The impacts of sustainable industrial revolution (IR) on the profitability of Hungarian food companies

Abstract

There is growing literature on the concept and objectives of corporate sustainability (CS), but less attention is paid to a comprehensive approach to economic, social and ecological factors and industrial revolution (IR). Specifically, this paper contributes to the academic debate on the relationship between CS and IR in agri-food economics using firm-level data. The study used quantitative pathway models to measure the extent to which technologies affect the development of social, ecological and economic factors in Hungarian food manufacturing companies. The research was conducted using partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) and categorical principal component analysis (CATPCA) to calculate the direct and indirect effects of IR technologies on profitability outcomes. This study has shown that the livable and sustainable path hypotheses can be confirmed. Consequently, the food manufacturing businesses whose managers think along the viable and sustainable lines tend to be more profitable. However, the ecological and economic factors strengthened the positive impact of the social dimension on food corporate profitability. Decision-makers should not wait for a pie in the sky for emerging sustainability but consciously embrace the CS issues that only provide a direction for the changes.

A systematic review of financial performance in the manufacturing industry

“…The themes that have gained popularity over the past years based on frequency are sustainable development (15 occurrences), sustainability (11 occurrences), supply chain management (10 occurrences), corporate social responsibility (8 occurrences) Industry 4.0 (7 occurrences), industrial development (6 occurrences), and environmental performance (5 occurrences). These findings align with the growing focus on the role of sustainable development in influencing the financial performance of manufacturing organizations [24][25][26][27][28]. Furthermore, research indicates that government policies play a substantial role in determining a company's size and technical resources.…”

Dynamic Pattern and Evolution Trend of the New Four Modernizations Synchronous Development in China: An Analysis Based on Panel Data from 31 Provinces

“…The NFM synchronous development strategy meets the requirements of high-quality and sustainable economic development and is the key to solving the social contradictions facing China, such as irrational industrial structure, unbalanced development, and environmental pollution [41]. Although the existing literature on NFM is rich, it mainly focuses on the following aspects: the study of the development model, its characteristics, and level of new urbanization, industrialization, informatization, and agricultural modernization [42][43][44][45][46][47][48]; the study of their interactive relationship from the aspects of industrial informatization, urbanization and industrialization, agricultural informatization, and urban-rural integration [49][50][51][52][53][54]; with the concept of ecological civilization and sustainable development deeply rooted among people, in recent years many scholars have studied the NFM from the perspectives of clean energy, carbon emissions, and environmental protection [55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62]. However, the following questions arise: What is the theoretical basis of China's New Four Modernizations synchronous development strategy?…”