Multinational enterprises and the Sustainable Development Goals: what do we know and how to proceed?

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) can play an important role in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article examines what we know about their participation in implementing the SDGs and their impact, both positive and negative, on people, the planet, prosperity and peace as identified in the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda. To this end, we review the research published in the main international business journals on five key SDGs that represent these “four Ps”, grouped into three categories: (1) poverty and inequality, (2) energy and climate change, and (3) peace. We summarize the findings of the 61 relevant studies and subsequently explore the UN’s “fifth P”, partnership, both in terms of published research on MNEs and the SDGs, and in terms of a collaborative agenda to help address the large challenges of the 2030 Agenda. In view of the relatively limited research on MNEs and SDGs thus far, academic institutions and international business scholars in particular are well-positioned to offer important insights about the role of business in supporting the SDGs, for which we offer suggestions, also in relation with other key actors

Offshoring innovation to emerging countries: the effects of ip protection and cultural differences on firms' decision to augment versus exploit home-base-knowledge

Developed-country multinationals (DMNEs) have increasingly engaged in the practice of ofshoring innovation to emerging countries. In this article, we leverage and extend the institution-based view to further our understanding of this phenomenon. Specifcally, we examine the diferential efects of formal and informal institutions on DMNEs’ strategic decision to ofshore innovation activities aimed at augmenting (versus exploiting) home-base-knowledge to emerging countries. Concerning formal institutions, we argue that the stronger the emerging host country’s IP protection, the higher the likelihood that a DMNE ofshores innovation activities aimed at augmenting home-base-knowledge. Regarding informal institutions, we argue that the greater the cultural diferences between the developed home country and the emerging host country, the higher the likelihood that a DMNE ofshores innovation activities aimed at augmenting home-base-knowledge. Additionally, we propose a key contingency that attenuates the relationship involving IP protection while strengthening the one involving cultural diferences: the DMNE’s experience with ofshoring innovation. Analysis of 128 ofshoring innovation implementations by 78 DMNEs in ten emerging countries provides support for all our hypotheses except for the one focused on the moderation efect of experience on the relationship involving cultural diferences

Unraveling the MNE wage premium

Whereas IB has extensively studied MNEs’ generic (positive) impact on host economies, but rarely on employee wages, economics research has only shown an overall MNE wage premium. We ‘unravel’ this premium, considering multiple levels of analysis and accounting for host-country contextual contingencies, to unveil MNEs different (positive or negative) distributional effects. Using unique micro-level data from over 40,000 employees in 13 countries, we examine MNEs’ distributional effects for employees’ gender, experience, and immigrant status; the influence of host-country property rights protection and labor regulation; and interplays with region and industry effects. MNEs’ distributional effects show marked differences that largely depend on the host-country context, and that are positive for experienced and foreign-born employees in developed countries but negative for females working in developing countries. Whereas in developed countries the gender wage gap is smaller in MNEs than in domestic firms as hypothesized, we find evidence of a larger wage gap in developing countries. The analysis also reveals that the higher host-countries’ level of property rights protection, the lower the MNE wage premium. Our study points at the need to reassess statements about the generic positive impact of MNEs in host countries, particularly in developing countries, and discusses (further) research implications