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This study aims to perform innovation analysis for a product based on market, design and process dimensions. This integrated approach provides sustainability for product design and development.

A significant aspect of innovation is investigated to provide energy from the wastes collected in the reverse chain. First, the indicators related to the product opportunity gap were collected and ranked by the structural equation modeling (SEM) method. Indicators with a factor loading above 0.6 are selected and inserted into the proposed mathematical model. The proposed mathematical model was implemented in GAMS 28.2.0 to maximize energy production from waste and minimize the cost of product innovation. A case study on pistachio new packaging process innovation is investigated.

The results showed that in today’s competitive world where sustainability and the environment are important, the index of converting waste into energy is one of the main indicators of innovation. Consequently, flammability is extracted from the mathematical model as one of the most significant indicators leading to higher energy production with the lowest innovation cost.

New product development (NPD) is significant to sustain market share and satisfy customer needs. Different approaches are proposed to handle NPD, mostly focusing on the customer and design requirements.

The integration of sustainability, performance measurement and new product development (NPD) is key for aligning environmental and social objectives with business strategies. While previous research has initiated proposals for integrating sustainability into NPD or incorporating sustainability into corporate measurement systems, there is a notable deficiency in studies that comprehensively integrate these three perspectives. In this sense, this study proposes a performance framework (PF) to integrate sustainability performance indicators (PIs) into the measurement system considering the company’s NPD phases.

The PF was developed through a literature review and action research (AR). This resulting PF was positively evaluated by the practitioners in the company.

First, the review enabled the synthesis of an initial conceptual PF with 188 sustainability PIs and a five-step procedure. Then, the empirical results of the AR led to a new PF that presents the systematisation of the PIs database and a practice-based seven-stage approach.

This action-oriented research limits the extent to which this study’s findings can be generalised. Future research should apply the PF in different research designs to produce managerially relevant knowledge.

This PF may provide managers with actionable knowledge that best supports the measurement system integration with sustainability PIs considering the NPD phases.

Integrating sustainability, performance measurement and the NPD has been recognised as critical for supporting decision-making concerning the impact of processes and products. Compared with previous frameworks, the proposed PF extends the existing literature by introducing a systematised PIs database and a novel procedure for integrating sustainability measurement throughout the NDP.

Manufacturing companies continue to encounter a diverse set of obstacles while embracing sustainable development goals. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to explore critical sustainable development-related barriers to flexible packaging manufacturing companies in the New Zealand context.

Drawing on a qualitative multiple case studies approach, the authors collected data from the New Zealand flexible packaging industry. Semistructured interviews were conducted with the senior corporate managers in two large flexible packaging companies. Following the thematic analysis approach, the authors analyzed the information collected from the participants and synthesized our findings under the key dimensions of internal and external barriers to sustainable development.

The findings revealed that internal barriers to sustainable flexible packaging are linked to economic, operational and technical issues. Conversely, external barriers include global crises and disruption, customer behavior and preferences and institutional and infrastructural-related aspects. Based on the analysis of empirical findings, the authors further identified the underlying reasons for sustainable flexible packaging barriers and recommended guidelines that could assist corporate managers and policymakers in addressing obstacles inhibiting the flexible packaging industry from adopting sustainable business practices.

The authors argue that this study is one of the early studies to consider inhibiting factors to incorporate sustainable development into the New Zealand flexible packaging industry context. Building on a range of theoretical perspectives, the authors extend the current body of knowledge seeking to advance the sustainable development agenda in the New Zealand flexible packaging industry and offer recommended pathways fostering sustainable development in a distinctive manufacturing context.

Introduction: Sustainable marketing practices foster a company and its stakeholders’ environmental, social, and economic well-being while promoting products and services. An integrated approach to sustainability recognises these three interdependent pillars, seeking to unite together. Investing in renewable energy has triple-bottom-line benefits – reducing greenhouse gas emissions, creating jobs, and promoting economic growth. Sustainable marketing practices can be a win-win for companies and the environment.

Need of the Study: Studying and understanding the sustainable development goals (SDGs) are crucial for India and worldwide. Sustainable marketing is becoming increasingly important for companies as they seek to meet the growing demand for sustainable products and services. Sustainable marketing practices can help businesses reduce environmental impact, promoting eco-friendly products and services.

Purpose of the Study: The study focused on achieving the SDGs requires addressing all three pillars of sustainability together. The study explored the different sustainable marketing practices that companies adopt worldwide, how they contribute to environmental, social and economic stability, the benefits of such practices, and the challenges companies face in implementing them.

Methodology: The study is based on secondary data – 10 companies, out of which 5 brands are among the top 10 brands (Souromi, 2023) and 5 are within the top 20 international sustainable brands (Fashinza, 2020) belonging to the textile industry worldwide, were chosen and their sustainable marketing practices were identified and analysed.

Findings: The study highlights standard sustainable marketing practices adopted by different companies worldwide in the textile industry, exploring the contribution of sustainable marketing practices in achieving SDGs.

Purpose: The assessment of the linkage between quality and several SDGs is crucial due to the significant impact quality has on multiple dimensions. This study employs a comprehensive methodology to elucidate the various dimensions of quality. Additionally, it examines the relationship between quality and multiple SDGs, a topic that has not been previously investigated.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The question arises here that how maintaining quality leads to sustainability; well this question is answered in this study through a content analysis of previous studies and showing the importance of theme quality in various aspects of sustainability like TBL, sustainable development goals (SDGs), etc.

Findings: Quality has proven to be an admirable approach towards sustainability. The risen need for sustainability has brought many perspectives of the world. It can be environmental, social and economic and further these aspects have their own areas for improvement. The complexity of the structure of sustainability requires a basic common area to be focused on, and in this study, quality has proven to be one.

Implications: Through the SDGs it can be derived that each goal had an area where quality needed to be worked on. The several zones of quality are interlinked. Quality of life will automatically improve the education, health water and sanitation services. Therefore, the focus should be laid on attaining sustainability through quality. Quality is achieving excellence in something or a substance that satisfies the requirements needed from it or the resources are utilised effectively and efficiently.

Originality/Value: This study uses a holistic approach in which dimensions of quality have been explained and further the linkage of quality with different SDGs was assessed which has not yet been explored earlier.

This paper aims to investigate sustainability-led innovation, focusing on the interplay between product and process innovation for sustainability goals and the underlying supplier–customer relationships. Thus, the paper delves into sustainability-led innovation and how it affects supplier–customer relationships, and vice versa, thus providing a twofold perspective.

The textile industry is the empirical context of this study, which is exploratory research based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs, managers and experts in the textile industry.

In the textile industry, sustainability-led product innovation concerns mainly product durability and performance, product recyclability and the use of waste for new product development. Process innovation deals with circular economy, traceability and water and chemical use minimization. The paper also shows how sustainability-led innovation is implemented in more technical terms and regarding supplier–customer relationships.

The paper adopts an original perspective on how processes take place in the relationships between suppliers and customers, where there is no dominance of one actor, but innovation emerges from interdependence and interaction. Such perspective allows to provide an in-depth analysis of the supplier–customer relationships and underlying dynamics that affect sustainability-led innovation; moreover, the authors study how such innovation impacts supplier–customer relationships and the underlying relational dynamics. The value of the paper also stands in delivering a real representation of the innovation processes grounded in the textile industry.

The aim of this paper is to propose a basis upon which accounting reporting can be developed to reflect real values and the real economy. It aims to address the environmental considerations discussed in the UN debate (Bebbington and Unerman, 2020) and the concern for a “better life-world”, which is the theme of this special issue.

Addressing the task involves the application of the philosophy of pragmatic constructivism (which explains how people can relate to their reality in ways that lead to successful action) and the philosophical concept of the “good life” (which establishes the values to be pursued through action and so defines action success). Also, it outlines the necessary characteristics of measurement frameworks if they are to be effective in the development and control of human practices to achieve desired values.

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for guiding the measurement of how a sustainable good life has improved and/or deteriorated as a result of organisational activities. It outlines a system of concepts on basic and instrumental values for analysing the condition of maintaining a sustainable good life in real terms. This is related to the financial results and societal regulations to analyse and adjust controls according to the real economic goals. Also, it provides a system of value measurands to produce valid information about the development of a sustainable good life. The measurand makes accounting reporting reflect the conditions of the good life that constitute the real economy instead of merely the financial economy driven by shareholder capitalism. Providing tools to analyse whether the existing practices of business and social regulations promote or counteract the real economic goals of producing a sustainable good life means the measurement system proposed makes the invisible hand of the market visible.

The mechanism proposed to enable accounting reporting to reflect real values and the real economy is a new conceptual framework that will allow accounting to more fully realise its potential to contribute to a “better world”. In aiming to serve a sustainable good life, accounting reporting will inherently foster ethical social practices.

This study aims to examine whether firms that appear to exhibit high sustainable outputs are more likely to pay higher audit fees than firms without such outputs.

The sustainability outputs are measured using a sustainable product portfolio consisting of four products: clean energy products, eco-design products (EDP), environmental products (EP) and sustainable building projects (SBP). The audit fee variable is measured by the natural logarithm of the total amount of audit fees. The study tests two models of the association between these outputs and audit fees; Model 1 tests this association in the absence of the moderating variable (sustainability committee), and Model 2 tests the association in the presence of the moderating variable.

An analysis of data on 261 European firms from the Refinitiv Eikon database from 2010 to 2019 shows that high sustainability outputs are significantly and positively associated with audit fees. More importantly, this association is moderated by the presence of a board-level sustainability committee, suggesting that this type of committee reflects a factor considered by auditors in their audit risk assessment practices. The findings indicate that in Model 1, one (EP) out of four variables has a significant and positive association with audit fees, while in Model 2 and in the presence of sustainability committee, two variables (EP and EDP) have a significant and negative association with audit fees. However, the robust analysis shows that three variables (EP, EDP and SBP) have significant and negative associations with audit fees.

The study findings have important implications for policymakers, auditors and firms’ managers. For policymakers, the findings provide support for the argument that sustainable attitudes incentivise firms to manage sustainable product profiles more effectively. As such, policymakers should incentivise firms to establish a sustainability committee and regulate its role and responsibilities. Auditors should coordinate with the sustainability committee to facilitate audit efforts and reduce audit fees.

Understanding the relationship between sustainable products and audit fees will allow firms to improve their portfolio of sustainable products. In addition, other social implications of this study relate to improving relationships with society by establishing a sustainability committee that is responsible to communicate with that society.

The results support the argument that firms should manage sustainable product portfolios more effectively. In addition, the results of the study highlight the importance of a new variable as a moderator, the sustainability committee, which has not been examined before.

This study reviews scholarly work in sustainable green logistics and remanufacturing (SGLR) and their subdisciplines, in combination with bibliometric, thematic and content analyses that provide a viewpoint on categorization and a future research agenda. This paper provides insight into current research trends in the subjects of interest by examining the most essential and most referenced articles promoting sustainability and climate-neutral logistics.

For the literature review, the authors extracted and sifted 2180 research and review papers for the period 2008–2023 from the Scopus database. The authors performed bibliometric and content analyses using multiple software programs such as Gephi, VOSviewer and R programming.

The SGLR papers can be grouped into seven clusters: (1) The circular economy facets; (2) Decarbonization of operations to nurture a climate-neutral business; (3) Green sustainable supply chain management; (4) Drivers and barriers of reverse logistics and the circular economy; (5) Business models for sustainable logistics and the circular economy; (6) Transportation problems in sustainable green logistics and (7) Digitalization of logistics and supply chain management.

In this review, fundamental ideas are established, research gaps are identified and multiple future research subjects are proposed. These propositions are categorized into three main research streams, i.e. (1) Digitalization of SGLR, (2) Enhancing scopes, sectors and industries in the context of SGLR and (3) Developing more efficient and effective climate-neutral and climate change-related solutions and promoting more environmental-related and sustainability research concerning SGLR. In addition, two conceptual models concerning SGLR and climate-neutral strategies are developed and presented for managers and practitioners to consider when adopting green and sustainability principles in supply chains. This review also highlights the need for academics to go beyond frameworks and build new techniques and instruments for monitoring SGLR performance in the real world.

This study provides an overview of the evolution of SGLR; it also clarifies concepts, environmental concerns and climate change practices, particularly those directed to supply chain management.

This study aims to explore the use of knowledge sharing (KS) in delivering open social innovation (OSI) solutions for sustainable development in the context of economically marginalized, rural societies in India.

The study is guided by an exploratory, qualitative approach using an embedded case study design with four social enterprises. The study approaches the use of KS in three stages of OSI: (1) the stages of ideating and prototyping, (2) the initial stages of experimenting and business development and (3) the more current and future-oriented stages of organizations’ strategies for expanding market opportunities for maximizing impact.

The first stage used KS for collaborative efforts among diverse stakeholders to recognize the needs of marginalized people and ideate suitable ecological solutions. The social enterprises acted as orchestrators in this stage. The second stage involved a more dynamic role of KS in the refinement of social enterprises’ market offerings, generating additional innovations and value propositions, which diversified the scope of the social enterprises. This was facilitated by enterprises’ ability to be open systems, which change and evolve through OSI processes and KS. In the third stage, social enterprises’ use of KS was shifted towards future business development by expanding market opportunities with solutions that tackle complex societal and ecological problems, thereby contributing to sustainable development goals.

The present study contributes to studies on OSI, focusing on sustainable development and the role played by social enterprises operating in rural, economically marginalized areas, which have been an understudied phenomenon in the open innovation literature.