Do foreign direct investment (FDI) and international business ventures promote positive social and economic development in emerging nations? This question will always prove contentious. First, the impacts differ according to context. Second, the social consequences and spillover effects of knowledge diffusion and technologysharing may be limited and hard to measure. Third, contributions to enhancing social responsibility and improving living standards in host countries are delayed in effect, causally complex, and also hard to measure. Outcomes often critically depend on collaboration of governments, international institutions, the business world, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Research in this area is challenging and requires interdisciplinary collaboration between economists, financial experts, sociologists, ethicists, and other specialists. This paper explores: (1) the evidence to support the proposition that FDI and international business improve social conditions in less-developed countries, and: (2) how these improvements are linked to strategies of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethical business practice. The paper draws insights from development, FDI, poverty alleviation, and bottom-of-thepyramid (BOP) literature. Applications are demonstrated using examples from poverty-stricken areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper attempts not only to argue theoretically but also to provide practical evidence. The approach is simultaneously descriptive, analytical, and prescriptive in order to address a wide audience. It also highlights issues and trends for further academic research and presents the viewpoint that some limitations lie in the nature of ethics frameworks widely referenced in business and that these often fail to consider the compatibility of ethical constructs with relevant incentives. In this vein, we explore the application of Homann's framework for advantage and incentive-based ethics.

This paper explores how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in Northern Italy and Slovenia used their innovative potential to expand business across the border while their home markets suffered from the great recession that started in 2007. The background of the study is an analysis of the antecedents to export performance and internationalization, which specifically asked whether innovating incrementally or innovating radically contributes to export performance in foreign markets and how this ultimately interacts with strategic considerations and the propensity to take risks, during times of economic risks. The findings of the study showed that export performance is positively influenced by incremental innovation and risk preference, and that there is a relationship between innovation and export performance. These findings contribute to the question whether classical internationalization theories such as the Uppsala Internationalization Model and the Innovation-related Model, can be applied in contingency situations of economic crisis.

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Maintaining and expanding public goods is synonymous with promoting sustainable development but discussions are needed to clarify how policies need to be coordinated to enable collective action on public goods. Collective action for Public Goods will only be successful if all who partake in such actions can gain complimentary benefits that would be either more costly or impossible to achieve without the collective effort. Such complementary benefits are possible provided all stakeholders contributing to the public good of social peace and social cohesion cooperate with each other and preserve this and other public goods be they citizens, civil society organizations, all public authorities and all business firms. This concerted effort for a good cause can certainly be coined “ethics in action” – a notion which exhibits the moral foundation of the private and public choices inherent in sustainable development implementation of which interactions amongst stakeholders are no longer transactional, but rather aspiring toward greater good. Civil society organizations are key stakeholders producing, maintaining, and benefitting from Public Goods. They should strive for full inclusion, as there are many people who are either excluded or under-provided with respect to public goods. Public authorities, another key stakeholder group, need to cooperate with other stakeholders through collaborative frameworks and mechanisms for collective action that bind states and international organizations at a global scale. Another important stakeholder group, private and public enterprises need to operate within a level playing field globally, conduct business based on Responsible Business criteria and be welcomed to contribute to Public Goods creation in a sustainable and proactive manner without causing negative impacts due to their business activities. This paper presents and discusses how collective action can be achieved through concerted efforts by all members of society aiming to produce and maintain public goods essential for the sustained and equitable functioning of society. The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development serves as a shared roadmap in achieving a shared future. Keywords: Collective Action, Public Goods, Sustainable Development, Corporate Social Responsibility, UN Agenda 2030.