“Working towards the Sustainable Development Goals in earnest – critical international business perspectives on designing better interventions”
I.
Guest Editors
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Noemi Sinkovics, University of Auckland Business School, New Zealand, [log in to unmask]
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Luciana Marques Vieira, Fundação Getúlio Vargas/Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo - (FGV/EAESP), [log in to unmask]
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Rob van Tulder, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, [log in to unmask]
II.
Introduction to the Special Issue
This special issue intends to foster critical debate around the challenges and opportunities facing enterprises when working towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) beyond ‘SDG washing’ (cf. van Zanten & van
Tulder, 2018). The SDGs are the latest in a series of transnational attempts at designing a governance framework for sustainable development. The scale of stakeholder consultations that preceded the design of the SDGs along with the framework’s emphasis
on the role of the business sector in achieving these goals makes this framework “the most important frame of the global development agenda until 2030” (cf. Kolk, 2016; van Zanten & van Tulder, 2018: 209). As such, they provide an excellent frame of reference
when critically investigating issues that are “of crucial concern to the world, groups of countries or stakeholders” (cf. Buckley et al., 2017; Dörrenbächer & Gammelgaard, 2019: 254; George et al., 2016).
While there is an increasing number of grey literature on the SDGs, academic studies need to yet incorporate them into their analyses as the rule, rather than the exception (cf. Sinkovics et al., 2016; Sinkovics
et al., 2015). This is all the more important as several of the nine planetary boundaries for a safe operating space for humanity have been already exceeded
(Rockstrom et al., 2009a; Rockstrom et al., 2009b; Steffen et al., 2015). This has serious implications for the extent to which the SDGs can be met. As firms cannot be separated from human beings, nor from their environment, academic studies need to
investigate how the SDGs can become an integral part of the (re)design of business models as well as global value chains (Elkington & Braun, 2013; Linnenluecke et al., 2016; Sinkovics & Archie-acheampong, 2019).
In line with the remit of critical perspectives on international business (Dörrenbächer & Michailova, 2019) we encourage submissions that
take a critical stance to what is needed to meaningfully contribute to the SDGs and also clearly outline the relevance of their insights for future critical IB research. We are especially looking for contributions that 1) identify and question widely
held assumptions that hinder the design and implementation of more effective SDG contributions and/or 2) propose alternatives to predominant ‘business as usual’ solutions that are not sufficient to effectuate meaningful change.
This special issue is interested in a wide range of SDG related projects including but not limited to solutions that originated from multinational enterprises (MNEs), large domestic corporations, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs),
commissioned by governments/local authorities, initiated by standard setting bodies or by third sector organizations. We will only consider contributions for publication if they clearly and meaningfully discuss the implication of their study for 1) international
business, 2) global value chains, or 3) cross-border collaborations for designing and implementing more effective policies.
III.
Conceptual and Empirical Topics of Particular Interest
The special issue of cpoib provides an opportunity for scholars from different academic disciplines and sub-disciplines with relevance to IB research to submit their work on how the business sector, on its own
or in collaboration with other actors, can contribute to the SDGs. Indicative research questions invited for submission are:
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Are existing theories in IB able to support a better understanding of the SDGs including the process of their implementation
and evaluation? If not, how can we extend or modify these theories? Do we need new theories?
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How can SDGs be addressed at different units of analysis (individual, firm, sector, nation state, the supranational level)?
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How can the tensions between climate change and development be mitigated? Can local or regional solutions be scaled up nationally
and internationally?
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How can the SDGs help achieve more meaningful social and environmental upgrading in GVCs? Should MNEs be the main driving
force?
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What are the limitations of current SDG projects? How can they be addressed? Do MNEs foster or hinder the design of more
effective interventions?
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How can multi-stakeholder SDG collaborations be made more effective? Where are the tensions?
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What are the challenges of transforming existing business models into models that embrace the SDGs?
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What are the challenges of designing and implementing cross-border solutions to SDGs?
IV.
Submission Process and Deadlines
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Authors should refer to the
cpoib website and the instructions on submitting a paper. For author guidelines and more information see:
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/cpoib.htm
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Submissions to cpoib
are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cpoib
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The guest editors welcome informal enquiries related to proposed topics.
Dr. Noemi Sinkovics
Senior Lecturer in Management and International Business University of Auckland Business School, New Zealand |
Dr. Luciana Marques Vieira Fundação Getúlio Vargas/Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo - (FGV/EAESP) https://eaesp.fgv.br/en/faculty/luciana-marques-vieira
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Prof. Rob van Tulder Professor of International Business-Society Management Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University |
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V.
References
Buckley, P. J., Doh, J. P., & Benischke, M. H. (2017).
Towards a renaissance in international business research? Big questions, grand challenges, and the future of ib scholarship.
Journal of International Business Studies, 48(9), 1045-1064. doi: 10.1057/s41267-017-0102-z
Dörrenbächer, C., & Gammelgaard, J. (2019). Critical and mainstream international business research.
critical perspectives on international business, 15(2/3), 239-261. doi: 10.1108/cpoib-02-2019-0012
Dörrenbächer, C., & Michailova, S. (2019). Editorial.
critical perspectives on international business, 15(2/3), 110-118. doi: 10.1108/cpoib-05-2019-103
Elkington, J., & Braun, S. (2013). Breakthrough business leaders, market revolutions (pp. 1-64): Volans.
George, G., Howard-Grenville, J., Joshi, A., & Tihanyi, L. (2016). Understanding and tackling societal grand challenges through management research.
Academy of Management Journal, 59(6), 1880-1895. doi: 10.5465/amj.2016.4007
Kolk, A. (2016). The social responsibility of international business: From ethics and the environment to csr and sustainable development.
Journal of World Business, 51(1), 23-34. doi: 10.1016/j.jwb.2015.08.010
Linnenluecke, M. K., Smith, T., & McKnight, B. (2016). Environmental finance: A research agenda for interdisciplinary finance research.
Economic Modelling, 59, 124-130. doi: 10.1016/j.econmod.2016.07.010
Rockstrom, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K., Persson, A., Chapin, F. S., Lambin, E., . . . Foley, J. (2009a). Planetary boundaries: Exploring the safe operating space for humanity.
Ecology and Society, 14(2), 33.
Rockstrom, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K., Persson, A., Chapin, F. S., Lambin, E. F., . . . Foley, J. A. (2009b). A safe operating space for humanity.
Nature, 461(7263), 472-475. doi: 10.1038/461472a
Sinkovics, N., & Archie-acheampong, J. (2019). The social value creation of mnes - a literature review across multiple academic fields.
critical perspectives on international business. doi: 10.1108/cpoib-06-2017-0038
Sinkovics, N., Hoque, S. F., & Sinkovics, R. R. (2016). Rana plaza collapse aftermath: Are csr compliance and auditing pressures effective?
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 29(4), 617-649. doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-07-2015-2141
Sinkovics, N., Sinkovics, R. R., Hoque, S. F., & Czaban, L. (2015). A reconceptualisation of social value creation as social constraint alleviation.
critical perspectives on international business, 11(3-4), 340-363. doi: 10.1108/cpoib-06-2014-0036
Steffen, W., Richardson, K., Rockstrom, J., Cornell, S. E., Fetzer, I., Bennett, E. M., . . . Sorlin, S. (2015). Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet.
Science, 347(6223), 11. doi: 10.1126/science.1259855
van Zanten, J. A., & van Tulder, R. (2018). Multinational enterprises and the sustainable development goals: An institutional approach to corporate engagement.
Journal of International Business Policy, 1(3), 208-233. doi: 10.1057/s42214-018-0008-x
Dr Noemi Sinkovics
| Senior Lecturer in Management and International Business
| The University of Auckland Business School | New Zealand |Sir Owen G Glenn Building
| 12 Grafton Road |Room 4134 | AIB UKI Board Member and Communications Officer
| Social Media Coordinator for Critical Perspectives on International Business
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| https://unidirectory.auckland.ac.nz/profile/noemi-sinkovics
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www.sinkovics.com/noemi
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