SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (SBD) is an international, interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to publishing high-quality original research on sustainable business practices, corporate social responsibility, green economic transformation, social entrepreneurship, and inclusive growth. The journal covers all fields within business and business development, with a particular focus on how business activities can create economic value while responding to global challenges such as climate change, social inequality, resource depletion, and governance deficits.

The core conviction of SBD is “Making business a positive force for sustainable development.” We believe that business is not merely an economic activity but a profound force shaping our social and ecological futures. In an era when the Sustainable Development Goals have become global consensus, business research must move beyond the traditional paradigm of profit maximisation and seriously engage with the complex relationships between enterprise, society, and the environment. The journal is therefore dedicated to providing a rigorous, forward-looking, and interdisciplinary scholarly platform for research on business sustainability. SBD adopts a flexible publication policy that takes Open Access as the default model while allowing Non-Open Access publication under special circumstances, balancing the global free dissemination of scholarship with the specific needs of particular research contexts.

Publication Model and Open Access Statement

SBD operates a Hybrid Open Access Model, with the following specific policies:

Default Model: Full Open Access

In the vast majority of cases, SBD operates as a Diamond Open Access journal:

• Free for all readers: All articles published under the Open Access model are immediately, permanently, and unconditionally available to readers worldwide. No subscription, no registration, no paywalls. We believe that research findings on sustainability and business transformation should be freely accessible to business managers, policy-makers, scholars, students, and the public worldwide, to accelerate the diffusion of sustainable practices.

• Zero or minimal cost for authors: SBD completely waives Article Processing Charges for papers recognised through peer review as being of exceptional scholarly quality, demonstrating outstanding originality and practical impact. For other Open Access papers, the journal charges only a minimal fee far below industry standards, solely to sustain basic operations. Authors from under-resourced regions and the Global South may apply for full or partial fee waivers.

• Open licensing: All Open Access articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0). Authors retain copyright of their work and grant anyone the right to share, adapt, and reuse the material, provided appropriate credit is given, to maximise knowledge dissemination and practical translation in the field of sustainable business.

Special Cases: Non-Open Access

In the following special circumstances, upon author request and with the approval of the editorial team, articles may be published under a Non-Open Access model:

• Funder mandates: Certain corporate-funded research projects, government-commissioned studies, or collaborative commercial research impose specific confidentiality or access restrictions that conflict with the CC BY licence of full Open Access.

• Commercially sensitive information and intellectual property protection: Content involving undisclosed corporate data, trade secrets, patent-related technical details, or research findings with significant commercial value, where full open dissemination could harm the legitimate interests of the relevant companies or research partners.

• Authors’ specific publication needs: Authors may request Non-Open Access publication based on reasonable grounds such as career development, institutional evaluation requirements, or future commercial publication plans.

• Legal and compliance requirements: Laws and regulations in certain countries or regions impose specific restrictions on the dissemination of research content involving financial regulation, listed company disclosure obligations, or commercial contractual constraints.

Under the Non-Open Access model: articles will be published under traditional subscription or paid-access arrangements; copyright arrangements and licensing conditions will be negotiated separately with authors; the journal will clearly mark the access status in the article’s metadata to ensure full transparency. The proportion of Non-Open Access articles will be strictly controlled to ensure that the journal’s overall Open Access character is not diluted. The editorial team retains final decision-making authority over the approval of Non-Open Access publication, and this decision will not affect the academic standards of peer review.

Aims, Scope, and Core Areas

SBD is rooted in the intersections of business studies, development economics, environmental management, and public policy, seeking to transcend the traditional dichotomy between “economic efficiency” and “social responsibility” in business research. The journal’s fundamental position is that sustainability is not a peripheral concern for business but a core dimension that contemporary business research must internalise. We encourage authors to build creative dialogues between rigorous academic analysis and real-world policy and corporate practice concerns, and especially welcome high-quality submissions in the following areas:

Sustainable Strategy and Business Models

• Design, innovation, and transformation of sustainable business models

• Circular economy business practices: from linear to closed-loop value chains

• Sharing economy, platform economy, and sustainable value creation

• Business valuation of natural capital and ecosystem services markets

• Sustainable competitive advantage and green strategy

• Business model resilience and climate adaptability

• Regenerative business models and moving beyond “net zero”

Corporate Social Responsibility and ESG

• Theory, practice, and critique of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

• Measurement, evaluation, and limitations of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) indicators

• ESG investing, green finance, and sustainable capital markets

• Corporate philanthropy, social investment, and shared value

• Stakeholder theory in sustainable business

• ESG disclosure: transparency, greenwashing, and regulation

• Historical evolution and cross-national comparison of corporate responsibility

Sustainable Supply Chains and Operations Management

• Green supply chain management and closed-loop supply chains

• Sustainable procurement, supplier auditing, and supply chain human rights protection

• Carbon footprint accounting, life cycle assessment, and product environmental labelling

• Labour rights, modern slavery, and fair trade in supply chains

• Circular operations: remanufacturing, recycling, and industrial symbiosis

• Sustainability in digital supply chains

• Food supply chains and sustainable agricultural business

Green Finance and Sustainable Investment

• Impact investing, socially responsible investing, and ESG funds

• Green bonds, climate bonds, and transition finance

• Carbon markets, carbon pricing, and corporate carbon asset management

• Climate financial risk and corporate financial resilience

• Sustainable banking, insurance, and inclusive finance

• Nature-related financial disclosure (TNFD) and biodiversity finance

• Barriers and pathways for green investment in developing economies

Climate Action and Corporate Transformation

• Corporate climate strategies, carbon neutrality commitments, and decarbonisation pathways

• Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and corporate emissions reduction practices

• Corporate management of climate risk: physical risk and transition risk

• Business opportunities and challenges in the renewable energy transition

• Climate litigation, climate liability, and corporate compliance

• Workforce transition and just transition in the net-zero economy

• The role and responsibility of business in global climate governance

Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation

• Business models and scaling strategies of social enterprises

• Environmental entrepreneurship (ecopreneurship) and green entrepreneurship

• Inclusive entrepreneurship: business opportunities at the base of the pyramid

• Construction and governance of social innovation ecosystems

• Incentives and constraints for impact-oriented entrepreneurial investment

• Women’s entrepreneurship, youth entrepreneurship, and economic empowerment of marginalised groups

• Sustainable entrepreneurship education and capacity building

Sustainable Marketing and Consumer Behaviour

• Green marketing, ethical marketing, and sustainable brand strategies

• Sustainable consumption behaviour: motivations, barriers, and behaviour change

• Consumer acceptance of green products and willingness to pay premiums

• Anti-greenwashing regulation and green claims certification

• Social norms, cultural values, and sustainable lifestyles

• Sustainability narratives and influence communication in digital marketing

• Sharing consumption, second-hand markets, and dematerialisation trends

Sustainable Human Resource Management

• Green human resource management strategies and practices

• Employee green behaviour: enabling factors and organisational support

• Sustainable work design, well-being, and job quality

• Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) business practices and outcomes

• Workforce retraining and employment security in the just transition

• Sustainable leadership: ethical leadership and responsible leadership

• Organisational mechanisms for employee engagement in sustainability initiatives

Business Ethics and Governance

• Ethical foundations of sustainable business: from utilitarianism to care ethics

• Corporate governance and the integration of sustainability goals

• Board sustainability oversight and accountability mechanisms

• Anti-corruption, business integrity, and compliance systems

• Ethical responsibilities of multinational corporations in global value chains

• Legalisation of sustainability disclosure and corporate governance reform

• Shareholder activism and sustainable governance

Development Economics and Inclusive Growth

• The role of sustainable business in developing economies

• Business and poverty alleviation: potential and limits of inclusive business models

• Green transition barriers and policy support for SMEs in developing countries

• The informal economy and its interface with sustainable business

• Foreign direct investment, technology transfer, and sustainable development

• Fair trade, community enterprises, and local economic development

• Business contributions and limitations in implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Sustainable Innovation and R&D

• Green technology innovation, diffusion, and path dependence

• Eco-design and sustainable product development

• Clean technology, energy storage, and breakthrough innovation

• Sustainable R&D collaboration: university-industry alliances and open innovation

• Intellectual property, technology sharing, and sustainability trade-offs

• Synergies and conflicts between digital transformation and sustainability

• Biotechnology, new materials, and sustainable development

Policy Environment and Institutional Frameworks

• Policy instruments for sustainable business: carbon taxes, subsidies, and regulation

• International trade rules and sustainable business

• Industrial policy and corporate response under dual-carbon targets

• Industry standards, certification, and self-regulation for sustainable business

• Corporate compliance in central-local policy coordination

• Corporate roles and private governance in global governance transformation

• Sustainable public procurement and business opportunities

Methodological and Interdisciplinary Perspectives

• Mixed-methods designs in sustainable business research

• Statistical methods and big data analytics for ESG indicators

• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) methods

• System dynamics and scenario planning for sustainable business

• Field experiments, randomised controlled trials, and policy evaluation

• Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in sustainable business research

• Interdisciplinary perspectives: dialogues between business and environmental science, ecological economics, and political ecology

Interdisciplinary Dialogue
SBD consistently welcomes boundary-crossing scholarship from economics, management, sociology, environmental science, political science, law, anthropology, geography, engineering, communication studies, public policy, and related fields, provided it carries a clear connection to sustainable business.

Sections and Article Types

To foster a multi-dimensional space for scholarly dialogue, SBD maintains the following regular sections:

The journal especially welcomes proposals for Special Issues submitted jointly by scholars and industry experts. We encourage proposals that bring together deep, multi-perspectival discussion from multiple disciplines, methods, and regions around a pressing sustainable business problem or emerging trend, and we welcome guest-editing teams that include both researchers and practitioners to foster genuine interaction between theory and practice.

Editorial Policies and Peer Review

Editorial Structure

SBD is led by an Editor-in-Chief, supported by Regional Editors, Associate Editors, and an international Editorial Board whose members represent the full breadth of relevant specialisms, including strategic management, corporate social responsibility, environmental management, green finance, supply chain management, sustainable entrepreneurship, business ethics, development economics, and public policy. The editorial team is committed to:

• Upholding the journal’s scholarly integrity and intellectual quality;

• Ensuring a fair, transparent, and efficient review process;

• Advancing the journal’s role as an open international forum for sustainable business research.

The composition of the Editorial Board reflects genuine diversity in geography, gender, intellectual tradition, disciplinary background, and career stage, to ensure that the journal broadly represents the plurality of voices in global sustainable business research.

Peer Review Process

SBD operates a double-anonymous review system: reviewers do not know authors’ identities, and authors do not know reviewers’ identities. This policy is designed to minimise biases related to prestige, institutional affiliation, gender, or nationality.

The standard process is as follows:

1. Initial Editorial Screening: All submissions are first assessed by the Editor-in-Chief or an Associate Editor for scholarly quality, originality, and fit. Manuscripts that are clearly unsuitable or have significant scholarly deficiencies are desk-rejected, usually within 1–2 weeks, with an explanatory note.

2. External Review: Manuscripts that pass initial screening are sent to 2–3 external reviewers with relevant expertise for double-anonymous evaluation. For manuscripts involving interdisciplinary intersections or industry practice, editors will invite reviewers from different academic backgrounds or with practical experience.

3. Editorial Decision: Based on the reviewers’ reports and the journal’s overall standards, the editor makes a decision of “Accept,” “Minor Revision,” “Major Revision,” or “Reject,” and provides integrated constructive feedback.

4. Revision and Re-review: Revised manuscripts may be assessed directly by the editor or sent back to reviewers. SBD aims to notify authors of the final decision within 8–12 weeks of initial submission.

SBD does not accept simultaneous submissions. Allegations of research misconduct—including plagiarism, data fabrication, improper image manipulation, unethical authorship practices, undisclosed use of AI-generated content, and undisclosed conflicts of interest—are taken seriously and handled in accordance with the best-practice guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Conflict of Interest Statement

Given that sustainable business research frequently involves corporate collaborations, industry funding, or policy consulting, SBD specifically requires authors to fully disclose all relationships that may constitute conflicts of interest at the time of submission, including: corporate or industry funding, consulting relationships, employment relationships, equity holdings, board positions, government-commissioned projects, etc. Editors and reviewers are also required to declare conflicts of interest when handling manuscripts and to recuse themselves where necessary. The journal is committed to maintaining the credibility of research through fully transparent conflict of interest management.

Author Rights and Responsibilities

Author Rights

• Copyright retention: Regardless of whether an article is published under the Open Access or Non-Open Access model, authors retain full copyright of their work. No exclusive copyright transfer is required.

• Open Access articles: Authors grant the journal the right to publish the work under the CC BY 4.0 licence, securing the widest possible attribution and reuse rights globally.

• Non-Open Access articles: Copyright arrangements and licensing conditions will be negotiated separately between the author and the journal, and specified in a written agreement before publication.

• Persistent identifiers: All published works, regardless of publication model, will be assigned permanent Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) and disseminated across multiple indexing platforms to ensure visibility and longevity.

Author Responsibilities

Authors are expected to ensure that: the submission is original and previously unpublished; all named authors have made substantive contributions and approved the submission; all sources are accurately cited; data used in the research are authentic and reliable, with data sources and processing methods clearly stated, particularly when involving corporate data, ESG information, or policy evaluation data; research involving human subjects, corporate interviews, or fieldwork complies with relevant ethical standards and provides information on ethical review approval where applicable; all conflicts of interest have been truthfully disclosed; all use of AI tools has been truthfully declared; and no conduct violating academic integrity exists.

Why Choose SBD?

• Spanning all fields of business and business development: From strategic management to green finance, from supply chain management to sustainable entrepreneurship, from business ethics to development economics, SBD provides a unified scholarly platform for every branch of sustainable business research. Whatever your area of focus, you will find conversation partners here.

• Open Access as the primary principle: As an OA-first journal, your research becomes immediately available to readers worldwide with no economic barriers upon publication. Research on sustainable business can thereby reach beyond academic circles and be freely accessed and used by business managers, investors, policy-makers, and the public, accelerating the global diffusion of sustainable practices.

• A flexible mechanism respecting special publication needs: We understand that business research sometimes involves sensitive data, trade secrets, and partner agreements. SBD’s Non-Open Access option ensures that when necessary, your research can be published in a prudent manner without compromising scholarly quality.

• Zero or minimal financial burden: Papers recognised through peer review as exceptional are entirely free of all charges. Other papers incur only minimal fees far below industry standards, and authors from under-resourced regions and the Global South may apply for waivers. We are committed to ensuring that economic conditions never become a barrier to scholarly publication.

• Rigorous and efficient review: A mature double-anonymous review system with professional, constructive feedback helps strengthen your scholarly work. Our reviewers come from all fields of business research worldwide and attend to both theoretical innovation and the practical implications of research for sustainability.

• Inclusive of multiple disciplines and diverse methods: SBD welcomes quantitative research, qualitative research, mixed methods, case studies, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, policy analyses, action research, and many other paradigms, provided the work is rigorous and insightful.

• Connecting scholarship and practice: We believe that good research should be able to influence real-world business decisions. SBD seeks to be an intellectual home shared by sustainable business researchers and practitioners, advancing research from the page to policy and practice.

• Open copyright and social impact: Under the OA model, the CC BY 4.0 licence ensures that your research can be freely used in classroom teaching, corporate training, policy formulation, and public education, maximising the real-world social value of your academic work.

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT warmly invites business researchers across the globe, management scholars, economists, environmental scientists, policy analysts, business managers, investors, and all thinkers and practitioners concerned with the future of business and sustainable development to join us in building an academic commons that takes openness as its primary spirit, respects the plurality of contexts, pursues depth, encourages dialogue, connects theory and practice, and keeps its borders open. Whether as author, reviewer, or reader.

Hengbai Academic Bookseller & Publishing LLC

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Always Open for Submissions
We accept submissions year-round with no deadline restrictions. Work at your own pace and submit when your research is ready—no cutoff date applies.

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Peer‑Review
All manuscripts undergo a robust peer‑review process to ensure they meet rigorous standards of scientific validity, methodological soundness, and significance to the research community.

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Online First
Accepted articles are published online immediately upon acceptance, without waiting for issue compilation. This ensures your findings reach the scientific community as rapidly as possible.

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Publishing Models

Open Access
Your work will be permanently available online, free to download, share, and read, maximizing academic impact and global visibility.

Non‑Open Access (Subscription)
We offer a traditional subscription‑based pathway that protects copyright and accommodates commercial reuse, suitable for authors with specific publication policy requirements.

Our Mission: Preserving and Disseminating Scholarly Knowledge

We provide a comprehensive digital platform dedicated to the preservation and open dissemination of academic research. Our services include:

• Repository for Diverse Scholarly Materials – We accept and host a wide range of academic content, including research papers, manuscripts, printed publications, and electronic versions of journals. This includes materials from discontinued journals, lost or rare print editions, sole surviving copies, and publications from defunct presses—ensuring that valuable scholarly heritage is not lost to time.

• Preprint Repository Across All Disciplines – Researchers are welcome to submit and publish preprints covering all fields of study, including natural sciences, humanities, social sciences, and interdisciplinary research. Submissions are accepted in multiple languages: English, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Japanese, and other languages.

• Free and Open Access – Submission, publication, and viewing of preprints are completely free of charge. All content is made publicly available online at no cost to readers.

• Reusable Under Author‑Defined Terms – To maximize the reach and impact of scholarly work, users may reuse, reproduce, or redistribute content for public purposes, subject to the terms specified by the author. This flexible framework encourages broader dissemination and collaboration across the global research community.

Our Community

We partner with like-minded individuals and organizations to develop open infrastructure that enables the publication of open-access works, the sharing of our academic journals through open platforms and services, and the global promotion of our vision and core values. Below is a selection of our partner organizations.