Environmental pollution has become one of the most pressing preoccupations for governments, policymakers, and consumers. For this reason, many companies make constant efforts to comply with international laws and standards on ethics, social responsibility, and environmental protection. Fashion companies are among the main producers of pollution because their manufacturing processes result in highly negative outcomes for the environment. In recent years, numerous fashion industries have been transforming their production policies to be sustainable, while others are already born as sustainable businesses. Based on Resource-Based View (RBV) theory and Natural Resource-Based View theory (NRBV), this paper aims at understanding how internal and external factors stimulate born-sustainable businesses operating in the fashion sector, adopting a multiple case study methodology. Our analysis shows that culture, entrepreneurial orientation of the founders, and the proximity of the suppliers among the internal factors, combined with the increase of green consumers as an external factor, foster the creation of green businesses. At the same time, neither current legislation nor the dynamism and competitiveness of markets have influenced the choice of the companies’ founders to start a business based on green production logic. These results reveal the centrality of the founders’ sensitivity toward green strategies to create a sustainable business. The findings have practical implications because they could support regulatory institutions to introduce some incentives that more clearly encourages companies that choose to adopt sustainable business models from the founding, by acting to the internal and external key factors that drive born-sustainable businesses. This study also provides an extension of the existing literature on sustainable born companies, offering researchers useful information on internal and internal factors that promote the adoption of green policies in the fashion industry.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a relevant topic for researchers and practitioners, widely explored with reference to companies. However, there are still few studies that address how higher education institutions integrate CSR practices into their strategy. This represents an important limitation since the university, through academic training and research activity, is the main promoter of CSR practices among different categories of stakeholders. Given the many benefits associated with the adoption of CSR, this study aims to explore the topic of CSR in universities, as they are institutions that act in the public interest and represent the ideal context for spreading the culture of preserving environmental and social, as well as economic, sustainability. The main purpose of this study is to explore, through the methodology of case studies, the type and effectiveness of the tools used by universities, specifically the University of Bari, to disseminate and integrate CSR into corporate strategy. Furthermore, this study aims to investigate how the university ensures the involvement of stakeholders, represented in particular by professors, administrators and students (stakeholder approach), in CSR initiatives. The analysis revealed the centrality of the investigated university in promoting CSR issues and sustainable territorial development. Finally, the study provides empirical evidence of the actions and methods of integrating CSR practices into corporate strategy and the ways in which stakeholders are involved.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent the most widespread business model so their environmental impact cannot be overlooked. The topic of sustainability in SMEs, current and well-debated in literature, has been investigated from different perspectives. Some studies have looked at the benefits and barriers related to the adoption of sustainable production policies, others the relationship with corporate performance, and still others the drivers of sustainability. The latter studies find founders/chief executive officer’s (CEO) proactivity and sensitivity to environmental issues as important drivers of the business sustainable development process. However, limited are the studies that analyze the role and potential of the whole board of directors on SMEs’ not only financial but also sustainable performance. This study provides a systematic literature review (SLR) to understand the main strands of research that investigated the relationship between board diversity and financial and sustainable performance. The results show that several studies have found a relationship between board diversity and financial performance, while there are still limited studies that analyze the relationship between board diversity and sustainable performance. This study not only provides a valuable knowledge base for the academic community on what has been addressed on the topic to date but also provides important new research directions, stimulating scientific contributions that analyze diversity on Boards in its several forms (ethnicity, gender, age, culture, religion) to understand which of these most stimulates SME sustainability.

Addressing a gap in the literature, the analysis explores how ESG score relate to systematic risk over time, with particular attention to the Environmental, Social, and Governance components, which have received limited attention to date. Therefore, this study examines whether the relationship between ESG score and systematic risk has evolved over time in the broader context of the transition toward a sustainability-oriented economy, employing a market model based on the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) framework developed by Sharpe. Using a panel dataset of financial and non-financial firms included in the STOXX Europe 600 Index between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2022, we present empirical evidence of a decline in systematic risk following the adoption of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda in September 2015. This reduction is more pronounced among companies with higher ESG scores. Similar patterns are observed across the individual E, S, and G dimensions. The implications of these findings are twofold. Theoretically, they reinforce the expanding literature suggesting a negative correlation between ESG performance and systematic risk. Practically, they offer relevant insights for policymakers and regulators, highlighting the value of integrating ESG considerations into risk assessment, monitoring, and management frameworks to support more effective systemic risk mitigation strategies. This study contributes to the body of research analysing the relationship between ESG factors and systematic risk, which is currently not fully explored and with conflicting results. Extending previous studies, we investigate the effect of overall ESG scores together with their distinct components (E, S, and G).