Focus on sustainability is not a fashion. It does not fade away. Our special issue welcomes contributors from different research domains. Scientists, scholars and reflexive practitioners. We can imagine contributions by researchers in organization theory, in all fields and modes of management, in business studies, in sociology, social psychology, psychology, and so on… . We would like to close gaps we know and start noticing the gaps we had not been aware of. Let us shed light on how the theory and practice of cross-cultural management and, in general, cultural backgrounds of human actors, help us understand and solve some of the main challenges. We do mean global, social, political, economic challenges currently affecting our world and times. Does access to education offer a fair start for all young students in a sustainable way? Can we sustain a war on poverty? Can healthcare survive the viruses and the big pharma killer apps? Can the Russians give up a long march to the third world war? Some of the above issues had already been signaled(Prokop et al., 2023; Acevedo et al., 2022; Gazzola et al., 2022; Baumgartner, 2014). Organizations face the issues connected to sustainability in various cultural contexts, which differ in terms of values/practices as well as in terms of networks, platforms and institutions. We think it matters that we understand how diversity influences the conceptualization and implementation of policies designed to enhance sustainability. Most of our fellow researchers would probably agree that survival of the fittest should turn into survival of the most sustainable ones. But it is not a foregone conclusion. It is still fundamental to manage global phenomena and global dynamics and to nudge them towards sustainability (Kolling et al., 2023; Millar et al., 2012; Li et al., 2023; Perey, 2015).
Global trade, global tourism, mobility of people, pandemics, offshoring and global supply chain, the increasing demand for energy - all these factors can contribute to the disruptive effects on the environment and to the increasing inequalities within and across countries (Markuro et al., 2023; Mehta & Chamberlain, 2023). The topic of sustainability, in its broadest meaning manifests connections to social, technological, economic, and environmental factors. Sustainability becomes crucial for our future and this special issue aims at exploring the topic from different perspectives, to get critical and systemic views of the ethical issues (Magala, 2012) and the connected challenges (Marshall et al., 2015; Zwier et al., 2020), as well as of the different lens through which we can get an insight on the phenomenon, taking in the account all aspects connected to innovation and digitalization (Isensee et al., 2020).
We invite critical and qualitative papers (theoretical and/or empirical) that can stimulate the debate about the role of cultures in facing and interpreting the key current social issues and phenomena at international and global levels.
Submissions should provide novel ideas, tools, and perspectives for scholars, practitioners and policy-makers. Theoretical contributions, reviews, qualitative inquiries and case studies are welcome. The submission of ethnographic studies and the application of arts-based methods are also encouraged.
This special issue is closely linked to the IACCM Conference “Responsible Management: Social Sustainability, Diversity and Inclusion” (https://www.disaq.uniparthenope.it/iaccm-conference/ - October 26th-28th 2023, University Parthenope, Naples, Italy), where the Special Issue Guest Editor Team will run a PDW on this topic. The authors of the best papers presented at the Conference will be encouraged to submit their works to this Special Issue.
