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Although the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasize the importance of leaving no one behind, the opposite is happening for the world's 89 million forcibly displaced people who are mostly left out of SDGs’ reporting and progress. A key reason for this poor outcome is that host country governments plan refugee camps as short-term shelters, but refugees stay in these camps for more than a decade on average due to ongoing conflicts in their home country. This disparity between intent and reality prevents sustainable living conditions for refugee populations. Operational innovations are needed to find sustainable solutions that ensure a higher quality of life and progress toward sustainability in refugee camps.

Through an abductive case study, the authors develop a theoretical framework on sustainable operational innovations for refugee camps. The authors use this framework to analyze four sustainable operational innovations implemented in three refugee camps in Jordan.

The authors develop three research propositions that describe the conditions required for these operational innovations to succeed: they need to include specific needs and cultural preferences of refugees, they must accommodate host governments' restrictions that limit permanent settlement, and finally, technological innovations require careful data management policies to protect refugees. Doing this, the authors account for the broader political-economic and ecological environments that refugee camps are embedded in.

This paper opens a new area of research on sustainable innovation in humanitarian operations. It provides insights into key contingency factors moderating the link between operational innovations and sustainability outcomes. It represents one of the few studies that build their theorizing upon field data collected in refugee camps.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate four research and innovation projects, namely, from the perspective of innovation for sustainable development, with a particular focus on digital tools for sales and manufacturing, minimising waste in the textile and apparel value chain and identifying possibilities for further sustainable development in the apparel and textile industry.

The foundation of this study is of the four research and innovation projects, which all focus on minimising waste in textile value chains, to support local manufacturing of apparel products and propose product offers that cater to more diverse needs. The main method used is action research. These projects are analysed from the perspective of innovation for sustainable development and the sustainable development goals developed by the United Nations.

The findings indicate that the projects have the potential to support further innovation for sustainable business models and support sustainable development in textile and apparel value networks, with a particular focus on minimising material waste and thus minimising energy use.

The value of the paper is that it shows how methods and technologies for digital sales and manufacturing and for circular value networks can contribute to business models that support sustainable development in the textile and apparel industry.

This study draws on the upper echelon perspective and effectuation theory to put insights on the relationship between sustainable leadership and sustainable performance.

The study had adopted the cluster-sampling approach to collect data from 500 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) established in China and India with 46.60% response rate. The SmartPLS 3.0 was employed for data analysis.

This study verified the mediating role of frugal innovation in emerging markets. Both market and technological turbulence significantly moderated the sustainable leadership-frugal innovation relationship. Nevertheless, the effect of sustainable leadership on frugal innovation did not vary for the different values of entrepreneurial bricolage.

This article contributes by revealing the moderating effect of market and technological turbulence as moderator. Greater market and technological turbulence led to greater impact of sustainable leadership practices on frugal innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to present a new conceptual framework for service organizations to achieve sustainable business performance through strategic quality orientation and innovation capabilities on the basis of relevant literature review and integration of various innovation and business sustainability theories and models. The study tests if the strategic quality orientation enhances innovation capabilities in terms of exploitation and explorative innovation, which, in turn, can lead to sustainable business growth. Mediating impact of innovation capabilities between strategic quality orientation and sustainable business growth relationship is also examined.

A conceptual framework was developed to test and establish these relationships. Results were analyzed based on 442 questionnaires collected from five different service industries of Pakistan, and the structural equation modeling technique was used to empirically test the conceptual framework.

The results indicate that strategic quality orientation directly affects innovation capabilities and sustainable business growth and also indirectly impacts sustainable business growth through its effect on innovation capabilities.

The study suggests service organizations can jointly implement quality and innovation using a structured approach, with strategic quality orientation as the foundation. In this way, they can leverage from their strategic quality management, supplier relationship, corporate quality culture, continual improvement and people management in order to ensure innovation and sustainability in their business growth.

The study integrates strategic quality orientation and innovation capabilities, and validates a new organizational framework through empirical examination which can be used by service organizations to ensure their sustainable business growth.

SMEs that manage more sustainability focused initiatives into their core business strategy can possibly benefit from lower expenses, reduced threats and new business opportunities, but in Malaysia most of the SMEs are still far off in terms of adapting to a sustainable business growth outline from a holistic point of view. Hence, this study aims to serve deeper understanding about a strategic innovation focused sustainable growth model on basis of multidisciplinary QBL-QHIM theoretical perspectives where strategic innovation practices intervene in between desired growth and government support (regulations).

This conceptual investigation embraces a newly emerged concern of sustainable business growth in SMEs, considering ranges of literature reviews from the disciplines of management and entrepreneurship. The study also systematically explores the concepts of regulations, strategic innovation practices on basis of QBL and QHIM theories to adjust the sustainable business growth model from a holistic angle.

The outcomes show that multidisciplinary QBL-QHIM conjunction within the interrelationships of the selected constructs holds the potential for innovation focused business growth in a more sustainable, comprehensive and holistic manner. The study also detects that exploitative-explorative innovation practices can possibly mediate in between suitable regulations and sustainable business growth of SMEs, considering supportive external environment.

Researches are encouraged to test the proposed model.

The study indicates a conceptual configuration for policy makers as well as entrepreneurs to ensure sustainable business growth for SMEs. The outcomes of the study also provide useful direction on decision-making process of owner or manager considering social, economic, environmental and spiritual aspects of daily operations.

The conceptual model may possibly able to generate more social values, considering a holistic angle into business activities.

The conceptualization is a unique attempt, considering developing regions to extend the current understanding of strategic innovation focused sustainable growth process of SMEs from a holistic angle.

Conditioning factors of the globalized world have created new requirements and opportunities in developing management models for organizations that englobe sustainability aspects, which presume substantial investments in innovation. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the relation between sustainable innovation practices and the performance of industrial companies.

This was a quantitative study and carried out by applying a research survey in Brazilian industrial companies.

The results showed that there are significantly positive associations between several variables related to sustainable innovation practices and company performance, being, therefore, possible to confirm the original proposed hypothesis.

The main limiting factors were theoretical choices, comprehension of the phenomenon through the perception of the respondents, and the number of companies in the sample, as little representation was found in the researched population. In this manner, the results cannot be applied to the universe of considered research, being restricted solely to the group of companies in the sample.

From the main contributions, it is possible to highlight, at a theoretical level, the joint approach to issues of sustainable innovation and performance, since there are few studies covering the impact of adopting innovation practices on company performance. At a practical level, understanding of how the behavior of Brazilian industrial companies contributes to the wide distribution of practices that may contribute to better business performance and generate competitive advantages.

At a social level, understanding of the benefits in adopting sustainable innovations practices favors the minimization of negative socio-environmental impacts.

By analyzing the themes of sustainable innovation and industrial performance, the present study may contribute to adopting business behavior that strategically and systemically integrates the objectives of sustainable innovation.

This chapter is concerned with three main integrated issues. It looks forward towards enhancing ‘sustainable development’, using ‘innovation’, enabled by ‘higher education’ institutions. Therefore, sustainable development is the ‘target’; innovation is the ‘mean’; and higher education (HE) is the ‘enabler’ of the mean for achieving the target. The chapter starts by addressing the ‘target’ through explaining the ‘long time scale’ and the ‘wide scope of issues’ of sustainable development, in addition to elaborating on the past efforts, and considering the current directions expressed by the ‘sustainable development goals’. It then moves on to the ‘mean’ that is the innovation that drives sustainable development, considering its various types and its correlated components given by the ‘global innovation index’. HE, as an important enabler of innovation, is then addressed by considering its impact, its missions and their contribution to innovation, in addition to its challenges and the future development. The chapter finally emphasises views on the future role of ‘HE’ in promoting ‘innovation’ towards enhancing ‘sustainable development’.

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that contribute to the successful implementation and management of sustainable innovation in research-intensive sectors such as the life sciences industry.

The study was conducted through a combination of two methods. The first was qualitative interviews of 21 sustainability experts and leaders in the life sciences industry who were responsible for implementing sustainable innovation. They were selected through nonprobabilistic purposive sampling. The second method was thematic content analysis using the MAXQDA software.

The study identified that successful implementation of sustainable innovation in research-intensive firms begins with the alignment of the executive vision for sustainability with the business objectives of the research-intensive firm. Furthermore, implementation of sustainability practices is identified as a function of organizational reconfigurations that facilitate purposeful inflow and outflow of ideas and knowledge between internal firm resources and external stakeholders, anchored by the objectives of the research-intensive firm.

The study explicated factors only within life sciences industry based on qualitative interviews. The study offers scope for cross-sector quantitative evaluation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first studies to systematically delineate the underlying factors that govern successful implementation of sustainable innovation in research-intensive industries, through integration of the resource-based view and stakeholder theory and thereby provide a framework for research-intensive organizations to implement sustainable innovation practices.

The study aims to determine the impact of sustainable manufacturing on environmental performance through government regulation and eco-innovation in Indonesian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The results indicate sustainable manufacturing plays a significant role in SMEs' environmental performance and regulations, and eco-innovation can moderate it. It also reveals that government regulation has a positive and significant effect on environmental performance. Moreover, eco-innovation has a positive and significant effect on environmental performance.

The findings of this study indicate that SMEs can embrace sustainable manufacturing practices and achieve their long-term sustainability goals by adhering to regulations, collaborating with stakeholders and implementing eco-friendly innovations.

This research uncovers ground-breaking perspectives on the evolution of scientific knowledge about the impact of eco-innovation, regulatory measures and sustainable manufacturing practices on the environmental performance of SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to devise an experimental lab like infrastructure in the higher education connecting social innovation with sustainable tourism.

In order to model a laboratory of social innovation and sustainable tourism lab (SISTOUR-LAB), the method of agile research was employed. This method involves the creation of successive and accumulative prototypes of four kinds: conceptual, relational, functional and transferable. Thus, agile research enables the integration of different social perspectives into the same prototype in a recursive manner.

The SISTOUR-LAB is a work-based learning strategy that allows for the development of a mapping process on tourism vulnerabilities (linked to opportunities for social innovation); the development of experimental training in prototyping social innovations on sustainable tourism; the design of hybrid social innovation business models linked to sustainable tourism; and the development of a relational model of evaluation linking together social innovation competencies with processes of transition toward sustainable tourism.

The SISTOUR-LAB is a prototypical lab that combines social innovation and sustainable tourism in an experimental setting. The SISTOUR-LAB has been modeled based on the agile research method, but it will be necessary to test it empirically to stabilize the model. Once stabilized, the model shall lead to a better understanding of the relationship between work-based learning, social innovation and sustainable tourism in the area of higher education.

The SISTOUR-LAB has four implications: teachers: the SISTOUR-LAB provides teachers with a setting for the development of experimental education models that connect the problems of conventional tourism with social innovation in order to foster new learning environments oriented toward sustainable tourism; students: the SISTOUR-LAB enhances the employability of students since it connects them with agents and demands of touristic transition, while also fostering entrepreneurial development by means of improving the acquisition of social entrepreneurship competences for sustainable tourism; organizations: the SISTOUR-LAB provides an experimental setting for the prototyping of social innovations so as to assist organizations in the formulation of models, prototypes and evaluations that facilitate the transition toward sustainable tourism; policymaking: the SISTOUR-LAB promotes the design of evidence-based public policies, which fosters inclusive models of innovation and the regional monitoring of transitions toward sustainable tourism.

There exist little reference to the link between social innovation and sustainable tourism in the academic and institutional literature. The SISTOUR-LAB is a work-based learning strategy that fosters the structuring of experimental relations between social innovation and sustainable tourism by integrating touristic organizations to the development of competencies in higher education. The SISTOUR-LAB has programmatic and prospective value. It can be considered as a guide for the development of generative competencies, i.e. competencies that generate social innovations that impact chain triggers transitions toward sustainable tourism.