Seeking and Exploiting Synergies Among the UN Sustainability Development Goals: Research Opportunities for Operations Management

Abstract

In 2015, the United Nations (UN) countries signed up to achieve 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) for people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership by 2030. However, the trend of progress toward achieving these goals indicates that none of the 17 goals may be achieved by 2030 globally. We first provide La foundation for operations management (OM) researchers to help shape the interventions for countries and companies to help achieve the SDGs by (1) identifying the synergies among the SDGs so that interventions can impact multiple SDGs positively and (2) linking some of the extant OM research with the synergies among the various SDGs. This way, researchers can understand the complexity of the challenges ahead and build on the OM literature to influence the interventions of governments and organizations to maximize the attainment of the SDGs. We also list some research opportunities to help OM researchers develop research agendas.