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Environment, Development and Sustainability

A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development

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Environment, Development and Sustainability - Call for Papers

Sustainability and Environmental Innovation

Sustainability is a response in safeguarding our ecosystem and a strategy to acquire competitive advantages, and it must be allied to innovation as a fundamental skill to create a greener society favouring the exploitation of growth opportunities based on new, sustainable business models. The environmental innovation resulting from integration of the philosophy of sustainability in the context of the business innovation process has become an unavoidable option for companies as a means to obtain competitive advantage and pursue sustainability under growing environmental pressure.

In the literature, environmental innovation is also known as sustainable, ecological or green innovation, or sometimes eco-innovation. In this domain, environmental innovation is a specific form of innovation that aims to reduce the impact of products and production processes on the natural environment.

Concerning the perspective of market attraction, previous studies indicate the fact that eco-innovation results from expectations of turnover, the search for new eco-innovations; previous economic performance; and consumer benefits. In relation to the technological impulse, the literature has devoted attention to companies’ R&D activities, possessing knowledge capital, organisational systems and management focused on environmental innovations. As for regulatory effects, previous studies have focused on the roles of environmental policies and standards aiming for adoption of eco-innovation and the creation of leading markets for innovation.

This Special Issue aims to shed light on the still unexplored impacts of corporate sustainability, quality of working life, and green finance on environmental innovation, following a multi-dimensional approach, i.e., at the macro-economic (countries and financial markets) and micro-economic (companies) levels. Examples of research topics to be addressed in the scope of the current special issue are the following:

  • What are the relations between environmental innovation, sustainability and green finance, in the short and long-term?
  • How environment, society and government scores (e.g. ESG scores) and green finance, in different states of financial stress, economic uncertainty and political risk, affect environmental innovation?
  • In what extent each category of sustainability influences the behaviours oriented to environmental innovation?
  • What are the effects of sustainability regulations and policies on environmental innovation?
  • How the quality of working life affects environmental innovation and productivity?
  • What is the role played by organizational resilience moderating or mediating the relationship between corporate sustainability and environmental innovation?

Guest Editors:

João Leitão, Department of Management and Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal
E-mail: jleitao@ubi.pt (this opens in a new tab)

Vítor Moutinho, Department of Management and Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal
E-mail: ferreira.moutinho@ubi.pt (this opens in a new tab)

Ernesto Santibanez-González, Associate Professor, Industrial Engineering Department, and Executive Director of CES4.0 Initiative, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad de Talca, Chile
E-mail: ferreira.moutinho@ubi.pt (this opens in a new tab)


Jian Zuo, Associate Professor, School of Architecture and Built Environment, The University of Adelaide, Australia
E-mail: jian.zuo@adelaide.edu.au (this opens in a new tab)

Dina Pereira, UBIMedical, Incubator, University of Beira Interior, Estrada Municipal 506 6200-284 Covilhã, Portugal
E-mail: dina@ubi.pt (this opens in a new tab)


Deadline for submission: 30 November 2021


How to submit?

Submit your article via Editorial Manager (this opens in a new tab) or by clicking on the Submit manuscript button on the home page of Environment, Development and Sustainability (this opens in a new tab). Please check the Instructions for authors (this opens in a new tab) before submitting and select "S.I.: Sustainability and Environmental Innovation” as Article type. In general, manuscripts should be submitted in Word (this opens in a new tab) and not exceed 7000 words (this opens in a new tab).

Environment, Development and Sustainability is a hybrid open access journal. Authors can opt to make their research open access (OA) with Open Choice if they wish. More information can be found here (this opens in a new tab). Visit Springer Nature’s open access funding & support services (this opens in a new tab) for information about research funders and institutions that provide funding for APCs.

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