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The purpose of this study is to examine how different innovation efforts can support multinational enterprises’ (MNEs’) pursuits of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in emerging markets and under what circumstances they are applied.

The article comprises in-depth case studies on two high-profile Swedish MNEs: a telecom firm and a fast-fashion firm, with data collected both at the headquarter-level and local-market level.

The study shows that MNEs pursue a selection of prioritized SDGs in emerging markets. To overcome challenges related to attaining these goals, we find that MNEs engage in innovation efforts at different levels of commitment. In some instances, they engage in operational innovation aimed at relieving symptoms of sustainability misconduct and ensuring compliance. In other instances, they engage in systemic innovation efforts, which involve the actual market structures underlying sustainability problems.

MNEs are increasingly incorporating the United Nations SDGs into their innovation strategies. The study contributes to international business research on MNEs’ roles in realizing the SDGs by conceptualizing and discussing two pertinent approaches to innovation.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a blueprint for UN member states to achieve prosperity and peace. A resilient construction industry should positively contribute to the achievement of all SDGs. Yet it is currently unclear if the industry helps or hinders SDG achievement. This research aims to explore if the industry is positively engaging with all SDGs.

This research is split into two phases. The first is an objectivist Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) of sustainability reports from the ten leading UK contractors to identify direct and indirect SDG references. The second research phase adopts a subjectivist ontological position consisting of twenty-one semi-structured interviews with a range of construction industry project-based professionals. Narrative analysis is used to structure the interview questions and analyse the data gained.

Many SDGs are excluded from sustainability reports, and where discussed, only some are engaged with substantially. The SDG knowledge held by construction professionals is reduced further still, and SDG progress is rarely measured. The ambiguity surrounding the SDGs enables discrepancies between reporting and professional perceptions. There is also a lack of regard for fellow contractor collaboration through fear of reduced competitive advantage.

This paper addresses a gap in the literature between contractor SDG knowledge and action. This serves as a platform for future research agendas regarding how the SDGs can be better understood and actioned in a construction management context. For industry, inconsistencies between organisational sustainability reporting and the knowledge and awareness of staff are exposed, due to the lack of collaborative practices currently adopted.

Nowadays, there is a strong public interest in promoting transparency to be informed about the actions of the public sector. At the same time, there has been a significant change in society’s perceptions and concerns about sustainable development, with a marked increase in attention to this area. In this context, our main objective is to investigate the impact of transparency practices in local government on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Spanish municipalities.

We will analyse a sample of 84 municipalities, using the Dynamic Transparency Index published by Dyntra to measure transparency. For the level of implementation of the SDGs, we will use an index specifically created using data from the report “The SDGs in 100 Spanish Cities”, published by the Spanish Network for Sustainable Development in 2020.

Municipalities with a larger dependent population tend to achieve higher SDG levels. Municipalities with lower financial surpluses and more self-generated resources show better SDG implementation. Progressive political parties lean more towards sustainability, and coalition governments show higher SDG implementation than majority governments. Gender appears to play a minor role in SDG implementation, but male leadership is associated with higher levels. Factors such as population density and government transfers do not have a significant impact on SDG implementation levels.

This study seeks to address the lack of empirical research on the potential impact of transparency on the achievement of the SDGs, while also taking into account other socio-economic, financial and political aspects of the municipality. In doing so, it also contributes to the limited empirical literature on the determinants of the level of SDG implementation in local governments.

This study aims to investigate the adoption of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the new performance perspective in cities. It also aims to understand how accounting for SDGs begins in city administrations by following Power’s (2015) fourfold development schema composed of policy object formation, object elaboration, activity orchestration and practice stabilization.

Focusing on a network of cities coordinated by the Finnish local government association, we analyzed the six largest cities in Finland employing a holistic multiple case study strategy. Our data consisted of Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs), city strategies, budget plans, financial statements, as well as results of participant observations and semi-structured interviews with key individuals involved in accounting for SDGs.

We unveiled the SDG framework as an interpretive scheme through which cities glocalized sustainable development as a novel, simultaneously global and local, performance object. Integration of the new accounts in city management is necessary for these accounts to take life in steering the actions. By creating meaningful alignment and the ability to impact managerial practices, SDGs and VLRs have the potential to influence local actions. Our results indicate further institutionalization progress of sustainability as a performance object through SDG-focused work.

While prior research has focused mainly on general factors influencing the integration of the sustainability agenda, this study provides a novel perspective by capturing the process and demonstrating empirically how new accounts on SDGs are introduced and deployed in the strategic planning and management of local governments.

Misinformation surrounding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has contributed to the formation of misbeliefs among the public. The purpose of this paper is to investigate public sentiment and misbeliefs about the SDGs on the YouTube platform.

The authors extracted 8,016 comments from YouTube videos associated with SDGs. The authors used a pre-trained Python library NRC lexicon for sentiment and emotion analysis, and to extract latent topics, the authors used BERTopic for topic modeling.

The authors found eight emotions, with negativity outweighing positivity, in the comment section. In addition, the authors identified the top 20 topics discussing various SDGs and SDG-related misbeliefs.

The authors reported topics related to public misbeliefs about SDGs and associated keywords. These keywords can be used to formulate social media content moderation strategies to screen out content that creates these misbeliefs. The result of hierarchical clustering can be used to devise and optimize response strategies by governments and policymakers to counter public misbeliefs.

This study represents an initial endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of the public’s misbeliefs regarding SDGs. The authors identified novel misbeliefs about SDGs that previous literature has not studied. Furthermore, the authors introduce an algorithm BERTopic for topic modeling that leverages transformer architecture for context-aware topic modeling.

Higher educational institutions, such as universities of applied sciences, have a significant role in promoting progress towards a sustainable future as defined by the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs). This paper aims to identify how the UN SDGs are featured in master’s theses set in work–life contexts.

Using a descriptive review and content analysis, this study identified the number of SDGs appearing in 31 master’s theses. Sustainable development (SD) and corporate social responsibility were reflected using the approaches and models in the literature. Finland’s eight objectives for committing to SD were used to examine the commitments made by the business school of the university of applied sciences to achieve Agenda 2030.

Emphasising the value of higher education for SD, this study found that SDGs three, eight and 12 appeared most frequently in the theses. Sustainable and responsible dimensions reflected several issues concerning both the worlds of business and industry among the firms and organisations investigated by the master’s degree students in the business school at the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences.

This research holds practical and pedagogical value, serving to encourage master’s and PhD students to further explore research on SDGs and to shape public policy.

Sustainability was looked at in a new way as investigated by the theses. Ways to integrate the SDGs into management degree programmes and conduct research in the fields of business administration, tourism and hospitality management were identified.

This paper aims to examine whether the position of universities in the times higher education (THE) impact rankings (IR) is related to the different dimensions of academic quality of universities according to the THE world universities ranking.

The research, based on universities ranked in the top 100 of THE IRs, uses a regression model obtained by the panel data method, using the fixed effects approach, to identify the relationship of academic quality dimensions with that ranking.

The results show an increase in the dissemination of information on sustainable development goals (SDGs) by universities. In addition, it is shown that research, number of citations and international outlook are positively associated with a higher score obtained by universities in THE IRs, which implies a higher impact on the SDGs by these universities.

Based on multifaceted theories, the study highlighted the universities that are best positioned in the THE IRs in relation to their contribution to the SDGs.

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework that explores the determinants, mechanisms and consequences of reporting on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) by universities. The framework considers the relationship between reporting on the SDGs and the three main activities of universities: research, teaching and service. As universities hold a unique position in society, understanding their experiences with SDG reporting offers insights into the promotion and integration of SDGs into reporting and practice more broadly.

The paper adopts a conceptual approach and draws on existing literature to develop a framework for understanding reporting on the UN SDGs by universities. The framework considers the challenges faced by universities in providing sustainability information and examines the motivations and outcomes associated with reporting. It also explores the coordination and collaboration necessary across departments within universities and discusses the risks associated with greenwashing.

The paper highlights that reporting on the UN SDGs can enhance university engagement with stakeholders, improve their reputation, and foster innovation and transdisciplinary research ideas. However, universities encounter challenges such as limited data availability, resource constraints, lack of coordination and competing priorities. The growing scepticism surrounding reporting motives has led to increased allegations of greenwashing within the sector.

This paper contributes to the accounting literature by presenting a comprehensive framework that explores the determinants, mechanisms and consequences of reporting on the UN SDGs by universities. The framework offers insights into how reporting on SDGs can lead to embedding the SDGs in research, teaching and service activities and can be adapted to other organisational contexts. The paper also emphasises the need for further research on the mechanisms of reporting, which play a crucial role in driving long-lasting change.

This paper provides insights into Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Accounting and Reporting for the Other Sector, defined as organisations that are not corporations and do not have profitability as their overriding success criterion.

This is a conceptual paper that addresses the impact of SDGs on the Other Sector and the accounting and reporting of them by these organisations.

There are a number of implications for research in relation to theories, research approaches and the crossing over of disciplines in relation to the Other Sector’s SDGs accounting and reporting.

The research insights from this paper can be applied to inform the SDGs accounting and reporting practice of the Other Sector.

This paper addresses the impact of the recent sustainability development, the SDGs, on a sector that is very different from the corporate sector and highlights the benefit of accounting and reporting of these goals for the Other Sector.

Social entrepreneurship is a multidimensional construct, with social value creation lying at its core. Innovativeness and venturesomeness are the prominent decision-making characteristics that facilitate value creation by social enterprises (SEs). Sustainability goals can be attained better with synergistic operations of the two entities. Both SEs and SDGs aim at creating values for overall well-being, however discrepancies in interpreting and measuring the values created, leads to problems in achieving operational integration between the two.

This chapter comprehends the nature of values created by SEs. It further examines the scope and benefit of integration between SEs and SDGs for creating better value propositions. Methodology of the research included extant review of literature and relevant frameworks to comprehend concepts of SEs and SDGs. To examine practical aspects of value creation, in-depth interviews were conducted with social entrepreneurs. The chapter concludes that SDGs resonate strongly with work of many SEs due to the basic nature of their mission and objectives. However, there is ambiguity regarding how integration between the two entities can be effectively operationalized. The way forward for value creation through SEs-SDGs integration in post-COVID times is discussed. For sustenance and growth in complex times, along with emphasis on traditional values, SEs and SDGs will have to focus on creating strategic values through active collaboration and synergy. Impact reporting is critical, but additionally, core managerial and operational activities of SEs and SDGs must also orient cohesively. The chapter proposes an integrated framework for systematic alignment of SEs and SDGs missions, objectives, resource management, mobilization, networking etc. for purposeful collaborations.