TY - JOUR T1 - Sustainability-related Communication Patterns on the Websites of European Top R&D Spenders JF - Technology Innovation Management Review Y1 - 2020 A1 - Giacomo Liotta A1 - Stoyan Tanev A1 - Andrea Gorra A1 - Alicja Izabela Pospieszala KW - business decision-making KW - online communication KW - online data collection KW - principal component analysis KW - R&D KW - research and development KW - sustainability KW - sustainable innovation AB - Many firms struggle to incorporate "sustainability" into their operations in a way that can capture economic value and deliver social and environmental benefits. This article aims to answer two questions in this regard: (i) How do companies articulate the sustainability aspects of their businesses online, and (ii) In what ways does the degree of articulation of specific sustainability aspects relate to company performance metrics, such as sales and R&D expenditure. The research method measures the occurrences of a set of sustainability-related keywords on the websites of a sample of 387 firms that were ranked as top R&D spenders in Europe for 2013. We processed the keyword occurrences in a simplified version of latent semantic analysis based on the application of principal component analysis to identify the specific combinations of words used by companies to communicate sustainability issues on their websites. The results show that "sustainable innovation" and "sustainable operations" based on partnerships and cooperation represent a dominant part of companies' online communication strategies. One of the findings suggests a strong relationship between the communication of sustainable innovation aspects and sales, which offers a promising message to companies looking for evidence about the potential impact of their commitment to sustainable operations and innovation. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa VL - 10 UR - timreview.ca/article/1395 IS - 10 U1 - Aalborg University Giacomo Liotta was an Associate Professor in the Center for Industrial Production at Aalborg University in Copenhagen, Denmark. Before that he was part of the Institute of Technology and Innovation at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. His research interests focused on sustainability and innovation in supply-chain networks, including the simulation of networked logistics-production systems as well as product-lifecycle management. Dr. Liotta had a PhD in Economics and Management Engineering at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy. He also held an MBA, MSc, and BSc degrees in Management and Industrial Engineering from this same university. His teaching activities focused on the design of global supply-chain networks and environmental issues. Dr. Liotta is the author of more than 20 papers published in international journals, books, and conference proceedings. He has been involved in national and European co-funded research and development projects. Giacomo passed away in December 2016, a few months after being diagnosed with cancer. U2 - Technology Innovation Management Review Stoyan Tanev, PhD, MSc, MEng, MA, is Associate Professor of Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management associated with the Technology Innovation Management (TIM) Program, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University. Before re-joining Carleton University, Dr. Tanev was part of the Innovation and Design Engineering Section, Faculty of Engineering, University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Odense, Denmark. Dr. Tanev has a multidisciplinary background including MSc in Physics (Sofia University, Bulgaria), PhD in Physics (1995, University Pierre and Marie Curie, Paris, France, co-awarded by Sofia University, Bulgaria), MEng in Technology Management (2005, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada), MA in Orthodox Theology (2009, University of Sherbrooke, Montreal Campus, QC, Canada) and PhD in Theology (2012, Sofia University, Bulgaria). Dr. Stoyan Tanev has published multiple articles in several research domains. His current research interests are in the fields of technology entrepreneurship and innovation management, design principles and scaling of technology start-ups, business analytics, topic modeling and text mining. He has also an interest in interdisciplinary issues on the interface of the natural and social sciences, and philosophy of religion. Dr. Tanev is the Editor-in-Chief of the Technology Innovation Management Review. U3 - Algonquin College and Carleton University Andrea Gorra PhD, MSc is a part-time Professor with the Business Management and Entrepreneurship Program at Algonquin College, Ottawa, Canada and an Educational Development Facilitator at Carleton University with a focus on work-integrated and experiential learning. Prior to this, she was part of Leeds Beckett University’s Business School (UK) where she taught and researched in the areas of Supply Chain, Operations, Project and Risk Management. Andrea’s current research interests are in the fields of student entrepreneurship and building equal opportunities for practice-based learning for all students, including those from underrepresented groups. She also has an interest in qualitative data analysis, topic modelling and the grounded theory methodology, and recently published a chapter in the SAGE Handbook of Grounded Theory (2nd ed). U4 - LEGO Group Alicja Pospieszala (Schroll Nielsen) has a Management and Manufacturing Engineering degree from the Technical University of Wroclaw in Poland with a focus on quality management systems in production. Alicja has also completed a Masters degree in Product Development and Innovation at the University of Southern Denmark. She is currently working in the LEGO Group being responsible for activities related to problem solving and quality improvement in Mould Design. Before joining the LEGO group Alicja has worked for around 3 years at EWII Mobility A/S focusing on the quality management support of the production of 3-wheel electric vehicles. ER -