Barriers to institutional social sustainability

Abstract

Social sustainability is a work field characterised by an emphasis on social aspects, e.g. equity, ethics, health, gender balance, or empowerment, within a broader sustainability context. Although the concept seems to be reasonably well established and deemed worthy of pursuing, some obstacles prevent its wide dissemination. Through a bibliometric analysis focusing on the literature on social sustainability at institutions, with a focus on companies, this paper aims to investigate and describe some of the barriers associated with social sustainability implementation. Apart from identifying that sustainability reporting, environmental disclosure and financial performance play a central role in successfully achieving social sustainability, in the context of which gender-related issues seem more tangential, the results indicated some solutions commonly reported for overcoming barriers and obstacles to a company’s social sustainability implementation within different sectors. These solutions have to do, among many other factors addressed in this study, with strengthening communication transparency and trust, contributing to awareness, using technology to document and promote social sustainability. Thus, empowering organizations and citizens, recognized as essential factors to social development, and addressing the challenges in a multi-dimensional way.

Social institutions as enablers and inhibitors of environmental activism: A cross‐cultural perspective

“…Just as there is an increasing expectation of environmental and social policies at the core of business strategies (e.g., Ajmal et al, 2018; Popa & Salanță, 2015), citizens now expect the same of their governments. However, also similar to the business–consumer relationship (e.g., Filho et al, 2022), we find that trust can be an obstacle to obtaining the benefits of sustainability initiatives. Interestingly, confidence in a country's government appears to result in complacency, highlighting the need to communicate a sense of urgency or foster an understanding that civic involvement is still needed to see positive environmental change.…”

“…The most intriguing finding, however, is the differential role of institutional confidence in environmental activism. Scholars have identified the need for consumer trust in business sustainability and CSR activities (e.g., Filho et al, 2022; Popa & Salanță, 2015), however, our data suggest a difference at the social institution level. While confidence in the judiciary is an enabler, confidence in the government is a deterrent.…”

“…However, this is not easy. Consumers are often skeptical of firms engaging in environmental initiatives, which undermines trust in that firm (Filho et al, 2022). We apply this logic to social institutions suggesting a similar obstacle of earning—and keeping—trust.…”

International University Rankings and Changing University Functions: Underlining indicators to capture societal and entrepreneurial contributions of universities

“…Among these universities hold key-position as an influencer of opinion, sources of expertise in research and education on all sectors. For instance, Universities have started programs for teaching courses on sustainable development (Filho et al,2022)…”

Delving into sustainability reporting literature: The role of ethics

“…Although the issue of sustainability reporting occupies a prominent position in the literature, existing a great interest in the research community, the lack of a bibliometric approach to the role of ethics in the sustainability reporting remains latent. There are some literature reviews strongly linked to the sustainability reporting (Leal-Filho et al, 2022;Fusco & Ricci, 2019;García-Sánchez, 2020;Gulluscio et al, 2020;Rodrigues & Mendes, 2018;Turzo et al, 2022). All of them analyse the topic from different perspectives and undertake different literature reviews.…”