Pursuing sustainability development goals through adopting gender equality: Women representation in leadership positions of emerging market multinationals

Abstract

This study examines the competitive disadvantages rationale behind the pursuing of Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) by emerging market multinational corporations (EM‐MNCs) in foreign markets. We argue that EM‐MNCs may pursue gender equality goal in host markets as a legitimation strategy to offset their strategic disadvantages inherited from the home markets. Based on a sample of foreign subsidiaries from 10 major emerging countries from 2010 to 2020, this study finds strong evidence demonstrating that the institutional quality of home markets exerts a positive effect on the representation of women in leadership positions of EM‐MNCs. Additional analyses demonstrate that international experience and institutional ownership further magnify this effect.

Gender diversity, foreign direct investment spillovers, and productivity: Unraveling the role of female workers in Indonesia

“…In the inflow of FDI, gender may also serve as a spillover channel from MNCs to firm performance, such as productivity. Generally, MNCs in countries, such as Indonesia adhere to international best practices regarding workplace gender equality (Saeed et al, 2023). This heightened focus on reputation motivates MNCs to adopt superior policies and practices, which, in turn, enhance their labor practices, particularly for women (Harrison and Scorse, 2010).…”

How do emerging multinationals achieve sustainable development globally? The enabling mechanism of headquarter‐subsidiary structure in subsidiary sustainability

“…Moreover, local recognition of subsidiary sustainable development will also deviate in how the focal EMNC performs in previous SDG practices and their actual operational activities in host countries (Jiang et al, 2020;Liou & Rao-Nicholson, 2021;Saeed et al, 2023).…”

“…Aimed at the broad global challenges like environmental degradation, climate change and gender inequality, SDGs have been calling upon a wide range of stakeholders to contribute towards their successful implementation. Multinational corporations (MNCs), which accounts for nearly one third of world GDP (OECD, 2018), have taken the best position to comply and tackle sustainable issues worldwide, and those failing to address local SDGs may encounter with higher institutional pressures (Clegg, 2019; Saeed et al, 2023). To pursue legitimacy in overseas markets, MNCs thus are increasingly engaging with SDGs, and their globally‐dispersed subsidiaries, are the main agents to conduct sustainable development and serve as the direct actors to be observed and evaluated by local stakeholders (Kolk, 2016).…”

“…Modern MNCs have been long facing challenges in orchestrating globally‐dispersed subsidiaries and scholars have provided diverse answers to explain and predict cross‐border management practices from different perspectives (Doz & Prahalad, 1991; Kostova et al, 2016). However, although extant literature holds considerable significance in addressing transnational management issues, less insights are offered on the voluntary efforts of focal subsidiary, and how to carry out specific governance decisions is also unknown, especially for emerging multinationals (Ghauri et al, 2021; Saeed et al, 2023). Meanwhile, the dual resource dependence on home and host environment warrants the simultaneous consideration of subsidiaries' tight and loose ties with headquarters.…”

“…on a multinational context, this study contributes to SDG literature by examining how EMNCs overcome their deficiency of international capabilities and liabilities of origin to attain SDGs and gain local recognition at a focal foreign subsidiary. In spite of the increasing attention on SDGs, less scholarly insights are offered on MNCs' SDG pursuit, wherein the majority of relevant literature is developed from the perspective of parent firms or the entire MNC(Montiel et al, 2021;Saeed et al, 2023). However, dispersed in worldwide markets, foreign subsidiaries are the main agents to conduct SDGs and their sustainability is the prerequisite for the sustainability at the whole corporate level.…”