The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an urgent call for action by all countries that provide a global framework for achieving global development while balancing social, economic, and environmental sustainability SDGs are addressed to all actors in society, but both academia and professional recognize the particular importance of businesses However, research is still needed to understand the role of companies as sustainable development agents Relying on Scopus database consultation, the current research adopts an interdisciplinary systematic literature review to investigate, analyze, and present state‐of‐the‐art academic literature on the role of businesses in tackling SDGs The final sample comprises 101 papers published between 2015 and 2020 It provides evidence that the main topics discussed by scholars are related to aspects of strategy execution Recognizing different streams that are currently unexplored—despite strictly related to strategic business activities and to the sustainable development as a whole—the study provides many insights for future research on business and SDGs

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Sustainable development goals and the strategic role of business: A systematic literature review

The homogenization of the banking segment has made it difficult for banking institutions to practice the quality of services that are needed in order to retain consumers. Thus, these days, finding ways to increase consumer loyalty—especially green loyalty—has become a challenge for the banking industry around the planet. Research has long acknowledged that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a strategic concern that could help organizations to increase consumer loyalty. However, the impact of CSR practices on green consumer loyalty is rarely addressed in the extant literature. Hence, the present research investigated the impact of CSR on green consumer loyalty with the mediating effect of co-creation in the banking industry of Pakistan. The study also introduced green banking initiatives as a moderator between the mediated relation of CSR and green consumer loyalty, with the intention that such a moderator would strengthen this indirect relationship. The structural equation modeling technique was used for the data analysis. The results confirm that CSR enhances consumer loyalty, and that co-creation partially mediates this relationship. Furthermore, green banking initiatives further strengthen this relation. The results of the current survey could help banking institutions learn how they can develop core strategic considerations based on the integration of CSR co-creation and green banking initiatives.

Csr, co-creation and green consumer loyalty: Are green banking initiatives important? A moderated mediation approach from an emerging economy

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has changed the world, creating the need for new actions from society, including universities and companies. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are part of a global agenda, but this priority is not significant to university students. Although some research has focused on SDGs and university students, there is a lack of evaluation and comparison in Latin American countries. The current study aims to evaluate student knowledge of the SDGs, the relation of student professional careers to the SDGs, the importance of the SDGs for economic development after the COVID-19 pandemic, and student interest research in SDG issues. The study is carried out with students in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru. The instrument was developed and validated. The highest score of level of knowledge was reported in Mexico and the lowest score in Colombia. This outcome can be explained by the availability of training programs in the universities about SDGs. The availability of programs created and promoted by the governments can also be a reason; however, students from Mexico are the ones who felt the most that the authorities are not making efforts to promote the SDGs. With research interests, interests in creating sustainable cities and communities, and responsible consumption and production were recognized for the four countries. The outcomes reveal several interesting insights through comparisons among the four countries considered according to descriptive analyses. Some SDGs were found to be more important for some countries than others. Interests were noted in research on some SDGs.

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Expectations and Interests of University Students in COVID-19 Times about Sustainable Development Goals: Evidence from Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru

Sustainability has become one of the challenges of today’s banks. Since sustainable business models are responsible for the environment and society along with generating economic benefits, they are an attractive approach to sustainability. Sustainable business models also offer banks competitive advantages such as increasing brand reputation and cost reduction. However, no framework is presented to evaluate the sustainability of banking business models. To bridge this theoretical gap, the current study using A Delphi-Analytic Hierarchy Process method, firstly, developed a sustainable business model to evaluate the sustainability of the business model of banks. In the second step, the sustainability performance of sixteen banks from eight European countries including Norway, The UK, Poland, Hungary, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy, assessed. The proposed business model components of this study were ranked in terms of their impact on achieving sustainability goals. Consequently, the proposed model components of this study, based on their impact on sustainability, are respectively value proposition, core competencies, financial aspects, business processes, target customers, resources, technology, customer interface, and partner network. The results of the comparison of the banks studied by each country disclosed that the sustainability of the Norwegian and German banks’ business models is higher than in other counties. The studied banks of Hungary and Spain came in second, the banks of The UK, Poland, and France ranked third, and finally, the Italian banks ranked fourth in the sustainability of their business models.

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Sustainable Banking; Evaluation of the European Business Models

A PRME response to the challenge of fighting poverty: How far have we come? Where do we need to go now?

Driving sustainable banking in Nigeria through responsible management education: The case of Lagos Business School

Reaching the Bottom Billion through Inclusive Business : Lessons from Enterprises in Africa

There is an emerging history of corporate charitable giving targeted at socio-economic development challenges in West African countries such as Nigeria and Ghana. This has been done through either culturally embedded forms of giving or institutional strategic forms of giving. Some of these types of corporate giving had been criticized for being unsustainable, ad-hoc and inadequately targeted. West African countries such as Nigeria and Ghana have also been in the spotlight, because they are countries endowed with abundant natural resources and increasing business presence (multinational and local). Yet the development and business environment challenges of these countries, pre-COVID, were still significant.

Ijeoma Nwagwu

Papers

Driving sustainable banking in Nigeria through responsible management education: The case of Lagos Business School

Reaching the Bottom Billion through Inclusive Business : Lessons from Enterprises in Africa

Corporate Sustainability and COVID-19 Responses in West Africa: The Potential for Sustained Linkages Between Philanthropy and CSR Practices