Sustainable International Business

In the year 2015 the United Nations (UN) presented 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to be achieved by 2030. The SDGs are a blueprint for achieving a better and sustainable future for all with a special emphasis on international business actors as agents of transformation. Despite initial breakthroughs, the international business actors and scholars alike have not kept pace with the growing important of the SDGs in our lives. While global firms tend to approach SDGs to reduce their costs or fit into the legal framework, the international business literature has overwhelmingly focused on SDGs in a developed economy context. Moreover, various academic outlets have laid a greater emphasis on ethics and responsible governance than on corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainable development and environmental issues, an observation that resonates the approach of the business landscape. Thus, it is safe to conclude that seven years since the introduction of the SDGs, global actors are yet to realise their full potential. Sustainable International Business is a new book that adopts a global approach to studying international business and its implications for SDGs. It stimulates research and rethinking among scholars and practitioners to understand how businesses operate internationally into lucrative markets, its role in sustainable business growth, glocal value creation, and economic development. It provides insights into how international firms, entrepreneurs, family businesses and other stakeholders balance the act of value creation and sustainable business. The book covers three key pillars of sustainability: economic, social and environmental, and addresses capacity building and the grand challenges that international business needs to develop solutions for.

The first section of the book addresses the interaction between international business activities and the economic aspect of sustainability. The first finding of this part of the book is that international business affects and is affected by economic and other pillars of sustainability. For example, in the chapter “Realisation of SDGs in Africa: An Impactful Political CSR Approach,” the author developed a political CSR model and contended that rejuvenating the SDGs in Africa through an impactful PCSR model can unleash the huge potential of international business in the realization of SDGs. In the chapter “Value Creation Impact: Role of Stakeholders in the Development of Sustainable Foreign Trade,” the author revealed that pursuing sustainability in an organization increases sustainable competitive advantage by improving global value chains and the perception of consumers and other market stakeholders. Second, embracing the economic aspect of sustainability requires reshaping the global supply chain functions and value chain activities. For example, in the chapter “Reshaping the World’s Supply Chain? A Case Study of Vietnam’s PAN Group Adopting the Circular Economy Concept,” the authors pointed out that sustainability, circular economy, and supply chain are interconnected concepts that are pivotal in promoting responsible and efficient resource management. In the chapter “Integration of Internal Audit and Sustainability Functions: A Business Model Suggestion,” in order to resolve significant disruptions and inefficiencies in the purchasing processes, the authors developed a novel business model that brings together different areas of expertise, prevents overlapping and duplication of purchasing tasks, and improves interdepartmental communication. Third, this part of the book revealed that firm-level digital capability helps internationalizing firms achieve sustainable economic development by facilitating access to foreign markets. For example, in the chapters “Mitigating the Negative Implications of Fake Social Media News on Internationalizing Firms: The Role of Social Media Capability” and “Network Ties and Opportunity Recognition in SME Internationalization in the Social Media Context,” the author found that social media capability facilitates internationalizing SMEs identify international opportunities, access foreign market information, and enhance the institutional legitimacy in foreign markets.