The edited volume presents the conference proceedings from the “Sustainability, Economics, Innovation, Globalisation and Operational Psychology Conference 2023” (SEIGOP 2023), organized by the Centre for International Trade and Business in Asia (CITBA) at James Cook University, Singapore. This edited volume places the highly dynamic, but also, jeopardized climatological – geographical region of the Tropics centre stage. The region is developing rapidly, with significant progress being made through the development of innovative technologies. The Tropics represent a region in which people live amid the greatest level of biodiversity anywhere on the planet. Nonetheless, propelled by rapid population growth, the Tropics is a region on the rise, with higher living standards and increased levels of international trade and investment. Densely populated emerging countries like India, Indonesia and Nigeria will be among the largest economies of the world by the end of the century. These upward socioeconomic trends are compromised by the impact of climate change on the Tropics’ biodiversity. Such developments have forced policymakers, businesses, and local communities to search for more sustainable and creative ways to live and work. For these reasons, this edited volume presents theory-driven conceptual, qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods studies on the impact of innovation-driven businesses on the complex interplay of socio-cultural, economic, and environmental factors in the Tropics.

In the face of limited progress toward meeting Millennium Development Goals or addressing climate change and resource degradation, increasing attention turns to harnessing the entrepreneurial, innovative, managerial and financial capacities of business for improved social and environmental outcomes. A more proactive role for business in sustainable development is especially pertinent in sub-Saharan Africa, which has been plagued by conflict and poverty but shows signs of a brighter future as the world’s second-fastest-growing region. The book considers how the socio-economic context influences the objectives of social innovation and even our definition of what we mean by social innovation. Secondly, the book aims to show how social innovation initiatives emerge and fare in context of the limited ability of many African countries to provide public goods and services.

This book provides a clear, critical, and timely analysis of the state of corporate sustainability within the context of the climate crisis. It offers not only a substantive critique of the current efforts but also clarity about the changes needed and how to implement them. The book goes beyond the more common debate on shareholder capitalism vs. stakeholder capitalism to explain the shortcomings of the current approach to sustainability in business, which the author describes as sustainability-as-usual. Using strategic design lenses, the author proposes a new model of awakened sustainability, which offers a transformational shift in corporate sustainability to ensure companies fairly and effectively address the climate crisis. The book presents the numerous changes needed in the environment in which companies operate to enable awakened sustainability and how these changes can be realized. Grounded in the scientific community’s calls for urgent action on climate change, this groundbreaking text provides scholars with an evaluation of current and future trends in corporate sustainability. It connects the dots between the progress made in the last five decades and the opportunities entailed in the work on a regenerative and just vision for companies in this decade and beyond.

The aim of this edited book is to provide a comprehensive overview of the opportunities and challenges related to innovation for sustainability. Combining work from both emerging and established scholars in different academic fields, this book provides an integrated understanding of the topic from four perspectives. First, the big picture: frameworks, types, and drivers; second, strategy and leadership; third, measurement and assessment and fourth, tools, methods and technologies. Chapter 11 of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com. The editors donate their remuneration for this book to conservation organisation the WWF.