How green is your public speech?

In today’s world, sustainability is not just a trend but a necessity, prompting organizations to play a crucial role in transitioning towards a greener future. This dissertation explores how European organizations contribute to sustainability through the analysis of their digital behavior and the knowledge they disclose.The first part of the dissertation presents two case studies examining the knowledge online disclosed by organizations and their mutual relations. The results revealed that public perceptions of sustainability is mainly shaped around environmental and economic aspects. The social dimension of sustainability is mainly addressed by private companies which are the most central organizations in the online relational network of Dutch energy transition.The second part of the dissertation focused on SMEs operating in the European energy sector and analyzed the output of online disclosed practices to provide a network-based representation and measurement framework of firms’ knowledge concerning sustainability, intended as part of their Green Intellectual Capital (GIC). The results confirmed a substantial adherence of the proposed framework to GIC theory. Firms with high Environmental Consciousness exhibit a more connected knowledge graph, meaning a higher GIC, leading to a greater innovation capability, as well as better economic performance. The GIC measure proposed and the ability to produce innovations result, moreover, positively related to the sustainable energy performance at country level.The dissertation, besides providing a new methodological framework for assessing GIC, provides evidence of GIC relevance as driver of sustainability and offers an effective guidance for organizations striving to balance profitability with environmental responsibility.

Dissertation: https://hdl.handle.net/11370/a790ee7d-bd10-4000-8818-e741f8cb9c34