Principles of Sustainable Business

Frameworks for Corporate Action on the SDGs
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-0-367-56559-6
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 1062 Seiten, 00, Format (B × H): 175 mm x 246 mm, Gewicht: 1975 g

Reihe: The Principles for Responsible Management Education Series

The basic function of companies is to add value to society. Profits are a means to an end, not an end in itself. The ability of companies to innovate, scale and invest provides them with a powerful base for positive change. But companies are also criticized for not contributing sufficiently to society’s grand challenges. An increasingly VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world creates serious governance gaps that not only require new ways of regulation, but also new ways of doing business. Can companies effectively contribute to sustainable development and confront society’s systemic challenges?

Arguably the most important frame to drive this ambition was introduced and unanimously adopted in 2015: the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDG-agenda not only defines a holistic set of global goals and targets, but also foundational principles to guide meaningful action to their achievement by 2030. Multinational companies have signed up to the SDGs as the world’s long-term business plan. Realizing the SDGs provides a yearly $12 trillion investment and growth opportunity, while creating hundreds of millions of jobs in the process. But progress is too slow – witnessing society’s inability to deal with pressing human, ecological, economic and health crises – whilst the vast potential for societal value creation remains underutilized. This book provides a timely account of the systemic, strategic and operational challenges that need to be addressed to enhance the effectiveness of corporate involvement in society, by using the SDGs as the leading principles-based framework for actionable, powerful and transformative change.

Principles of Sustainable Business is written for graduate and postgraduate (executive) students, policymakers and business professionals who want to understand the complex challenges of global sustainability. It shows how companies can design and implement SDG-relevant strategies at three levels: the macro level, to assess whether the SDGs present wicked problems or opportunities; the micro level, to develop and operationalize innovative business models, design new business cases and navigate organizational transition trajectories; and the meso level, to develop fit-for-purpose cross-sector partnering strategies. Principles of Sustainable Business presents innovative tools embedded in a coherent sequence of analytical frameworks that can be applied in courses for students, be put into practice by business professionals and used by action researchers to help companies contribute to the Decade of Action.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Professional, Professional Practice & Development, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Tulder, Rob van

Mil, Eveline van

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Unternehmensorganisation, Corporate Responsibility Unternehmensethik
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Internationale Wirtschaft Entwicklungsökonomie & Emerging Markets
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Nachhaltigkeit
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Unternehmensorganisation, Corporate Responsibility Unternehmenskultur, Corporate Governance

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Part I: WHY? SYSTEMIC PRINCIPLES 1 Why now? A necessary frame for grand societal challenges; 2 Why not? Understanding the potential of the SDGs; 3 Why slow? Conditions for realizing the SDGs; Part II: WHAT AND WHO? SOCIETAL AND DYNAMIC PRINCIPLES 4 What if? The SDGs as wicked problems; 5 What and who? The SDGs as wicked opportunities; 6 Who? The governance challenge; Part III: HOW? STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLES 7 Making it resilient – dealing with triggering events; 8 Making it strategic – business cases for sustainability; 9 Making it material – designing sustainable business models; 10 Making it powerful – using power as a force for positive change; 11 Making it functional – the internal alignment challenge; 12 Making it collaborative – the partnership challenge

Über Autor(innen)

Rob van Tulder is full professor of International Business at RSM Erasmus University, co-founder of the Department of Business-Society Management (one of the world’s leading capacity groups on teaching and research in sustainable business). He is academic director of the Partnerships Resource Centre, acclaimed author of more than 20 books on Sustainable Development and Multinational Enterprises, and advisor to many companies, governments, international organizations and NGOs.

Eveline van Mil is strategic advisor to (semi-)public, private and non-profit organizations on societal interface management. Her practical experience and research projects range from ‘wicked problems’, societal governance, transition theory and issue and stakeholder management to the ‘resource curse’, sustainable production and consumption, and regulation of controversial sectors.