Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Leveraging Management Research on Grand Challenges

Abstract

We advance research on how businesses engage with the complex social problems currently known as Grand Challenges. We study the concepts that preceded the term Grand Challenges, the connected ontologies that ground them, and the diversity of perspectives they offered. We construct a knowledge map that includes well-researched obstacles, such as governance obstacles hindering engagement and sensemaking obstacles limiting the ideation of novel and creative efforts. But we also build on prior research to identify curation obstacles, which precede engagement and define which problems receive social attention, and adaptation obstacles, which create uncertainty over workable solutions and bias the momentum of social systems toward the status quo. Our broader view on the obstacles defining Grand Challenges opens new pathways and identifies underexplored levers by which to understand and influence business engagement with complex social problems.

The future of grand challenges research: Retiring a hopeful concept and endorsing research principles

“…To advance this architecture, researchers could combine analytically competent attributes of concepts such as wicked problems to specify a related but also unique GC concept. For example, Dorado et al (2022) proposed that the obstacles for businesses engaging with GC could define a family resemblance between GC and related concepts. But the analytical utility of adopting this GC concept has not yet been established, and a focus on obstacles might constrain GC research.…”

“…Broadening our theoretical scope by exploring other fields and disciplines expands the repertoire of mechanisms that we consider and explore in GC research. For example, Dorado et al (2022) provided a knowledge map of several types of obstacles to engaging with GC grounded in various literatures that might help to specify the concrete obstacles for a given GC. Broader theoretical perspectives increase the explanatory depth of phenomena as well as informing potential practical interventions.…”

“…For example, Dorado et al. (2022) proposed that the obstacles for businesses engaging with GC could define a family resemblance between GC and related concepts. But the analytical utility of adopting this GC concept has not yet been established, and a focus on obstacles might constrain GC research.…”

Coordinating multi-level collective action: how intermediaries and digital governance can help supply chains tackle grand challenges

“…As supply chains are globally dispersed and embedded in economic, social and environmental systems (Montabon et al, 2016), diverse labor and environmental practices are examples of grand challenges to be tackled (Kim and Davis, 2016). The increasing interest in grand challenges has led scholars to conceptualize and operationalize them in different ways (Dorado et al, 2022), yet the most widely adopted approach relates to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), formulated by the United Nations (UN) in 2015 (Wickert et al, 2021). To address the SDGs, there is a need for multi-level collective action (George et al, 2016).…”

“…, 2016), diverse labor and environmental practices are examples of grand challenges to be tackled (Kim and Davis, 2016). The increasing interest in grand challenges has led scholars to conceptualize and operationalize them in different ways (Dorado et al. , 2022), yet the most widely adopted approach relates to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), formulated by the United Nations (UN) in 2015 (Wickert et al.…”