Corporate Sustainability: The Achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Innovation

Dear Colleagues,

You are invited to submit your work in a Special Issue entitled “Corporate Sustainability: The Achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Innovation” to the international, peer-reviewed open-access journal Sustainability. The scope of the issue is to increase the existing literature through qualitative and quantitative research studies addressing issues relevant to Corporate Sustainability (CS); a business strategy used to impact the environment and our communities positively.

Companies need to deeply reshape their business model to increase their competitive advantage while improving the environmental and social impact. CS is considered the new business paradigm that includes the environmental, social and economic dimensions to provide for current and future generations. As new challenges (e.g., climate change, inequalities, etc.) keep rising and a global drive for delivering sustainable solutions is emerging, businesses are searching for sustainable practices and processes which sustainable-oriented innovation policies could accompany.

Literature on CS has considerably increased in the last decades, emphasizing the importance of the concept and what a company has achieved. However, to make CS effective, we do need to focus on how a company could successfully integrate CS into the company’s strategy, achieving environmental, societal and economic goals and remaining viable in the long term. In this context, companies cannot deal as isolated entities. To effectively incorporate sustainability into their operations and offerings, companies must engage in collaborative and interactive processes that involve working with various stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers and local communities). This allows them to ensure that their products and processes are ethical and socially acceptable. Only the proper combination of practices will lead companies to better performance and more satisfying results.

Stakeholders are not the only ones who force companies to be socially responsible. Companies also face pressure from European institutions and investors. European Union’s guidelines and action plans regarding corporate responsibility, green economy, energy transition and other emerging sustainability issues are multiplied, and companies face the challenge of actively contributing to the new goals.

Finally, it is well known that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), responsible innovation and sustainability are critical concepts increasingly relevant for small entrepreneurs. Small entrepreneurs can embed CSR and sustainability into their business models and integrate social and environmental considerations into their daily operations. By adopting sustainable practices and incorporating responsible innovation practices, small entrepreneurs can contribute to a more sustainable future, enhance their reputation and potentially increase their profitability.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Papers may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• New ethics in entrepreneurship;
• Leadership and corporate sustainability and responsibility;
• Corporate sustainability and responsibility education;
• Policy-making and governance in the field of corporate sustainability;
• Awareness raising, mobilization of local communities for sustainable development;
• Co-creation, co-development and responsible innovation in entrepreneurship;
• The changing role of stakeholders, problems and perspectives;
• Social innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainability;
• Entrepreneurship and circular economy.

We look forward to receiving your contribution.

Dr. Despina Sdrali
Dr. Ioannis Kostakis
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sustainability
• corporate sustainability
• corporate social responsibility
• responsible innovation
• social innovation