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Social Impact and Challenges of Sustainability Reporting in the Digital Era

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2022) | Viewed by 21894

Special Issue Editors

1. Faculty of Finance-Banking, Accounting and Business Administration, Titu Maiorescu University, 040051, Romania
2. Editor-in-Chief of International Journal on Innovation in Digital Economy, IGI-Global, USA
Interests: sustainable digital environments; sustainable reporting; sustainable resources management; sustainable business practices; responsibility and corporate sustainability corporate governance; environmental regulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Accounting and Audit, Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University, 176 Splaiul Unirii, 040042, Romania
Interests: sustainable reporting; sustainable business models; sustainable business practices; environmental management accounting

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The current digital evolution has affected sustainability reporting, producing changes in presentation, analysis, and interpretation, and future challenges, having a strong social impact. Many of the challenges of economic and environmental impacts have been widely debated, but the social impact produced in the age of digitalization through the implementation of sustainability and the use of different methods of highlighting performance have been less discussed.

This Special Issue entitled “Social Impact and Challenges of Sustainability Reporting in the Digital Era” will approach a wide range of topics that will help readers understand the positive and negative aspects of the social impact of sustainability reporting in the digital environment. This Special Issue welcomes papers on the technological modalities for creating and using digital sustainability or integrated reporting, the content and use of information from sustainability reporting, studies on stakeholder perceptions (local communities, specialized organisms, NGOs, etc.) reflecting the environmental performance of sustainability reports, and the benefits or limitations of sustainability reporting in the digital environment.

Contributions related to the psychological and behavioral aspects of stakeholders as well as the social impact produced by the use of digital sustainability reports are welcome. We invite papers that outline the processes related to the transdisciplinary type or other processes of scientific and practical collaboration necessary for the implementation and use of sustainable digitalization.

Prof. Dr. Ionica Oncioiu
Dr. Sorinel Căpușneanu
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

  • Environmental performance
  • Sustainability reporting
  • Integrated reporting
  • Sustainable digital business
  • Sustainable digitalization
  • Big data analytics

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 1288 KiB  
Article
Shedding Light into the Need of Knowledge Sharing in H2020 Thematic Networks for the Agriculture and Forestry Innovation
by Elena Feo, Sylvia Burssens, Hannes Mareen and Pieter Spanoghe
Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 3951; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14073951 - 27 Mar 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2100
Abstract
Providing ready-for-practice materials in an easily accessible and user-friendly way is one of the challenges of Horizon 2020 Thematic Networks (TNs) to promote agriculture and forestry innovation. Those materials are the result of the co-creation and knowledge exchange among TN actors. Using a [...] Read more.
Providing ready-for-practice materials in an easily accessible and user-friendly way is one of the challenges of Horizon 2020 Thematic Networks (TNs) to promote agriculture and forestry innovation. Those materials are the result of the co-creation and knowledge exchange among TN actors. Using a survey, we investigated the most efficient communication and dissemination (C&D) channels, types and formats of TN-produced data, as well as the involvement of TN actors. Additionally, we propose to collect TN outputs in a single digital platform, such that they are more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR), ensuring the TN’s impact. An open and interactive platform may allow us to overcome challenging issues such as language barriers, limited Internet access and differing cultural backgrounds. The results obtained from the survey suggest which content should be stored in such a digital knowledge reservoir for agriculture and forestry. For example, newsletters and visual materials are often preferred by farmers and foresters. Additionally, face-to-face interaction is confirmed to be the most preferred way of retrieving information, especially by researchers and farmers/foresters. Future work will further investigate the variations in needs of different user profiles. As such, the proposed platform can stimulate knowledge exchange among all TN actors. Full article
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11 pages, 315 KiB  
Article
Medical Electronic Prescription for Home Respiratory Care Services (PEM-CRD) at a Portuguese University Tertiary Care Centre (2014–2018): A Case Study
by Ricardo Alves, Cátia Caneiras, Ana Isabel Santos, Patricia Barbosa, João Cardoso, Paulo Caseiro, Maria João Vitorino, João Pereira and Ana Escoval
Sustainability 2020, 12(23), 9859; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12239859 - 25 Nov 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3504
Abstract
Home respiratory care (HRC) is the provision of healthcare services at the place of residence of patients or their families, with the aim of meeting needs mainly resulting from chronic respiratory conditions, permanent disability, or terminal illness. In 2016, an innovative electronic prescription [...] Read more.
Home respiratory care (HRC) is the provision of healthcare services at the place of residence of patients or their families, with the aim of meeting needs mainly resulting from chronic respiratory conditions, permanent disability, or terminal illness. In 2016, an innovative electronic prescription system, PEM-CRD, was fully implemented for HRC services in Portugal. To date, no study has addressed the impact of the execution of this digital innovation. For this purpose, we carried out an analysis of the prevalence and number of prescriptions for people with chronic respiratory diseases receiving HRC in the Lisbon metropolitan area, during 2014–2018, using the information obtained from the PEM-CRD database. The data analysis shows that while the number of patients receiving HRC treatment with a prescription has remained stable over the last four years, the number of prescriptions has significantly dropped since 2016 (2016–2018), with consequent paper and processes efficiency. The implementation of the digital Medical Electronic Prescription for Home Respiratory Care tool (PEM-CRD) and consequent dematerialization of these processes has increased the efficiency of prescribing in HRC. Additionally, the possibility of obtaining data through the PEM-CRD allows the monitoring of the evolving prevalence of therapies, improving the health services optimization and allowing reporting on data other than medicines. Full article
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17 pages, 859 KiB  
Article
Intention to Use Accounting Platforms in Romania: A Quantitative Study on Sustainability and Social Influence
by Gary Cokins, Ionica Oncioiu, Mirela Cătălina Türkeș, Dan Ioan Topor, Sorinel Căpuşneanu, Carmen Adina Paștiu, Delia Deliu and Alina Nicoleta Solovăstru
Sustainability 2020, 12(15), 6127; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12156127 - 30 Jul 2020
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3599
Abstract
Technological innovation evolves through the use of information systems and this study highlights the intentions of using accounting platforms by conducting a quantitative study on sustainability and its social influence. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence the [...] Read more.
Technological innovation evolves through the use of information systems and this study highlights the intentions of using accounting platforms by conducting a quantitative study on sustainability and its social influence. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence the acceptance and use by company managers of accounting platforms available online by developing the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) construct model. The research method used in the quantitative study was the sample survey, using the online questionnaire as a data collection tool. A number of 401 companies provided complete and useful answers to this research. The major contributions of the research were the use of two variables considered significant in the study: perceived credibility (PC) and perception of risk (PR). The results of the study showed that performance expectancy (PE), social influence (SI), and perceived risk (PR) have a positive influence on the intention to use the accounting platforms available online, while perceived credibility shows a much more significant and stronger influence. Full article
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Review

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15 pages, 270 KiB  
Review
Sustainability Strategies and Achieving SDGs: A Comparative Analysis of Leading Companies in the Automotive Industry
by Edi Lukin, Aleksandra Krajnović and Jurica Bosna
Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 4000; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14074000 - 28 Mar 2022
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 11521
Abstract
Sustainability as a growing trend in the 21st century has encompassed almost the entire world economy, including the automotive industry. As a result of this trend, automotive companies are adjusting their strategies and operations to contribute to the achievement of the concept of [...] Read more.
Sustainability as a growing trend in the 21st century has encompassed almost the entire world economy, including the automotive industry. As a result of this trend, automotive companies are adjusting their strategies and operations to contribute to the achievement of the concept of sustainability at the global level. By turning to sustainability, the automotive industry is experiencing perhaps the biggest transition in its history. This paper therefore deals with the research of sustainable strategies of leading companies in the automotive industry. The paper aims to examine the extent to which the world’s leading companies in the automotive industry meet certain SDG UN goals. The method of the qualitative comparative analysis using the desk method alternative provided the information on sustainability strategies and their fulfilment within the top five companies in the automotive industry according to the Interbrand scale from 2021, considering the UN Agenda 2030 sustainability goals. The results of the analysis showed that the observed companies in the automotive sector meet most of the goals of sustainable development of the UN with their sustainability strategies, which indicates that they are successfully adapting their business operations to modern business requirements. This also makes their brands green, hence the application of the principle of sustainability also affects the strength of their brands, adding “extended customer value”. The paper contributes not only to the development of the framework and elaboration of business models of sustainability in the automotive industry, but also to the development of further theoretical and empirical research in this field and the conceptualization of the principles of sustainability in this area. Full article
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