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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.

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?

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 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.

This paper aims to investigate the situation and evolution of sustainability performance in China.

This paper adopts the global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) productivity index based on data envelopment analysis and Tobit regression for analysis.

The results indicate the following: China’s sustainability performance has been improving since 2005 and is closely related to the national development strategy and supportive policy; regional gaps in sustainability are a prominent problem represented by the fact that South Central China is becoming a sustainability collapse zone; interprovincial heterogeneity is evident with the varying development speed and conditions; and the level of sustainability performance has a significantly positive correlation with the urbanization rate, investment completed in the treatment of industrial pollution, government appropriation for education and per capita area of paved roads, but it has a negative correlation with the possession of private vehicles.

As an application, this study assessing the GML productivity index of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2015 and analyse the sustainability performance on three regional levels (i.e. country level, regional level and provincial level). Tobit regression is also applied to recognize the factors related to the GML index with the results taken as references for policy suggestions. The results have implications for a comprehensive understanding of China's sustainability performance and policymaking in this field.

The purpose of this paper is to propose styles of reasoning for the characterization of sustainable development and sustainability as quasi‐objects of study for management.

This proposition occurs in three primary dimensions: the first deals with ontological postures, the second with epistemological perspectives, and the third with supplementary conceptualizations (dominant paradigms, the meanings of sustainable development and sustainability, and the approaches to classifying sustainability).

After the theoretical‐analytical discussion the authors present a framework that classifies different possibilities for framing sustainable development and sustainability as interesting research themes for management studies.

The paper considers that discussions about sustainable development and sustainability as concerns management studies need a deeper conceptual and theoretical scrutiny. This deficiency is expressed in the difficulty in identifying ontological postures, epistemological perspectives, dominant paradigms, and conceptual approaches that might allow these themes to have a greater coherence so that they may be researched within the scope of management studies.

Sustainable development and sustainability are discussed using various analytical perspectives, a consequence of the fact that these phenomena are understood and discussed by various social collectives, which contributes to an interpretive and conceptual oscillation of these themes for management. The relationship between sustainable development, sustainability, and social factions justifies their characterization as quasi‐objects of study for management. Via this characterization the authors intend to create a space for discussion aimed at presenting statements that are candidates for truth, but not as absolute or unquestionable truths.

This paper aims to explore progressive stakeholders' understandings about and activities for sustainable catering as socio‐cultural embodiments in the Nordic countries. The paper also seeks to highlight focal points for development.

A total of 46 structured telephone interviews with stakeholders within the food system were carried out during 2006 in the Nordic countries. The theoretical frame was established by Billig's idea of “ideological dilemmas” and the interview transcripts were coded into conceptual versus pragmatic speech regarding catering for sustainability. Thereafter, five subcategories were topically identified in each category representing variation in meanings.

Sustainable catering as conceptually understood corresponds to a holistic picture while the pragmatic view represents more everyday working orientation. The analysis delivered five topical categories of conceptual and pragmatic sustainability, which show how sustainability was dealt with in speech by mixing the conceptual ideal with the pragmatic on the “shop floor”, while evidently there seemed to be conceptualisations which do not have their proper counterpart within pragmatic action. The way sustainability was viewed suggests a translation of ideology into practice and to do that proper tools and support are needed, both within own activities and in the linking with other stakeholders.

The participants represented progressive stakeholders as they were members of a Nordic network for healthy and sustainable catering.

The study includes progressive professional stakeholders in different positions within the food system. A system approach is used to better locate differences and similarities in understanding the concept and its translational potential within the food system.

This paper aims to present key findings from an inquiry into engineering accreditation and curricula renewal. The research attempted to ascertain conceptions of requisite sustainability themes among engineering academics and professionals. The paper also reflects on the potential role of professional engineering institutions (PEIs) in embedding sustainability through their programme accreditation guidelines and wider implications in terms of rapid curricula renewal.

This research comprised an International Engineering Academic Workshop held during the 2010 International Symposium on Engineering Education in Ireland, on “accreditation and sustainable engineering”. This built on the findings of a literature review that was distributed prior to the workshop. Data collection included individual questionnaires administered during the workshop, and notes scribed by workshop participants.

The literature review highlighted a wide range of perspectives across and within engineering disciplines, regarding what sustainability/sustainable development (SD) themes should be incorporated into engineering curricula, and regarding language and terminology. This was also reflected in the workshop discussions. Notwithstanding this diversity, clusters of sustainability themes and priority considerations were distilled from the literature review and workshop. These related to resources, technology, values, ethics, inter‐ and intra‐generational equity, transdisciplinarity, and systems and complex thinking. Themes related to environmental and economic knowledge and skills received less attention by workshop participants than represented in the literature.

This paper provides an appreciation of the diversity of opinion regarding priority sustainability themes for engineering curricula, among a group of self‐selected engineering academics who have a common interest in education for SD. It also provides some insights and caveats on how these themes might be rapidly integrated into engineering curricula.