Analysis of brazilian scientific development in the field of strategic sustainability

Abstract

Due to changes occurred in the world since the industrial revolution, especially the ones that have taken place since the second half of the twentieth century, environmental issues have emerged as a central theme for countries and societies. Ripening of these demands resulted in enterprises being expected to take on a more responsible role. This led researchers to deepen their studies to help companies overcome the challenges of sustainability. Accordingly, to the extent that this knowledge has reached, the need for embedding social and environmental issues in the central business strategy arose, thus strategic sustainability was born. This study seeks to understand how research on strategic sustainability in organizational environment is being developed in Brazil. To reach this objective, a bibliometric survey was conducted with the aim of identifying academic publications in the field and also a sociometric study was performed to verify in which way researchers and higher education institutions (HEIs) are working. The results indicate that this research is becoming increasingly common, but there is still a long road ahead in the development of studies that mix companies’ strategies with sustainable practices. Researchers who publish with coauthors are the majority, but the fact that they publish collectively does not increase their productivity. The networks formed by these authors are scattered and some researchers exert key role in their development. The networks formed by HEIs are denser and less dispersed, but also depend on a few institutions to be formed.