The partner myth: analysing the limitations of private sector contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals

Gneiting, Uwe; Mhlanga, Ruth

doi:10.1080/09614524.2021.1938512

Cited by 12 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…However, as van der Waal and Thijssens ( 2020 ) point out, there seems to be a tendency to subscribe to SDGs rather symbolically and strategically primarily for legitimacy reasons. In a similar vein, Gneiting and Mhlanga ( 2021 ) suggest that companies aim at realizing reputational gains from their SDP-related activities rather than significantly contributing to them. Notwithstanding these early critical observations, company representatives replied that the SDGs promised to unlock an estimated annual US$12 trillion in business investment opportunities (Business & Sustainable Development Commission, 2017 ) for companies able to come up with innovative sustainable solutions and inclusive business models.…”

Section: The Context: the Growing Importance Of Principle-based Appro...mentioning

confidence: 96%

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

et al. 2022

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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).

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Section: The Context: the Growing Importance Of Principle-based Appro...mentioning

confidence: 96%

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

et al. 2022

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“…This leads to the commodification of gender equality rather than centring the primary need to fulfil women's human rights, and being rooted in values of equality, equity, rights and justice. Rationalizing responsible business conduct through financial gains and the business case does not always withstand scrutiny 10 and, we believe, misses the point. At their most reductive, corporateled gender equality projects can be seen as another instrument privileging shareholder's interests over all else, yet this is not what company law demands.…”

Section: %mentioning

confidence: 96%

Valuing Women’s Work: A framework for business on gender equality and decent work

Mhlanga,

Downey,

Patel

et al. 2023

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Our strategic focus, Valuing Women’s Work (VWW), aims to redefine what ‘work’ means so that all the work women do – paid and unpaid – can truly be valued. This first briefing from the forthcoming series, Briefings for Business on Valuing Women’s Work, is an overview and introduces some of the issues we will be tackling as part of the strategic focus of VWW. The series aims to improve and reinforce companies’ understanding of how the systemic issues driving gender inequality interact with business practices. Vitally, the briefings show how transformative gender equality engagement is not about fixing women but about removing the structures and norms which disempower women in the first place.

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“…On the other hand, Sachs and Sachs [34] indicate that the business sector still lacks clarity and consistency on what SDG alignment looks like for the business sector, although the SDGs recognize the critical role of the private sector in their achievement. Gneiting and Mhlanga [35] challenge the assumption that business is making significant contributions to the SDGs based on their survey of 70+ of the world's largest companies. Regarding research on Japanese companies, Ito [36] theoretically analyzed the impact of the SDGs on corporate value and found that corporate SDG contributions can positively affect the corporate value if they increase companies' investor bases, i.e., increase the value of SDG-recognized companies.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Analysis of the Progress of Japanese Companies’ Commitment to the SDGs and Their Economic Systems and Social Activities for Communities

Ikuta

Fujii

2022

Sustainability

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Japanese companies are making rapid progress in addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and there is growing interest in the relationship between these goals and financial performance. Moreover, the promotion of the SDGs at the local level encourages opportunities for collaboration with companies. This study analyzed the relationship between the status of SDG efforts and the financial data, as well as social activity data of 533 Japanese manufacturing companies from 2016 to 2020. In terms of academic contribution, this study provides a unique case study in Japan, with consideration of the timing of the initiation of SDG efforts. The results showed that large companies and companies with high profitability tended to start working on the SDGs at an early stage. The results of a comparison of industries showed that the timing of the initiation of SDG initiatives is not affected by profitability in the food and electrical equipment sectors, where SDG efforts are already well underway. From the results of multiple regression analysis, it was found that large companies with high profitability that have implemented social activities tend to be early adopters of the SDGs. The results of this analysis suggest that it is important to design measures that are appropriate based on the size of the focal company and that social contribution activities should be incentivized to encourage companies to act on the SDGs.

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The partner myth: analysing the limitations of private sector contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals

Cited by 12 publications

References 3 publications

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

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

Valuing Women’s Work: A framework for business on gender equality and decent work

An Analysis of the Progress of Japanese Companies’ Commitment to the SDGs and Their Economic Systems and Social Activities for Communities

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