This study presents a sustainability competencies map (SCM) for Business Administration and Management (BAM) disciplines as a tool to support education in sustainability at the university level. The study describes in detail the design and elaboration of the map based on the competencies defined by the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) and complemented with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) adopted by the United Nations. In addition, to externally evaluate the proposed SCM, we conducted a series of interviews with top managers and founders of five organizations that vary in size and industry. As the main contribution, the SCM for BAM studies is presented, containing 58 learning objectives. The qualitative research framework performed to obtain evidence from the interviewees showed that the holistic dimension of the proposed SCM is highly valued by the interviewed practitioners. Additionally, the SCM’s division of competencies into three levels of achievement was considered practical and helpful to measure them. Finally, the interviewees expressed concerns regarding the implementation of the SCM in real classroom, calling for the necessity of special training for teachers and flexibility of higher education system. Reinforced by the interviewees’ opinions, we believe that the SCM for BAM education presented here will facilitate the design of different methodologies by the teaching staff to guide students towards compliance with the 17 SDGs in 2030.
PurposeThe aim of this study is to explore the drivers of the evolution of a subsidiary’s strategic role from an ordinary subsidiary into a springboard subsidiary in multinational corporations, paying special attention to the role of subsidiary management in this transformation.Design/methodology/approachThe authors apply a case study methodology to analyse the transformation of three Spanish subsidiaries of European multinational companies into springboard subsidiaries to pursue opportunities in the Latin American region.FindingsThe results present evidence that the development of a springboard subsidiary’s role is influenced by a set of preliminary factors that include: (1) the coincidence of a favourable economic change in the target region of expansion and unfavourable market conditions in the springboard subsidiary’s home market; (2) location-specific advantages of a subsidiary that allow it to develop unique capabilities, such as the ability to reduce the psychic distance between the headquarters and target region, to balance intra-regional conflicts within the target region, and to effectively transfer knowledge from the headquarters to the target region; and (3) micro-political headquarters-subsidiary negotiation processes as a result of the subsidiary’s strong initiative, peculiarities of the structure of a multinational company, and a strong dependency of the headquarters on the subsidiary’s unique capabilities.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the International Business literature by providing an in-depth analysis of the evolution of springboard subsidiaries and explaining how ordinary subsidiaries located in saturated markets can trigger organisational change and achieve the extension of their strategic role.
La crisis económica y financiera ha provocado una creciente desconfianza en el sistema capitalista. En los años posteriores a la crisis, surgieron diferentes iniciativas de inversores de capitales para dirigir sus inversiones a organizaciones y proyectos que produjeran un impacto social o medioambiental. Estos inversores acostumbran a priorizar la obtención de este impacto a la rentabilidad económica. En la actualidad, el mercado de las inversiones de impacto se ha desarrollado de forma importante en países como Estados Unidos, Reino Unido y Canadá. También en países de la UE como Holanda o Dinamarca. Hemos analizado el caso de la utilización de esta fórmula de financiación en el crecimiento de una empresa con impacto social, dedicada al diseño y a la comunicación. En 2016, la empresa cerró una ronda de financiación a la que acudieron diversos inversores de impacto. El análisis de esta experiencia ha puesto de manifiesto que la alineación de objetivos en torno a la generación de impacto social, fue un factor clave para el entendimiento entre ambos. Sin embargo, la falta de herramientas para medir el impacto social y la cautela de los inversores fueron factores que condicionaron el crecimiento de la empresa. En el presente artículo se explican los detalles de la financiación.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.