An In-Depth Analysis of Barriers to Corporate Sustainability

Kennedy Mutua (), Julieanna Powell-Turner, Melissa Spiers and Jess Callaghan
Additional contact information
Kennedy Mutua: Chester Business School, University of Chester, Chester CH14BJ, UK
Julieanna Powell-Turner: Chester Business School, University of Chester, Chester CH14BJ, UK
Melissa Spiers: Chester Business School, University of Chester, Chester CH14BJ, UK
Jess Callaghan: Chester Business School, University of Chester, Chester CH14BJ, UK

Administrative Sciences, 2025, vol. 15, issue 5, 1-33

Abstract: Recent decades have witnessed an unprecedented demand for corporate sustainability. Driven by a desire to remain competitive amidst economic turmoil and climate change, organisations are embedding sustainable measures into their long-term goals and strategies. Despite such progress, corporate sustainability is taking longer than anticipated, and to understand the reasons behind the delay, this research employs a systematic literature review to identify and categorise the key barriers to the adoption of corporate sustainability. A collection of barriers from 56 articles is established, totalling 90 unique barriers grouped into six main categories. The findings reveal that corporate sustainability is highly complex, emphasising the need for a transdisciplinary approach that incorporates various theoretical frameworks. The findings will be a general guide for any organisation to prepare itself for tackling sustainability barriers while equipping policymakers in developing policies aimed at reducing their magnitude. Equally, it will provide insights to institutions of higher learning on the significance of cross-industry cooperation to ensure skill gaps are addressed at earlier stages and aligned with organisational needs.

Keywords: corporate; organisations; sustainability; barriers; transdisciplinary; complex (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L M M0 M1 M10 M11 M12 M14 M15 M16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/15/5/161/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/15/5/161/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:15:y:2025:i:5:p:161-:d:1643883

Access Statistics for this article

Administrative Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Nancy Ma

More articles in Administrative Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().