Business & the sustainable development goals: a framework for effective corporate involvement

This short book presents a framework for making corporate strategies effective for sustainable development. This framework is a condensed result of a variety of interdisciplinary research and teaching projects, organised with colleagues in academia, practitioners at companies, civil society organisations and government, and with PhD and master students. Over the course of a considerable number of years these collaborations allowed me to develop a more integrated vision on the way corporations could effectively contribute to very complex societal problems: through new business models, cross-sector partnerships, thinking on inclusive development, linking macro challenges to micro approaches, positive change trajectories and all sorts of management techniques that are needed to (pro) actively take up complex societal challenges (rather than staying passive or shift responsibility to others).

Acknowledgements -- Foreword -- PART I WHY? The creation of the SDGs - A new paradigm for progress? -- 1.1 Introduction: the entry of a new frame for grand challenges -- 1.2 The sustainable development challenge: preconditions for a new paradigm -- 1.3 The creation of a new paradigm: from MDGs to SDGs -- 1.4 Reception of the SDGs: support and critique -- 1.5 Conclusion: a promising and intriguing agenda -- PART II WHAT AND WHO? The SDGs as 'Wicked problems' - Who shouldaddress what? -- 2.1 Sources of wickedness: what implications for thinking about the SDGs? -- 2.2 Intensity of wickedness: what makes the SDGs wicked? -- 2.3 Sources of ambiguity -- 2.4 Addressing the SDGs: societal triangulation -- 2.5 Linking what and who: the choice for targets, indicators and a common agenda -- 2.6 The Specific SDG elaboration -- 2.7 Conclusion: a promising agenda with considerable gaps -- PART III HOW? A framework for corporate strategies in support of the SDGs. -- 3.1 Introduction: how can companies contribute to the SDGs? -- 3.2 Dealing with societal issues: business cases and materiality -- 3.3 Breaking through the reactive threshold: strategic tipping points -- 3.4 Making it functional: breaking through further conservative management layers -- 3.5 How can companies contribute to specific SDGs? -- 3.6 How do companies at present contribute to the SDGs? -- 3.7 Framework: how can companies better contribute to the SDGs? -- Bibliography.