Sustainability Discourse in Emerging Market multinationals

The Case of South Africa’s Largest Firms

Bibliographic Data

ID21737574
AuthorsGladys Torres-Baumgarten (College of New Jersey, corresponding author), Thierry Rakotobe-Joel (Ramapo College)
Year2023
Volume24
Issue2
Pages188-213
Publication date2023-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of African Business (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1522-8916 • E-ISSN: 1522-9076
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/15228916.2022.2048513
OpenAlexW4221104033
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited48

Despite the crucial role that multinational enterprises (MNEs) can play in advancing sustainability, progress toward meeting the United Nations’ Agenda for Sustainable Development by 2030 has been slow. MNEs are partly responsible, and even though they recognize that they are part of a larger social, economic and ecological ecosystem, and that sustainability can enhance their long-term growth and viability, they have been slow to embrace it. The sustainability and MNE literature initially focused on the sustainability priorities found in developed market multinational enterprises (or DMNEs). Increasingly, “home-grown” (or indigenous) multinationals from emerging market regions have garnered more attention but research on sustainability in the emerging market context is still lagging, despite the fact that emerging markets – and its businesses – have potentially much to gain from embracing sustainability. This paper examines the sustainability discourse in South Africa and identifies the sustainability priorities of its largest indigenous firms. The sustainability reports of South Africa’s largest public firms in 2019 were analyzed using Centering Resonance Analysis (CRA). Results indicate that South African MNEs focus on business and societal aspects of sustainability, more so than on environmental protection initiatives. This finding likely reflects: 1) South Africa’s context and its sustainability priorities, 2) a diverse sectoral sample, 3) geographic dispersion of South African MNE subsidiaries (presence in other emerging, developed or developing markets with different sustainability priorities by market profile), or 4) a combination of these factors

Business · Corporate social responsibility · Economic growth · Economics · Emerging markets · Geography · Indigenous · International business · Multinational corporation · Political science · Social sustainability · Sustainability · Sustainability organizations · Sustainability science · Sustainable development · Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting · Innovation and Socioeconomic Development · International Business and FDI · Ecology · Finance

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