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The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a systematic literature review on innovation and sustainability. To accomplish this aim, a systematic analysis of the literature in the Scopus database was carried out for articles with the terms “innovation” and “sustainability” in their titles. Once identified, articles were analyzed in three ways: the ten most-cited articles; the ten most-cited literature reviews; and the most recent articles. Sustainable development is the central theme of the articles studied. Sustainable development is influenced by the ways that sustainability is measured within the network of which the organizations are a part, including adequate systems, and is mediated by compatible behaviors. Encouraging green innovation is an environmental commitment and managerial concern driven by customer pressure, environmental regulations and cost reductions. Suppliers and customers can contribute or benefit from the value created.

This study was a Systematic literature review. The search terms “Innov * AND sustain *” were defined for the titles of the articles. The analysis was divided into three categories: the ten most-cited articles (without a year filter to form an idea of the impact of the main research in the field); the ten most-cited reviews (these were only filtered from 2009 to 2018); and the 10 most recent articles (all of the articles found were from the year 2018).

The main findings of this study were that network action, mobilization of relevant stakeholders, reinvention of the business model, redefinition with multiple values and a sustainable strategic scope are the mechanisms that effectively contribute to promoting the link between innovation and sustainability in organizations. Sustainable development is the central theme of the articles studied. Sustainable development is influenced by the ways that sustainability is measured within the network of which the organizations are a part of, including adequate systems, and is mediated by compatible behaviors.

This study contributes to the literature by providing perspectives for future studies that may contribute to the sustainable development of organizations. Sustainable development is strongly influenced by the ways that sustainability is measured within the network of which the organizations are part, including appropriate systems, and is mediated by compatible behaviors.

A key issue to manage sustainability is to be able to operationalise it. Relevant indicators require an appropriate definition of sustainability and sustainable development for the studied organisation. A common problem is inadequate understanding of what sustainability is from an organisational perspective. The purpose of this paper is to propose how to understand, define and measure diagnosing of sustainability from an outside-in perspective.

The building, health care, education and tourism value chains are studied. Based on interpreted stakeholder sustainability needs the stages of understanding, defining and measuring of diagnosing are reviewed, and interpretations proposed. This is with focus on identifying the vital few sustainability impacts in the studied value chains.

The resulting definitions and proposed performance indicators for the chosen areas indicate that the approach works resulting in proposed definitions and indicators for sustainability and sustainable development based on stakeholders need focus. Having clear definitions and performance indicators will support working effectively with sustainable development.

The resulting definitions and proposed performance indicators for the chosen areas indicate that the approach works. Further, proposed definitions and indicators for sustainability and sustainable development based on stakeholder needs focus is useful. Having clear definitions and performance indicators will help an organisation engage with sustainability and be sustainable within an organisational context.

The proposed approach enables using quality management for sustainable development.

Social sustainability is viewed from a poverty and affordability perspective.

Results indicate that there is a value in using an outside-in approach with focus on stakeholder needs in connection with a process-based approach. The approach is in contrast with the customary way of defining sustainability which mostly is based on an inside-out approach identifying several indicators and then adding these to a measure of sustainability.

The different methods were used to measure the impact of financial development on economic growth. This is largely due to a certain set of factors that have the influence of their relationship. First of all, based on the research results, several groups of factors are identified that determine the nonlinear interaction of the financial sector and economic growth. This is characterized by the fact that at different values of these indicators, financial development has an ambiguous impact on economic growth. There are several such groups in total. The first ones are usually institutional factors, indicators that characterize the legal system and the level of development of social institutions. In the absence of a sufficient level of legal framework, financial markets will be unstable, which will undermine the demand for financial sector services. Countries with a high level of development of legal institutions have a guarantee for economic entities in the stable development of economic relations.

This paper aims to introduce the papers in this issue and to explain the pertinence of the strategic question.

A brief context for the strategic question is provided, as well as the issue alignment and a content analysis of the papers selected.

From the analysis of the papers selected for this theme issue, it becomes clear that sustainable development is now one of the major concerns in the world today.

The papers selected for this issue shed light on an important theme issue question: how can tourism strategy contribute to sustainable development?

Implementing the sustainable development goals (SDGs) has proven a significant challenge for companies. While multinational enterprises (MNEs) have shown a real intention to contribute to these goals, they face major barriers in implementing the SDGs in their core business strategies. Extant academic studies on this phenomenon have primarily explored why companies “should” address the SDG agenda but have not (yet) explored what “works,” what does not “work,” and why. Therefore, evidence of a sizable gap between intention and realization is growing. Besides, there is a limited explanation for the existence of this gap and no validated implementation models that could help overcome it. Additionally, management research remains relatively fragmented. The diversity of existing theoretical and empirical frameworks makes it difficult to consolidate scientific and practical insights on “how” to guide companies to accelerate the global goals through their core operations.

This study is one of the first attempts to draw lessons from extant research on effective SDGs’ implementation strategies. For that, we upgrade the “SDG Compass,” which has been recognized as a leading framework for SDGs implementation in companies’ core activities. A critical assessment of the literature on the SDGs implementation has been conducted through a systematic literature review (SLR) and bibliometric analysis. This has helped us identify gaps in the SDG implementation practice and accumulate relevant insights supporting a more integrated and upgraded implementation framework: the SDG Compass+. This framework can advance coordinated theoretical and practical research by identifying the antecedents and critical factors of impactful SDG implementation strategies.

The purpose of this research is to analyse the relationship between entrepreneurial skills and innovation commitment and entrepreneurial skills and environmental commitment as drivers of awareness on sustainable development of higher education students.

A sample of 1,318 business and management students out of the 3,535 students of Tecnocampus Pompeu Fabra University in Spain during the 2017-2018 academic year was selected to conduct a survey regarding their entrepreneurial skills and sustainability commitment, resulting in a total number of responses of 515. A structural equation model is proposed to contrast the hypothesis.

The statistical analysis showed the existence of a positive relation between the entrepreneurial skill of self-consciousness, innovation and environmental commitment to foster sustainability and sustainable development. It is one of the few studies related to the self-conciousness competence of the entrepreneurial skills which found, as a novelty, that the entrepreneurial skill of self-consciousness is the skill with the greater impact on innovation and environmental commitment.

The limitations of the study are that it is based on a sample of students taking entrepreneurship courses at a specific Spanish University that is not representative of all entrepreneurs in all universities.

The research proposes including entrepreneurial skills programmes in higher education and research programmes as a way to assure commitment to innovation and environmental sustainability.

Promoting entrepreneurial skills among higher education students could act as drivers for sustainable development.

The library community is considerably active in environmental issues, but the body of scientific and professional literature in the library and information science (LIS) related to environmental issues is growing slowly. The author attempts to indicate the reasons for the still-low interest in the issue of green libraries on a global scale by pointing to barriers in the development of the green libraries concept in both theoretical and practical dimensions.

The desk research method was used in this study.

Barriers to the development of the green libraries concept include an ambiguous definition of green libraries, a lack of guidelines for green libraries, a lack of criteria for evaluating green libraries, insufficient dissemination of the essence and goals of environmental education, a lack of developed tools for monitoring progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in an environmental aspect at a national level and insufficient integration of environmental topics in LIS curricula at the higher-education level.

Although, since the 1990s, the body of literature on sustainable development from an environmental perspective has been growing, LIS researchers' activities do not reflect the importance of this issue. The originality of the article lies in the indication of the reasons for the still-low interest in environmental issues in LIS literature. To date, this issue has not been discussed in the literature.

The objective of this paper is to investigate systematically the discipline of supply chain management (SCM) within the context of sustainability. The two concepts are increasingly aligned, and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) represents an evolving field where they explicitly interact. Given their complex and holistic nature, breaking down the literature to understand its structures, processes, connections and limitations can provide an objective view of the status of research in these highly important fields, identifying key areas for future research/theory development.

A systematic review of current SCM literature is carried out, specifically in relation to the social and environmental dimensions of sustainability.

SSCM and the integration of sustainability into supply chains is a significant but evolving field evidenced by a current bias in the literature towards theory development and highly qualitative research methods. The environmental dimension is significantly better represented in the literature through specific processes at all stages of the supply chain. The social dimension is recognised, but receives less emphasis than expected given SCM's focus on interaction, relationships and communication. These two dimensions are treated separately in the literature with limited insight on how to integrate them and current SCM and sustainability research provides limited practical outputs.

The review focuses on environmental and social sustainability within supply chains without explicit consideration of the economic dimension.

The review highlights the key themes and issues for supply chain managers faced with implementing sustainability. It also illustrates a number of areas for future research, along with the need for researchers to develop more practical tools for implementing SSCM.

Indicates the extent to which sustainability is integrated within SCM and where the research emphasis currently lies. The environmental dimension is significantly more defined and developed in the literature. SCM literature emphasises the importance of long‐term supplier relationships, but this “people‐focused” approach does not appear to translate into socially responsible supply chains. It suggests that the more process‐driven nature of environmental sustainability makes it easier to put into supply chain practice. There is also limited research or evidence on how the two dimensions can be integrated despite recognition of their inter‐relationship.

The paper's aim is to explore the connection between individual worldviews, called ecological selves, and organizational change, which allows people to create the conditions to confront the global environmental challenges they face as a species.

The essay is a conceptual one, with reference to a small qualitative interview study conducted to explore the idea of ecological selves with organizational leaders.

The findings reveal the existence of several different ecological selves in organizational life; they also suggest fruitful avenues for further research and ongoing practice. The eight ecological selves are the Eco‐Guardian, the Eco‐Warrior, the Eco‐Manager, the Eco‐Strategist, the Eco‐Radical, the Eco‐Holist, the Eco‐Integralist, and the Eco‐Sage. This framework, which is derived from developmental stage theory, is a useful tool for understanding how individual actions are shaped by people's identities and values.

The preliminary research referenced in this study is of limited scope, consisting of a small sample of organizational leaders in a semi‐structured qualitative interview setting. The implications, however, are more interesting for additional research on ecological selves as a tool for individual self‐reflection, organizational culture, and teamwork learning.

This essay argues that creating an ecological selves inventory is useful in understanding how leaders create the conditions for sustainability in their organizations.

Implications for understanding organizational culture are considered: the ecological selves framework is one tool to build self‐awareness among organizational leaders, leading to stronger, more efficacious learning across a spectrum of skills necessary for leadership.

Although the ecological selves framework has been proposed as a theoretical concept in the literature of integral ecology, this paper refers to the first research done with organizational leaders.