reflect [12,15].

As can be seen, there are various fields of study aligned with the aim of developing a sustainable management. The topics related to the economic, social, and environmental facets of CS can be studied and applied in an integrated manner [24], separated [25], and along with other tools and disciplines [26]. For example, some to promote CS are the ecological footprint, life cycle assessment (LCA), standards such as the ISO 14,000 family on environmental management and ISO 26,000 on Social Responsibility, cleaner production techniques to eliminate or minimize waste and emissions at source, eco-design, natural capitalism, and the Planetary Boundaries Framework, among others [27,28]. According to Ferreira et al. (2016), when an area achieves significant progress, it is important to map its historical evolution, identifying its structure, strengths, and weaknesses [29]. Thus, it is appropriate to investigate the main initiatives, practices, and studies in the field of CS that have allowed its development in the last twenty years and that can serve as a basis for universities, governments, and organizations in the implementation of their strategies. In this context, government policies and legislation to foster the adoption of CS practices, research, and innovations developed by researchers of the scientific academy in the area and the alignment of business models of companies with the pillars of sustainability have been responsible for developing CS around the world. The structure of Triple Helix (TH) presented in Figure 1 suggests the interconnection between these sectors to boost sustainable business development [30].

Since the recognition of the importance of the theme in the late 1990s, the number of academic, governmental, and business initiatives on CS has been steadily increasing (see Figure 1 in Section 3.1). To illustrate this growth during the period covered by this study (1999–2018), one can highlight the academic initiatives that resulted in more than 1500 scientific articles published in the Scopus database up 2019 on CS, thus indicating that this is a hot topic of great relevance for the scientific community; the organizations’ commitment with more than 1500 patents on the development of sustainable technologies launched; and the government and non-governmental organization (NGO) efforts by using more than 500 documents (reports, cases and white papers) published in the ProQuest and Global Compact platforms.

Furthermore, according to a search in the Scopus database, only in the last five years, several reviews on CS have been published. Among the most influential, Alshehhi et al. (2018) reviewed the literature on the impact of CS on the financial performance of organizations, with the purpose of discussing the key issues that make it difficult to reach consensus on this relationship [31]. Batista and Francisco (2018) proposed to identify the sustainable practices carried out by large corporations in an organizational sustainability implementation plan [32]. Kourula et al. (2017) focused on the studies of CS in the areas of business and international administration, discussing the potential of interdisciplinary work on this topic [33]. Desore and Narula (2017) outlined their research in CS in the textile industry, analyzing the good practices and barriers of this sector in implementing sustainability [34]. Naidoo and Gasparatos (2018) developed corporate environmental sustainability strategies that can be inserted in the context of retailers [35]. Although these reviews have contributed to the state of the art on CS, this review specially adds to the body of knowledge contributions from companies and governments by including the analysis of sustainability reports and patent publications; materials prepared by governments, mainly enactment of laws; and contents of universities and development funds, among other materials that together with the authors’ experience formed a basis for the proposed framework. The joining of the technical and scientific scenario based on the interpretations and experiences of the authors of this work enriches the results presented and adds to the body of literature a framework adjusted to the development of CS, which is balanced and consistent with the technical–scientific realities.

Based on the above, the research questions that guided the development of this study can be stated as follows: What is the state of the research on CS considering the last 20 years (1999–2018), what are the main initiatives adopted in the TH spheres and the trends of academic and applied applications on this topic? To answer it, the aim of this paper is to identify and analyze the Scientific–Technical Scenario on CS (STS-CS) and propose a TH-based framework for its development and guidance of future scientific and technological investments. This article identifies maps and updates the ST scenario on CS, which is an important topic in scientific research, given the criticality and urgency of joint responses from different fronts to the various planet’s sustainability problems faced around the world. Therefore, the expansion of the possibilities presented in this study will contribute to the promotion of articulation on the role and the importance of the accountability of different society sectors (academia, organizations, and governments—the TH model) in favor of the progress toward the transition to a more sustainable society. After this introductory chapter, the method used for the development of the study is presented (Section 2), followed by the presentation of results and discussions (Section 3). The framework for corporate sustainability development is presented in Section 4 and, finally, the conclusions and limitations of the work (Section 5) close this paper.

2. Research Method

This study was developed using a combined method of bibliometric analysis and content analysis. Bibliometric analysis was used because it allows quantitative measurement of the technical–scientific advances of a subject and identification of the characteristics of its development. This scientific mapping, added to the content analysis of papers, public documents, and patents between others, allows the interpretation of the theme and construction of new paths through the systematic identification of themes and development initiatives [36]. The methodological flow according to which this research was conducted is composed of the five main steps as shown in Figure 2.

In the first step shown in Figure 2, the project elements of the study were defined, such as theme, delimitation, objective, and research method. These choices were made to identify the scientific importance of developing such a review study. The execution of this work involved, first, the use of the bibliometric analysis method (Section 3.1) to support the performance of the analysis presented in Section 3.2: Technical Scenario. The bibliometric method is recommended to measure and evaluate the scientific progress of a given area that had a significant development over the years [37,38]. Content analysis complements bibliometric analysis and is used to identify publication trends on the subject based on systematic interpretation of data [36,37].

The second step was the selection of the portfolio of documents. To this end, a search on 3 April 2019 in the Scopus database was conducted to find articles or reviews with the terms “corporate sustainability” or “sustainable management” in the title, abstract, or keywords published between 1999 and 2018 (20 years) in English. This period was chosen for analysis because it allows demonstrating all the main stages of evolution of the state of the art on the subject studied, as will be presented later in the analysis of the evolution of publications. Only the Scopus database was used because the vast majority of articles available on the Web of Science database are also available in the Scopus database. In addition, Scopus features many unique articles: of the 50 most cited articles, 12 are only in Scopus. Moreover, articles common between the two databases in all cases have more citations in Scopus than in Web of Science.

With the results, the bibliometric study (Section 3.1) began with the ranking of articles based on their respective h-index. This parameter was originally created to evaluate the publications of a particular author, institution, or country in a given area [39], considering in addition to the number of publications of the author, institution or country in the area, the number of citations of each article. For calculating the h-index, it is evaluated whether X articles have at least Y citations each, always seeking the largest common X and Y. Then, the documents resulting from the search were manually filtered by reading the abstracts and, if necessary, the full text. It is important to manually filter the articles to ensure that the set of articles to be analyzed is in fact consistent with the research boundaries established in the design phase of the study. Thus, at this stage, articles whose main theme was not corporate sustainability were discarded. After these procedures, the data were ranked and quantified using Microsoft Excel.

Then, the articles were sorted in descending order according to predefined variables such as number of citations, year of publication, research method, journal, country, etc. In Section 3.1, an analysis of the evolution of these variables was carried out. This generated bibliometric indicators that allowed identifying and mapping the state of the art on the topic [40]. The authors, countries, universities, funding agencies, closed-access journals, and open access journals with the highest h-index on the theme were identified, and their contributions to CS were discussed. A content analysis of the portfolio of articles was also carried out. The texts were read by all the authors of the work, who identified key issues for their interpretation, among them objective, results, and suggestions for future research. The notes taken were compared and discussed in weekly meetings to prepare the analysis of the evolution of the timeline and hot topics. These results are presented in Section 3.1.

The results obtained in Section 3.1 were used as a starting point to explore the technical scenario. In Section 3.2, a study on the patents related to CS and registered in the last 20 years was conducted. The Orbit Intelligence database platform was chosen for performing this analysis, as it gathers the patents of more than 100 patent offices around the world and, therefore, allows a wide analysis on the level of development of sustainable technologies. Similarly, the ProQuest and UN Global Compact platforms were used to identify documents that addressed the CS initiatives proposed by public entities. The search criteria for selecting patents and documents in these databases are detailed in

Table 1. Search criteria.

Search Criteria	Parameters
Databases	Orbit Intelligence, ProQuest, UN Global Compact
Time Period	2000–2020
Research Fields	Title and Invention Objective
Keywords	“sustainability”, “environmental pollution”, “environmental sustainability”, “sustainable development”, “economic sustainability”, “social sustainability”, “eco efficiency”, “cleaner production”, “corporate sustainability” OR “life cycle assessment”, “industrial ecology”, “circular economy”

Source: Authors (2020).

.

In the technical scenario (Section 3), the most relevant contributions from governments and organizations were identified from the perspective of the Triple Helix model presented in the introduction of this study. International organizations’ initiatives such as the World Economic Forum’s Davos manifest, Global Compact, Agenda 2030, and DJSI; government technical efforts for CS development of the three countries with the most companies listed in DJSI; and the main countries and companies that most registered patents on the theme were identified, and their actions developed toward CS were discussed. For this, a documental analysis of materials published by governments and international public and private organizations, such diverse reports, white papers, laws and regulations, and web pages was conducted. In Section 4, all initiatives, strategies, and policies mapped in the STS-CS were ana-lyzed in light of the literature and experience of the authors of the study. The scopes of the initiatives were expanded and adapted to the domains of the Triple Helix sectors through a process of enriching the good practices identified in the CS scenarios. As a result, a framework was proposed with actions for fostering sustainable development in the public, private, and academic spheres based on a wide range of technical and scientific information structured on the TH model. Finally, in Section 5, the conclusions and suggestions for future studies were elaborated.

3. Scientific–Technical Scenario

This topic will address outstanding scientific and applied initiatives in the CS area. The main academic, governmental, and business initiatives on this topic were mapped, which are references of good practices in the area and served as a basis for proposing the framework for the development of CS, as presented in Section 4.

3.1. Scientific Scenario

3.1.1. Maturity Level of Scientific Development

The theme of corporate sustainability (CS) started to be scientifically explored in the 1990s. Figure 3 shows the evolution of publications on this theme over the years. According to Price’s law, the scientific output of a given field grows exponentially, and this growth can be broken down into four phases, as shown in Figure 3 [41].

Price’s law suggests that the pattern of scientific development follows an exponential growth, and its epistemological domain goes through four phases [42]. Figure 3 shows the differences between three of these four phases. The first phase, which began in 1999 until 2002, is the period characterized by the precursor’s studies of this field of knowledge with a small number of publications [42]. In the second phase (2003–2012), the expansion of the scientific field tends to attract a significant number of researchers. In this period, the number of publications reaches approximately 40% of the total of articles published. In the third phase (2013–2018), this field of knowledge is expanding, and the volume of publications grows linearly until the end of the last year of analysis (2018). Thus, there is no indication that this scientific field is close to achieve full maturity, as it is not possible to see any turning point [41].

3.1.2. Major Authors

Table 2. Top three authors.

Author	H-Index	Average Citations by Publication	Number of Publications (1998–2018)	Citations (1998–2018)	Annual Publications (1999–2018)	Annual Citations (1999–2018)
Schaltegger, S. (Germany)	15	38.7	26	1006
Searcy, C. (Canada)	14	51.8	20	1035
Baumgartner, R. J.(Áustria)	10	46.5	11	512

Source: Scopus (2019).

presents some general information on the major authors on the topic, such as name, h-index on the topic corporate sustainability, number of publications and number of citations accumulated in the period analyzed, and the average of citations per article. In addition, in the last two columns, the evolution of the publications and annual citations of the authors is also presented.

Most of the authors identified as the most influential presented have an increase in the number of citations over the 20 years (Table 2). These data with Figure 3 (evolution of sustainability publications over the years) show how CS is becoming an increasingly hot topic in academia. Stefan Schaltegger is a professor at Leuphana Universität Lüneburg Center for Sustainability Management in Luneburg (Denmark) and founder of the first MBA in Sustainability Management in the world in 2003. His main research areas are corporate sustainability management, environmental and sustainability accounting, business cases for sustainability, and sustainable entrepreneurship [43,44].

Professor Dr. Cory Searcy works at the College of Engineering and Architectural Science. His research areas are carbon footprint, corporate social responsibility, environmental management systems, sustainability indicators and reports, and sustainable supply chain management. He is project manager of a study on the use of sustainability indicators in corporate decision-making at the International Institute for Sustainable Development in Winnipeg, Manitoba [45,46]. Professor Rupert J. Baumgartner is affiliated to the University of Graz and works at the Institute of Institute of Systems Sciences, Innovation, and Sustainability Research where he conducts research on corporate social responsibility, sustainable strategic management, life cycle assessment, and industrial ecology. He also works in circular economy projects funded by the European Union and is a member of the international sustainable development research society [47]. The authors García-Sánchez and Martínez-Ferrero published a significant number of articles in the most recent period of corporate sustainability.

In relation to the countries, Table 2 shows that the top three authors are from developed countries. This is probably explained by the fact that sustainability issues often start in well-established public and private organizations, which many times adopt sustainability measures under governmental and popular demands [20,48]. Moreover, as these companies operate in most developed countries, there is a trend of scientific research to accompany this demand. In addition, it is interesting to note that in most developed countries, there has been a high investment on behalf of the government in CS research [49].

3.1.3. Scientific Government Efforts

Table 3. Top three countries.

Countries	H-Index	Average Citations by Publication	Number of Publications (1998–2018)	Citations (1998–2018)	Annual Publications (1999–2018)	Annual Citations (1999–2018)
United States	37	19.8	238	4708
United Kingdom	34	24.6	159	3909
Germany	33	30.1	109	3284

Source: Scopus (2019).

presents the major countries that stand out on the scientific scenario of corporate sustainability, ranked by their h-index as well as their number of publications and citations accumulated in the period analyzed.

The three countries that have companies participating in the DSJI (Table 3) are the ones that publish the most in corporate sustainability. The United States and the United Kingdom are among the most prominent countries, both in the number of scientific publications and in the number of sustainable companies (Table 3). The European predominance in the two analyses is mentioned, with, respectively, two and five countries. Comparing the total of US publications with the total of sustainable companies operating in its territory, we observe that total participation of the United States is approximately 50% and 25%, respectively. This comparison demonstrates the strength that this country has in the theme, being highlighted in both the academy and market. Figure 4 presents an analysis of the major universities and funding agencies. For both analyses, the h-index, the evolution of publications, evolution of citations, and the average number of citations are shown. China, India, and Spain have published many articles in recent years. According to the data on the evolution of publications, these three countries will probably stand out in corporate sustainability in the coming years.

The top three universities and funds were ranked in descending order, according to the higher h-index.

First, in the ranking of universities, Leuphana University has graduate and extension courses focused on sustainability [50]. At the undergraduate level, the “Global Environmental and Sustainability Studies” course is offered in English with professors and students from different countries. In the Master’s Program, the following courses are offered: “Global Sustainability Science”; “Sustainable Management, Accounting and Finance”; “Sustainability Law”; “Sustainable Management”; and “Sustainability Science,” with the last course also offered at the doctorate level. Among the lines of research focused on sustainability are “sustainable chemistry”; “management and economics of sustainability”; “socio-ecological systems”; “individual and collective learning and behavior”; and “transdisciplinary research on sustainability, methods, and ethics” [51].

In the second place in the ranking of universities, Ryerson University offers the professional master’s program in Energy and Innovation and maintains an Urban Energy Center (CUE), which acts as an incubator focused on developing innovations for electric vehicles, renewable energy, energy distribution, and solutions for sustainability in companies. The UEC has generated more than 100 jobs, raised more than USD 8.3 million in resources for the incubated companies, and currently has 15 active startups [52]. Ryerson University offers extension courses in sustainability management and business process excellence [45]. The program of studies in Corporate Social Responsibility has initiatives to strengthen the relationship with the private sector, government, and society, among other stakeholders to encourage the dissemination of social responsibility guidelines. The institution also promotes collaborative learning and the development of undergraduates and postgraduates on CSR [53].

The third university in the ranking of the main universities is the University of Leeds, which is one of the most recognized in the world in relation to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [54]. The university supports more than 70 projects through the Global Challenges Research Fund and the Newton Fund [55]. The University of Leeds maintains a portal exclusively dedicated to sustainability with guidelines for students, employees, and the community for involving each of these parties in subjects such as “Incorporating sustainability through collaboration”; “Making the most of resources”; “Building knowledge and capacity”; and “Being a positive partner in society” [56]. The University of Leeds publishes an annual sustainability report that transparently shows its performance obtained on economic, social, and environmental activities and contributions to the SDGs. Its latest published report (2017–2018) highlighted the partnership with city councils, public and private organizations to the fight against global warming issues [57].

Regarding funding, as shown in Figure 4, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada rank first, providing more than $100,000 in funding for the project “Consumer Perceptions of Brand Social Responsibility: How Brand Level Factors and CSR Shape Consumer Responses to Brands” developed between 2015 and 2019 [58]. Second, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada received investments of more than USD 30,000 for developing the project “New Issues in Supply Chain Management: Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility and Cognitive Bias” [59]. The third main fund is the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), which in 2018 invested USD 35 million in projects, in which one of the areas contemplated was “Research and Development in Urban and Regional Sustainability” [60]. CNPq also maintains the National Environmental Education Program, which seeks to promote environmental education, peace, social justice, and economic growth [61].

3.1.4. Major Scientific Journals

The evaluation of the most important journals in the area is interesting to guide new researchers on the main sources of knowledge and where they can submit their future work [37]. Table 3 lists the impact factor of each journal in the top ten. According to Pinto and Andrade, the impact factor is a way of measuring how articles published in a given journal impact the scientific community [62]. This measure is made periodically considering the number of publications and citations received for a given period. The top three non-open access journals and the top three open-access were ranked according to the highest h-index.

Table 4. Top journals.

Journals/JCR	Open Access	H-Index	Average Citations by Publication	Number of Publications (1998–2018)	Citations (1998–2018)	Annual PUBLICATIONS (1999–2018)	Annual Citations (1999–2018)
Jounal of Cleaner Production/7246	No	49	44.6	157	7009
Business Strategy And The Environment/5483	No	34	71.1	72	5118
Journal of Business Ethics/2917	No	34	57.3	71	4113
Plos One/2.740	Yes	21	39.1	65	2539
Sustainability Swizerland/2.576	Yes	19	10.9	157	1704
Ecology and Society/3.890	Yes	19	28.3	32	905

Fonte: Scopus (2020).

presents the published articles number and the citations number of these major journals according to CS theme.

The closed-access journal with the highest h-index, number of publications, and citations is the Journal of Cleaner Production. This traditional and respected journal is interdisciplinary, accepts research with theoretical and practical contributions, and focuses on environment, cleaner production, sustainable development, and sustainability, among other topics. The Business Strategy and the Environment journal features the second largest h-index, number of publications, and citations. Its scope encompasses studies on the relationship between business and the environment, especially contributions to understanding how companies can increase their “environmental performance”. The Journal of Business Ethics journal is the third with the largest h-index from the close access journals. It aims to be a forum for discussion and debate about ethical questions related to business, such as corporate social responsibility issues.

Plos One is the open-access journal with the highest h-index on the theme (21). It is a multidisciplinary journal focused on facilitating access to 200 areas such as engineering, medicine, and social sciences. The second journal with the highest h-index on the theme (19) is Sustainability, which is focused on publishing research on environmental, cultural, economic, and social sustainability. This is the most important journal specialized in the dissemination of advances in CS. Finally, the Ecology and Society journal is focused on studies on management, stewardship, and sustainable use of ecological systems, resources, and biological diversity. Studies that explore the relationship between society actions, policies, and ecological systems can also fit in the scope of this journal. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management and Social Responsibility Magazine are scientific journals that should also be considered as sources of outstanding information on corporate sustainability.

3.1.5. Hot Topics and Timeline Overview

The main keywords of the portfolio of articles selected for the bibliometric analysis are categorized in

Table 5. Hot topics.

Research Theme	Words of the Theme
(a) Business Characterization	Automotive-industry, Business, business-case, Business-model, Construction-industry, Entrepreneurship, Family-business, Materiality, Small-and-medium-sized-enterprises, Small-to-medium-sized-enterprises, SMEs, Sustainable-business, Sustainable-entrepreneurship
(b) TBL-Environmental	Carbon-footprint, Cleaner-production, Climate-change, Corporate-environmental-performance, Eco-efficiency, Ecology, Ecosystems, Efficiency, Energy, Environment, Environmental, Environmental-management, Environmental-management-systems, Environmental-reporting, Environmental-sustainability, ISO 14001, Sustainable-consumption
(c) TBL-Social	Corporate-social-performance, Corporate-social-responsibility-(CSR), Dynamic-capabilities, Education, ISO 26000, Organizational-change, Social, Socially-responsible-investment, Social-responsibility, Stakeholder-engagement, Sustainable-leadership
(d) TBL-Finance	Accountability, Corporate-financial-performance, Economic, Economic-growth, Economic-sustainability, Environmental-management-accounting, Investment, Socially-responsible-investment, Sustainability-accounting, Value-creation
(e) Governance	Business-ethics, Communication, Corporate-governance, Corporate-responsibility, Decision-making, Disclosure, Ethics, Governance, Leadership, Legitimacy, Organizational-culture, Reputation, Responsibility, Stakeholder, Stakeholders, Standards
(f) CS Strategy	Benchmarking, Business-strategy, Competitive-advantage, Competitiveness, Corporate-reputation, Corporate-strategy, Environmental-strategy, Stakeholder-analysis, Stakeholder-theory, Strategic-management, Strategic-planning, Strategy, Sustainability-strategy, Sustainable-business-models, Sustainable-competitive-advantage, Sustainable-development-goals, Trade-offs
(g) Innovation and Globalization	Business-model-innovation, Developing-countries, Emerging-economies, External-assurance, Globalization, Global-reporting-initiative, Innovation, Planetary-boundaries, Sustainability-oriented-innovation, Sustainable-development-goals, Transformation, UN-Global-Compact
(h) CS Development and Management	Analytic-Network-Process, Balanced-Scorecard, Change-management, Corporate-environmental-management, Corporate-sustainability-management, Data-envelopment-analysis, DEA, Human-resource-management, Implementation, Impression-management, Innovation-management, Integration, Knowledge-management, Management, Management-systems, Resource-based-view, Risk-management, Stakeholder-management, Supply-chain, Supply-chain-management, Supply-chains, Sustainability-management, Sustainability-practices, Sustainable-supply-chain-management
(i) CS Performance	Assessment, Corporate-sustainability-performance, Environmental-performance, Financial-performance, Firm-performance, Global-reporting-initiative, Indicator, Indicators, Key-performance-indicators, Life-cycle-assessment, Organizational-performance, Panel-data, Performance, Performance-assessment, Performance-evaluation, Performance-indicators, Performance-measurement, Sustainability-assessment, Sustainability-index, Sustainability-indicators, Sustainability-performance, Sustainable-value, Values
(j) CS Disclosure	Corporate-sustainability-reporting, GRI, Integrated-reporting, Reporting, Sustainability-disclosure, Sustainability-report, Sustainability-reporting

into ten groups that explain the characteristics of each respective theme [63]. This grouping technique joins words with the same nature to allow the understanding of the hot topics of each distinct group [64].

In the set of articles analyzed, 3464 keywords were found that were classified to prevent the same keyword from being classified into two groups simultaneously. In all, 3314 keywords were excluded from the analysis because they refer to regions, methods, or because they are expressions that did not contribute to the field of study. With this filter applied, 150 keywords cited in 1489 documents were grouped into ten hot topics.

Table 6. Participation of the hot topics in the analyzed articles.

Research Theme	1999–2003 (A)	%	2004–2008 (B)	%	2009–2013 (C)	%	2014–2018 (D)	%	D–B (E)
Business Characterization	87	11.76%	169	8.93%	441	10.89%	798	12.66%	3.73%
TBL-environmental	87	11.76%	253	13.39%	481	11.88%	600	9.52%	−3.87%
TBL-social	44	5.88%	118	6.25%	421	10.40%	435	6.90%	0.65%
TBL-finance	44	5.88%	68	3.57%	201	4.95%	257	4.08%	0.51%
Governance	87	11.76%	203	10.71%	462	11.39%	673	10.67%	−0.04%
CS Strategy	87	11.76%	270	14.29%	381	9.41%	600	9.52%	−4.77%
Innovation and Globalization	0	0.00%	84	4.46%	190	4.70%	415	6.59%	2.13%
CS Development and Management	131	17.65%	304	16.07%	451	11.14%	844	13.39%	−2.68%
CS Performance	131	17.65%	287	15.18%	612	15.10%	963	15.27%	0.09%
CS Disclosure	44	5.88%	135	7.14%	411	10.15%	719	11.40%	4.26%
TOTAL	741	100.00%	1891	100.00%	4052	100.00%	6304	100.00%

shows the participation of the hot topics in the analyzed articles.

To assess the growth of studies in the field of corporate sustainability (Table 6), the percentage values of the ten themes from the 2014–2018 period (D) were used, decreasing from the values obtained for the period 2004–2008 (B). The difference between the two periods mentioned demonstrates the growth that each of the themes has achieved over the past few years. To calculate the variation of percentage points between the periods, the last period (D) was subtracted by the second period (B), considering that the first period (A) obtained a number of very incipient number of publications. In this way, in Figure 5, it is possible to observe the fields that present indexes with greater growth potential (such as CS Disclosure and Business Characterization), stability (such as CS Performance and Governance), and decrease (such as CS-Strategy and TBL-environmental).

Figure 5 shows the relevance of the identified hot topics on CS over the years. The themes “disclosure” and “innovation and globalization” presented growth over the periods analyzed. The other hot topics presented practically constant scientific relevance over the years. The analysis of gaps and suggestions for future research identified gaps and research suggestions in the thirty most cited articles published in the last five years (2014–2018). More recent articles were selected to reflect where the state of the art on the subject is going. Except for the period of publication, all other search criteria for articles on search databases (language, type of publication, etc.) were maintained as described in the method section of this paper. The identification of the research lines was supported by the content analysis of the articles, which consisted of a systematic reading of sections considered key for identifying gaps and future research suggestions [65]. Gaps and explicit suggestions of research were identified in the conclusion section of the articles, while implicit gaps and suggestions were identified in the theoretical framework and the section of discussion and results. Once the implicit and explicit gaps and suggestions were identified, they were grouped into five main areas with potential for further studies. These areas are shown in Figure 6.

As Figure 6 shows, the gaps identified in the thirty articles were grouped into five areas: Critical Success Factors (CSF), motivations, benefits, good practices, and difficulties in implementing CS; analysis, testing, and validation of theoretical frameworks; development of indicators of CS assessment; theoretical discussions on the CS theory; and studies to improve CS report. Note that some important milestones for CS that were or will still be mentioned throughout this article were also added to the timelines as aspects to be considered in the development of future research, such as the DJSI, GRI, Agenda 2030, among others.

During the 2014–2018 period, several studies pointed to the need to investigate the CSF, motivations, benefits, good practices, and difficulties of developing CS. However, it was observed that this line changed direction between 2014 and 2018 due to the progress made with the development of studies on the subject. In 2014, the studies more generally pointed to the need to understand what led managers to implement CS and the specific conditions that could lead to the success or barriers of implementation [66,67]. Therefore, the development on the subject led Engert et al. (2016) to highlight more specifically that the focus of research should be on identifying internal drivers of sustainability [68]. More recent studies have suggested that the need now is to answer how to address the difficulties and challenges of implementing sustainability identified in recent years [68,69]. To this end, it is recommended to develop, for example, communication tools and frameworks for sustainability development and management [68] and to identify dynamic capabilities, knowledge, and skills that can help address difficulties and challenges of implementation [69].

Another group of authors suggests that future studies could develop the analysis, testing, and validation of theoretical frameworks found in the literature. Many authors propose frameworks for implementing, measuring, and evaluating corporate sustainability, but they do not empirically test them, or they only test them under specific conditions. For example, Lozano (2015) suggests that the framework proposed by him be tested in companies with different hierarchical levels, geographical locations, and external stakeholders [70]. Wolf (2014) suggests testing whether the relationships between stakeholder pressure, sustainable supply chain, and corporate sustainability performance proposed in his research are maintained when the economic performance variable is added [71]. This line of research does not tend to be saturated, as constantly new frameworks are proposed and require validation in different scenarios. Thus, it is suggested that future studies seek to review the various frameworks presented in the literature in order to validate them in different environments and identify opportunities for improvement [26,66,67].

The third group of gaps and suggestions addresses the development of indicators to assessment of CS. The development of this line of research is an offshoot of the research line on “CSF, motivations, benefits, good practices and difficulties in CS”, as many sustainability indicators and metrics are created to control and manage critical success factors. For example, Ortiz-de-Mandojana and Bansal (2016) recommend the creation of socio-economic indicators that are able to capture the degree or intensity of development of sustainability practices [72]. Zhou et al. (2018) suggest that indicators be created for monitoring and managing social sustainability, since indicators of economic and environmental sustainability have been widely discussed in the literature [73]. The other line of research gathers suggestions for a more homogeneous development of the corporate sustainability theory. Although the concept of corporate sustainability has already been widespread, some authors argue that the definitions of corporate sustainability need to be more homogeneous among researchers and professionals from different fields [66,74]. In this sense, many studies on corporate sustainability have missed the opportunity to achieve more synergistic and comparable results because they consider different conceptual bases [66,74]. Thus, a greater unification in the understanding of what is CS could support the state-of-the-art advancement on the subject [75].

Finally, there is a line of research related to the study of corporate sustainability reports. R. Hahn and Lülfs (2014) suggest that it is necessary to investigate readers’ perceptions regarding the manipulation of information in CS reports and assess the risks inherent to business legitimacy [76]. Specifically, the authors state the need to study the risks arising from neglect and report CS difficulties and negative aspects. According to Cho et al. (2015), it is necessary to study the ways that the reports can also present the difficulties faced by each company in relation to sustainability, thus promoting transparency to stakeholders [77].

3.2. Technical Scenario

This section presents the analysis that makes up the technical scenario of CS. Several technical publications on the subject were analyzed in order to identify CS initiatives developed in the TH sectors by non-governmental and private organizations, governments, and universities.

3.2.1. World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an event held annually in January in Davos, Switzerland. The event brings together non-governmental organizations, companies, academics, and authorities from the main economies of the world with the aim of discussing socio-political, environmental, and economic issues and promoting public–private cooperation. By the theme of “Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World,” the event held in 2020 promoted the discussion of several issues of sustainability (mainly environmental sustainability—policies and climate change) among the main world leaders. The great mark of WEF 2020 was the launch of the Davos manifesto, which defends the model of conscious capitalism, focusing not only on results for the companies’ shareholders but for all other interested parties, such as society, suppliers, and employees, among others. This means a major milestone for advancing CS, as the world’s largest economic event in 2020 declared that the performance of companies should be measured by the goals of sustainable development achieved by them. Among the recommendations of the Davos manifesto to companies are the fair payment of taxes, zero corruption, protection of the environment, the valuation of employees, ethical use of information, and commitment to human and worker rights. In addition to the manifesto, concrete advances for CS were also achieved at WEF 2020 as an agreement to establish an accounting model for climate impact data, signed by four of the world’s largest auditing companies: Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PwC [78].

3.2.2. Global Compact and SDGs

Created in 2000, the Global Compact (GC) is a voluntary initiative of the United Nations (UN) and the first with the objective of encouraging, guiding, and supporting governments and organizations to adopt CS strategies. Its guidelines are based on 10 principles related to human rights, the environment, labor law, and combating corruption [79]. The GC is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative involving more than 10,000 companies from more than 160 countries. Figure 7 shows the top ten countries with the most institutions affiliated with the Global Compact.

The countries with more “Global Compact” signatory institutions are Spain, France, Brazil, the United States, Germany, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Colombia, and Argentina. GC signatory companies should implement GC principles in their business strategies and daily operations and publish periodic reports on progress achieved, relating them, if possible, to the SDGs included in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [79,80,81]. The 2030 Agenda, proposed in 2015 by the UN, is an action plan for sustainable development that must be adopted on a global, national, and local scale. The agenda defined 17 goals for sustainable development to be achieved by 2030 and proposed 169 targets to measure them [82]. The commitment of both companies operating at global and local levels as well as governments is essential for the success of these objectives [83].

According to the 2020 report on the progress of signatory companies of GC, 46% of the companies analyzed informed that their business strategies and operations are aligned with the SDGs and that the most adopted actions to meet the principles of the GC are sustainability disclosure (88%), commitment to internal clients (77%), inclusion of the SDGs in corporate policies (72%), definition of measurable sustainable objectives (71%), and inclusion of sustainability values in the code of conduct (71%). The main challenges reported by the companies were the development of a green supply chain, the implementation of sustainable strategies through all the business functions, lack of support from top management, and little recognition from investors [84].

The UN Global Compact in partnership with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) developed in 2015 a set of guidelines for implementing SDG in business strategy. This is called Sustainable SDG Compass, and the main goal is to help organizations meet the multiple economic, social, and environmental demands. In addition to the guide, the SDG Compass provides an online repository with tools and business indicators that can be used by companies from various sectors [85]. The guide is structured into five steps, which companies should develop in order to incorporate sustainability into business strategies and processes [86,87].

The GC has great relevance in the global scenario of CS initiatives, as it encourages and guides organizations in the adoption of sustainable practices. Other important initiatives such as the GRI complement the GC, helping companies comply with GC elements and even presenting detailed cross-referencing between GRI indicators and GC advanced criteria [84]. The following topic explains the GRI in more detail.

3.2.3. Global Reporting Initiative

The public interest in sustainable development has been demanding transparency from organizations regarding the impacts of activities on the environment and society. In this regard, companies develop tools for the analysis and communication of their results in the three pillars of sustainability [88,89,90,91]. As a result, several initiatives have emerged to standardize the sustainability disclosure, among which are the guidelines of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IR), the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the latter being the most widely used in the world [89,90,91].

GRI is an independent organization created in 1997 by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) to support companies and governments in communicating their impacts on climate change, human rights, governance, and social welfare. The GRI guidelines were replaced in 2016 by GRI standards, which created a common language for organizations—large or small, private or public—to structure and communicate their impacts on sustainability. The GRI standards represent a major advance in the global comparability of sustainability reports, which are highly relevant to investors, policymakers, capital markets, and civil society, among other stakeholders.

The GRI standards are designed to be used together, so they have a flexible and interrelated modular structure. In all, there are five modules, being three General Standards (100 series) and 33 on specific topics related to the economic (200 series), environmental (300 series), and social (400 series) dimensions. The GRI standards present distinctions between what is a requirement, recommendation, and orientation to declare according to the reporting options—Essential or Comprehensive. The GRI reporting should be based primarily on the material themes of the organization, i.e., the economic, environmental or social themes that actually matter to the company and its stakeholders. Recently, GRI has been seeking to align its guidelines with those of the International Reporting Council (IIRC). The integrated reports unite the financial information of companies with their performance in the pillars of sustainability to enable a systemic and cohesive vision of the creation of the value of the companies in the short, medium, and long term [92,93].

3.2.4. Dow Jones Sustainability Index

Many companies have sought external recognition of sustainability performance due to the need to satisfy the needs of their stakeholders by demonstrating enhanced transparency including their equity in indexes such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), BOVESPA’s CS Index, Ethical Index Euro, STOXX Global ESG Leaders Index, ECPI, Vigeo, etc. [23,94] and publishing sustainability reports [18,95]. The DJSI, created in 1999, arose from the pressure from investors who began to point out CS as a crucial factor for business success [96]. The DJSI is one of the world’s most important sustainability indices and aims to measure the performance of previously selected companies regarding economic, environmental, and social criteria.

In the economic dimension, the following criteria must be observed: codes of conduct/compliance/corruption and bribery; corporate governance; customer relationship management; financial robustness; investor relations; risk and crisis management; scorecards/measurement systems; strategic planning; and industry-specific criteria [12]. In the environmental dimension, the main criteria assessed are environmental policy/management, environmental performance, environmental reporting; and industry-specific criteria. In the social dimension, the main criteria highlighted are corporate citizenship/philanthropy; stakeholders’ engagement; labor practice indicators; human capital development; knowledge management/organizational learning; social reporting; talent attraction and retention; standards for suppliers; and industry-specific criteria [12].

The selection process of the companies participating in the index is initiated by the Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA), which is carried out annually by RobecoSAM. The first step is the selection of the companies that will be invited to participate in the CSA. The CSA result is called “Rated Universe” and corresponds to the companies on which the Total Sustainability Score (TSS) will be based. Then, TSS is used as a key factor in selecting DJSI participating companies. In 2019, a total of 317 companies were part of the index [92,93,97,98,99]. The companies with the highest scores in this index are Alphabet INC (USA), AT&T (USA), Home Depot (USA), JP Morgan Chase & Co (USA), and Microsoft (USA), which shows a relevant predominance of American companies in the index.

Table 7. Countries with the highest number of companies in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

Ranking	Country	Number of Companies
1	United States	59
2	Japan	33
3	France	25
4	United Kingdom	23
5	South Korea	19
6	Australia	18
7	Spain	16
8	Taiwan	15
9	Germany	14
10	Italy	14

Source: RobecoSAM (2019).

shows the ten countries with the largest number of companies in the ranking.

Most of the countries shown in Table 7 are developed countries with strong economies, making it easier for their companies stand out in DJSI. However, they have achieved a high level of development at the cost of an intense use of their natural resources, which has resulted in several negative social and environmental impacts. Most of these countries usually topped the global ranking of the HDI (Human Development Index); however, faced with the recent creation of the “Planetary Pressures-Adjusted Human Development Index” and its inclusion in the calculation of the indicator, a decline was observed of well-placed countries such as the United States, which in 2020 fell 45 positions in the HDI ranking [100]. Thus, the governments of those countries must commit themselves to adopt policies and legislation to foster and support the development of CS [91]. Some efforts and initiatives employed to mitigate these impacts are presented in the next section.

3.2.5. Technical Government Efforts

This topic presents the government efforts focused on encouraging the CS adoption from the three countries with more companies listed in the DJSI (Table 7). These initiatives were identified through a documental analysis of materials published by these governments and public, and private organizations, such as diverse reports, white papers, laws, regulations, and official web pages.

Governments bear a great responsibility in the realization of SDGs, as they are responsible for creating regulatory mechanisms to hold other actors in society accountable for sustainable development [101,102,103,104]. Therefore, the growing public interest in environmental and social issues has led many governments to adopt policies to promote CS practices, rewarding socially and environmentally responsible companies and penalizing those who act irresponsibly in this regard [105]. Most policies developed by governments are based on three types of strategy: risk management and regulatory systems with the definition of codes of conduct, which if not met are punishable; initiatives to disclose information with the encouragement of integrated reporting and sustainability; and financial and technological support for the use of CS tools [101,105]. According to a KPMG survey (2020), almost 400 (66%) of CS initiatives are governmental initiatives, while 125 are initiatives from financial market regulators (20%), and the remaining (14%) come from the stock exchange, industry, companies, and non-governmental entities. The majority of government initiatives are mandatory and have focused on encouraging the dissemination of social and environmental results and on the quality and usefulness of the data in the reports, defining guidelines to guide companies toward their preparation [106].

Among the countries with the highest number of companies listed on the DJSI (Table 2), the United States (USA) ranks first. The country maintains the Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) team that guides, promotes, and supports the adoption of responsible business practices in the private sector, labor groups, non-governmental organizations, and governments of other countries. One way to foster CS in the US is through the Corporate Excellence Award (ACE), which is offered in three categories: (1) environmental sustainability, (2) human rights and labor rights, and (3) for small and medium enterprises [107]. Japan is the second country with the most companies in DJSI, and its government (2018) encouraged leading national organizations to participate in the Paris Agreement. The government has created an environment for cooperation among stakeholders and has funded projects to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This has yielded results such as Ricoh, which is a company that produces multifunction printers among other technology products intend to use at least 30% renewable energy by 2030 and 100% by 2050; Panasonic Corporation, which is present in the domestic, housing, and automotive products market, is working to build manufacturing plants with zero CO2 emissions [108]. In 2019, the Japan Ministry of Economy created a group called “Dialogues for Creation of Sustainable Corporate Value Compiles Interim Report” with the objective of promoting relations between companies and investors for improving medium and long-term sustainable corporate value [109]. In addition, in 2018, the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) initiated a loan program for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that prepared a management plan focused on SDGs. In partnership with the Japan Research Institute (JRI), consultancy was offered to help companies ensure reliability and objectivity in the management plans developed. It is expected that programs such as this be developed in other countries, as it was announced by the official website of the UN SDGs as an innovative approach aimed at SMEs that has not been adopted so far [110].

France, the third country with more companies listed on the DJSI, established in 2001 the Corporate Social Responsibility Regulatory Framework with the objective of encouraging companies to present information regarding the environmental and social impacts resulting from their activities. In 2009, laws were created that made it mandatory for organizations to report social and environmental information to their stakeholders. In 2015, the government of France enacted a law that instituted reports on climate and energy, circular economy, and food waste. In 2017, a mandatory non-financial information publication was introduced for large companies [111]. The initiatives undertaken in France have had fundamental support from the European Union, which has adopted important measures to promote CS in countries that are members of the economic bloc. For example, in the European Union, there is a directive (2014/95/EU) that obliges companies with more than 500 employees to report the non-financial results of their activities [94]. Therefore, government initiatives stand out for their ability to encourage other sectors to develop and implement CS practices, serving as catalysts in the pursuit of sustainable development.

3.2.6. Patents and Innovations for CS Development

The intellectual property system is one of the most widely used to encourage private research and development (R&D) initiatives for innovations in many countries [112]. Therefore, the analysis of patents allows the identification of the main countries, companies, and universities with R&D initiatives for innovations in the theme being studied and trends in the development of technologies for the coming years [113]. The numbers of patents registered in the last 20 years point to China, United States, Japan, South Korea, Germany, India, Spain, Italy, Australia, and Canada as major references in R&D for CS (Figure 8).

China is the country with the highest number of patents (66%) among the top ten countries of Figure 8. This country has invested heavily in the development of sustainable technologies; however, Chinese companies still appear little in the DJSI, which shows the need for them to be more transparent about the disclosure of their initiatives and impacts on sustainability. Despite this, there are eight countries in common with the list of the DJSI, which indicates the importance of commitment to the development of technologies for CS for achieving good CS performance. The solutions developed from these patents can be classified according to their technological domains. Figure 9 presents the major domains of CS patents registered in the last 20 years.

The domains represent the categories of the technologies developed. Analyzing Figure 9, it is possible to see that the most recurrent domain is “IT methods for management”, which refers to solutions aimed at measuring and mitigating the environmental impacts of companies through information technologies. The other prominent domains permeate various industrial sectors, such as civil, mechanical, and chemical industries. This highlight shows that organizations in these sectors are the ones that are most committed to developing sustainable technologies.

Table 8. Companies listed on the DJSI (global Dow Jones Sustainability Index) that registered the most patents.

Company/Country	Sector	Domain	Number of Patents
Shin Etsu Chemical (SEC)/Japan	Chemical	Handling	6
		Macromolecular Chemistry, Polymers	5
		Basic Materials Chemistry	2
		Chemical Engineering	1
		Other Special Machines	1
Protector & Gamble (P&G)/USA	Consumer goods	Handling	9
		Organic Fine Chemistry	6
		Chemical Engineering	5
		Macromolecular Chemistry, Polymers	1
		Basic Materials Chemistry	1
Amorepacific/South Korea	Cosmetics and Aesthetics	Organic Fine Chemistry	9

Source: Orbit Intelligence (2020).

shows the three companies listed on the DJSI that registered the most patents on CS in the studied period, their sectors of activity, and the domains of the patents registered.

Shin Etsu Chemical (SEC) has been a member of the UN Global Compact since 2010 and is highly committed to environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) practices [114,115,116]. The SEC has an R&D sector focused on the development of new materials and technologies that allow the reduction of the use of energy and raw materials as well as promote the use of renewable energy [117]. The SEC participates in international initiatives to combat global warming, such as the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. In addition, in 2019, it created the “The Shin-Etsu Group Human Rights Policy” that promotes research to identify risks to human rights in the company, creating action plans to mitigate them [118,119]. The company has a committee to promote ESG practices responsible for identifying and adopting CS initiatives and auditing their implementations [114,120].

In 2018 Protector & Gamble (P&G) launched the “Ambition 2030” initiative, which is an agenda with objectives to be achieved by the company by 2030. The objectives are focused on four areas: Brands, Society, Employees, and Supply Chain. P&G has sought to reduce the emission of polluting gases and the use of electricity and water, replace energy sources with renewable energy, and make all the packaging of its products recyclable. In the social sphere, the company has developed actions to engage employees in CS initiatives based on training, benefit programs, and incentives for volunteering, in addition to promoting social actions in needy communities on the African continent and in India. The company also promotes actions for inclusion, diversity, and gender equality. P&G conducts frequent audits to assess the results of its initiatives and to identify development opportunities [121,122].

Amorepacific has been listed on the DJSI Korea index for nine consecutive years and has been part of the UN Global Compact since 2007. In 2020, the company launched the “Sustainable Operations Goals” program with goals to be achieved in the three pillars of sustainability from initiatives to be taken in three main areas: Sustainable Lifestyle, Circular Economy, and Inclusive Growth [123]. In the area of inclusive growth, the company invests in welfare and health programs for its employees and in social projects for promoting the welfare, health, and financial empowerment of more than 200,000 women. Finally, in the Circular Economy area, the company reduces C02 emissions by 30% per ton of products produced and improves the efficiency of resource use through reuse, recycling, and the adoption of clean technologies [124,125].

The analysis of the profile of the sustainability practices of companies that have registered the most patents related to CS makes it possible to perceive a concentration of domains in the chemical sector, which seeks to adopt new socially and environmentally friendly technologies and products to mitigate the impacts of the activities on the environment and on the health, safety, and welfare of employees and society. Thus, the other sectors should adopt a proactive stance toward sustainable development and be encouraged to do so by the governments of the countries in which they operate and by their own value chain, as is the case with the chemical, construction, paper and pulp sectors, and others whose operations significantly impact the environment.

4. Corporate Sustainability Framework

The proposed corporate sustainability framework brings together initiatives to be adopted by Triple Helix sectors (universities, governments, and organizations). The results were obtained from the analysis of the STS-CS in light of the scientific and technical literature and the experience of the authors of the study. The framework is composed of initiatives expanded and adapted to the domains of the Triple Helix sectors with the objective of overcoming the challenges for its adoption.

Table 9. Framework for CS development.

Sector	Domain	Proposal	Triple-Helix Connection	Scientific and Technical References
Universities	Education	Create CS-training courses at all levels (undergraduate/postgraduate/extension)	Government and Organizations	Leuphana University (2020); Ryerson University (2020); Birkel et al.(2019)
		Integration of SDG into curricula covering as many of the “goals” as possible in order to systemically foster sustainability	Government	Birkel et al. (2020); University of Leeds (2020); Barros et al. (2020)
	Research	Develop research that promotes a better understanding of the concept of sustainability in companies	Organizations	Pechancová et al. (2019); Canada (2015); Brazil (2020)
		Identify research opportunities that meet the interests of society and promote the development of CS	Government and Organizations	Brozzi et al. (2020); Canada (2018)
		Develop studies to reduce the carbon footprint by developing green products and green processes, and using renewable energy, such as solar panels and wind turbines	Government and Organizations	Pechancová et al. (2019); Ryerson University (2020)
		Conduct research on the relationship between Industry 4.0 and sustainability	Government and Organizations	Brozzi et al. (2020); Amui et al. (2017)
	Management	Engage university leaders in obtaining funding and establishing partnerships for CS research	Organizations	Brasil (2020); Canada (2018); Pauer et al. (2020)
		Implement a solid waste management program, giving priority, respectively, to the reduction, reuse and recycling of solid waste	Government	Ridhosari and Rahman (2020); University of Leeds (2020); Amaral et al. (2020)
Government	Politics and Legislation	Align national public policies with SDGs to facilitate the implementation of SDGs by companies	Organizations	Cardillo and Longo (2020); Japan (2020); Fonseca et al. (2019)
		Include sustainability in government plans for Industry 4.0	Organizations and Universities	Bonilla et al. (2018)
		Draft laws to foster corporate sustainability, for example, regulating the publish reports on socio-environmental actions	Organizations	France (2020); Landrum and Ohsowski (2018)
		Create policies and plans to foster the use of renewable energy	Organizations and Universities	Wolff et al. (2020); Japan (2020)
		Create legislation to reduce the emission of gases and generation of polluting waste in industry	Organizations	USA (2017); Ghalehkhondabi (2020)
		Create legislation to guarantee workers’ rights and adequate working conditions	Industry	USA (2017); Ramos et al. (2020)
	Public Management	To monitor and disclose annually the evolution of the implementation of SDGs in the business sector	Organizations	Pham (2020); France (2020)
		Promote awards and recognitions for public and private companies with outstanding sustainable performance	Organizations	USA (2017)
		Create projects for society participation in the suggestion of initiatives for developing CS	Organizations and Universities	Japan (2020)
	Economy	Establish fees, tariffs, or fines on excess emissions of pollutant gases	Organizations	Taliento (2019)
		Financing research projects in universities and companies in the CS area	Universities	Brasil (2020); Canada (2018)
		Enable loans to SMEs that present management plans strategically integrated with SDGs	Organizations	Lyon (2018); Ammasaiappan (2017)
Organizations	Planning and Management	Integrate SDGs into organizations’ strategic plans	Government and Universities	Perchinunno and Cazzolle (2020); Nunhes et al. (2020)
		Create governance processes that help integrate CS into the company’s strategy according to the reality of the countries in which they operate	Universities	Roca and Searcy (2012); GRI UNGC WBCSD (2020)
		Establish partnerships with universities and research centers for developing sustainable technologies and processes	Universities	Shin Etsu Chemical (2020); Pauer et al. (2020)
		Foster the suggestion of ideas and support the development of socio-environmental projects	Government and Universities	Protector & Gamble (2019); Amorepacific (2020)
	Operations	Measuring sustainability performance from sustainability indices	Universities	Lozano (2015)
		Develop programs to promote worker health and safety and identify risks to employees’ rights	Government and Universities	Amorepacific (2020); Shin Etsu Chemica (2020)
		Prepare and publish sustainability reports	Government and Universities	Papoutsi (2020)
		Include sustainability criteria in product development processes	Universities	Pechancová (2019); Shin Etsu Chemica (2020)
		Use Industry 4.0 technologies to improve business performance on sustainability pillars	Government and Universities	Bag et al. (2018)

presents the proposed framework with initiatives segmented by sector and domain.

As shown in Table 9, the actions proposed for the “Universities” sector are segmented into three domains: “Education,” “Research”, and “Management”. In the first of them, the need to train students on CS through transversal integration SDG in the curricula of all undergraduate courses is discussed. In addition, the creation of undergraduate, graduate and extension courses with a specific focus on CS is proposed as a way to develop professionals trained to create, develop, and manage strategies for sustainability in organizations [126,127]. For the “Research” domain, the development of research is recommended to allow a better understanding of the concept of CS, reduction of the carbon footprint, development of green products and green processes, use of renewable energies, and analysis of the relationship of Industry 4.0 with CS. In addition, the development of research on CS is proposed with practical applications in municipalities and universities, since CS practices can bring benefits for a more sustainable management in these sectors [128,129,130,131]. Universities also need to include CS in the “Management” domain, which involves engaging leaderships with the inclusion of CS in the strategic planning of educational institutions through the implementation of the aforementioned actions in “Education” and “Research” domains and, additionally, giving priority to solid waste management [130,132].

The proposed actions for the “Government” sector were segmented into the following domains: “Politics and Legislation”, “Public Management”, and “Economy”. For the first domain, governments are recommended to draft laws to promote CS, regulating the publish reports on socio-environmental actions, making it mandatory, for example, for large companies and groups to disclose non-financial information and information on diversity, as established in Europe by Directive (EU) 2014/95. Governments are also suggested to create regulatory plans and policies for developing Industry 4.0 considering sustainable development as an essential and indispensable aspect for the progress of the economy, facilitating access to renewable energy sources and reducing gas emissions and the generation of polluting waste [91,133,134,135,136,137,138]. For the second domain, “Public Management”, it is recommended that governments monitor and publicize annually the evolution of the implementation of SDGs in companies, promote awards and recognition for public and private companies that present outstanding performance in sustainability, and actively engage society in this process through the creation of programs and suggestion channels to promote CS [139,140,141]. The proposals of the third domain, “Economy”, are strongly aligned with those of the first domain, “Politics and Legislation”, given the direct interconnection between them. Specifically, the third domain for the “Government” sector highlights the creation of fees, tariffs, or fines on surplus emissions of pollutant gases, financing research projects in the area of CS and facilitating conditions of loans to SMEs that present a management plan of SDGs [86,104,142,143].

Finally, the areas of the actions proposed for TH’s “Organizations” sector are “Planning and Management” and “Operations”. In the first, organizations should prioritize the integration of SDGs in their strategic planning, the creation of governance processes that support the integration of sustainability with the strategy according to the reality of the countries where they operate, the establishment of partnerships with universities and research centers for developing sustainable technologies and processes, and the creation of programs to suggest ideas to support the development of socio-environmental projects [11,144,145]. The second domain, “Operations”, includes the following: a proposal for the measurement of sustainability performance from sustainability indices, the development of programs to promote worker health and safety and identification of risks to employees’ human rights, the preparation and publication of sustainability reports, the inclusion of sustainability criteria in product development processes, and the use of Industry 4.0 technologies to improve business performance in the pillars of sustainability [70,128,146,147,148].

Table 9 also shows some examples of connections that should occur between the “Universities”, “Government”, and “Organizations” sectors. In this regard, for instance, “Universities” could receive financial support from “Governments” and “Organizations” for maintaining CS research labs and training professionals to manage CS. “Organizations” and “Universities” could work together with “Governments” in the creation of technological parks and integrated projects to accelerate innovation and production of patents by means of the development of startups able to offer solutions for sustainability. These and other type of articulations between the TH sectors could open paths to companies move toward sustainable business development.

5. Conclusions

The main objective of this research was achieved because the set of analyses of the STS-CS allowed the elaboration of a framework to advance with the development of the CS with propositions structured for “Universities”, “Governments”, and “Organizations”. The cooperation between these three sectors of TH is necessary for the effective incorporation of sustainability in organizations because through properly coordinated efforts, it will be possible to develop CS not as branding, but as a transformation initiated with the strategy and realized with more sustainable operations, projects, and products that have less negative impact on the environment and society.

Universities play a fundamental role in the formation of a critical mass capable of acting for developing CS. However, there is a shortage of qualified professionals to manage sustainability in companies, and this is a point of attention that needs to be urgently addressed. Therefore, CS should be systematically addressed in all professional and academic training courses, with special emphasis on business and administration courses, which train decision makers. In this sense, the CS is approached in an interdisciplinary and not isolated manner, that is, as one more curricular component. It should be discussed consistently throughout the course to train professionals truly committed to sustainable development. The development of the CS also depends directly on initiatives of public management, which are represented by the governmental sphere of TH. Public authorities should include CS as a priority in their strategic development agendas, channeling technical and financial resources and creating legislation to foster its insertion in companies.

The identification and analysis of technical and scientific scenarios, together with the interpretations and experiences of the authors of this work enabled the proposal of an integrating framework for the development of CS in the TH sectors. The main academic contribution of this work is the upgrade of the scientific block of knowledge on CS with structured propositions for the TH sectors that expand and deepen research aimed at contributing to sustainable business development. As for the applied contributions, companies can identify business opportunities to increase their profits in a sustainable way, governments can find suggestions for public measures for the development of CS, and universities can identify recommendations for training professionals capable of managing socio-economic issues and developing partnerships with companies for innovation and development of sustainable products and processes.

In this study, CS was approached from different standpoints, i.e., in a systemic way and not limited to academia or government or market alone. This integrated approach to CS is the main novelty of the work, which brought the multiplicity and interchangeability of views on CS considering the three TH sectors. The limitation of this study is related to the criteria selected in the search and analysis of the data, which if changed, could return slightly different results. Therefore, it is suggested that future studies use other combinations of criteria and metrics to identify good CS practices, e.g., analysis of relative data rather than absolutes taking into account the number of publications and patents per capita in country analysis. Another limitation is that the work has focused on important SC initiatives in the general context of sustainability. Then, other studies could consider the joint analysis of the scientific and technical scenarios for developing CS with other analysis variables and more specific geographic and sectorial segmentations that may require adaptations to the Triple Helix model, which may become a quadruple helix or quintuple helix. Future studies could also make a more in-depth analysis of the scientific scenario of CS, including among other analyses of the dominant theories applied in the development of the theme and the analysis of the hot topics identified in this study, such as the development of CS supported by the application of digital technologies big data, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, sensors and robotics.