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

Abstract

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).

Transforming existing local ecosystems to circular economy ecosystems for plastics: The case of the PlastiCity ecosystem

“…Despite the acknowledged challenges associated with the global implementation of the CE due to the necessity of multi‐actor collaboration (Nonet et al., 2022; Schroeder et al., 2019), our study proposes advocating for the adoption of the CE at local and regional levels. Specifically, we concentrate on urban areas responsible for roughly 60%−70% of worldwide resource use, waste, and greenhouse gas emissions (Circle Economy, 2022).…”

SDG commentary: collaboration services for sustainable development goal (SDG) partnerships

“…This leaves a tremendous range of possible applications of S-D logic-based research to the meta goal collaborative challenges of SDG #17. While it is outside the focus of this commentary, we note that other research fields are studying SDG partnerships (Andreucci et al , 2021; Fu et al , 2020; Nonet et al , 2022).…”

The influence of the sustainable development goals on large companies’ adoption and implementation of a broader corporate purpose

“…In light of these growing environmental and social crises, large companies are expected to expand their roles in tackling sustainable development challenges (Moon, 2007; Ramya and Baral, 2021; Scherer and Palazzo, 2011). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015, reinforce business’ role in solving societal challenges (Buhmann et al , 2019; Nonet et al , 2022). While the United Nations (UN) clearly states countries are responsible for implementing the 17 goals and 169 targets of the SDGs, it also explicitly states “the new sustainable development agenda cannot be achieved without business” (UN, 2015; UN News Centre, 2015).…”

“…Yet, the progress on meeting the SDGs has been slow (Sachs et al , 2019; TWI2050, 2018), exacerbated by the pandemic, making the achievement of the SDGs unlikely (Naidoo and Fisher, 2020; Nonet et al , 2022). Short-termism, overemphasis on economic aspects of corporate decision-making and the market-driven logic hinder corporates from achieving the SDGs (Mukhi and Quental, 2019).…”