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Open research questions in Environmental Sustainability in Business

1,259 gap statements mined from Environmental Sustainability in Business papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 7,149 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • Future research could examine how attributions of corporate motive (Verlegh et al., 2017) - is an open question for future research. Moreover, the finding that the bias disappears when environmental effort is explicitly communicated (Study 7) has not been replicated across contexts or product categories. Omission neglect and consumer judgment and inference based on limited evidence.

    The more, the better? The sustainable additive bias · 2026 · DOI

  • External validity is therefore limited to the observed ESG-reporting sample and cannot be evaluated finely across countries or subsectors. Particular attention is warranted for firms and regions with weaker ESG-reporting infrastructures because limited disclosure constrains both empirical evaluation and market accountability.

    Digital Governance Readiness and Consumer-Oriented Green Innovation: Evidence from European Listed Firms · 2026 · DOI

  • While the presence of discursive weaknesses does not directly indicate a definitive lack of alignment, a more robust assessment of this relationship would necessitate a broader corpus, extending beyond company-authored documents to include external data sources such as stakeholder input or customer interviews, which was beyond the scope of this study and constitutes a limitation.

    The discourse of social and environmental sustainability in Brazilian cosmetics companies · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of analysis on the strategic decisions of firms in an oligopoly market, considering the impact of government regulation and consumer preferences.

    Development and adoption of green technology under environmental regulation: strategic decision and leader choice · 2026 · DOI

  • The study faces challenges in gathering data from batik producers due to limited familiarity with internet form completion. The study highlights the need to address the complex multidimensional concept of environment, economy, human health, and social impacts in the adoption of natural dyes.

    Determination of natural dye batik production intentions: an empirical study in the perspective of planned behaviour theory · 2026 · DOI

  • Aspirants with regulatory gaps (C0, C7) showed robust management capabilities but asymmetric institutional traction, confirming that organisational will is insufficient against multi-level governance gaps.

    Discovering Organisational Leadership Archetypes in Peru’s Circular Water Economy Using Latent Class Analysis · 2026 · DOI

  • Finally, patent applications and citations do not capture all dimensions of environmental performance, and results for Chinese listed manufacturers may not generalize to unlisted firms, other sectors, or other countries; future studies could examine direct environmental outcomes across a broader range of firms and institutional settings.

    Digital Transformation Disclosure and Green Technological Innovation Toward Sustainable Manufacturing: Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms · 2026 · DOI

  • The need to control for various factors that may influence the relationship between CEO greed and green innovation, such as CEO hubris and power.

    Human and machine: CEO greed, artificial intelligence, and corporate green innovation · 2026 · DOI

  • Further research can explore the impact of CEO greed on other aspects of corporate performance. The study can be extended to other countries or industries.

    Human and machine: CEO greed, artificial intelligence, and corporate green innovation · 2026 · DOI

  • Prior research has focused on institutional arrangements, but less attention has been paid to environmental litigation pressure. There is a lack of understanding of how environmental litigation pressure affects corporate green technological innovation. The study aims to fill this gap by examining the impact of environmental litigation pressure on corporate green technological innovation.

    To explore or exploit for legitimacy: How does environmental litigation pressure affect corporate green technological innovation? · 2026 · DOI

  • Managing electronic waste at the end of its life cycle is a significant challenge. The study identifies anxieties about battery degradation and data security as significant barriers to sustainable mobile phone consumption. The study also identifies the need for a holistic theoretical lens to understand sustainable mobile phone consumption.

    Exploring the factors that influence sustainable consumption behaviour of mobile phones: Evidence from Denmark · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies challenges related to regulatory complexity, financial constraints, and limited access to finance, technology, specialist knowledge, and managerial resources for SMEs. The study also mentions the importance of firm-and country-level heterogeneity in environmental engagement.

    Enterprise Support for the European Green Deal: Institutional Perceptions, Competitiveness and Environmental Engagement · 2026 · DOI

  • What Has Been Done and What Remains to Be Done. Finally, it provides a framework for future research by identifying underexplored areas, such as the impact of lesser-known certifications, regional variations, and post-pandemic shifts in consumer behavior, thereby creating opportunities to expand and test existing theories in evolving contexts.

    The Role of Environmental Certification in the Hospitality Industry: Assessing Sustainability, Consumer Preferences, and the Economic Impact · 2025 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on developing unified ESG standards and exploring innovative solutions to ensure meaningful corporate contributions to global sustainability.

    From the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Criteria to the Greenwashing Phenomenon: A Comprehensive Literature Review About the Causes, Consequences and Solutions of the Phenomenon with Specific Case Studies · 2025 · DOI

  • Third, the relationship between digital transformation and green knowledge acquisition has not been previously examined in the extant literature. Different reasons contribute to this, including the mechanisms through which digital transformation transcends into sustainable development goals, which have not been established in the current literature.

    Harnessing Digital Transformation for Sustainable Performance: Exploring the Mediating Roles of Green Knowledge Acquisition and Innovation Performance Under Digital Transformational Leadership · 2025 · DOI

  • According to the sustainability theory, to achieve sustainable performance, environmental awareness is a problem that a firm needs to solve. GMO as a market orientation will enhance sustainable performance if it is handled well. This study’s findings support the sustainability theory and offer more empirical support for earlier findings.

    Green Product Innovation as a Mediator Between Green Market Orientation and Sustainable Performance of SMEs · 2025 · DOI

  • This indicates that only implementing GHRM policies is insufficient; instead, cultivating an overarching climate helps embed sustainability into employees’ daily experiences. While our study highlights some variations across cultural contexts, the direct comparative evidence is limited.

    Green Human Resource Management and Green Psychological Climate: A Scoping Review Through the AMO Framework · 2025 · DOI

  • Avenues To address the limitations and expand the frontiers of knowledge regarding the re‐ lationship between ESG and green innovation from an international perspective, future research should focus on several integrated aspects that together can offer a more com‐ prehensive understanding of this complex area.

    Evaluating the Influence of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Performance on Green Technology Innovation: Based on Chinese A-Share Listed Companies · 2025 · DOI

  • Despite the valuable insights provided, the study has certain limitations. First, the sample size of 51 companies may limit the generalizability of the findings, particularly for smaller or non-listed companies. Additionally, the study focuses solely on Saudi Arabia, and the results may not fully reflect the experiences of companies in other regions.

    The Role of Governance Audit Mechanisms on Environmental Sustainability and Emissions in Saudi Arabia Under ESG Regulations · 2025 · DOI

  • The finding that favorable EA do not always manifest themselves in purchasing actions when sustainable products are perceived as expensive offers nuanced theoretical and practical insights into the intention-behavior gap, a persistent, underexplored challenge in the context of emerging Latin American economies.

    The Moderating Effect of Price on the Relationship Between Environmental Attitude and the Purchase Behavior of Organic Products · 2025 · DOI

  • The research examined how GHRM bundle influences OCBE through the mediating role of EEC in Ethiopian federal ministries. The finding demonstrates that, GHRM bundle significantly promotes employee’s voluntary environmental behavior by enhancing their environmental competencies, motivation and participation opportunities in institutional environmental efforts.

    Driving Public Sector Environmental Citizenship Behavior through Green Human Resource Management and Employee Commitment · 2026 · DOI

  • Existing studies on brand anthropomorphism mostly focus on the effect of a single dimension or discuss the difference between warmth and ability in the general brand context, but there are relatively few studies on the type segmentation and effect comparison of green brand anthropomorphism.

    Show Me Competence or Make Me Feel Warm: The Impact of Green Brand Anthropomorphism on Consumers’ Purchasing Intentions · 2026 · DOI

  • Without standardised frameworks, there is still a chance that innovative ideas would not result in quantifiable advancements in the industry.

    Bringing Sustainable Practices, Fashion Shows, and Sociological Insights Together to Reinvigorate Sustainable Fashion Education · 2025 · DOI

  • Further research could examine the responses of larger enterprises to the European Green Deal, - Additional studies could investigate the impact of the EGD on enterprises in other European…

    Enterprise Support for the European Green Deal: Institutional Perceptions, Competitiveness and Environmental Engagement · 2026 · DOI

  • Investigating the interaction between GHRM and green organizational culture in other industries, - Examining the effects of circular economy adoption on internal and external resilience in different contexts, - Studying the role of GHRM in the adoption of circular economy practices in non-hospitality…

    Resilience for Sustainability: The Synergistic Role of Green Human Resources Management, Circular Economy, and Green Organizational Culture in the Hotel Industry · 2024 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Environmental Sustainability in Business

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Particular attention is warranted for firms and regions with weaker ESG-reporting infrastructures because limited disclosure constrains both empirical evaluation and market accountability (“Digital Governance Readiness and Consumer-Oriented Green Innovation: Evidence…”, 2026); (2) There is a lack of analysis on the strategic decisions of firms in an oligopoly market, considering the impact of government regulation and consumer preferences (“Development and adoption of green technology under environmental regulation:…”, 2026); (3) There is a lack of understanding of how environmental litigation pressure affects corporate green technological innovation (“To explore or exploit for legitimacy: How does environmental litigation…”, 2026); (4) Future research should focus on developing unified ESG standards and exploring innovative solutions to ensure meaningful corporate contributions to global sustainability (“From the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the Environmental, Social…”, 2025); (5) Different reasons contribute to this, including the mechanisms through which digital transformation transcends into sustainable development goals, which have not been established in the current literature (“Harnessing Digital Transformation for Sustainable Performance: Exploring the…”, 2025). 1,259 gap statements have been mined from Environmental Sustainability in Business papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 7,149 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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