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This paper aims to propose an integrative framework that enables the mapping of firm activities along two dimensions of responsible business behavior: a width and a depth dimension. Width includes associative, peripheral, operational and embedded responsibility. In terms of depth, we identify delinquent, neutral, nascent, enhanced and advanced levels of responsibility.

The responsibility matrix is developed by drawing on the literature and the ambition to provide a more nuanced map of a firm’s activities and its contributions toward the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The matrix enables the classification of firm activities into different functional categories based on how they relate to a firm’s business model. Further, the meaningfulness of each activity can be identified by determining its depth.

Mapping all the relevant activities of a multinational firm onto the responsibility matrix enables managers and policymakers to identify areas where transformation is most needed. Further, multinational firms can use the matrix to map the activities of their value chain partners and design more effective standards and interventions.

The business responsibility matrix represents a diagnostic tool that enables the detailed mapping of firm capabilities and the identification of areas where further capacity building is necessary and where pockets of excellence exist.

The responsibility matrix offers a benchmarking tool for progress that can be used in conjunction with existing guidelines and initiatives such as the United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the UN Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative.

The responsibility matrix acknowledges that firms can engage with the SDGs through different types of activity (width dimension). Simultaneously, it recognizes that activities in the same category can have varying levels of effectiveness (depth dimension).

The authors critically examine the paper by Samiee (2019, this issue) “International marketing and the Internet: A research overview and the path forward” and offer an appraisal of its merits as well as thoughts for further development of research on advanced information and communication technologies (ICTs) in international marketing.

This paper approaches its purpose via a reflexive review of Samiee's paper and continues by offering a content analysis of a broader body of literature which includes internationally oriented papers in international business (IB), international marketing (IM), general management, marketing and strategy (GMS) as well as information systems (IS). The underpinning question is whether and which particular ICT concepts have successfully been adopted in the IM literature and what the inclusion or exclusion of these phenomena may imply for future research.

The Internet and internationalization implications of the technology have been studied excessively in the domain; however, newer developments such as dimensions of Industry 4.0 or advanced manufacturing, have not yet been widely considered in IB and marketing work. The ramifications for future research are significant in that the understudied modern industrial organization of the contemporary firm in the digital world needs much concerted research focus to be adequately understood.

This paper and the literature review is limited to “international” studies. While this is an appropriate limitation for the purposes of this IM-oriented review, some work in the GMS domain as well as the IS domain will have significant ramification for international firms and IM thinking, despite these papers limited to noninternational firms.

The notion of advanced ICTs, builds on the underpinning Internet technology, and has transformative effects on the way in which (international) firms are organized, studied and performed. The pervasive shifts triggered by advanced ICTs and the reconfiguration of firms to platform providers and system integrators need to be well understood, in order to stay legitimate and as performant in contemporary markets.

Rather than looking at only IM papers, this paper reviews Internet/advanced ICT papers in multiple related fields. Significant novelty in this area comes from IS, by including this discipline in the review, the authors see real diffusion of novel thinking and potential research areas for IM scholars at the interface of ICT and IM.

This paper aims to empirically investigate how small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have engaged with international network partners during COVID-19 and how the crisis has changed network relationships and resilience depending on pre-COVID relationship strength and, secondarily, on opportunity outlook in a market.

This paper draws on 14 qualitative interviews with managers of New Zealand SMEs from diverse industries and four with industry experts. Rather than generalization, the aim of this exploratory paper is to identify contingency factors, which, under duress, strengthen or break business relationships.

Four main patterns emerge from the data, with respect to how SMEs engaged with network partners depending on the nature of their prepandemic relationships and the extent to which their markets had been affected by the pandemic. During crisis, weak ties either break or remain weak, forcing firms to create new, potentially opportunistic, relationships. Strong ties increase resilience, even under a negative outlook, as network partners support each other, including through the development of new ties. Strong ties can also accelerate business model transformation.

Future large-scale research is needed to test the generalizability of the authors’ findings.

The findings of this paper indicate lessons for business continuation management and future preparedness for major disruptions. Specific insights may help stimulate managerial action to accelerate contingency planning and policy to support SMEs.

This paper is an early study on how weak and strong ties influence SME resilience during crisis.

This study aims to investigate how different academic fields within and outside of international business (IB) engage with the topics of social value creation in the context of multinational enterprises (MNEs). The aim is to take stock of the main themes and offer suggestions for future research avenues.

The paper undertakes a scoping review. The authors use the Web of Science database to identify relevant articles. The database search yielded 466 articles. The NVivo software was used to code and identify key thematic areas.

The matrix analysis performed in NVivo yielded 15 main thematic areas spanning 37 research fields. However, further analysis revealed that 89 per cent of the articles originated from 13 fields. Furthermore, while IB journals represent the second-largest field home to publications related to the social value creation of MNEs, they only account for 12 per cent of the sample.

The paper responds to prior calls to reduce disciplinary silos through the performing of a thematic analysis across a multitude of research fields.

The purpose of this study is to reflect on the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) framework as a milestone for concerted efforts to tackle the underlying grand challenges.

This viewpoint is predominantly conceptual in nature. However, this study adapts the University of Auckland's SDG key words to broadly map existing international business research in each SDG category across nine journals.

The SDG framework offers a positive and inclusive way forward to integrate social and environmental with economic aspects in the field of international business.

The inclusive nature of the SDG framework may achieve what previous labels such as social value creation and corporate social responsibility could not. It offers a path where integrating social and environmental with economic perspectives does not need to threaten the identity of the field. The SDG mapping exercise across nine selected journals clearly demonstrates that mainstream, economically focused research can continue to make valuable contributions to the SDGs as long as the discipline allows more room for integrators.

The purpose of this paper includes two interconnected objectives. The first is to provide a reconceptualisation of social value creation as social constraint alleviation. The second is to respond to the call put forward by Giuliani and Macchi (2014) to produce synergies between bodies of literature exploring the development impact of businesses. The paper focuses on ideas from the global value chain/global production networks (GVC/GPN), business and human rights, corporate social responsibility (CSR), international business (IB) and (social) entrepreneurship literatures.

The paper offers a reconceptualisation of social value creation by building on the synergies, complementarities and limitations of existing concepts identified through the literature review.

The reconceptualisation of social value creation put forward in this paper contributes to the literature in the following way. It offers a useful and clear definition of the term “social” (Devinney, 2009), and it attends to the limitations of the constraint concept as put forward by Ted London and his collaborators (London, 2011). Furthermore, it sketches out the basic ideas of a two-system approach to allow for the differentiation between symptom treatment and root cause alleviation. Finally, it offers a refinement of Wettstein’s (2012) proposed capability-based remedial action concept. The paper furthermore proposes that there are three distinct ways in which businesses generally respond to social constraints.

The paper illustrates how the redefined concept of social value creation can connect different bodies of literature and help make sense of existing empirical results, without engaging in definitional debates.

The Covid-19 pandemic has quickly transformed the notions of crises and of living in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world into a lived experience. This chapter offers a perspective on how New Zealand businesses experienced and reacted to Covid-19 related management from a distance and with a mindset that was informed by the government’s focus on health and well-being and “being kind.” This exploratory findings from a sample of New Zealand exporters show that technology-supported management of digital distance and trust, infused with a partner-specific exhibition of empathy, fostered successful business relationships during these challenging times.

This chapter investigates the coffee value chain in Latin America. By drawing on the concept of just transitions as a “connective tissue” between the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the discussion zooms in on the promise of agroforestry for environmental upgrading. The chapter concludes by providing examples of trade-offs between environmental, social and economic aspects.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the intended and unintended consequences of compliance and auditing pressures in the Bangladeshi garment industry. To explore this issue the authors draw on three medium-sized suppliers. The institutional changes that followed the Rana Plaza accident in April 2013 make Bangladesh in general and the garment industry in particular an interesting and suitable research setting for standards compliance.

The study adopts a multiple case study approach. Face-to-face interviews have been conducted with the owners of three Bangladeshi garment manufacturing firms and several workers. Additionally, organisational documents and local newspaper articles had been collected wherever possible.

The results indicate that the pressure for compliance has led the case companies to prioritise the implementation of measurable standards over the socially grounded needs and priorities of workers. As a consequence certain initiatives instead of adding new social value in fact destroyed previously existing social value. Furthermore, the pressure for compliance created the necessity to find ways to cover the sizable cost of compliance. This prompted firms to pursue process upgrading through technological advancements and increased work pressures on the labour force. These initiatives led to an increased power imbalance and the exclusion of unskilled workers from the job market.

The paper contributes to the understanding of the human rights implications of compliance and auditing pressures and initiatives. Furthermore, in order to further enrich existing knowledge in the critical accounting literature, the study draws on insights from the global value chains (GVC) and international business (IB) literatures.

The paper contributes to the understanding of the human rights implications of compliance and auditing pressures and initiatives. Furthermore, in order to further enrich existing knowledge in the critical accounting literature, the study draws on insights from the GVC and IB literatures.