No abstract

Climate change, pollutants, sustainable development, and public health have become increasingly more relevant issues that continuously get addressed and discussed by governments and entities all over the globe. Through the adoption of policies and recyclable methods, they hope to encourage and aid the responsible consumption of natural resources so as to reduce the creation of waste. Furthermore, the generation of sustainable communities is encouraged so as to safeguard and protect the population's health against the risks associated with different types of pollutants. To support SMEs in the adoption of sustainable practices, this chapter aims to introduce, guide, and provide some useful tools that can then be utilized by readers and professionals operating within SMEs to maximize the effectiveness of their sustainability approaches and tools while also providing knowledge on how the implementation of sustainable practices could be integrated within their businesses.

This study attempts to investigate the relationship between sustainability innovation, firm performance, financial stability, and competitive advantage. In order to do so, the authors explore the effects that the implementation of a new business process which targets sustainability has on three small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) operating in Italy. Within the methodology section the authors have discussed the various criteria utilized to select an appropriate and adequate sample of SMEs. Semi-structured interviews were utilized to gather qualitative data so as to reflect the lived experiences of various members of SMEs' personnel. Data, charts, and various reports were utilized. The findings suggest the presence of a positive relationship between sustainability innovation and firm performance. Furthermore, the authors have gathered and analyzed evidence which supports the hypothesis that sustainability innovation has a positive correlation when it comes to financial stability.

The recent Covid-19 pandemic has deeply affected the financial health of com-panies all over the globe. Small and micro enterprises are more vulnerable due to their limited financial resources and lack of specialized knowledge. This article ex-plores the impact of the pandemic on the early stage of small companies' Digital Transformation (DT), and its effect on the barriers to DT. The authors adopted an inductive qualitative approach and engaged in purposeful sampling to investigate micro and small enterprises operating in Piedmont, Italy, that were at the earliest stage of their DT journey. The final sample included 11 unique cases, involving a total of 49 interviews. The results show that the Covid-19 pandemic did not act as a catalyst to the DT of small and micro enterprises, instead sharpening the barriers to DT. The paper provides owners, managers, investors, politicians, and territorial institutions with a better understanding of the tools and initiatives that must be implemented to foster small and micro enterprises' DT. The research, due to the selected sample, is limited to small companies' personnel and to their owners' ex-periences