Abstract
The Sustainable Development agenda for 2030 adopted at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit on 25 September 2015 incorporates a set of comprehensive long-term people-centric goals and targets which are universal in nature and require a changed approach. Sustainability is a strategy to create long-term value by adopting triple bottom line approach involving social, environmental and ecological perspectives. Consultants from Bain & Company report that when employees need to choose between sustainability and business goals, they mostly go for business goals which adversely affects sustainability initiatives (Jenny Davis-Peccoud, Paul Stone, and Clare Tovey, 2016,
Sustainability is emerging as a trend and is becoming an imperative for companies across industry as 62 per cent executives consider sustainability to be a competitive strategy for the present, while 22 per cent executives think it to be so in the future (Knut Haanaes, IMD, Laussane). Quoting BCG/MIT study (2009–2016) he posits that while 60 per cent companies incorporate it in their strategy only 25 per cent include it in their business model indicating the gap between ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’ which needs to be bridged along with the gap between ‘compliance’ and ‘competitive advantage’ (
This special issue on sustainability is an endeavour to put together conceptual and empirical research articles highlighting environmental sustainability, sustainable consumption, sustainable leadership, sustainable performance, disability inclusion, women directors and firm performance, and impact of board busyness on firm efficiency of East Asia countries for wider dissemination of the knowledge and promotion of research in this emerging field.