In South Africa, escalating consumption of digital devices poses significant threats to ecological sustainability and has far-reaching implications for environmental degradation. The ratio of digital devices to human beings is rapidly increasing, underscoring the urgency of interrogating the sustainability implications of digital expansion. This study investigated the complex relationship between digitalisation and sustainable development, focusing on the social, environmental, and economic impacts in the South African context. For this systematic review, researchers synthesised and analysed the findings of 44 articles, published between 2015 and 2025. Using a knowledge–implementation–effect (K-I-E) cycle, the research sought to bridge knowledge gaps, critically assess the ecological costs of digital innovation, and explore how digital technologies align or conflict with sustainability goals. The study hypothesised that unchecked digitalisation exacerbates climate vulnerability, e-waste, and energy consumption, thereby threatening environmental integrity and social equity. The findings underscore the digitalisation–carbon footprint paradox, capturing a contradiction of the digital age, whereby technological progress helps reduce environmental impact and at the same time drives new forms of environmental pressure. This paradox reflects a tension between efficiency gains and expanded energy consumption. The study has major implications for policymakers because it promotes eco-friendly principles. Notably, there is a paucity of literature on digitalisation and sustainability in South Africa, with existing studies largely confined to narrow, sector-specific analyses rather than providing integrated, systemic, and cross-sectoral perspectives.
PURPOSE: This paper explores how small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and adjacent actors in the European food sector navigate the dual imperatives of digital transformation and sustainability. While policy and academic discourse increasingly frame these agendas as complementary under the “twin transition,” limited research explores how resource-constrained food companies and adjacent actors perceive, prioritize, and operationalize their integration, especially given the sector's reputation for slow adoption of new technologies. The paper addresses this gap by investigating the complementarities, tensions, and trade-offs shaping the relationship between digitalization and ecological objectives at the firm level. METHODOLOGY: Adopting an exploratory qualitative design, the study draws on 21 semi-structured interviews with representatives from SMEs and adjacent ecosystem actors in the European food sector. Using the Gioia methodology, data were analyzed inductively through first-order coding, second-order themes, and aggregate dimensions, enabling the development of empirically grounded insights into strategic priorities, organizational barriers, and managerial practices. FINDINGS: The results reveal a conditional and reciprocal relationship between digital transformation and sustainability. Digital technologies, such as IoT monitoring, traceability platforms, and precision agriculture systems, are widely perceived as enablers of sustainability by enhancing efficiency, transparency, and regulatory compliance. Sustainability commitments, in turn, shape digital adoption by directing investment toward technologies that support ecological objectives. However, resource scarcity, fragmented regulations, skill deficits, and organizational resistance act as significant barriers, often forcing companies to prioritize one agenda over the other. Moreover, digitalization can introduce new ecological risks, such as electronic waste or higher energy consumption, complicating the assumption of automatic complementarity. IMPLICATIONS: Theoretically, the study advances an exploratory map that positions digital transformation and sustainability as mutually influential but contingent processes shaped by institutional pressures, sectoral structures, and resource availability. For practice, it highlights the importance of strategic leadership, cross-functional collaboration, stakeholder engagement, and workforce training to overcome barriers and realize synergies. ORIGINALITY & VALUE: The originality of this research lies in its specific focus on European food sector and adjacent ecosystem actors, offering preliminary but empirically grounded insights into the “twin transition” under resource-constrained conditions in a relatively conservative sector.
Magdalena Marczewska, Ravi Shankar Audichya, Christopher L. Tucci· Journal of Entrepreneurship,...· 0 citations
This study explores the environmental dimensions of Surakarta’s emerging digital ecosystem by examining how digital transformation intersects with sustainability goals. As the city accelerates its shift toward a technology-driven economy, digital infrastructure, smart services, and innovation hubs such as Solo Technopark present significant opportunities to reduce resource consumption, improve environmental monitoring, and support greener urban management. Findings from interviews and document analysis reveal that digital initiatives, ranging from smart mobility systems to eco-efficient business processes, hold strong potential to lower emissions and enhance environmental governance. However, several sustainability barriers persist, including rising energy demand from data-driven operations, limited integration of green standards into ICT development, and gaps in environmental awareness among stakeholders. Additionally, insufficient green infrastructure and uneven technological capacity hinder the transition toward an environmentally responsible digital ecosystem. This study argues that achieving a truly green digital transformation requires aligning technological innovation with ecological priorities, strengthening regulatory frameworks, and fostering cross-sector collaboration. By highlighting both the potential and the obstacles, the research underscores the need for a sustainability-centered digital strategy to ensure that Surakarta’s digital growth contributes meaningfully to environmental resilience and long-term ecological well-being.
Halimah Abdul Manaf, H. Fridayani, Yuli Isnadi et al.· Discover Environment· 0 citations
This systematic literature review critically examines the impact of digitalisation on sustainable agricultural development, synthesising empirical evidence published between 2015 and 2026. Following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, 62 empirical studies indexed in Scopus and Web of Science were identified and analysed using a combined deductive–inductive thematic approach. The analysis is structured around a triple-bottom-line framework encompassing economic, environmental, and social sustainability dimensions. The review addresses two research questions: the geographical and temporal distribution of research on digitalisation and agricultural sustainability, and the extent to which digitalisation yields both beneficial and adverse outcomes across all three dimensions. The findings reveal a sharp increase in scholarly attention after 2022, with strong geographical concentration in Asia, particularly China, while evidence from developing regions remains comparatively limited. Overall, existing research predominantly highlights positive effects, particularly productivity gains, efficiency improvements, and income growth, alongside enhanced environmental performance through resource optimisation and emission reduction. However, the evidence also documents uneven and context-dependent outcomes, especially within the social dimension, including labour displacement, rising inequality, and digital wage opacity. Crucially, integrative analyses that examine all three sustainability dimensions simultaneously remain scarce; fewer than 5% of included studies address economic, environmental, and social outcomes together, and potential trade-offs among dimensions are insufficiently explored. By synthesising fragmented empirical evidence through an explicit analytical framework, this review provides a comprehensive and critical foundation for understanding the complex, uneven, and context-dependent impacts of digitalisation on sustainable agriculture and identifies four priority directions for future research.
Z. Smagulova, U. Shalbolova, Aigul Mukhanova et al.· Sustainability· 0 citations
This study critically reviews sustainability accounting's research tensions, unintended consequences and explores ways to align accounting practices with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.
The study reviews 283 empirical studies on sustainability accounting published between 2000 and 2024 using a PRISMA systematic strategy and analyses them through co-occurrence network analysis and the Antecedents-Decisions-Outcomes and Theories-Contexts-Methods (ADO-TCM) framework.
The review reveals that sustainability accounting research remains epistemologically fragmented, methodologically conservative and weakly aligned with the SDGs. Existing frameworks often tacitly prioritize financial logics, marginalizing ecological justice, social transformation and externalities in governance. Although themes like circularity, stakeholder governance and technological innovation show promise, they risk instrumentalization without deeper theoretical and educational reforms and standardized metrics. Moreover, the field's regulatory and conceptual structures encourage symbolic compliance, greenwashing, disciplinary silos and exclusion of global south perspectives, ultimately hindering genuine SDGs alignment.
The study draws largely on reputable journals and hence may unintentionally reinforce dominant academic hierarchies, marginalizing diverse epistemologies and voices from underrepresented contexts. These risks narrow critical engagement with sustainability accounting's ideological underpinnings and its alignment with justice, pluralism and the SDGs.
The study calls for interdisciplinary curriculum reform, regulatory pluralism and inclusive standard-setting, highlighting the importance of dialogic accountability through the integration of indigenous knowledge and holistic materiality across policy, practice and education.
The study combines co-occurrence network analysis with ADO-TCM integration to critically reorient sustainability accounting research for advancing SDG-aligned, justice-centered practices.
Cletus Agyenim-Boateng, Sulemana Iddrisu· Journal of Accounting Litera...· 0 citations
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) significantly contribute to South Africa's economic growth and job creation; nevertheless, their sustainability is hindered by ongoing structural issues. The article analyses how digital platforms—such as fintech, digital payments, and e-commerce—can facilitate the growth and economic resilience of SMEs. The research employs a rigorous desk review process to synthesise information from academic literature, policy reports, and case studies published from 2015 to 2025. The analysis utilises thematic synthesis, uncovering four principal themes: (1) Barriers to SME Growth, (2) Digital Platforms as Solutions, (3) Obstacles to Digital Adoption, and (4) Theoretical Perspectives on Digital Adoption. Critical findings indicate that although digital platforms have substantial prospects, their adoption is constrained by infrastructural deficiencies, digital illiteracy, regulatory challenges, and perceived risks. Utilising the Technology Acceptance Model and Diffusion of Innovation Theory, the research illustrates that perceived utility and ease of use depend on structural and ecological preparedness. The document advocates for a comprehensive, contextually tailored support system that amalgamates infrastructure enhancement, digital skills education, regulatory reform, and the cultivation of institutional trust. The paper's contribution is the reclassification of contextual restrictions as primary factors influencing digital adoption in SMEs within emerging markets.
N. Mokone, Tonderai Kapesa· International Journal of Bus...· 0 citations
Abstract
Environmental sustainability has emerged as one of the defining challenges of the twenty-first century due to accelerating climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental pollution, and the depletion of natural resources. Although scientific understanding of environmental issues has grown substantially, translating this knowledge into effective action remains a persistent global challenge, commonly described as the “knowledge–action gap.” This paper conducts a narrative and integrative review of recent literature (2018–2024) to examine the transition from environmental awareness to practical implementation, focusing on the roles of governance, technological innovation, education, community participation, corporate responsibility, and international cooperation. Following a systematic-style search of peer-reviewed and institutional sources, the review synthesises findings into an integrated conceptual framework linking six interdependent domains — policy and governance, technology and innovation, education and awareness, community participation, corporate responsibility, and international cooperation — to sustainable development outcomes. The study identifies persistent economic, political, social, and technological barriers to implementation and proposes a set of ten evidence-based recommendations for accelerating the transition from knowledge to action. The findings suggest that achieving environmental sustainability requires interdisciplinary collaboration, evidence-based policymaking, technological advancement, behavioural transformation, and long-term institutional commitment operating jointly rather than in isolation.
Dr. L Arul Seeli· International Journal For Mu...· 0 citations