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Transnational Corporations - Volume 24, Issue 3, 2017
Volume 24, Issue 3, 2017
Transnational Corporations is a policy-oriented journal that serves as a specialized forum for the publication of research on the activities of transactional corporations and their implication for economic development.
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Guest editors’ introduction to the special issue: The contribution of multinational enterprises to the Sustainable Development Goals
Авторы): Caroline Witte and John DilyardIn December 2015 the United Nations (UN) General Assembly accepted a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The goals encompass interconnected and actionable targets that address a broad range of development issues and represent the 5 Ps: people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership that were delineated in the 25 September 2015 UN resolution in which the SDGs were adopted. In contrast to the MDGs, the SDGs explicitly call for a wide range of actors, including the private sector, to be involved, and progress on many of the 17 SDGs will strongly depend on private sector contributions. For example, SDG 12, responsible consumption and production, urges MNEs to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle. In addition, Goal 17 emphasizes partnerships for the goals, recognizing the need for cooperation between the private sector, public organizations and civil society for the achievement of all the SDGs.
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Multinational enterprises and the Sustainable Development Goals: What do we know and how to proceed?
Авторы): Ans Kolk, Arno Kourula and Niccolò PisaniMultinational enterprises (MNEs) can play an important role in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article examines what we know about their participation in implementing the SDGs and their impact, both positive and negative, on people, the planet, prosperity and peace as identified in the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda. To this end, we review the research published in the main international business journals on five key SDGs that represent these “four Ps”, grouped into three categories: (1) poverty and inequality, (2) energy and climate change, and (3) peace. We summarize the findings of the 61 relevant studies and subsequently explore the UN’s “fifth P”, partnership, both in terms of published research on MNEs and the SDGs, and in terms of a collaborative agenda to help address the large challenges of the 2030 Agenda. In view of the relatively limited research on MNEs and SDGs thus far, academic institutions and international business scholars in particular are well-positioned to offer important insights about the role of business in supporting the SDGs, for which we offer suggestions, also in relation with other key actors.
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Exploring the interface of CSR and the Sustainable Development Goals
Авторы): Norma Schönherr, Florian Findler and André MartinuzziTransnational corporations (TNCs) today are facing rising expectations that they will engage with societal stakeholders and get involved with sustainable development, even in light of an increasingly uncertain international business environment. This article explores how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a global agenda may serve as a reference framework that can support TNCs in improving their corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement in a way that contributes to sustainable development. The authors specifically consider the role of systematically measuring and managing corporate impacts on sustainable development as a prerequisite for demonstrating a net contribution to the SDGs. In order to capture these impacts, existing corporate measurement and evaluation systems need to be adapted and new management instruments have to be developed. We conclude by proposing a research agenda for this purpose.
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The multinational and the legitimation of sustainable development
Автор: William J. DonoherThe Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recently promulgated by the United Nations General Assembly provide an opportunity to assess the potential contributions of multinational enterprises to sustainability initiatives. This article seeks to promote understanding of the context within which multinationals will or can decide to participate in such initiatives by adopting a legitimacy perspective. When viewed from the perspective of organizational legitimacy, the extent to which a multinational adopts a sustainability agenda is likely to depend on its stakeholder network and the balance of the network’s variety of interests and beliefs. The article discusses current and prospective multinational activities that support the SDGs while also bolstering organizational legitimacy, and concludes with questions for future research.
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Corporate sustainability assessments: MNE engagement with sustainable development and the SDGs
Авторы): Cheree Topple, Jerome D. Donovan, Eryadi K. Masli and Thomas BorgertThe recent introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calls for an understanding of how multinational enterprises (MNEs) engage with sustainable business practices and how the SDGs may be better implemented by the private sector. Through an examination of 112 MNEs operating in the region of the Association of South-East Asian Nations, this study focuses on evaluating sustainable business practices through the lens of a corporate sustainability assessment framework. The results show that headquarters commitments of MNEs to international sustainability standards and guidelines had a key influence on their sustainability practices. These commitments included the use of tools such as the materiality analysis to identify and prioritize sustainability issues of importance to the MNE and its stakeholders and reflects a focus at the local level of the subsidiary that was in alignment with the corporate strategies of company headquarters. The results of this exploratory study suggest that it is through the use of these international sustainability standards and guidelines (such as the Global Reporting Initiative standards) that a greater consideration and incorporation of SDGs within MNE practices can be achieved. These standards and guidelines are both well accepted and already adopted by MNEs, and have an important influence on what sustainability issues and goals they consider within their operations.
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The sustainable development effects of investment by emerging-market multinationals: Shaping beneficial outcomes for home and host country
Автор: Guus HendriksEmerging-market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) play an increasingly important role as investors in developing economies. When certain conditions are met, their foreign investment can contribute to host-country progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moreover, foreign investment by EMNEs could also bring positive development effects for the home economies from which they internationalize. However, some concern exists about the possibility that gains will not be equitably shared or that potential will be not realized in one or the other. This article aims to shed light on the conditions that will allow both the home country of an EMNE and the host country receiving its investment to make progress towards the SDGs. Five areas for policy action are presented, together with a research agenda. It is argued that the most promising measures encourage foreign investment to be long-term, stimulate linkages between EMNEs’ home-country partners and host-economy firms, incentivize home- and host-country firms to take on new roles within global value chains, capitalize on institutional upgrading potential and tie certain conditions to the right to access natural resources. Both home and host countries could then potentially benefit from EMNEs’ outward investment and make progress on goals related to poverty alleviation (SDG 1), economic growth and the creation of decent work (SDG 8), infrastructure development (SDG 9) and institutional upgrading (SDG 16).
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MNE subsidiaries’ adoption of gender equality and women empowerment goal: A conceptual framework
Автор: Jane Lai Yee Terpstra-TongThis article explores the possible response types of multinational enterprise (MNE) subsidiaries in adopting the gender equality and women empowerment goal, number 5 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). MNE headquarters’ commitment to gender equality does not necessarily get translated to their subsidiaries’ priority because of the strategic value the subsidiaries see and the legitimacy pressure they experience. Drawing on institutional theories and the literature on the transfer of organizational practices in MNEs, we propose a two-dimensional (value added to strategy and legitimacy pressure) framework describing four major types of subsidiary response – resistance, compliance, conformity and commitment. Understanding these response categories would help global agencies and host-country governments adjust their efforts to enhance local legitimacy for SDG adoption. Our simple typology could also facilitate scholarly and practical discussion. We end our discussion with some suggestions for future research.
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Microfinance for poverty alleviation: Do transnational initiatives overlook fundamental questions of competition and intermediation?
Авторы): Frithjof Arp, Alvin Ardisa and Alviani ArdisaNumerous microfinance initiatives around the world aim to alleviate poverty in developing countries. However, debate persists about their effectiveness and sustainability – a concern for transnational corporations and the international business community, which contribute about $9.4 billion to microfinance funding. In this policy-oriented article we aggregate findings from two studies in Indonesia that help explain why moneylending can still thrive when low-interest microfinance is widely available and why the poorest borrowers benefit less than the less-poor. To avoid methodological debates about validity, we interview market participants and triangulate the perspectives of borrowers with those of formal and informal lenders. Importantly, our research includes current and past borrowing from formal and informal sources, prompting participants to draw comparisons. We find that the importance to borrowers of key characteristics of informal lending is insufficiently recognized and that inappropriate human resource management and informal intermediation are significant problems. The latter can be an unintended consequence of formal microfinance: The availability of formal low-interest microfinance creates informal intermediation opportunities for entrepreneurs, often developing from casual intermediation into systematic deception. We discuss implications for microfinance policy with reference to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and offer suggestions for further research.
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Under African skies – mining TNCs in Africa and the Sustainable Development Goals
Авторы): W. Travis Selmier II and Aloysius Newenham-KahindiInteraction between transnational mining companies (mining TNCs), governments, mining industry bodies and local communities is critical to advancing several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Mining TNCs may be leaders or conspicuous laggards in this regard. Some larger mining companies have made significant corporate social responsibility (CSR) progress and implemented effective sustainable development, thereby boosting their legitimacy. Individually, some African countries have established global, standard, mining codes of conduct; collectively, African governments are organizing to establish regional licensing standards, CSR guidelines and codes of conduct such as the Africa Mining Vision. Comparing two mining TNCs cases, we illustrate paths of progress and problems and predict their directions in Africa. Although we expect the United Nations Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative to remain the main vehicles and provide benchmarks that move the mining industry towards achieving the SDGs, these vehicles need to be expanded to include targets that currently are only implicit, such as gender equality and sustainable community development.
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