The need to pursue sustainable development has become a central topic in Western countries due to citizens' greater sensitivity to improving environmental and social conditions. Companies can reach this objective more easily through green innovations, which are now considered a strategic opportunity that simultaneously allows for adherence to sustainable development criteria and the pursuit of competitive advantages. Scholars have identified the determinants that encourage companies to adopt green innovations, but the outcomes of their investigations thus far have often been ambiguous and contradictory. Our paper proposes an interpretative framework for addressing such inconsistencies. Using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS‐SEM) methodology, we validate this framework on a sample of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and show that SMEs' choices are influenced by cultural elements and stimulated by the prospect of obtaining economic advantages over competitors. SMEs also pay close attention to stakeholder solicitations, while public administration does not affect their eco‐innovating choices. The results have policy implications for executives and insiders.

Academics, institutions and policymakers advocate systematic assessments to design sustainable development and implement proper environmental management; however, practical measurements in tourism research based on composite indicators are still in progress. This paper aims to build and validate a composite indicator of sustainable tourism (SusTour-Index), which recognises the economic, environmental and social dimensions as the three main interrelated facets of tourism sustainability. The SusTour-Index is composed of 75 elementary indicators, adequately structured in pillars and sub-pillars within each economic (34), environmental (21) and social dimension (20). A multi-modelling approach tests the hierarchical structure of the SusTour-Index by combining different weighting and aggregation methods within each sustainability dimension to choose the most appropriate model once the uncertainty analysis has been performed. The structure of the SusTour-Index is validated in all 21 Italian regions by performing 23 different models of the same composite indicator. The paper presents theoretical and methodological contributions for future research and advances in practical assessments, supporting policymakers and institutions in planning and managing sustainable tourism development.

The core objective of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 is to do more and better with less, increasing net well-being gains from economic activities by reducing resource use, degradation, and pollution along the whole lifecycle while simultaneously improving quality of life. This paper quantifies the level of achievement of sustainable consumption and production in terms of efficiency scores. Due to data envelopment analysis, it is possible to monitor progress towards SDG 12, identifying the best performers to take as examples and the fields in which there is room for improvement. Although interesting differences emerge in countries’ efficiency, the results show that the best performers are OECD members, partners, and accession candidates. This underscores the crucial role of the OECD in advancing national sustainable development objectives.

The adoption of Digital and Communication Technologies (DCTs) is a critical success factor in port industry. Several empirical evidence are demonstrating that advanced knowledge infrastructures support port efficiency and competitiveness, for example through Intelligent Transport Systems, such as sensors, actuators, and platforms. In this perspective, the paper evaluates the impact of investments in DCTs—i.e., interactive websites and social media marketing solutions—on port efficiency. To this end, we perform the non-parametric method of Data Envelopment Analysis, both in its crisp and fuzzy approaches, in order to account for the vague and imprecise nature of some data. Findings pinpoint that port efficiency is generally supported by DCT solutions, and for some ports the effect is particularly relevant. The outcomes provide managerial suggestions for port authorities, policy makers, and industrial practitioners to identify critical investments for improving port competitiveness.

The importance acquired by private cars as the leading travel mode in most advanced countries has drawn attention to concerns related to pro-environmental travel behaviour. Indeed, the car has brought great benefits to society, albeit causing a whole lot of environmental and socio-economic consequences. In this perspective, we exploit Eurobarometer data on the attitudes of Europeans towards urban mobility to investigate the main motivations of citizens’ public transport use frequency. Ordered logistic regressions are estimated by country (Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands) and by gender. Our results suggest the key role played by a comprehensive set of socio-demographic, economic, and environmental aspects in determining urban travel behaviour. Moreover, our investigation brings to light some relevant cross-country and cross-gender commonalities and differences. The provided evidence may give policymakers a better knowledge of travel behaviour, useful for designing new interventions for environmentally-sustainable travelling.

This study sets up a spatial econometric framework to explore the factors that best describe land consumption in Italy at the municipal level. By modelling the different types of spatial interactions and geographical proximity between all Italian municipalities, the direct effects of land use drivers are assessed together with spillover effects. Land use data are drawn from the ISPRA-SNPA 82/18 Report and cover all 7,998 Italian municipalities. The results highlight the existence of endogenous and exogenous interaction effects and the crucial role of the demographic, socio-economic and institutional structure on land use intensity. Hence the need for a planning policy aimed at: i) strengthening institutional cooperation to deal with excessive administrative fragmentation; ii) improving institutional and governmental quality to trigger virtuous mechanisms for sustainable land use management.