International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development (16 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• Can financial success drive sustainability? Exploring the role of eco-innovation in enhancing ESG outcomes in Chinese companies  
  by Chen Anqi, Ong Tze San, Ridzwana Mohd Said, Soh Weini 
  Abstract: This study examines how financial performance influences environmental, social, and governance (ESG) outcomes among Chinese firms, focusing on the moderating effect of Eco-innovation. Using panel data from 2011 to 2021, fixed effects and generalised method of moments (GMM) methods address potential endogeneity. The results show that higher financial performance, measured by return on assets (ROA), is associated with better ESG scores, and this relationship is strengthened by Eco-innovation. A robustness check using earnings before interest and taxes to total assets ratio (EBIT) supports these findings. Unlike prior research (Sun, 2024; Liu et al., 2024), which examines ESG disclosures and green innovation, this study highlights how Eco-innovation enhances the link between financial performance and ESG. The findings have important implications for regulators in China, where policies such as the Green Finance Guidelines and the Environmental Protection Tax Law encourage sustainable practices. Policymakers could increase green innovation incentives through tax relief and subsidies, further aligning financial success with sustainability.
  Keywords: ESG; environmental; social; and governance; eco-innovation; financial performance; sustainable development.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2025.10070122
   
  

Special Issue on: ARTEM OCC The Interplay Between Creativity and Sustainability Moving from Presence to Future

• The art of eco-nudging: interactive digital art as didactic agents of change in the built environment  
  by Carmela Cucuzzella, Sherif Goubran, Firdous Nizar 
  Abstract: It is impossible to ignore the damage humankind has caused to the environment. Most of the destruction, however, remains beyond individuals direct control and is caused by the prevailing modes of consumption and production. Imagery has been instrumental in communicating the environmental degradation caused by human activity, many of which have mostly relied on techno-scientific visualisations. In this paper, we are exploring eco-art as a promising public enlightenment strategy for enabling specific actions. This paper describes the outcome of an experiment focused on eco-nudging (i.e., bridging the gap between environmental awareness and action). Can interactive experiences with digital art shift participants behavioural choices toward the optimisation of their interior spaces environmental settings? If so, how? With this experiment, we highlight the significance of daily technological companionship through digital eco-art as a research field for exploring how to better inform and activate human eco-behaviour.
  Keywords: environmental art; eco-art; eco-art and design; eco-didacticism; eco-awareness; eco-action; companionship; human-building interaction; human-building interfaces; energy-actions.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2023.10055401
   
  
• Social innovation for soils  
  by Marie-Pierre Dussine 
  Abstract: Depending on their use, soils can provide many ecosystem services, such as food supply, water purification, climate regulation or biodiversity protection. Healthy soils are therefore a prerequisite for the achievement of many sustainable development goals (SDGs). Conversely, soil sealing is a real threat to living organisms as it prevents soils from producing these crucial services. While many policies seem to have failed so far to curb land take, this paper examines how they could be today complemented by the mobilisation of different stakeholders in a polycentric equilibrium able to preserve soils. This equilibrium is based on a social innovation that requires sufficient creativity to involve stakeholders who do not necessarily share the same vision of soils. This paper draws on Behavioural Economics to outline the conditions.
  Keywords: behavioural economics; creativity; polycentric equilibrium; social innovation; soil sealing; sustainable development.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2023.10057776
   
  
• A matrix to grasp the sustainable development goals  
  by Anja Herrmann-Fankhaenel, Anne Lange 
  Abstract: This paper presents a matrix to organise the content of the sustainable development goals in a structured and less complex manner. Especially for individuals and businesses, such as small and medium enterprises, which often need more substantial knowledge about sustainability, easy access to the topic is created. Besides the numerous SDG-based tools for mapping, reporting, and monitoring, for instance, business development regarding the requirements of global sustainable development, the matrix offers aid to start dealing with the topic and to create awareness. Based on a qualitative content analysis of the Agenda 2030 the SDG-Matrix was created.
  Keywords: SDGs; sustainable development goals; sustainability; qualitative content analysis; awareness; SMEs; small and medium-sized enterprises.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2023.10057872
   
  
• Antecedents and consequences of anxiety: the relevance of perceived legitimacy  
  by Alicia Blanco-González, Gabriel Cachón-Rodríguez, Francisco Díez-Martín, Giorgia Miotto 
  Abstract: Mental health is considered as a relevant issue worldwide. It has been included in the UN Sustainable Agenda and is a political priority for policy makers. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that hygiene and safety are antecedents of anxiety, and that legitimacy and purchase intention are their consequences. We surveyed 1,200 regular supermarket shoppers. Results show that hygiene has no significance, since it is a retailing attribute that is given for grant by consumers. Safety actions reduce consumers’ anxiety and anxiety negatively influences legitimacy and purchase intention. In addition, legitimacy has a positive influence on purchase intention. This study has important academic implications since it introduces anxiety as a new variable into the agenda of business management scholars. The research highlights managerial implications such as the need to invest on safety in the retail shops and communication to reduce customers’ anxiety perception.
  Keywords: anxiety; organisational legitimacy; purchase intention; consumer behaviour; hygiene; safety; retail; change management.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2023.10058367
   
  
• Sustainability performance and employee turnover. Does industry’s technological intensity matter? A quantile regression analysis of European listed manufacturing companies  
  by Aziza Garsaa, Elisabeth Paulet 
  Abstract: The present paper aims to explore the link between the three dimensions of sustainability performance (ESG: social, environmental and governance), approximated by Standard and Poor's (S&P) ratings, and employee turnover. Furthermore, it examines the impact of the technological intensity of industries in which companies operate on this relationship. Panel data quantile regression models are estimated using a sample of 105 manufacturing firms listed in the European capital market during the period 2017-2019. With the exception of the economic dimension, the estimation results show that sustainability performance scores are negatively associated with employee turnover rate in high and medium-high technology industries. However, the opposite is found for companies operating in medium-low and low technology industries. Nevertheless, the determinants of employee turnover and the extent to which it is affected by sustainability performance scores are strongly dependent on the conditional distribution of turnover rate as well as the industry’s technological intensity.
  Keywords: sustainability performance; employee turnover; industry’s technological intensity; panel data fixed effect quantile regression.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2023.10059196
   
  

Special Issue on: Social Innovation, Sustainable Business Model Innovation and Digital Transformation

• The hybrid online diversified teaching mode based on MOOC and SPOC  
  by Min Jiang, Boda Li 
  Abstract: In order to improve the teaching effect of the traditional teaching mode, improve the students academic performance and improve the students progress rate, the paper designs a hybrid online diversified teaching mode based on massive open online courses (MOOC) and small private online course (SPOC). Firstly, carry out the reasonable distribution of teaching content and teaching activities, and realise the principle design of mixed online diversified teaching mode. Secondly, the design of mixed online diversified teaching mode is completed from the four parts of course teaching objectives, teaching content, teaching environment and teaching resources. Finally, Markov chain algorithm is used to evaluate the teaching effect under the diversified teaching mode. The results show that the teaching mode designed in this paper can effectively improve the students progress rate. The total score of students can be improved by 58 points, and the maximum utilisation rate of teaching resources can be 100%.
  Keywords: diversified teaching; distribution principle; course teaching objectives; content of courses; Markov chain algorithm.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2023.10057779
   
  
• Research on adaptive recommendation of network learning resources for personalised mobile learning platform  
  by Xiujing Ju 
  Abstract: In order to overcome the problems of long recommendation time and low recommendation accuracy in traditional learning resource recommendation methods, this paper proposes a new adaptive recommendation method for online learning resources of personalised mobile learning platform. Firstly, analyse the structure of personalised mobile learning platform and the process of mobile learning. Secondly, calculate the value of learners preference attribute for online learning resources, and conduct classification mining of personalised data. Finally, according to the prediction score, the similarity between learners cognitive ability and the difficulty of learning resources, and the similarity between learners scenarios and the types of online learning resources, the adaptive recommendation degree is calculated, and Top-N is selected from the recommendation results to recommend to learners. The experimental results show that the proposed method can shorten the adaptive recommendation accuracy and reduce the recommendation time, and the recommendation accuracy is always about 96%.
  Keywords: personalised mobile learning platform; E-learning resources; adaptive recommendation; personalised data; learners cognitive ability; long recommendation time.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2023.10057780
   
  
• An evaluation method of teaching reform effect based on grey relational degree  
  by Jianlei Zhang 
  Abstract: Aiming at the effect of teaching reform, the traditional evaluation method has some problems, such as low recall rate of index data, high proportion of noise data, and low accuracy of evaluation. The evaluation method based on grey correlation degree is proposed. First, set up the evaluation index system to obtain the evaluation indexes, and then preprocess the obtained indexes. Then, use the fuzzy IOSDATA clustering algorithm to cluster the pretreated indexes. Finally, according to the clustering results, determine the index weight based on the entropy weight method. According to the index weight, calculate the grey correlation degree, and sort the grey correlation degree according to the size, and combine it with the evaluation model to obtain the final evaluation value. The experimental results show that the index data recall rate of this method is high, the proportion of noise data is low, and the evaluation effect is good.
  Keywords: grey correlation degree; reform in education; effect evaluation; fuzzy IOSDATA clustering algorithm; rejection of abnormal points; grey correlation coefficient.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2023.10057781
   
  
• Study on evaluation method of innovative practical education quality in colleges and universities based on entropy weight method and grey correlation degree method  
  by Xiaoping Feng 
  Abstract: Aiming at the quality of innovative practice education, the current evaluation method has the problems of poor evaluation effect and low evaluation efficiency. This paper proposes a new evaluation method by combining entropy weight method and grey correlation method. First, build an evaluation index system to obtain indicators, and then calculate the weight of each indicator through entropy weight method. Finally, use the grey correlation method to obtain the correlation degree of each indicator, sort the indicators according to the size of the correlation degree, build an evaluation model, input the evaluation index data into the evaluation model, and get the score. The simulation results show that the proposed method has high evaluation accuracy and short evaluation time.
  Keywords: entropy weight method; grey correlation degree method; college innovation practice; education quality evaluation; index weight.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2023.10058005
   
  
• Analysis of market digital transformation direction under modern information technology  
  by Min Li, Liyang Sun 
  Abstract: In order to improve the digital level of the market and the success rate of digital transformation, this paper proposes a new analysis method of market digital transformation direction under modern information technology. Firstly, analyse the characteristics of market digital transformation, and build a market data center with the support of modern information technology. Secondly, the minimum spanning tree method in modern information technology is used to mine market operation data. Finally, based on the five market digital transformation directions, the market digital transformation directions are ranked by using the prospect theory. The direction that ranks first is the direction of market digital transformation. The experimental results show that the proposed digital turn direction analysis method can improve the digital level of the market and the success rate of market digital transformation, with the highest transformation success rate of 98.7%.
  Keywords: modern information technology; digital transformation of the market; transformation direction; minimum spanning tree; prospect theory.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2023.10058006
   
  
• Evaluation method of economic benefits of intercity railway based on Choquet integral method  
  by Yanan Liu, Chenyou Li, Zhinan Li 
  Abstract: In order to solve the problems of low fitting and poor sensitivity of traditional methods, an evaluation method based on Choquet integral method is proposed for the economic benefits of intercity railway. Firstly, based on the frequency analysis results and expert scoring results, reliable indicators are selected from the pre-selection set of indicators, and then the advantages and disadvantages of each object to be evaluated are ranked according to the close value of the indicators. Then, the quadratic programming method is used to construct the objective function, the heuristic least squares method is used to determine the fuzzy measure of Choquet integral, and the final evaluation result is obtained after summarising the measure values of different nodes. Experiment shows that the evaluation sensitivity of this method can reach 0.98, and the maximum fitting degree of the evaluation results can reach 0.982, which indicates that this method achieves the design expectation.
  Keywords: Choquet integration method; fuzzy measure; heuristic least square method; closeness value; quadratic programming method.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2023.10058007
   
  
• The mixed teaching reform and empirical analysis of MOOC localisation curriculum  
  by Yu Cao, Hui-sheng Zhu, Chao Li 
  Abstract: In order to solve the problems of low interest in learning and unsatisfactory improvement of learning results in traditional methods, the mixed teaching reform and empirical analysis of MOOC localisation curriculum is proposed. Firstly, SPSS statistical software is used to conduct exploratory factor analysis on the data, and alpha coefficient is used to analyse the credibility of each dimension of teaching reform. Then, take the three dimensions of peer relationship, teacher-student relationship and classroom involvement as independent variables, and the total score of learning gains as dependent variables to establish a regression model. Finally, fuzzy comprehensive evaluation is used to evaluate the effect of teaching reform, and a targeted teaching reform strategy is given. The experimental results show that after using this method, students interest in learning can be improved by 0.57, and the score can be improved by about 142 points, the practical application effect is good.
  Keywords: SPSS statistical software; MOOC localisation; factor load value; alpha coefficient; multiple linear regression analysis.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2023.10058008
   
  
• Evaluation method of online and offline interaction effect of university education in the perspective of MOOC  
  by Song Bai 
  Abstract: : The conventional evaluation process of online and offline interaction effects is not ideal in terms of evaluation accuracy. Aiming at this problem, a new evaluation method of interaction effects is designed from the perspective of MOOC. Firstly, an initial indicator system is established with the constraints of systematicness, standardisation, rationality and quantifiability of indicators. Then, standardise the indicators, and introduce the principal component analysis method to optimise the indicator system, to improve the evaluation accuracy by improving the rationality of the indicator system. Finally, based on the perfect indicators, an evaluation model including four points is constructed to achieve efficient evaluation. Through experiments, it is found that this method can improve the accuracy of the obtained results to more than 0.97, which can improve the students scores to more than 92 points, indicating that this method is feasible and effective.
  Keywords: higher education; online and offline interaction; interaction effect; principal component analysis.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2023.10058009
   
  
• Evaluation method of college students innovation and entrepreneurship ability based on priority level entropy  
  by Shu Zhang 
  Abstract: In order to overcome the problems of low accuracy, poor accuracy, and high time consumption in traditional entrepreneurial ability evaluation methods, a priority hierarchical entropy based evaluation method for college students' innovation and entrepreneurship ability was proposed. Firstly, construct an evaluation index system. Secondly, calculate the weight of the entrepreneurial ability level indicator. Then, the priority hierarchical entropy method is used to process the data and prioritise the evaluation indicators. Finally, the hierarchical entropy method is used to calculate the posterior probability of entrepreneurial success difficulty, so as to realise the evaluation of innovation and entrepreneurship ability. The results show that the accuracy of this method can reach 0.96, the accuracy can reach 98%, and the time consumption is only 13.5 s, indicating that this method can improve the evaluation effect of entrepreneurial ability.
  Keywords: priority level entropy; square root method; prioritisation; expert evaluation method; posterior probability.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2023.10058078
   
  
• Risk assessment method of e-commerce transaction based on fuzzy support vector machine  
  by Zheng Xu, Hengzhi Nie 
  Abstract: To improve the recall and accuracy of the evaluation index data and reduce the calculation error rate of the evaluation index, a fuzzy support vector machine based e-commerce transaction risk evaluation method is proposed. Build the evaluation index system, and cluster the evaluation index data using the nearest neighbour propagation clustering algorithm. The CRITIC algorithm is improved by using discrimination vector and conflict vector, and the index weight calculation result is obtained by using the improved CRITIC algorithm. The risk assessment model is built by combining the index weight calculation results and fuzzy support vector machine to obtain the assessment results. The experimental results show that the average recall rate of the index data of this method is 96.8%, the calculation error rate of the evaluation index is small, and the maximum accuracy rate is 99%, which shows that the practical application effect of this method is good.
  Keywords: fuzzy support vector machine; electronic commerce; transaction risk assessment; nearest neighbour propagation clustering algorithm; CRITIC algorithm.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2023.10059197