Research Focus: Sustainable Globalization: Environment, Trade, Migration, and Development

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the United Nations in 2015, has set 17 ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) which address various global challenges, such as poverty, inequality, climate change, biodiversity loss, peace, and justice. Nevertheless, conflicts, war and violence are on the rise, along with poverty, inequality, and decreasing resilience. At the same time, global greenhouse gas emissions continue rising, extreme weather events are on the increase, biodiversity is declining rapidly, and natural resources are becoming increasingly scarce. Global environmental and development issues thus occupy a central position in the debate on food and energy security for a growing world population, climate protection, and the preservation of biodiversity. At the same time, global political and economic power structures and trade relations are shifting. Consequently, migration, urbanization, and income and wealth inequalities — as well as conflicts, including those over resources — are increasing worldwide. Conflicts and migration resulting from the combination of high inequality, mounting environmental problems, and reduced resilience pose significant risks and challenges to social stability and the economies of all countries.

This raises urgent research questions at various levels (e.g., households, firms, interorganizational partnerships/multi-stakeholder initiatives, states, supranational organizations). At the micro level, for example, questions regarding the determinants, motives, and incentive structures for economic activities, as well as production and consumption decisions of households, play a decisive role. This also applies, for example, to the use of information and communication technologies and Artificial Intelligence systems and applications. Not only with a focus on developing countries does the question arise as to what extent these production and consumption decisions promote prosperity, for example, regarding income, nutrition, health, or well-being? Comparisons between countries at different stages of development can provide insights into structural change processes and, in particular, into the “how exactly” and the “why.”

From the perspective of companies, the question arises as to what extent a truly effective corporate responsibility strategy can be designed and, not least, secured. While the business sector is called upon to undergo a radical shift in thinking, a closer look reveals that its actual implementation usually falls significantly short. The search for explanations for this, as well as for proposals on how to overcome barriers to action within individual companies and industries, as well as in economies and societies as a whole, represents an important field of research. Specifically with regard to developing countries, research on entrepreneurship, micro-investments, and local value creation and work is still underdeveloped, yet differs significantly from analogous research in industrialized nations. This presents a wide range of opportunities for analysis as well as theory and model development, especially since highly diversified enterprises are embedded in a dynamic and resource-constrained context that is increasingly impacted by challenges such as climate change, population growth, high food and energy prices, urbanization, and the absence of functioning institutions.