With barely ten years remaining to reach the goals included in the United Nations 2030 Agenda (UN2030A), there is still no agreed-upon universal criterion regarding how businesses can move firmly forward to achieve them. A significant number of laudable initiatives have emerged and been consolidated internationally, highlighting the need to change the outdated mainstream economic model based on continuous growth—whose maximum exponent is the macroeconomic magnitude “Gross Domestic Product” (GDP)—to another sustainable model which considers the ecological "people and planet-centered" oriented limits, prioritizing individual wellbeing and social prosperity, in line with the UN2030A. Facing the prevalent resistance to change, some innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are consciously addressing the transition on their own, but not without difficulties. The purpose of this article was to fill the gap in the social sciences literature by conducting in-depth interviews with Fourth Sector (4S) entrepreneurs, business leaders from purpose-driven companies, and academics, in order to approach and look into their perspective about the role that 4S SMEs are being called to execute to advance toward 2030. The two main contributions of this article are (1) 4S SMEs identify an urgent need to modify the current economic model with metrics aligned with UN2030A and (2) it is essential to assemble and build an “Engagement Ecosystem” through a systemic thinking approach to allow 4S SMEs to make real contributions to the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
As we reach the fifth anniversary of the Declaration of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the tourism sector responsible for over 10% of the world’s GDP still does not have an open-source, sustainable management criteria that would enable and empower them to “walk the talk” to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap in the social sciences and business management literature by providing a theoretical Sustainable Strategic Management Model (SSMM) proposal for the Fourth Sector (4S), Small- and Medium-sized (SMEs) Hotel companies (4S-SM-HCs), which are committed and have the will to contribute firmly to the 2030 Agenda. Based on their corporate purpose and aligned with the SDGs, this article provides a holistic proposal with a multi-stakeholder approach, adding the SDG perspective. Through a qualitative research methodology based on two focus groups in which the main stakeholders and the management team of the 4S-SM-HC under examination took part, a theoretical SSMM is co-defined so that the hotel company can make significant contributions to the five areas of the SDGs. Basing their structure on the internationally recognized Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) Criteria and co-created through social learning, this SSMM proposes four strategic management axis and develops ten principles of ethical performance (PEP). The main contributions of this article are two: (1) to provide an ecosystemic SSMM proposal to the 4S-SM-HCs to allow them to make significant contributions to the SDGs, and (2) to facilitate a methodological framework with a multi-stakeholder approach and SDG perspective to enable them to contribute to the wellbeing of people, the community and the planet.
Fourth Sector Small and Medium-sized Hotel companies (4S-SM-HCs) that already have a purpose and wish to contribute effectively to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) need to base their sustainability policies on universal values that deepen the individual-society-planet interrelations. “The Three Ecologies” essay (Guattari, 1989) provides a suitable theoretical approach to reflect on which values for sustainability are implicit in the purpose of the 4S-SM-HCs under study. This conceptual paper proposes an ecosophical reflection about the relationships between the mental, social, and environmental ecologies, and the company’s values for sustainability, establishing direct interrelations between the company’s purpose and the five dimensions of the United Nations Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development (UN2030A), bringing a holistic vision to hotel management and, as a result, to the entire ecosystem, something which has not been addressed by the social sciences and business management literature yet. Through qualitative research methodology consisting of a focus group discussion in which the board of directors of a 4S-SM-HC took part, they delved into the ecosophical values for sustainability that moves them to create economic benefits while contributing to a better quality of life and a better environment. The contribution of this paper is twofold: firstly, to provide an in-depth reflection with an ecosophical approach on which company’s values are meaningful to sustainability, and secondly, to propose a theoretical framework with an ecosophical approach for 4S-SM-HCs to advance from their purpose to the SDGs and thus, to contribute to a Triple Wellbeing of people, the community and the planet.
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