Title: Sustainable innovation for sustainable business performance - a systematic review of recent literature (2008-2018)

Authors: Santosh Satyanarayan Baheti; Usha Lenka

Addresses: Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Haridwar-247667, Uttarakhand, India ' Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Haridwar-247667, Uttarakhand, India

Abstract: The concept of sustainable innovation has gained worldwide attention in recent years, which has enhanced its implementation. However, few studies have attempted to map the global research of sustainable innovation and its practices. This study utilises a systematic review of the global trend and structure of sustainable innovation research covering the time span of 11 years between 2008 and 2018. The descriptive statistics of published articles is examined firstly; i.e., year of publication, research techniques adopted the nature of the article, industry, field, and country of study. Thematic analysis was also carried out on sustainable innovative practices. The analysis shows an upward trend of literature and the growing importance of sustainable innovation practices like, sustainable branding, product recycling, corporate social responsibility initiatives, good governance practices, etc. In addition, the research paper highlights different new areas that deserve attention, such as the social dimension of sustainable innovation, the growing importance of corporate governance mechanisms, and sustainable branding.

Keywords: innovation; sustainability practices; systematic literature review; company performance; stakeholders.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBEX.2021.114733

International Journal of Business Excellence, 2021 Vol.23 No.4, pp.517 - 545

Received: 19 Feb 2019
Accepted: 08 Jun 2019
Published online: 04 May 2021 *

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