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Ulf Elg. Photo

Ulf Elg

Professor

Ulf Elg. Photo

Towards a Global Sustainability Approach: Challenges and Opportunities for Multinationals.

Author

  • Ulf Elg
  • Pervez N Ghauri

Editor

  • Pervez N. Ghauri
  • Ulf Elg
  • Sara Melén Hånell

Summary, in English

We discuss how multinational enterprises (MNEs) can play a leading role and take more responsibility towards reducing inequalities by developing a global sustainability regime. We especially focus on how this may contribute towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Our purpose is to identify and discuss the components and activities that are needed to develop such a strategy and implement it in markets with different structural and institutional conditions. We will especially discuss interactions between the head office and the local subsidiaries/organizations as well as interactions with different salient groups of stakeholders. We focus on three highly significant groups: business, social and political actors. We identify four key components of a global sustainability approach – namely, (i) make it relevant within the organization, (ii) establish a legitimate sustainable network position, (iii) present incentives and gains that stimulate action and (iv) establish long-term salient structures. These components and the associated activities have not been discussed in a coherent manner although some aspects have been put forward in earlier studies. We present a comprehensive framework that suggests what role MNEs can play and what challenges they face while doing so. The chapter is based on more than 10 years’ experience of studying MNEs’ activities in developing as well as developed markets, including how they work with sustainability. The study is based on data from four Swedish MNEs and three major research projects.

Department/s

  • Marketing

Publishing year

2023-10-02

Language

English

Pages

11-31

Publication/Series

International Business and Management

Volume

37

Document type

Book chapter

Publisher

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Topic

  • Business Administration

Keywords

  • Global sustainability
  • multinational enterprises
  • stakeholder relationships
  • structural and institutional factors
  • United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals
  • qualitative research

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISBN: 978-1-80455-252-0
  • ISBN: 978-1-80455-249-0