A Review of Corporate Purpose: An Approach to Actioning the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Dayana Jimenez,Isabel B Franco,Tahlia Smith

doi:10.3390/su13073899

Dayana Jimenez, Isabel B Franco + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13073899

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Abstract

This journal article explores Corporate Purpose as an approach to action the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It achieves this objective by presenting a review of existing literature on Corporate Purpose and SDGs from the disciplines of business ethics, management studies, economics and psychology. The review showcases contributions exploring whether and how Corporate Purpose-led strategy facilitates the operationalization of the SDGs and proposes an emerging research agenda. This article employed an inductive approach methodology through grounded theory to develop a critical analysis of scientific evidence-based work for theory construction on Corporate Purpose. One of the major findings of this review is that to achieve the SDGs companies need to shift found from the “business as usual” approach, which perceives sustainability as an externality, to incorporating sustainability factors in the company’s underlying purpose. The article also (1) identifies trends in research outputs and reveals five major antecedents of the phenomenon (drivers to purpose), (2) identifies key gaps within the existing literature, (3) distinguishes three current approaches to Corporate Purpose and (4) elaborates on current theories of Corporate Purpose and SDGs linkages to identify opportunities and aid future research. In summary, this article unpacks Corporate Purpose mechanisms to action the SDGs and stimulates academic discussion of business transformational approaches to long-standing sustainability challenges.

Highlights

Amid a global crisis and economic slowdown, there is an urgent call for corporations to implement sustainable business strategies to ensure they can continue to create value for stakeholders and society as a whole even during times of disruption and uncertainty.By aligning corporate practices with the SDGs, companies can realize opportunities that generate financial returns as well as create long-lasting social and environmental impacts.Despite corporate commitments to meet social and environmental goals, the general limited understanding of businesses’ purpose towards the realization of SDGs hinders the effectiveness of corporate and international agendas
We explore the following question: How is Corporate Purpose positioned as a model to incorporate sustainability and to what extent can it be applied as a model to action the SDGs? We developed our findings through inductive reasoning, by drawing on a literature review
The results of this review show that Corporate Purpose is a sustainability approach to action the SDGs

Summary

Introduction

Amid a global crisis and economic slowdown, there is an urgent call for corporations to implement sustainable business strategies to ensure they can continue to create value for stakeholders and society as a whole even during times of disruption and uncertainty.By aligning corporate practices with the SDGs, companies can realize opportunities that generate financial returns as well as create long-lasting social and environmental impacts.Despite corporate commitments to meet social and environmental goals, the general limited understanding of businesses’ purpose towards the realization of SDGs hinders the effectiveness of corporate and international agendas. By aligning corporate practices with the SDGs, companies can realize opportunities that generate financial returns as well as create long-lasting social and environmental impacts. Corporate Purpose is an alternative business approach which addresses this contradiction between profit maximization and sustainable value creation by focusing on creating purposeful profits and finding equal synergy between people, planet, and profits [5,6,7]. This journal article aims to provide readers with

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