Sustainability in the developing world: An exploration of corporate responsibility and efficacy in promoting social justice

Corporate stewards are companies that conduct their business in ways that create shared value among customers, shareholders, employees, and communities near and far, and by protecting the environment. Today, corporate stewards, community members, and policy-makers increasingly advocate for sustainability as a way to improve individual lives and create enduring prosperity. Despite widespread attention and support for sustainability initiatives as a way for companies to meet their corporate responsibilities, efforts have fallen short in achieving social justice for many of the world's least advantaged. This chapter provides a framework to help aspiring corporate stewards think more clearly about the challenge of achieving sustainability around the world. We focus on three critical issues necessary for business to be successful: adopting an integrated systems perspective for addressing multi-stakeholder values, understanding and engaging complex local environments, and, finally, mitigating weak state and international governance. In particular, we focus on the complexity of managing external relations when the interests of stakeholders do not align.