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The article aims to explore the transformative journey of AcmeTech Manufacturing, a fictional company influenced by real-life events, from environmental negligence to adopting sustainable and responsible business practices. By examining AcmeTech's strategic communication and sustainability initiatives, the study seeks to highlight the importance of integrating sustainability within global supply chains and the role of strategic communication in building stakeholder trust and achieving corporate sustainability goals.

This research adopts a case study methodology, focusing on AcmeTech Manufacturing as a representative example. The case study approach allows for an in-depth exploration of AcmeTech's challenges, strategies and outcomes in its pursuit of corporate sustainability. Drawing from real-life events, the study delves into the company's transformation, its commitment to transparent communication and its efforts to incorporate sustainable practices within its global supply chains.

AcmeTech Manufacturing, once criticized for its environmental negligence, has embarked on a comprehensive sustainability journey. Recognizing the erosion of stakeholder trust due to past actions, the company has prioritized transparent and strategic communication of its sustainability efforts. AcmeTech's commitment extends beyond internal changes, emphasizing the importance of its global supply chains in its overall environmental impact. By adopting a Cooperative Advantage approach, rooted in the philosophy of ubuntu, AcmeTech not only addresses its environmental challenges but also strives to become a leader in sustainable manufacturing practices.

The article offers a unique perspective by combining the concepts of strategic communication and corporate sustainability within the context of global supply chains. Using the fictional case of AcmeTech Manufacturing, influenced by real-world scenarios, the study introduces the Cooperative Advantage approach, rooted in the African philosophy of ubuntu. This approach emphasizes the interconnectedness of all stakeholders, promoting a people-centered strategy to sustainability, making the article a novel contribution to the discourse on corporate sustainability.

This paper aims to explore what is known in the body of literature on sustainability professionals in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry to support the formulation of research questions for future studies.

This was done through a systematic literature review in Scopus and Web of Science. In the literature search, 22 journal papers were selected to be included in the review because of their relevance to sustainability professionals, professional roles and environmental practices in the AEC industry.

Key characteristics of the papers such as methodology and theory are mapped, followed by main findings on how the sustainability profession and sustainability professionals’ roles are studied within the body of literature. The review shows that the topic of sustainability professionals in the AEC industry is currently under-researched and under-theorised. Specifically, there is a lack of in-depth studies on sustainability professionals’ roles and agency.

By providing an overview of the current literature on sustainability professionals in the AEC industry, it is possible to identify research gaps to formulate research questions for future studies.

This is important as collaboration between professions, including sustainability professionals, is believed to be the key for a successful shift towards sustainability; furthering the understanding of sustainability professionals’ role is, therefore, central.

This paper is the first systematic literature review on sustainability professionals in the AEC industry.

Neither management leaders nor academic researchers have developed adequate responses or explanations to the general lack of success in implementations of sustainability strategies. Consistent with the theme of this conference, we have examined innovative concepts and practices of leading companies that have successfully implemented sustainability. In sustainability, as in other areas of performance measurement and management control, new paradigms and practices and more research may be needed to improve organizational performance.

An effective business model (BM) is essential for the success of any company, with sustainable innovation being a critical component of this model. This entails finding creative ways to meet present needs without compromising future generations. In this regard, cooperation can be crucial in developing sustainable innovation. This paper investigates how different types of cooperation impact the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) innovation for environmental sustainability. In this sense, it intends to compare the effects of cooperation acquired nationally or at a European level.

The methods used are logistic regression for the sample of 87,374 observations from 14 countries of the Eurostat Community Innovation Survey (CIS) database.

The results confirm that cooperation with national or European agents significantly impacts the innovation for environmental sustainability of SMEs; however, not all cooperations have the same significance level. At a national level, cooperation with the suppliers of equipment, materials, components or software, clients or customers and universities or other higher education institutes impacts the innovations for environmental sustainability developed by SMEs. At a European level, cooperation established with other enterprises within your enterprise group, equipment, materials, components or software suppliers, clients or customers and government, public or private research institutes significantly impacts innovations for environmental sustainability.

This study also provides substantial theoretical contributions on the subject and more information about the importance of cooperation by SMEs in developing innovation for environmental sustainability.

The paper investigates how visibility, information technology and innovation management impact sustainability performance. It proposes a framework explaining the role of visibility in driving firms' sustainable performance and the relevance of innovation management and information technologies in enhancing organisational visibility. This study intends to add to the discussion within the management literature about the potential of innovation management to drive sustainability. It seeks to provide insight into the practices that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can adopt to improve their sustainable performance.

Using empirical methods, the study investigates SMEs in central Mexico. The demographic information in the dataset includes 15 years as an average length of service from firms. Of the surveyed firms, 70% were from the manufacturing sector and 30% were from the service sector, as these are the most representative sectors of the productive region. A variance-based structural equation model approach was used to test the hypotheses, processed with the partial least squares (PLS) regression method.

The research results show that visibility significantly impacts sustainability performance. Innovation management has a higher influence on visibility than information technologies, emphasising the need to improve the quality of information in firms, not just the tools. The findings support managers in comprehending the crucial importance of visibility in aiding firms to achieve higher sustainability performance.

The study only examined a sample of Mexican SMEs; therefore, the findings' generalizability must be considered within this context. Secondly, the survey only focused on services and manufacturing firms and a more detailed analysis of the sector could provide further clarity on the relationships between variables. As a result, future research should consider these limitations and explore additional contexts to improve the overall understanding of the topic. Moreover, the scale used to measure the variables was adapted from other researchers with similar context research and reflective variables.

The results provide helpful information for SME managers about the importance of focusing on innovation management processes and employing information technologies as crucial managerial strategies. This will aid in increasing visibility and supporting the development of sustainability performance in firms.

The world red-code, among others, with climate change and social gaps, has generated the need to contribute to sustainable development, and it has mobilised people on all levels all over the world for the simple purpose of preserving life. Therefore, society, as a crucial group that affects and is affected by this red-code situation, should act in favour of visibility, the use of high-quality information (e.g. transparent, accessible and relevant) and information technologies to promote sustainable practices. This could mean that society should be prepared to incorporate new capabilities and spaces to interchange knowledge as a participatory community that can contribute to better sustainable dynamics that could expand its participation in public decisions. Also, the government should encourage digital democracy (e.g. develop social participation platforms), opening and harmonising rules and mechanisms combining high-quality information with IT to provide flexible and adequate services that support sustainable development, such as efforts towards constructing sustainable and smart cities.

This study explores how innovation management can drive firms' sustainability performance, which is crucial for improving competitiveness. The question of how to enhance sustainability performance through managerial drivers is a critical one. This study empirically investigates the nexus of visibility and sustainability performance, innovation management and information technology with visibility.

The primary objective of this paper is to investigate the relation between the joint provision of sustainability assurance and the readability of sustainability assurance statements. Additionally, it explores whether the presence of a female assurance partner influences the relation between the joint provision of sustainability assurance and the readability of sustainability assurance statements.

We analyzed a dataset comprising 882 firm-year observations from companies operating in sustainability sensitive industries for the period that spans the years 2016–2018.

The research indicates that joint sustainability assurance provision is associated with a more readable sustainability assurance statement, consistent with the “four-eyes” principle. Furthermore, the presence of a female assurance provider influences the joint assurance provision’s impact on sustainability assurance statement readability. Collectively, these results remain robust as they hold unchanged after controlling for endogeneity concerns.

This study provides novel insights into the recent sustainability assurance literature, being the first to examine joint assurance provision, assurance partner gender and sustainability assurance statement readability.

This study has the potential to catalyze regulatory and policy initiatives by providing compelling evidence in favor of mandating joint audits within the area of sustainability assurance practices. Additionally, this research contributes to the ongoing discussion about gender diversity in accounting and nonaccounting assurance firms, providing evidence of the positive impact of female assurance partners on sustainability assurance statement readability.

The regression results provide preliminary evidence on how the presence of a female audit partner influences the relationship between the sustainability assurance joint provision and sustainability assurance statement readability, an issue that has not been examined before.

This study aims to investigate the level of online sustainability disclosure provided by international universities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ultimate goal is to identify the factors influencing the amount of sustainability information these universities disclose through their websites.

This study conducts a manual content analysis to measure the extent to which a sample of 100 international universities disseminate information on sustainability and COVID-19 issues via the web. A multiple regression analysis is performed to test the research hypotheses.

The findings confirm that universities worldwide leverage the potential of websites to convey sustainability information beneficial for stakeholders and society. Moreover, while board gender diversity positively affects the level of online sustainability disclosure, board size exerts a negative effect. Furthermore, university size, internet visibility and ranking position have no significant impact on the amount of online sustainability information provided by international universities.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that provides insight into the possible determinants of universities’ online sustainability reporting during COVID-19. This study extends prior research mainly conducted in single countries by providing data on the sustainability disclosure level of universities in different geographical regions. Empirical findings also support policymakers’ global action in the past decade to increase the role of women in leadership and governing positions.

This study investigates the effect of corporate governance (CG) characteristics on corporate sustainability performance (CSP) and whether the magnitude of CSR expenditure mediates such a relationship in the context of an emerging and developing economy-Bangladesh.

This study collects data from the annual reports of 30 private commercial banks listed with the Dhaka Stock Exchange for the period starting from 2013 to 2022, giving 300 firm-year observations. To test the hypotheses formulated, this study uses Baron and Kenny’s (1986) four-step model. Data have been analyzed using AMOS 23 to examine the direct and indirect effect of CG on sustainability performance.

This study finds that several CG variables (board size, board independence, sustainable finance committee) significantly affect several facets of sustainability performance (environmental, social, and financial performance). However, the mediating role of the magnitude of CSR expenditure in the relationship between CG mechanisms and sustainability performance is found to be limited.

The list of CG and ownership structure variables studied is not exhaustive, and the presence of a wide variation in the measurement of sustainability performance makes its measurement subjective to some extent.

This study uses the magnitude of CSR expenditure as a mediator in the relationship between CG and sustainability performance, which is rarely addressed by the extant literature in this field.