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Despite the general interest in the circular economy, organisations have difficulties in implementing circular practices. Developing absorptive capacity (ACAP) may foster circularity among organisations. The paper aims to shed light on relationship between ACAP and organisational performance.

To empirically investigate the contribution of ACAP in circular economy implementation, the authors analysed a European sample of more than 800 Eco-Management and Audit Scheme-registered organisations through partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The analysis demonstrates that ACAP and the underlying organisational activities of a firm significantly facilitate the implementation of a circular economy and the internalisation of an environmental management system (EMS), which consequently improve the overall performance of organisations. The authors found that the diffusion of the circular economy in the organisations’ environment does not affect their commitment to implement a circular economy.

The study expands the academic literature by framing the concept of the circular economy with ACAP theory, thereby highlighting the contribution of acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation. The results also provide useful insights for practitioners highlighting how organisations with an environmental certification can identify and pursue opportunities deriving from a circular economy. Finally, the research contributes to the debate on the effect of internalising EMSs and how ACAP improves economic performance, environmental performance and reputation.

The relationship between businesses, green strategies and financial performance has become the focus of interest for many academics, practitioners and policymakers in recent years, with often controversial results. Surprisingly, very few contributions have been made by the wine sector to this debate. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the financial advantages of Italian winemakers who opt for green strategies and obtain voluntary organic certification.

The authors compared the financial performance of 76 organic and 76 non-organic winemaking companies by means of 20 fundamental indicators of growth, profitability and solvency. The data were collected through an analysis of the 2014–2016 official annual reports. The authors used the compound annual growth rate measures, focusing on the median due to its robust characteristics. The authors then used non-parametric tests to examine the differences between the two samples.

The growth of organic companies was almost three times that of their rivals between 2014 and 2016. Both the premium price and lower costs lead to an increase in the gross margin. However, the huge investments required for organic production weigh heavily on the financial statements; although having financed these investments with a higher share of equity capital, the organic companies present a higher level of capitalisation.

Wine is a part of an agricultural industry that is too often based on industrialised food production processes. This study demonstrates the need for greener strategies that can benefit the producers, consumers and the environment. This is the first cross-sectional analysis and peer review to focus on the wine industry.

The relation between sport and sustainability is a topic that has recently raised a lot of interest among both academics and practitioners. However, in the academic literature, very few studies have investigated which solutions are implemented in football, despite its popularity, to reduce the environmental impact of its events. This study contributes to filling this gap by exploring how stadium managers tackle environmental issues for football events.

The authors have analyzed 94 sustainability reports of major sports events and conducted 6 case studies in 6 different major league stadiums around Europe in the framework of research supported by UEFA and three EU National Football Associations.

The heterogeneity of practices and goals at both the governance and operational level denote that stadium managers pursue environmental objectives mainly voluntarily and under local pressures. Efforts toward environmental improvement appear to depend on an economic and efficiency rationale, which translates into the adoption of technologies and operational practices characterized by short-term economic returns (i.e. energy and resources savings). As a result, operational practices outnumber governance-level practices.

The analysis clearly highlights that the fragmentation of operational practices derives from a lack of maturity of governance structures, especially when multiple actors have different – yet mutually influencing – responsibilities on the infrastructures or the planning and staging of football events.

Building on the notion of the holistic approach to environmental sustainability in sport management the research differentiated environmental practices according to the operational and governance dimensions. While operational practices tackle environmental aspects directly associated with football events (e.g. waste, energy consumption, water usage, etc.), governance-level practices relate to the systemic allocation of environmental roles and responsibilities within the management structure underlying football events.