Beyond COVID-19: Applying “SDG logics” for resilient transformations

Disasters and international business: Insights and recommendations from a systematic review

Disasters – natural or manmade – are on the rise with far-reaching implications for international business (IB) actors and transactions. While the Covid-19 pandemic has generated much academic interest for its impact on business in general, little effort has been made to consolidate the fragmented research on disasters more broadly in the field of international business. Therefore, it is important and urgent to consolidate the existing knowledge to provide a solid basis for future research. We systematically review 132 articles published between 1991 and 2022 and critically evaluate the nascent but rapidly growing literature at the intersection of disasters and IB. Our examination of the different types of disasters (natural and manmade) shows two separate streams: (1) a dominant MNE-centric stream of strategic IB research which regards disaster as an exogenous shock impacting MNE strategies, responses, and resilience, and (2) an emergent stream which places disaster as a more central, embedded phenomenon of investigation impacted by MNEs and other global actors. Our systematic review highlights the gaps in this literature and concludes with a discussion of the intersection of IB-disasters in relation to the 17 United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to suggest directions for future research.

Association between Development Assistance for Health and Disease Burden: A Longitudinal Analysis on Official Development Assistance for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria in 2005-2017

From the early stage of the millennium development goals campaign, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria have received huge aid funds. With the datasets published by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developments, and World Health Organization from 2005 to 2017, we analyzed the association between the total DAH or DAH per capita and the disease burden. We measured the total DAH or DAH per capita as the dependent variable, with six independent variables of disease burden for Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY), number of infected people, number of deaths, prevalence, incidence, and mortality rate. For the trend in ODA targeting, the likelihood ratio test of the fixed effects models was used to assess any existence of slope changes in linear regression across the years. The total amount of DAH and DAH per capita was found positively related with every aspect of disease burden, with the regression coefficients increasing during 2005-2017. For instance, the slope of association between the DAH per capita and the disease burden of malaria became steeper over time (likelihood ratio, χ² = 26.14, p < 0.001). Although the selection criteria for the recipient country have been controversial, ODA targeting has been performed based on disease burden in this research.

Towards an Accessible Platform for Multimodal Extended Reality Smart Environments

This article presents the DEMOS prototype platform for creating and exploring multimodal extended-reality smart environments. Modular distributed event-driven applications are created with the help of visual codeless design tools for configuring and linking processing nodes in an oriented dataflow graph. We tested the conceptual logical templates by building two applications that tackle driver arousal state for safety and enhanced museum experiences for cultural purposes, and later by evaluating programmer and nonprogrammer students’ ability to use the design logic. The applications involve formula-based and decision-based processing of data coming from smart sensors, web services, and libraries. Interaction patterns within the distributed event-driven applications use elements of mixed reality and the Internet of Things, creating an intelligent environment based on near-field communication-triggering points. We discuss the platform as a solution to bridging the digital divide, analyzing novel technologies that support the development of a sustainable digital ecosystem.

Multi-stakeholder Engagement for the Sustainable Development Goals: Introduction to the Special Issue

The world is not on track to achieve Agenda 2030-the approach chosen in 2015 by all UN member states to engage multiple stakeholders for the common goal of sustainable development. The creation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) arguably offered a new take on sustainable development by adopting hybrid and principle-based governance approaches, where public, private, not for profit and knowledge-institutions were invited to engage around achieving common medium-term targets. Cross-sector partnerships and multi-stakeholder engagement for sustainability have consequently taken shape. But the call for collaboration has also come with fundamental challenges to meaningful engagement strategies-when private enterprises try to establish elaborate multi-stakeholder configurations. How can the purpose of businesses be mitigated through multi-stakeholder principle-based partnerships to effectively serve the purpose of a common sustainability agenda? In selecting nine scholarly contributions, this special issue aims at advancing this discourse. To stimulate further progress in business studies, this introductory essay, furthermore, identifies three pathways for research on multi-stakeholder engagement processes in support of the Decade of Action along three coupling lines: multi-sector alignment (relational coupling), operational perception alignment (cognitive coupling) and goal and strategic alignment (material coupling).

Barriers to institutional social sustainability

Social sustainability is a work field characterised by an emphasis on social aspects, e.g. equity, ethics, health, gender balance, or empowerment, within a broader sustainability context. Although the concept seems to be reasonably well established and deemed worthy of pursuing, some obstacles prevent its wide dissemination. Through a bibliometric analysis focusing on the literature on social sustainability at institutions, with a focus on companies, this paper aims to investigate and describe some of the barriers associated with social sustainability implementation. Apart from identifying that sustainability reporting, environmental disclosure and financial performance play a central role in successfully achieving social sustainability, in the context of which gender-related issues seem more tangential, the results indicated some solutions commonly reported for overcoming barriers and obstacles to a company's social sustainability implementation within different sectors. These solutions have to do, among many other factors addressed in this study, with strengthening communication transparency and trust, contributing to awareness, using technology to document and promote social sustainability. Thus, empowering organizations and citizens, recognized as essential factors to social development, and addressing the challenges in a multi-dimensional way.

The Trends and Content of Research Related to the Sustainable Development Goals: A Systemic Review

This study employed a comprehensive systematic review of the literature (SRL) process with the Content Analysis Toolkits for Academic Research (CATAR) for conducting a bibliometric analysis of the 2814 general SDG-related papers and 92 review papers selected from the Web of Science database from 2013 to 2022. The overview analysis found that the US and UK took the lead in publication and citation. The WHO and several universities were identified as the most prominent institutes around the globe. The field distribution of the most cited papers revealed the existence of a “strong sustainability” paradigm and the importance of science and technology. A landscape of 1123 papers was included in eight clusters according to the bibliographic coupling algorithms in the Multi-stage Document Clustering (MSDC) process. These clusters were then categorized into three groups, “synergies and trade-offs”, “networking”, and “systems analysis”, demonstrated in the theme maps. As for the 92 SDG-related review papers, most were shaped based on literature analysis without specified countries. Moreover, SDG 3 was identified as that exclusively studied in most papers. The information presented is expected to help research scholars, public sectors, and practitioners monitor, gather, check, analyze, and use the growing volume of SDG-related academic articles.

How Stable Are Students’ Entrepreneurial Intentions in the COVID-19 Pandemic Context?

The purposed longitudinal study analyzes the evolution of students’ Entrepreneurial Intentions (EI) and its antecedents over the COVID-19 pandemic period and explores the inter-individual differences and the intra-individual changes. Our main contribution consists of proposing two-panel estimations techniques: first, a Latent Change Score model (LCS) approach to analyze the stability of our constructs, and second, a Generalized Least Squares (GLS) Random-Effect estimation of a complex network of relationships that we have identified within the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) framework. Our empirical results show that students’ EI enrolled in an entrepreneurship education (EE) program increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals with initial higher scores for EI have changed less than those with lower initial scores, and a gender difference exists in the initial level of EI and its antecedents. Our results also document the moderation effects of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and the importance of inspiration and resources in building students’ EI and provide valuable policy recommendations for universities regarding the design of EE programs to contribute to the economic recovery in the post-pandemic era

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions’ Determinants: New Empirical Evidence from Quasi-Poisson and Negative Binomial Regression Models

The cross-border movement of capital has suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic since December 2019. Nevertheless, it is unrealistic for multinational companies to withdraw giant global value chains (GVCs) overnight because of the pandemic. Instead, active discussions and achievements of deals in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are expected in the post-COVID-19 era among various other market entry modes, considering the growing demand in high technologies in societies. This paper analyzes particular determinants of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) during the pandemic year (2020) based on cross-sectional datasets by employing quasi-Poisson and negative binomial regression models. According to the empirical evidence, COVID-19 indices do not hamper M&A deals in general. This indicates that managerial capabilities of the coronavirus, not the outbreak itself, determined locational decisions of M&A deals during the pandemic. In this vein, it is expected that the vaccination rate will become a key factor of locational decision for M&A deals in the near future. Furthermore, countries that have been outstanding in coping with COVID-19 and thus serve as a good example for other nations may seize more opportunities to take a leap forward. In addition, as hypothesized, the results present positive and significant associations with M&A deals and the SDG index, confirming the resource-based theory of internationalization. In particular, the achievement of SDGs seems to exercise much influence in developing countries for M&A bidders during the pandemic year. This indicates that the pandemic demands a new zeitgeist that pursues growth while resolving existing but disregarded environmental issues and cherishes humanitarian values, for all countries, non-exceptionally, standing at the start line of the post-COVID-19 era.

Value Creation for Sustainability in Port: Perspectives of Analysis and Future Research Directions

The paper offers a theoretical advancement on sustainable port development strategies adopting a relational perspective, emphasizing the importance of collaboration and stakeholder interaction in achieving sustainable value creation. It provides a comprehensive overview of the concept of value creation, highlighting its evolution and the different perspectives of analysis in business model research: the conventional value creation perspective, where customers and suppliers are considered key stakeholders in the supply chain, and the sustainability-oriented one, which extends value creation processes to other stakeholders, such as civil society, policy makers, financial stakeholders, and employees. Based on the main gaps of the literature review and drawing on the previous progress on the sustainable business model, this paper develops a theoretical framework, which structures the relationships between the port business operator and its stakeholders at two interconnected levels: the supply chain and the institutional environment. These levels identify core value creation activities and resources, relational governance models, and the value created with and for different stakeholders. However, its implementation opens new avenues for future research that are currently lacking in port research.

COVID-19 to Green Entrepreneurial Intention: Role of Green Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy, Optimism, Ecological Values, Social Responsibility, and Green Entrepreneurial Motivation

This research was aimed to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the green entrepreneurial intention of college students through green entrepreneurial self-efficacy, optimism, ecological values, and social responsibility, as well as the mediating role of green entrepreneurial motivation. This study used structural equation model to test the hypothesis on samples of 410 Chinese colleges’ students. COVID-19 has a strong beneficial effect on green entrepreneurial self-efficacy, optimism, ecological values, and social responsibility, according to the research findings. Optimism and social responsibility also were found to have a significant positive impact on green entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Moreover, green entrepreneurial motivations moderated the relationship between optimism, ecological values, social responsibility, and green entrepreneurial intention in a positive and significant way. Finally, the findings indicate that a significant positive correlation exists between green entrepreneurial self-efficacy and optimism, as well as a significant positive correlation between ecological values and social responsibility.

Factors Affecting Green Entrepreneurship Intentions in Business University Students in COVID-19 Pandemic Times: Case of Ecuador

This research assesses the influence of education development support, conceptual development support, and country support through entrepreneurial self-efficacy over green entrepreneurial intentions. A total of 532 business students in Ecuador participated in an online survey. Eight questions were focused on demographic information, and twenty-seven questions evaluated the green entrepreneurship intentions of students. An SEM-PLS technical analysis was used. The results showed that educational support for developing entrepreneurship (0.296), conceptual support for developing entrepreneurship (0.123), and country support for entrepreneurship (0.188) had a positive influence on entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and that entrepreneurial self-efficacy had a positive influence (0.855) on gren entrepreneurial intentions. The model explained 73.1% of the green entrepreneurial intentions. Outcomes of the bootstrapping test were used to evaluate if the path coefficients are significant. This study showed the impacts of education development support, conceptual development support, and country support on the entrepreneur’s ability to carry out green entrepreneurship were positive. This information can help universities develop strategic plans to achieve ecological ventures and ensure students have the necessary skills to do so on campus. The research findings also may be helpful for the governments in establishing new norms to promote entrepreneurship. The novelty is based on using the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique.

The implications of the Covid-19 pandemic for delivering the Sustainable Development Goals

Global responses to COVID-19 will impact on delivery of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, creating large uncertainties just at the time efforts need to be accelerated. This paper explores how COVID-19 could impact the success of meeting the targets with priority given to the four 'foundational' goals: SDG 1 No Poverty; SDG3 Good Health; SDG 14 Life Below Water and SDG 15 Life on Land as these are critical in maintaining a healthy human and environmental resource base on which progress towards all goals can be built. A scenario analysis examines futures across a spectrum in which i) social and health imperatives (lives) dominate, to ii) where economic imperatives (livelihoods) take precedence. Similarly levels of international co-operation are considered ranging from international recognition of urgent global agendas to fragmentation due to the isolation of individual states around national priorities. These give rise to 4 scenarios: a) Global Well-being Prioritized b) World Trade Recovers c) Poverty Gaps Widen c) Earth Systems in Danger and the likelihood of achieving the foundational SDGs in each is discussed. The paper concludes opportunities exist to refocus efforts on delivery of the SDGs but may be hampered by the competing interests of a new geopolitics.

More and better investment now! How unlocking sustainable and digital investment flows can help achieve the SDGs

The global community can address the collapse of investment following COVID-19, drive digital transformation, and help achieve the SDGs through five actions: (1) establish a Facility and Fund to provide resources for technical assistance and facilitate private–public collaboration, including through a new EASI Alliance, (2) endorse a Sustainable Investment Framework to advance such collaboration, through aligning and coordinating efforts, (3) adopt specific investment policies and measures to support sustainable FDI for sustainable development, prioritizing linkages, (4) adopt specific policies and measures to facilitate investment in the digital economy, accelerating productive transformation while building resilience, and (5) develop partnerships and industry-based coalitions to operationalize these efforts.

Going digital multinationals: Navigating economic and social imperatives in a post-pandemic world

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the economic imperative facing brick-and-mortar MNEs; i.e., their need to build commercial resilience in response to Industry 4.0 (4IR). The pandemic has also undone progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), widened income inequalities, and created a new backlash against digital globalization such that the UN social imperative – the pledge to leave no one behind by achieving the SDGs by 2030 – now appears an impossible task. Could the “going digital” MNEs that are making substantial investments in 4IR technologies take a socially proactive stance and thereby provide a window of opportunity that would rebuild momentum on the UN social imperative? Our paper explores the possible social impacts of MNE digitalization initiatives, both directly through their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and indirectly through their global value and supply chains. Because digitalization can be used for the good but requires adequate harnessing, we argue that three changes are needed to ensure that the going digitals, with the assistance of UN agencies, can simultaneously address their economic imperative and facilitate progress on the UN’s social imperative: (i) revamping the CSR function; (ii) making SDGs “matter”; and (iii) building a new UN–MNE coalition.