Developing a Business Sustainability Model in the Iran's Automotive Industry

Today, sustainability is considered as a requirement for businesses. Organizations need to have a suitable model to continue their activities in the current dynamic business environment. Based on this, in the current research, the design of the business sustainability model in the Iranian automotive industry is discussed.

The current research is developmental in terms of its purpose, exploratory in terms of its nature, and a mixed research in terms of the type of data. The conceptual model of business sustainability was identified in the qualitative section using metasynthesis method. The research model was tested in the quantitative part by questionnaire data with structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis. The statistical population in the qualitative section included research articles and reports of reliable scientific databases in the time period of 2002 to 2021 and 1390 to 1400. The statistical population of the research in the quantitative part included the experts of Iran's automotive industry and 255 people were selected by simple random method. Qualitative data were analyzed using Sandelowski and Barroso's seven-step model and quantitative data were analyzed in Lisrel software and with structural equation modeling technique.

Based on data analysis, the main dimensions of business sustainability were categorized into three categories: environmental(with 6 concepts and 40 codes), social(with 8 concepts and 45 codes) and economic(with 3 concepts and 19 codes). Also, the quantitative findings from the first and second order confirmatory factor analysis showed that the factor loadings of all model variables and their significance values are more than the acceptable level.

Achieving business sustainability in the automotive industry requires attention to three economic, environmental and social categories. Automotive industry managers can formulate and implement business sustainability strategies by focusing on economic, social and environmental indicators.