International Partnerships for Social Value Creation: New Insights from Multinational Enterprises

Synthèse

This special issue aims to advance scholarly knowledge on how multinational enterprises (MNEs) form international partnerships to create social value. Research in multinational business scholarship has examined the international activities of MNEs in addressing the broader sustainability agenda. However, there remains limited understanding of the specific challenges, tensions, and opportunities MNEs face when engaging in multi-stakeholder international partnerships for social value creation. Given the increasing centrality of such partnerships in global sustainability efforts, addressing this gap is both timely and important. The motivation for this special issue is to advance new theoretical and empirical knowledge into how MNEs' international partnerships enable social value creation.

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Thèmes proposés

• Which types of societal problems (e.g., poverty, food insecurity, public health) are best addressed through MNEs' international partnerships, and which forms of partnerships are most effective in tackling these problems and generating social value?
• How do MNEs' international and domestic partnerships create value for multiple stakeholders and communities?
• Under what circumstances do MNEs' international partnerships produce unequal social outcomes, and what social benefits—such as enhanced legitimacy—do they provide to participating firms?
• Are there limits to the types of social challenges that MNEs' international partnerships, or specific forms of such partnership, can effectively address?
• What inter-partner challenges arise in pursuing social value creation across cross-border settings, and how can these challenges be effectively managed?
• What internal and external drivers motivate MNEs to establish international partnerships for social value creation, and what are the boundary conditions that determine the effectiveness of these partnerships?
• Which dynamic capabilities are necessary for social value creation that can be developed through, or leveraged in, international partnerships, and how do these capabilities vary across different partnership types (e.g., equity vs. non-equity alliances, horizontal vs. vertical social alliances, and international joint ventures)?
• How can social purpose be integrated in MNEs' upstream (e.g., production) and downstream (e.g., marketing) value chain activities, and what roles do value-chain partners play, including the associated challenges and opportunities, in this process?
• What are the nature and consequences of institutional frictions that arise in social value creation through MNEs' international partnerships, and how can these challenges be effectively addressed?
• What roles do home and host market institutions play in facilitating MNEs' international partnerships for social value creation?
• What industry- or country-specific factors influence MNEs' multi-partner and cross-border social alliances?
• In the context of international partnerships involving platform firms and digital ecosystems, what unique challenges and opportunities do multi-sided networks present for MNEs in creating social value?
• How do governance structures and decision-making processes in MNEs' international partnerships influence the trade-offs between economic and social value creation?