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Enhancing Sustainable Relationships

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2023) | Viewed by 27630

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Andreia Gabriela Andrei

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Iasi, Romania
Interests: brand management; relational capital; intellectual capital; knowledge management

Dr. Stefan Andrei Nestian

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Iasi, Romania
Interests: knowledge management; human resource management; quality management; organizational performance management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This call seeks to collect papers looking into the topic of business and work relationships from multiple angles, especially in light of the growing importance of their impact on the sustainable development of organisations, markets, and communities.

Current research in various areas (e.g., corporate social responsibility, brand management, industrial marketing, relationship marketing, social capital, relational capital, intellectual capital, knowledge management, human resource management) has highlighted the crucial importance of relationships established, developed, and maintained with clients, partners, and employees for the sustainable development of businesses, markets, and communities. Most of the studies concluded that any organisation is highly dependent on the internal and external relationships it cultivates (Bontis, 1998, 2002, 2004; Aggarwal, 2004; Nonaka, 2007; López‐Gamero, Zaragoza‐Sáez, Claver‐Cortés and Molina‐Azorín, 2011; Malone and Fiske, 2013; Andrei and Zait, 2014a, 2014b, 2017; Hohenthal, Johanson and Johanson, 2014; Kianto, Ritala, Spenderand Vanhala, 2014; Inkinen, 2015; Arnold, 2017; Bolisani and Bratianu, 2017; Januškaitė and Užienė, 2018; Clipa, Clipa, Danileț, and Andrei, 2019; Lopez-Cabrales and Valle-Cabrera, 2020; Vatamanescu, Cegarra-Navarro, Andrei, Dincă and Alexandru, 2020; Bratianu, Nestian, Tita, Voda and Guta, 2020—to name just a few).

All of these relationships have been highly impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, bringing unprecedented change into current economic realities, as well as into business and work relationships, thus making room for a rapidly emerging line of research covering this new set of additional and highly dynamic challenges.

In this sense, widely acknowledged as sustainable business development levers, long-term relationships, which are mutually beneficial at multiple levels (economic, social, and environmental), provide a fertile research ground for advancing novel insights into sustainable value creation, sustainable value sharing, sustainable business models, and related best practices.

This Special Issue will therefore focus on the benefits and challenges that organisations face when they act to build sustainable relationships with specific stakeholders, such as customers (and/or consumers), business partners, and employees. This call welcomes theoretical, methodological, and practical contributions presenting new perspectives, viewpoints, analyses, and case studies discussing the process and the impact of relationships enhancement on sustainable development of organisations, including, but not limited to, the following topics:

value creation and sharing in dyadic business relationships and/or in business networks
partnerships, knowledge networks, and sustainable advantage
customer relationships or brand relationships and sustainable market development
relational capital and systemic value
human capital, employment relationships, and sustainable human resource management.

Dr. Andreia Gabriela Andrei
Dr. Stefan Andrei Nestian
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

sustainable relationships
customer relationships
business relationships
work relationships
human capital
relational capital
intellectual capital

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 1820 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Effect of Digitalization on Youth Unemployment for EU Countries: Treat or Threat?

by Oğuz Başol, Hüseyin Sevgi and Esin Cumhur Yalçın

Sustainability 2023, 15(14), 11080; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su151411080 - 15 Jul 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2678

Abstract

Unemployment affects approximately 73 million young people, representing 17.9% of the global youth workforce in 2022. Although there are several policies to prevent youth unemployment, digitalization seems to be one of the strongest. This research focuses on the impact of the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) on youth unemployment in 27 European countries from 2018 to 2021. For the research, the “Digital Economy and Society Index” was measured with four sub-dimensions. These were “connectivity”, “digital public services”, “human capital”, and “digital technology integration”. Additionally, “Youth Unemployment” was measured with three sub-dimensions. These included the “long-term youth unemployment rate”, “not in education, employment, or training rate”, and “youth unemployment rate”. The analyses were conducted using SmartPLS 4 and the results showed that the DESI reduces youth unemployment each year. According to the findings, the indicators of DESI can be an effective strategy for combating youth unemployment in European countries. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enhancing Sustainable Relationships)

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16 pages, 290 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Using the Transparency of Supply Chain Powered by Blockchain to Improve Sustainability Relationships with Stakeholders in the Food Sector: The Case Study of Lavazza

by Patrizia Gazzola, Enrica Pavione, Arianna Barge and Franco Fassio

Sustainability 2023, 15(10), 7884; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15107884 - 11 May 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2840

Abstract

Food product safety and quality are considered to be of the utmost significance on a global scale. Highly publicized food safety incidents have significantly increased public interest in food traceability, defined as “the ability to track any food, feed, food-producing animal or substance that will be used for consumption, through all stages of production, processing, and distribution” (European Union). The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that governments, producers, and consumers work together to ensure food safety, which calls for the dissemination of pertinent information throughout complex food value networks. Therefore, it is in the best interest of profit-driven businesses to implement information systems for tracking food goods, a significant byproduct of which is the likelihood of increased profitability. This paper aims to explore the ample possibilities for such implementations that are now available thanks to blockchain technology. In particular, the goal is to explore the dynamics of this technology and identify how it helps to create good customer relationships. For this purpose, the case of Lavazza, an important Italian roasted coffee company that has recently introduced a blockchain-tracked product to the market, is analyzed in detail, including all the steps that made the application of the technology possible and how it was finally communicated to the consumer. The case study offers a concrete example that resulted from both stakeholders’ internal need for greater traceability and consumers’ external need for greater transparency regarding the company’s sourcing processes. In this pilot project, collaboration among all the entities that are part of the chain was essential to delivering a formative, customized, and ultimately, easy-to-understand experience to the end consumer. Finally, Lavazza is an example of a company that decided to challenge itself by following a trend that will be increasingly present in future socioeconomic scenarios. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enhancing Sustainable Relationships)

24 pages, 7891 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluating Developer Responses to App Reviews: The Case of Mobile Banking Apps in Saudi Arabia and the United States

by Maymunah Abdullatif Alismail and Abdulmohsen Saud Albesher

Sustainability 2023, 15(8), 6701; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15086701 - 15 Apr 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1625

Abstract

Application stores (app stores) enable developers to interact with users by responding to their reviews. Many developers continuously monitor user reviews and seek to respond to them effectively and efficiently to boost user satisfaction, which in the end increases the app’s rating. Thus, it is essential to study developer responses and how to improve them. This research was aimed at evaluating developer responses to user reviews in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in the banking domain. Ten Saudi and ten United States (U.S.) bank apps were selected from each store as the sample. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed to code and categorize developer responses for each app using content analysis. The study found that developers’ responses can be divided into three types of interaction: interactive response, semi-interactive response, and no response. A main finding is that responses by U.S. bank app developers outperformed those by Saudi bank app developers in terms of the number and quality of responses. This research provides valuable recommendations for users, developers, and app stores to enhance user–developer interaction. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enhancing Sustainable Relationships)

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11 pages, 388 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Online Shopping in Relationship with Perception, Attitude, and Subjective Norm during COVID-19 Outbreak: The Case of Vietnam

by Thi Mai Anh Nguyen, Thi Hue Nguyen and Hieu Hoc Le

Sustainability 2022, 14(22), 15009; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su142215009 - 13 Nov 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3153

Abstract

People all across the world, especially in Vietnam, have been motivated to make online purchases since the COVID-19 pandemic, which started in early 2020. Despite the problematic developments of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the 2020–2021 period, Vietnam has experienced a considerable increase in e-commerce, both in terms of users and revenue, contributing considerably to national economic growth. The purpose of this study is to examine how COVID-19 affects Vietnamese customers’ online purchasing decisions. We conducted a survey of 638 Vietnamese internet shoppers for this, and the results were analyzed using SPSS. The results show that attitudes, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and subjective norms all positively and significantly impact customer purchase intention. The desire to make an online purchase, however, is negatively and negligibly impacted by perceived risk. Online purchasing behavior is positively influenced by the intention to buy online. The perceived risk of the COVID-19, in particular, significantly modifies the relationship between perceived usefulness and perceived usability and online shopping intention, but only marginally modifies the relationship between attitude, subjective norms, and perceived risk and online purchase intention. Using a combined Theory of Acceptance Model (TAM) and Theory of Planned Behaviors (TPB) model with COVID-19 as an external model variable, the study adds to the body of knowledge by providing empirical findings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enhancing Sustainable Relationships)

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22 pages, 1191 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Enhancing Sustainable Cosmetics Brand Purchase: A Comprehensive Approach Based on the SOR Model and the Triple Bottom Line

by Camelia Grădinaru, Daniel-Rareș Obadă, Ioan-Alexandru Grădinaru and Dan-Cristian Dabija

Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 14118; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su142114118 - 29 Oct 2022

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 5489

Abstract

Profitable and dynamic, the cosmetics industry strives to conform to the environmental ideals and practices of the 21st century. For years, NGOs, the media, and consumers have accused cosmetics brands of pollution, environmental disasters, and safety concerns. These allegations can spread faster in the online environment and cause genuine brand crises. Many cosmetic company managers continue to assess the necessity of accelerating their business toward sustainability initiatives and being more consumer centric. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the impact of economic, social, and environmental sustainability on brand attachment and brand attractiveness, which may result in a positive WOM, enhance purchase intention, and finally lead to the intention to join online brand communities. To implement the research scope, the authors developed a conceptual model based on the triple bottom line (TBL) and the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) approach. To assess the conceptual model, the authors have conducted quantitative research, through an online questionnaire, with data being collected from consumers via an online survey platform. The snowball sample comprised 1632 valid responses from consumers of sustainable cosmetics brands. Further on, the conceptual model was assessed employing structural equations modelling via SmartPLS. The results confirm the impact of the three pillars of TBL (i.e., economic, social, and environmental sustainability) (stimuli) on brand attachment and brand attractiveness (organism), which finally generates positive WOM, triggers purchase intention, and enhances consumers’ intention to join an online brand community (response). From a theoretical perspective, our research contributes to extending knowledge based on the SOR approach and TBL applied to sustainable cosmetics brands. Considering the significant effects of economic, social, and environmental sustainability on consumer perception and intention, the study also pinpoints some major management implications for the cosmetic industry. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enhancing Sustainable Relationships)

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13 pages, 592 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Intellectual Capital and Firm Performance in Vietnam: The Moderating Role of Corporate Social Responsibility

by Ngoc Phu Tran, Co Thi Huyen Dinh, Hien Thi Thu Hoang and Duc Hong Vo

Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12763; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su141912763 - 07 Oct 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2007

Abstract

The effects of intellectual capital on firm performance have been extensively investigated. However, the important role of corporate social responsibility in moderating this intellectual capital–performance nexus has largely been neglected in the existing literature. This study uses a sample of 60 listed firms on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange from 2011 to 2020 to examine the independent and joint effects of intellectual capital and corporate social responsibility on firm performance in Vietnam. The generalized method of moments is used. We find that both independent and joint effects exist. Furthermore, our results suggest that structural capital efficiency and capital employed efficiency are the two critical components of intellectual capital affecting firm performance. Interestingly, the joint effects of intellectual capital and CSR on firm performance are also confirmed in our analysis. These findings shed light on important policy implications concerning managerial policies targeting both intellectual capital and corporate social activities to improve firm performance in Vietnam. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enhancing Sustainable Relationships)

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17 pages, 1156 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Strategic Guidelines for the Intellectualization of Human Capital in the Context of Innovative Transformation

by Aleksandra Kuzior, Olena Arefieva, Alona Kovalchuk, Paulina Brożek and Volodymyr Tytykalo

Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 11937; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su141911937 - 22 Sep 2022

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 1730

Abstract

Context and purpose: This study focuses on identifying the current qualities of enhancing the action of intellectualization of human capital. The main purpose of the article is to identify relevant strategic benchmarks for the intellectualization of human capital in enterprises under conditions of innovative transformation. Research method: The methods of research are synthesis and analysis, used to identify trends in the processes of intellectualization of human capital on enterprises, factor analysis methods in combination with methods of expert evaluations, and other general scientific methods. Findings: The article offers, for the first time, a definition of the essence of intellectualization of human capital as a separate economic process, which is based on the renewal of competencies in accordance with the needs of enterprise development and includes the need for their up-to-date globalization and industry trends in the economy of the country. The relationship between the intellectualization of human capital and innovation has been defined. The influence of factors on the processes of intellectualization of human capital on enterprises in conditions of innovative transformations has been investigated. It was found that such factors are prerequisites for the formation of strategic guidelines for the development of the intellectualization of human capital. The main aspects of innovative transformations by identifying trends of intellectualization of Ukrainian human capital in the international space through the analysis of the Global Innovation Index have been investigated. Conclusion and innovation: Thus, the relationship between the intellectualization of human capital and innovation, which affects the sustainability of economic systems, was determined. According to the results of the study, the key directions of formation and development of strategic guidelines for the intellectualization of human capital of enterprises are proposed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enhancing Sustainable Relationships)

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16 pages, 324 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploring the Demand-Side of the Informal Economy during the COVID-19 Restrictions: Lessons from Iași, Romania

by Ioana Alexandra Horodnic, Colin C. Williams, Oana Țugulea and Iuliana Claudia Stoian Bobâlcă

Sustainability 2022, 14(12), 7228; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14127228 - 13 Jun 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1781

Abstract

Little attention has been paid to why consumers choose to purchase goods and services from the informal economy. Similarly, few studies have been conducted on consumer behaviour in relation to informal markets during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the article is to evaluate, for the first time, whether the COVID-19 pandemic influenced consumer behaviour in relation to the informal economy. Qualitative evidence collected in Iași, Romania, is reported. The finding is that the most important motives for purchasing goods and services from the informal economy are related to social ends, such as supporting local businesses, maintaining relationships with others, and enhancing sustainable development. The novel finding of this research is that community exchange in the form of mutual aid and reciprocity is not activated only for friends, neighbours, kin or work colleagues but also for local businesses facing financial difficulties. The customers are displaying solidarity and empathy for their situation. As such, this article adds to previous findings indicating that the motivation of lower cost is not the universal rationale for purchasing from the informal economy as many consumers choose to make purchases from informal market driven by social rationales. The paper ends by discussing the policy implications of the findings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enhancing Sustainable Relationships)

15 pages, 878 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploring the Mediating Role of Knowledge Sharing between Informal Business Networks and Organizational Performance: An Insight into SMEs Internationalization in CEE

by Elena-Mădălina Vătămănescu, Andreea Mitan, Paul Claudiu Cotîrleț and Andreia Gabriela Andrei

Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 3915; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14073915 - 25 Mar 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2101

Abstract

The current study aims to explore the mediating role of knowledge-sharing between international informal business networks and organizational performance. Emphasis is laid on a context-driven perspective, namely the internationalization of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Central and East Europe (CEE). To that end, an online questionnaire-based survey was conducted with 111 managers of CEE SMEs operating in different trade branches. The findings have shown that 46.6% of the variance in organizational performance is explained by the proposed model while 38.9% of the variance in the knowledge sharing process is explained by the affiliation of CEE SMEs to international informal business networks. The results have both theoretical and practical implications, supporting the imperative to further study the phenomena apposite to CEE region as a compelling research laboratory for multidimensional organizational idiosyncrasies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enhancing Sustainable Relationships)

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12 pages, 677 KiB

Open AccessArticle

How Switching Costs with Process Monitoring and Operational Integration Affect Sustainable Supplier Relationship

by Sunghee Lee and Jinsoo Park

Sustainability 2021, 13(24), 13716; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su132413716 - 12 Dec 2021

Viewed by 2731

Abstract

Building on sustainable supply chain management and operations strategy literature, our study seeks to identify structural relationships between switching cost and sustainable supplier relationships from a demand-side perspective. More specifically, this study looks at the impact of the switching cost on process monitoring, operation integration, and sustainable supplier relationships. To test the structural relationships in our research model, we used Manufacturing Productivity Survey data from Korea to conduct an empirical analysis based on 351 data that fit our study’s purpose. The results show that the indirect effect of switching cost on sustainable supplier relationships through process monitoring and operational integration is positively valid. Additionally, the results emphasize that the social exchange theory can be explained in the perspective of the switching cost. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enhancing Sustainable Relationships)

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