International publications about sustainability: a review of articles using the technique of qualitative content analysis

Abstract

This study aims to identify articles related to sustainability in international publications and analyze the categories that emerge from these studies through the use of the technique of qualitative content analysis in order to identify the main approaches, author contributions and theoretical gaps and suggestions for further studies. For application of the technique have been rising about 20 articles in Journals that feature sustainability impact factor relevant, and used the three basic steps for content analysis of the publications listed by Bardin (1977): (a) pre-analysis; (b) material exploration and; (c) treatment data, inference and interpretation.  The main results show that the major theories that are related to sustainability are: the resources and capabilities theory, institutional theory, stakeholders theory, the theory of market orientation, theory of supply chain and competitive advantage and both seek to help and explain the factors that facilitate or hinder the practice of corporate sustainability. In addition, some suggestions for further research were identified and analysis of the results presented in this study.