Circular Economy and Sustainable Firm Management

Dear Colleagues,

In today's increasingly competitive landscape, companies must seek a position that allows them to survive in the medium- and long-term. Today, in order to meet the above requirements, we have the added concern of the community for the deterioration of the planet, which has materialized in many different ways. This has lead companies to seek survival by minimizing the negative externalities they generate in their production, marketing, logistics, and so on, processes, thus minimizing their environmental impact. In this matter, the literature has evolved since its inception, where concern for sustainability and social responsibility were aspects of the second-order, to today's management models, of environmental and social governance, in which sustainability is a strategic aspect included in the mission of companies.

The literature on the subject highlights the importance of sustainability practices in companies, and the need to create new management models analysing the interactions between companies, their environment, and consumers, who demand less and less damage to the environment. Thus, the linear economy model, which treats the duration of resources and production factors as unlimited, has been exhausted, giving rise to the so-called circular economy, whose principles could be a reference to help companies make the transition to a more sustainable business model.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to study the evolution of sustainability within companies, how they are implementing the circular economy, and other sustainable strategies of companies as a first-order magnitude.

This Special Issue seeks to place sustainability within business management. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Transition to the circular economy;
• New models of sustainable production;
• Circular supply chain management;
• Good practices and case studies of business sustainability and the circular economy;
• Circular economy and innovation;
• Changing the planning of the strategy as a result of sustainability;
• Circular economy reports;
• Circular economy assessment;
• Circular economy and SME´s;
• Marketing and sustainability;
• Accounting for sustainability.

References:

Núñez-Cacho, P.; Molina-Moreno, V.; Corpas-Iglesias, F.A.; Cortés-García, F.J. Family Bus.es Transitioning to a Circular Economy Model: The Case of “Mercadona”. Sustainability 2018, 10, 538.

Zhu, Q.; Sarkis, J. The Moderating Effects of Institutional Pressures on Emergent Green Supply Chain Practices and Performance. J. Prod. Res. 2007, 45, 4333–4343.

Molina-Moreno, V.; Leyva-Díaz, J.C.; Llorens-Montes, F.J.; Cortés-García, F.J. Design of indicators of circular economy as instruments for the evaluation of sustainability and efficiency in wastewater from pig farming industry. Water 2017, 9, 653.

Núñez-Cacho, P.; Górecki, J.; Molina, V.; Corpas-Iglesias, F. How to measure and predict degree of circularity thinking in construction sector? Modern way to build competitive advantage. EU Res. Bus. Vol 2018, 1-16 2018. DOI: 10.5171/2018.909360

Moreno, M.; De los Ríos, C.; Rowe, Z.; Charnley, F. A Conceptual Framework for Circular Design. Sustainability 2016, 8, 937; doi:10.3390/su8090937.

Lieder M., Rashid A. Towards Circular Economy implementation: A comprehensive review in context of manufacturing industry", J. Clean. Prod. 2016, Volume 115, (1): 36–51.

Campopiano, G. & De Massis, A. Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: A Content Analysis in Family and Non-family Firms. J. Bus. Ethics, 2015, 129 (3):511-534.

Zhu Q., J. Sarkis, K. Lai. Examining the effects of green supply chain management practices and their mediations on performance improvements. International J. of Prod. Res. 2012, 50(5): 1377–1394.

Dr. Pedro Núñez-Cacho
Guest Editor

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• sustainability
• management
• circular economy
• CSR
• sustainable marketing