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Innovation is the backbone of sustainability. Although many efforts have been made to conceptualize sustainability-oriented innovations, the impact of these organizational practices on performance has not been adequately explored. This paper, therefore, aims to fill an important gap in the literature by exploring the relationship between sustainability innovation practices and performance outcomes. Specifically, this study examines the relationship between sustainability innovation practices, non-financial performance and economic performance.

This paper uses partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) to estimate both the direct and indirect effects of sustainability practices on economic performance. The data were collected on the basis of a large-scale survey of 266 European organizations.

The results show that sustainability innovation practices directly and indirectly influence economic performance through non-financial performance outcomes (i.e. innovation performance, environmental performance and social performance).

The scientific value of this paper is provided by showing that sustainability innovation practices lead to certain performance improvements and by providing a model to better understand the links between non-financial performance outcomes and economic performance.

The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical study, which examines the relationship between continuous improvement (CI) and maintenance performance. By examining CI in relation to maintenance performance, this study seeks to increase the understanding of quality management practices in the field of maintenance.

The empirical data for this study were drawn from a survey of Slovenian organizations in order to address the research problem. Several statistical methods including correlation analysis, regression analysis as well as principal component analysis (PCA) are utilized to accomplish the objective of the study.

The findings suggest that CI significantly and positively relates to maintenance performance. In addition, findings advocate the importance of incorporation of quality management practices into maintenance processes.

Based on the findings of this study, it is concluded that future research could broaden the investigation to identify more complex measures of CI. Moreover, sample size should be expanded to a larger group in order to increase the generalizability of the results.

The study contributes to a better understanding of CI activities in the field of maintenance and therefore provides insights for managers to recognize the role of CI activities and understand their effect in enhancing the maintenance performance.

The findings provide empirical evidence that CI is shown to be an effective way of improving maintenance performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of maintenance in improving company's competitiveness and profitability. In the first part the paper aims to discuss the potential improvement areas from the company perspective. Second part of this paper examines maintenance impact on company's business.

An empirical case study was utilized aiming to provide an understanding of the role of maintenance in improving company's business. The empirical data for this study were collected from a Slovenian textile company. A gap analysis was used in order to address the research problem and to identify potential improvement areas.

Based on the gap analysis, the results suggest that from respondents’ points of view, maintenance practices related to condition-based maintenance approach represent the highest opportunity for improvement. The most notable empirical results of the case study showed that around 3 per cent of additional profit could be generated at weaving machine, especially if all unplanned stoppages and loss of quality due to decrease in the productivity would be prevented.

This paper demonstrates to managers the potential benefits of maintenance policy in terms of productivity, quality and profitability. In this regard, this paper builds on a premise that company can gain higher performance benefits using more effective maintenance policy.

The proposed conceptual model contributes to the existing literature by showing the interactions between maintenance and company's competitiveness and profitability. Empirical findings of this study therefore, acknowledge maintenance's potential of increasing the overall profit. In addition this study advances prior studies by utilizing a gap analysis which is rare in this type of research.

The purpose of this study is to clarify the relation between sustainability practices and financial and market performance, and also, the role of non-financial performance outputs in this relation. Corporate sustainability is a growing area of importance for organizational development. Managing sustainability practices successfully is an imperative in achieving competitive advantage.

Using empirical data based on a large-scale survey among organizations in five countries (i.e. Germany, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia and Spain), this paper utilized mediation analysis to estimate and test the mediated effects in a multiple mediator model. As such, the sizes of indirect effects of sustainability practices on financial and market performance through potential mediators were estimated.

The results showed that innovation performance exerts a mediation effect in the relation between sustainability practices and financial and market performance. The main conclusion is that a greater engagement in sustainability practices leads to an increased innovation performance, which in turn leads to financial and market performance.

This paper is one of the first attempts to empirically validate sustainability exploitation and sustainability exploration practices. Besides, the analysis of the direct and indirect effects of sustainability exploration and sustainability exploitation practices on financial and market performance has not been yet addressed to a great extent.

This is the case of an iconic brand from the Middle East, Abdul Samad Al-Qureshi Company (ASQ), which registered an admirable growth to become a global brand. ASQ was established in 1932 in Makkah, Al-Haram al-Sharif, the Holy Mosque. The company’s mission is to provide high-quality perfume products in the Arabian Peninsula. The company has different departments which work together to ensure that it achieves its objectives and has an extensive presence in the UAE. The company has seen a substantial increase in the number of staff members while sales have increased significantly. The customers’ satisfaction rate grew immensely resulting in the continuous number of awards that the company for its performance. The major drivers of success at ASQ are strong brand image, customer satisfaction, quality product, effective employee training programs, unique market offerings, and market research.

The establishment of the Dubai Association Centre (DAC) back in 2014 was an important development in the association world in Dubai and the Middle East. The organization was established at a critical time when the area was switching to a knowledge-based economy. Throughout the years, DAC has experienced lots of success within its operations. It has increased membership, improved the ease of doing business for global associations and opened up Dubai and the Middle East to the rest of the world. Its success can be attributed to its efficient management, inter-unit integration with other organizations, intellectual capital development, service orientation, and social marketing efficiency. These success drivers have enabled it to sustain its growth as well as that of associations within it.

The excessive accumulation of pollutants in the world’s oceans is urging all stakeholders to take swift action. Ecocoast is a Dubai-based organization that makes an impact by carving a niche for itself to overcome this predicament. The organization’s range of sustainable solutions offered at each stage of the coastal and marine development lifecycle focuses on protecting the marine environment. Founded in 2009, Ecocoast has since proven its robust positioning as an industry leader, winning over 15 industry awards. The drivers that influenced Ecocoast’s success were analyzed based on interviews with the founders and employees, as well as secondary data resources. Customer centricity, transformational leadership, research orientation, adaptive culture, corporate transparency, cross-functional specialization, and sustainable corporate thinking were found to be what shaped its success. The case proposes a strategic question for future research: Was it the desire for customer centricity that led to a transformational leadership style, or was it the other way around?

The pace at which an organization is able to respond to changes that occur both within and external to the organization has always been a key driver for the success of the organization. In today’s ever-changing environment and volatile economy, it is crucial for organizations to be flexible and agile in order to survive and succeed. This case study traces the journey of Stanley Black & Decker, a global tools, storage, and appliances organization, on its success journey in the Middle East region. This organization has been able to enjoy continuous financial success and win a series of accolades over the years due to the following major strategic drivers: change management, agility, effective channel management, strong customer engagement, brand leveraging, and innovation as a corporate culture. An analysis of existing research indicates a good alignment with change management, agility, brand leveraging, and innovation while a slight deviation is noted in effective channel management and customer engagement.

This case study offers an analysis of the main success drivers that allowed Majid Al Futtaim Retail, operator of Carrefour in the UAE, a major chain of hypermarkets and supermarkets, to undertake a digital transformation and achieve its objective of successfully launching their online grocery business in 2018. Within one year of launching their e-commerce business online, Carrefour UAE was able to achieve a 100% growth in the number of orders and a 110% growth in the number of new customers. Therefore, how did this company that is headquartered in the UAE and operates in 16 international markets, do it? And what did it take to digitize a business that has been operating in the traditional retail business for more than 20 years? Our analysis of Carrefour’s business model and Majid Al Futtaim Retail’s approach to launching their online business in the UAE shows that the main reasons behind their success were having a data-driven approach, adopting a customer-obsessed mindset, building an employee-centric culture and ensuring that continuous innovation is taking place across all business functions, all the time.¹