Managing Sustainable Development in International Business: Challenges and Insights

Shasha Zhao,Elizabeth L Rose,John Dilyard

doi:10.46697/001c.33084

Abstract

This Special Issue is the first joint effort between the Academy of International Business’ Sustainability Shared Interest Group and AIB Insights. Sustainability has become an increasingly important consideration for multinational enterprises, and seeking approaches to implementing sustainability-improving change has thus become a strategic priority. This Special Issue provides novel and actionable insights – for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers – about the crucial role that multinational enterprises are playing in achieving sustainable development.

Highlights

This issue of AIB Insights signals an important forward step in the thinking of the international business (IB) academic community
Over the past several decades, the IB community has developed pioneering theories and methodologies to explain the actions and performance of multinational enterprises (MNEs). This has allowed an audience that includes researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to understand how and why MNEs operate internally, and how they affect the economies of the countries in which they operate
MNEs are being asked to be global businesses, and global citizens. This necessitates practice- and impact-driven academic inquiries. This special issue aims to contribute to this transition

Summary

Introduction

This issue of AIB Insights signals an important forward step in the thinking of the international business (IB) academic community. Despite rather extensive research about sustainability and sustainable development in many non-IB fields (e.g., Hahn, Kolk, & Winn, 2010), and the wide recognition of MNEs as necessary actors in the United Nations’ target of achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (van Tulder & Keen, 2018; Zhan & Santos-Paulino, 2021), we still lack a clear and systematic understanding of MNEs’ roles in contributing to, or hindering, local and global efforts to address pressing sustainability issues or achieving the SDGs (Witte & Dilyard, 2017).

Results

Conclusion