Multinational Enterprise Strategies for Addressing Sustainability: the Need for Consolidation

Roger Leonard Burritt (), Katherine Leanne Christ (), Hussain Gulzar Rammal () and Stefan Schaltegger ()
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Roger Leonard Burritt: The Australian National University
Katherine Leanne Christ: University of South Australia Business School
Hussain Gulzar Rammal: University of Technology Sydney
Stefan Schaltegger: Leuphana University Lüneburg

Journal of Business Ethics, 2020, vol. 164, issue 2, No 10, 389-410

Abstract: Abstract This paper examines the growing number of publications on multinational enterprise management of sustainability issues. Based on an integrative literature review and thematic analysis, the paper analyses and synthesises the current state of knowledge about main issues arising. Key issues identified include the following: choice of sustainability strategies; management of the views of headquarters towards sustainability; local cultural sustainability perspectives in developed and developing host countries; MNEs with home in developing/emerging countries; and resource availability for implementing sustainability initiatives. Findings indicate that although the literature is tending towards growing acceptance about sustainability and its challenges most researchers have focused on corporate social responsibility and investigate their own niche problem, industry, and country, using their own chosen theory and do not consider the need for consolidation and integration of social, environmental and economic performance. Avenues for future research are identified which will provide a means for the ethical foundations of theory and practice to be improved.

Keywords: Multinational enterprise; Sustainability strategy; Distance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-018-4066-0

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