SPECIAL ISSUE PROPOSAL
Sustainable Development and Chinese Firms: Challenges, Opportunities, and Innovation
Proposed Special Issue Editors:
Fang Lee Cooke (Monash University, Australia, fang.cooke@monash.edu)
Shuang Ren (Queen's University Belfast, UK, s.ren@qub.ac.uk)
David Ahlstrom (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong SAR, China, ahlstrom@baf.cuhk.edu.hk)
Supervising Editor: Shipeng Yan (The University of Hong Kong, shpyan@hku.edu.hk)
Deadline for Proposal Submission: May 31, 2025
Deadline for Paper Submission: December 31, 2025
The world is facing numerous challenges, from climate change, environmental pollution, and resource depletion to geopolitical tensions, periodic pandemics and economic upheaval (Ciravegna et al., 2023; UNEP-ISR, 2024). This behooves institutions, businesses and other stakeholders to take action collectively to address the challenges and trends and adopt a sustainable approach to economic growth that also takes into account planet health and human wellbeing, which has come to be known as the Triple Bottom Line (i.e., Profit, People and the Planet, Elkington, 2018). Increasingly, firms are expected to assume a greater level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and imagine their purpose in society for the greater good beyond profit and shareholder interests (e.g., Ahlstrom, 2010; Delbridge et al., 2024; Dyllick & Muff, 2016; Frémeaux & Michelson, 2017; McPhail et al., 2024; Rehg, 2023). These calls reflect the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) agenda (UN Development Program, 2024). In 2015, the UN launched 17 SDGs to be achieved by 2030. As an aspiration, the UN SDGs project a visionary paradigm of "people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership" (Brown & Rasmussen, 2019). However, we are more than halfway to 2030, and none of the goals is nearly half achieved, according to the UN report (UN, 2023). This suggests further that stakeholders need to act urgently through collective efforts toward the sustainable development agenda. In particular, firms need to consider the environmental, financial and social outcomes in their management decisions and business activities as part of their CSR.
There has been growing research interest in grand challenges, SDGs, and sustainable development more broadly in the business and management field (Aguilera et al., 2021; Arena et al., 2018; Battilana et al., 2022; Bansal et al., 2021; George et al., 2016; Grewatsch et al., 2023). This body of literature investigates how firms are affected by the sustainability agenda (e.g., the increasing pressure for sustainability reporting) on the one hand, and how they can realign their business strategy, policy and practice to promote sustainable development and maintain their legitimacy on the other (George et al., 2016; Girschik, 2020). While a number of studies have shed light on practices in the Chinese context (e.g., Lu et al., 2023), many studies mainly use China as the site for data collection. There remains limited understanding about what challenges Chinese firms encounter, how they create and seize new opportunities in response to climate challenges and energy transition, for example, and how they reengineer their business model, build strategic alliances, and operate in the global market under the SDG environment.
Yet, management policy and practice need to be situated within the context in which firms operate, as influential scholars have long pointed out (Barkema et al., 2015; Stahl et al., 2023; Whetten, 2009; Wood et al., 2024). This presents an important opportunity for extending the scholarship on the role of management in sustainable development from the Chinese perspective, theoretically, methodologically, and empirically. Engaging in phenomenon-based research to advance theories has been called for by several scholars in the management field to make it relevant to practice again (e.g., Chen et al., 2017; Fisher et al., 2021; Ployhart & Bartunek, 2019; Von Krogh et al., 2021). In the Chinese context, unique SDG issues might include China's Green Belt and Road Initiative, the development of the electric vehicle and renewable energy sectors, and the "Two-Mountain Theory" (the Government's emphasis on ecological civilization by suggesting that green mountains are gold mountains). These developments are closely tied to the government's strategic development plan, which firms are responding to. In-depth investigations of these China-specific policy initiatives and business strategies, policies and practices related to them could provide fresh insights into SDGs/sustainable development with Chinese characteristics, particularly as they differ from those in other contexts.
Management and Organization Review (MOR) invites submissions that explore and advance our knowledge of the role of Chinese firms in responding and contributing to the sustainable development agenda, the dynamic domestic and international institutional context under which they operate, and implications for theorization. We welcome research investigating institutional environments, business strategies, policies, and processes, as well as leadership, culture and HR practices that facilitate firms to respond to the sustainable development agenda and maintain their competitive advantages.
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Professor Xiao-Ping Chen
Philip Condit Endowed Chair Professor of Management
Foster School of Business
University of Washington
Editor, Management and Organization Review
Email:
xpchen@uw.edu------------------------------