Pizzi Et Al 2020 SDG

Journal of Cleaner Production 276 (2020) 124033
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro
Management research and the UN sustainable development goals

(SDGs): A bibliometric investigation and systematic review
Simone Pizzi a, Andrea Caputo b, c, *, Antonio Corvino d, Andrea Venturelli a
a del Salento, Italy
Universita
b
University of Lincoln, United Kingdom
c
University of Trento, Italy
d
University of Foggia, Italy
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: The comprehension of the businesses’ impact to sustainable development requires consideration of the
Received 30 November 2019 different factors that affect firms’ behavior, such as corporate governance, non-financial regulation, and
Received in revised form the external environment. The contribution of business and management scholars to the discussion
22 May 2020
surrounding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their impact for business organizations has
Accepted 29 August 2020
Available online 14 September 2020
grown exponentially in the last years. This review systematically examines, through bibliometric and
systematic literature review methods, the scientific knowledge about SDGs and the business sector,
Handling editor: Yutao Wang analyzing (after fine-tuning) 266 articles published in leading journals between 2012 and 2019. The
results reveal the existence of four research themes: technological innovation (cluster 1), firms’ contri-
Keywords: butions in developing countries (cluster 2), non-financial reporting (cluster 3), and education for SDGs
SDGs (cluster 4). The main insights from the analysis of the papers are discussed, future research directions
Literature review and practical implications for the field of study are provided.
Bibliometric © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Strategy
VOSViewer
Sustainability
1. Introduction have been criticized for their inadequate results, caused by the
inequality states. To avoid a similar shortfall, the SDGs’ introduction
The concept of sustainable development has been widely has been followed by an ex-ante evaluation to identify possible
analyzed by policymakers in recent years (Sneddon et al., 2006). It innovations that will make their achievement more likely (Sachs,
has only become more relevant with the increasing need to identify 2012). One of the identified measures has been the direct
new strategies in order to achieve the highest degree of worldwide involvement of the business sector. Yet, the business sector
sustainability, which increased the attention paid by stakeholders response to this call to action is negatively influenced by the
in encouraging the achievement of socio-environmental goals. In different attitudes towards sustainability (Le Blanc, 2015). In fact,
that vein, the main initiative introduced by policymakers to full comprehension of the business sector’s contribution to sus-
encourage socio-environmental sustainability is the United Na- tainable development requires consideration of the different fac-
tions’ 2030 Agenda. The 2030 Agenda represents an agreement tors that affect firms’ behaviours, such as corporate governance,
between all 193 UN Member States to introduce a set of common non-financial regulation, and the external environment
strategies to achieve 17 goals (the Sustainable Development Goals, (Lombardi et al., 2019; Pizzi et al., 2020). Moreover, the inclusion of
or SDGs) and 169 targets before the year 2030. developed countries in the 2030 Agenda makes it more difficult to
The SDGs follow from the Millennium Development Goals develop an effective common strategy due to the different stake-
(MDGs), which represented the first attempt to create strategies to holders’ expectations about organizations’ activities (Scheyvens
ease the development of the poorest countries. However, the MDGs et al., 2016). In fact, as revealed in prior surveys about the inte-
gration of SDGs within firms’ non-financial reports, firms pay
varying degrees of attention to and place different priority on
* Corresponding author. University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, LN67TS, Lincoln, different goals (GBS, 2019; PWC, 2018).
United Kingdom. Tel:. þ44 01522 835621. The comprehension of the contribution provided by business
E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Caputo).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124033
0959-6526/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S. Pizzi, A. Caputo, A. Corvino et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 276 (2020) 124033
enterprises to the SDGs represents a complex effort. The complexity section. The maximum time limit allowed by the database was
is related to the central role covered by them within the society chosen to avoid distortion of the results; the first article found was
where they operate (Kolk et al., 2017). In fact, despite the published in 2012 and the last in 2019. This period enables
achievement of the SDGs is evaluated at country-level, the business consideration of not only the research carried out post-introduction
sector represents one of the main critical success factor for their of the SDGs, but also the scholarly reflections that influenced their
achievement (Sachs, 2012). Furthermore, the complexity of the framework after the Rio Conference in 2012 (Sachs, 2012; van
topic has been underlined by Schaltegger (2018), who highlighted Vuuren et al., 2015). Our methodological approach followed the
that the interconnections between SDGs impact negatively on the research strategy adopted in prior studies evaluating the contri-
possibility to develop a theoretical framework useful to evaluate bution provided by business and management scholars to discus-
firms’ approach toward the SDGs. The SDGs represents a research sion of the SDGs (Kolk et al., 2017). The Scopus database was used
area that requires the development of evidence-based studies in allow for the consideration of all possible works published in a
order to understand the main strengths and weakness that influ- broader range of journals, which limited the risks, biases, and po-
ence firms’ behaviours. In this sense, despite the policy makers’ tential omissions of using a narrower set of journals. Cross-
skepticism regarding the involvement of business and manage- validation performed with Web of Science and EBSCO Business
ment scholars in regulation’s activities, of policy makers (Garcia- Premier confirmed the appropriateness of the Scopus database for
Torea et al., 2019), during recent years an increasing number of the topic of inquiry.
academics have started to analyze firms’ contribution to SDGs. The The Scopus search was done to retrieve articles whose titles,
contribution of those scholars has been favoured by the increasing abstracts and keywords contained either the word “sdg*” or “sus-
attention paid to the topics related to the corporate social re- tainable development goal*”. Further filters included searching in
sponsibility. Furthermore, several authors have launched special the Business, Management, and Accounting subset of the database,
issue related to the SDGs in order to encourage the development of to ensure consistency with the subject area, and searching peer-
new studies based on a managerial perspective (Bebbington and reviewed English-only journal articles, removing articles in press
Unerman, 2018; Guthrie et al., 2019). in 2020. This search retrieved an initial sample of 415 documents, a
The aim of the paper is to systematize the scientific knowledge size consistent with other bibliometric studies in the management
created through the debate from business and management field (Caputo et al., 2018; Sassetti et al., 2018).
scholars. In details, according to Gaziulusoy and Boyle (2013) the Given that publications concerning the SDGs are multidisci-
systematization of the literature that regards transdisciplinary plinary and may have practical, rather than theoretical, relevance,
topics such as the SDGs represent a useful tool for researchers to to ensure adherence with our research question, a filtering process
develop new research enquiry. For our purposes, we have followed was carried out that consisted of independent reading of abstracts
a methodological approach based on bibliometric investigation and by all this paper’s authors. After this process, 149 articles were
systematic literature review of the topic (Dabi c et al., 2019). The excluded from the analysis either because they were out of the
choice to based our analysis on the combination of the two scope of the present study (for instance, in chemistry SDG stands
methods has been driven by the opportunity to identify the pri- for phenolic secoisolariciresinol diglucoside) or because they
mary debates that characterize SDGs in business and management addressed other research topics not (directly) related to the busi-
journals. ness and management field (such as the papers related to phe-
The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 consists of a nomena like the reporting of citizens’ socio-demographic
description of the methodological approach adopted by the au- information).
thors; Section 3 describes the results collected through the biblio- The final set of 266 papers was then used for the bibliometric
metric analysis; Section 4 presents a literature review about the analysis and the systematic review. During this phase, adjustments
state of the art of the research; Section 5 provides an interpretation were made to address errors and inconsistencies in the database,
of the output collected and opportunity areas for future research. for example, homogenizing the authors’ keywords spelling.
Lastly, Section 6 portrays the policy implications related to this The next steps consisted of reading each article and conducting
research. qualitative analysis consistently with best practices in systematic
literature reviews (Barclay et al., 2011; Pittaway and Cope, 2007).
2. Methodology Each article was coded, tagged, and later grouped into clusters, with
articles allowed to be part of more than one cluster (Giertsen, 1995;
This study’s aim is to map the knowledge generated by man- Tranfield et al., 2003). Concerning the coding and tagging proced-
agement scholars who investigate the role of businesses, corpora- ure, relevant parts of the text were selected and tagged with key-
tions, and for-profit organizations in contributing to the SDGs. In words representing their content, contributing dynamically to the
according to mapping of the best practices in scientific knowledge, development of the final taxonomy while allowing flexibility in
a bibliometric analysis of the literature, also adopting a systematic categorizing information with new tags, therefore reducing biases
literature review method, has been performed (Caputo et al., 2018; that can arise from a rigidly pre-set system (Caputo et al., 2016). The
Dabic et al., 2019). In combination, these two complementary approach was similar to that adopted by prior studies (Guthrie
methods paint a picture of the evolution of scientific knowledge in et al., 2012). The resulting taxonomy (shown in Table 1) consisted
a field, through quantitative bibliometric tools, while providing an of six levels of analysis describing: a) the jurisdiction, b) the orga-
in-depth investigation of topics and contents through the qualita- nizational focus, c) the geographical location, d) the focus on SDGs
tive systematic review. In line with the systematic review method literature, e) the research methods followed, and f) the theoretical
(Giertsen, 1995; Tranfield et al., 2003), a panel of experts was framework adopted or proposed within the studies.
formed to define the field of research, choose keywords and the
database, and establish the sets of inclusion and exclusion criteria. 2.2. Methodology adopted in the bibliometric analysis
2.1. Methodology adopted in the systematic literature review Bibliometrics applies statistical methods to the study of the

scientific activity in a field of research (Zupic and Cater, 2015). It
We performed a systematic search through the Scopus database combines two main procedures: performance analysis and science
during October 2019, with the criteria detailed further in this mapping. The performance analysis is based on activity indicators,
2
Table 1
Classification system for analysing SDG articles.
A. Jurisdiction
A1. Supranational/international/comparative - general

A1.1. Supranational/international/comparative - industry
A1.2. Supranational/international/comparative - organizational
A2. National e general
A2.1. National e industry
A2.2. National e organizational
A3. One organization
B. Organizational focus
B1. MNEs
B2. SMEs
B3. Cities
B4. Public sector
B5. Not for profit
B6. Universities
B7. General/other
C. Geographical Location
C1. North America

C2. South America
C3. Africa
C4. Europe
C5. Australasia
C6. Global
D. Focus on SDG literature
D1. External reporting (media, websites)

D2. Non-financial reporting
D3. Policies
D4. Strategy
D5. Performance measurement
D6. Other (including general)
E. Research methods
E1. Case/field study/interview

E2. Content analysis/historical analysis
E3. Survey/questionnaire/other empirical
E4. Commentary/normative/policy
E5. Theoretical: literature review/empirical
F. Frameworks and models
F0. No model proposed

F1.0. Applies or considers previous models
F1.1. Proposes a new model
Source: Guthrie et al., (2012), p. 71.
which provide data about the volume and impact of research represent a network of elements through circles, whose size varies
through the use of a wide range of techniques, including word according to the importance of the element, while the network
frequency analysis, citation analysis, and counting publications by a connections represent the closeness of the link between elements.
unit of analysis (e.g., authorship, country, affiliation, etc.). On the The spatial position of the circles and different colors are used to
other hand, science mapping is based on first and second- cluster the items.
generation relation indicators that provide a spatial representa-
tion of how different scientific elements are related to one another. 3. Results of bibliometric analysis
The objective of science mapping is to show the structural and
dynamic organization of knowledge in the field of research. To The bibliometric analysis has revealed how business and man-
overcome the limitations that pertain to every synthetic indicator, agement academics have provided valuable insights to the debates
prior studies have argued for the use of more than one indicator over policies regarding the macro themes of sustainable develop-
(Marzi et al., 2017). Notably, we used co-citation, bibliographic ment, in particular, contributing to discussions of the SDGs in
coupling, and co-occurrence of keywords as indicators for our recent years (Bebbington, 2013; Garcia-Torea et al., 2019).
analysis. Co-citation analysis allowed us to investigate when two
articles are both independently cited by one or more articles, while 3.1. Activity indicators
bibliographic coupling takes place when two articles both cite a
third article, indicating a probability that the two articles discuss a Our result highlighted how quickly the amount of attention
common topic (Ferreira, 2018). Co-occurrence of keywords analysis academics paid to the SDGs increased during the period 2012e2019
uses the author’s provided keywords to investigate the conceptual (Fig. 1). Specifically, the analysis reveals how each year since 2012,
structure of the field. the number of papers published by academics about SDGs has been
As the tool to calculate these indicators, we used the software higher than the year before. The exponential growth that charac-
program VOSViewer (van Eck and Waltman, 2010). The graphs terizes the field suggests the existence of increasing debate in
3
Fig. 1. Publication by year.
management studies about firms’ role in the SDGs’ achievement. Our research collected 1374 citations of papers on the SDGs
During the period analyzed, 120 journals published at least one (Table 3). The weight of the 10 papers with the highest number of
paper about the SDGs, while 76 journals received at least one citations is equal to 40.32. This evidence suggests these papers play
citation. The average number of citations for an article was 8.27 a central role within the overall debate about SDGs. Moreover,
(S.D. 14.90). These numbers confirm how the research in this field is these 10 papers are highly multidisciplinary.
producing a good impact despite its novelty and the apparent The dataset included 705 authors for the 266 publications. Out
concentration of impact in a few journals. The most cited journal is of these, only 40 had authored at least 2 publications, and 28 au-
the Journal of Cleaner Production, followed by the International thors were cited more than 50 times (Table 4).
Journal of Management Education and the Journal of Purchasing and
Supply Management (Table 2). We have also investigated the rank of 3.2. Co-citation analysis
the journals where SDG research is published, adopting the ABS
ranking, which is one of the most highly regarded rankings in A co-citation analysis occurs when several articles cite the same
business and management studies. We have also considered the articles. This measure is seen as an indication that the content of
impact factor of each journal. The analysis reveals that the ABS the co-citing articles is related in a meaningful way. This subsection
ranking lists 80% of the 20 top journals, while an impact factor is presents co-citation analyses of articles, journals, and authors.
provided for only 60% of them. Furthermore, only one 4* journal is
represented in our list. Our results highlight how a large portion of 3.2.1. Articles
the contributions is provided by emerging journals widely adopted When analyzing the 266 articles included in our dataset, and a
by management scholars. minimum threshold of 3 citations is considered, the obtained set
Table 2
Top 20 most cited journals.
Journal Cited by Articles Avg citation ABS ranking Impact factor
Journal of Cleaner Production 653 58 11,26 2 6395

International Journal of Management Education 126 17 7,41 2 e
Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management 57 1 57 2 3089
Technological Forecasting and Social Change 50 2 25 3 3815
Research Policy 45 1 45 4* 5425
Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal 43 2 21,5 3 2537
Journal of Sustainable Tourism 33 18 1,83 3 e
Tourism Geographies 33 3 11 2 e
Transnational Corporations 31 10 3,1 2 e
Journal of Tourism Futures 21 2 10,5 e e
Strategic Change 20 2 10 2 e
Cities 15 4 3,75 2 3853
Business Strategy and the Environment 14 4 3,5 2 6381
Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management 13 5 2,6 1 5513
Disaster Prevention and Management 12 1 12 e 1247
International Journal of Managing Projects in Business 10 1 10 1 1,6
Thunderbird International Business Review 10 1 10 2 e
Construction Economics and Building 9 1 9 e e
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research 9 1 9 e 2391
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing 8 2 4 1 e
4
Table 3
Most cited articles.
Title Year Cited
Decoupling global environmental pressure and economic growth: scenarios for energy use, materials use and carbon emissions 2016 130
Application of multi-criteria decision analysis in design of sustainable environmental management system framework 2013 87
Love me, love me not: A nuanced view on collaboration in sustainable supply chains 2015 57
A critical assessment of the Higher Education for Sustainable Development from students’ perspectives - A Chinese study 2013 57
Pathways to achieve a set of ambitious global sustainability objectives by 2050: Explorations using the IMAGE integrated assessment model 2015 50
Three frames for innovation policy: R&D, systems of innovation and transformative change 2018 45
Future sustainability scenarios for universities: Moving beyond the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2016 38
Achieving sustainability through Schumpeterian social entrepreneurship: The role of social enterprises 2016 32
Interdisciplinarity: Practical approach to advancing education for sustainability and for the Sustainable Development Goals 2017 31
Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: An enabling role for accounting research 2018 27
Table 4 SDGs and by their novelty. Le Blanc (2015) described the necessity
Most prolific authors. of integrating the SDGs within firms’ strategies, while Scheyvens
Author Documents Citations et al. (2016) tried to identify an operation framework for the pri-
Leal Filho W. 5 82
vate sector’s active contribution to the SDGs.
Scheyvens R. 5 39
Cavaliere C.T. 3 11
€ssling S.
3.2.2. Journals
Go 3 4
Higgins-Desbiolles F. 3 10 Out of the 7045 cited sources, 24 journals each received more
than 40 citations. The top 5 journals with the highest numbers of
citations are: Journal of Cleaner Production (691), Journal of Business
Ethics (274), Journal of Sustainable Tourism (151), Tourism Manage-
contains 31 cited references out of the 15.956 total. Furthermore,
ment (111) and Annals of Tourism Research (109) (Fig. 3). These
the five most connected references (Fig. 2) are:
numbers make it evident how much of the discussion of the SDGs is
supported by papers published in Journal of Cleaner Production.
Le Blanc, D. (2015). Towards integration at last? The sustainable
However, density analysis provided further interesting insights. It
development goals as a network of targets. Sustainable Devel-
suggests the existence of three different clusters, regarding the
opment, 23 (3), 176e187.
managerial implications related to production, managerial behav-
Bocken, N. M., Short, S. W., Rana, P., & Evans, S. (2014). A liter-
iors, and tourism management. The specific cluster about tourism
ature and practice review to develop sustainable business model
management could exist because of the particular ways this sector
archetypes. Journal of Cleaner Production, 65, 42e56.
contributes to sustainable development.
Scheyvens, R., Banks, G., & Hughes, E. (2016). The private sector
and the SDGs: The need to move beyond ‘business as usual’.
Sustainable Development, 24 (6), 371e382. 3.2.3. Authors
Jamal, T., & Camargo, B. A. (2014). Sustainable tourism, justice Out of the 21,321 cited authors, only 24 had been cited more
and an ethic of care: Toward the just destination. Journal of than 20 times. Furthermore, only four authors were cited more
Sustainable Tourism, 22 (1), 11e30. than 40 times. These authors are: Hall (Department of Manage-
Sachs, J. D. (2012). From millennium development goals to ment, Marketing and Entrepreneurship, University of Canterbury,
sustainable development goals. The Lancet, 379 (9832), New Zealand), Schaltegger (Centre for Sustainability Management
2206e2211. (CSM), Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany), Rockstrom
(Stockholm Resilience, Stockholm University, Sweden), and
The density analysis is represented in Fig. 2. As can be seen in Go€ssling (Western Norway Research Institute, Norway).
this graph, the papers with the highest coupling strengths are those Fig. 4 shows the density diagram of the author co-citation
by Le Blanc (2015) and Scheyvens et al. (2016). These papers are analysis. It shows how these authors are not only the most cited
central because of their specific attention to firms’ contributions to but also the most connected according to the co-citation analysis.
Fig. 2. Density diagram of the largest connected sets of cited references.
5
Fig. 3. Density diagram of the largest connected sets of cited sources by journal.
Fig. 4. Density diagram of the largest connected sets of cited sources by authors.
The density analysis pointed out the existence of three different dataset), confirming the absence of a consolidated SDGs field of
clusters. Two of these are characterized by a high degree of study. The five studies with highest indices of bibliographic
bibliographic coupling, while the third cluster shows a middle coupling are J Bebbington and Unerman (2018), Borges et al. (2017),
degree of bibliographic coupling. The cluster with the highest Morioka et al. (2017), Rosati and Faria (2019a,b), and Scheyvens and
bibliographic coupling includes work by several accounting Biddulph (2018).
scholars, such as Jan Bebbington (University of Birmingham, UK) To complement the analysis of this indicator, the density dia-
and Ans Kolk (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands). In particular, gram is represented in Fig. 5, where it can be seen how the works of
the central role of Bebbington could be attributed to her crucial Khalili et al. (2015) and Touboulic and Walker (2015) are the most
position in the debate based on the contribution of accounting widely considered within the current literature. However, the ex-
scholars to SDGs (Bebbington and Unerman, 2018). istence of several clusters highlights the number of fields of study
focused on SDGs.
3.3. Bibliographic coupling
3.3.2. Journals
Bibliographic coupling analyses the extent to which two articles A minimum threshold of two articles per journal was set
are related by measuring their references to a third article. This (Ferreira, 2018), a requirement met by 32 journals out of 120
subsection presents bibliographic coupling analyses of articles, (Fig. 6). Analysis reveals that the five journals with the highest
journals, and authors. bibliographic coupling index are Journal of Cleaner Production,
Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Corporate Governance, International
3.3.1. Articles Journal of Management Studies, and Sustainability, Accounting,
The bibliographic coupling of the 266 articles in our dataset can Management and Policy. Furthermore, the network and density
be helpful to better understand the theoretical foundations of these analysis (Fig. 5) reveals the central role played by other journals like
publications. The network of articles with at least two citations was Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management,
analyzed, and this analysis shows that the most extensive set of Business Strategy and the Environment, and Accounting, Auditing and
connected documents contains only 69 publications (25.9% of the Accountability Journal. This shows how accounting scholars are
6
Fig. 5. Density diagram of the bibliographic coupling of articles.
Fig. 6. Density diagram of the bibliographic coupling of journals.
paying increasing attention to the research area of the relationship that a research specialty can be identified by the particular asso-
between SDGs and non-financial reporting (Bebbington and ciations established between its keywords (Lo pez-Fern andez et al.,
Unerman, 2018; Guthrie et al., 2019). 2016). While citation analysis based on first- and second-
generation indicators involves an intrinsic bias towards older
3.3.3. Authors studies, the analysis of co-occurrence of keywords does not suffer
Out of the 705 authors in our dataset, only 40 had published at from this limitation, allowing important recent works to emerge.
least two papers on the SDGs (Fig. 7). The five authors with the Given that SDG work is a new field, subject to fast technological
highest bibliographic coupling index are Cavaliere, Leal Filho, change, the authors of this study agreed to complement the anal-
Boluk, Higgins, and Rosati in collaboration with Faria. Fig. 6 pre- ysis of citations with that of co-occurrence to identify the main
sents the density diagram of the bibliographic coupling analysis of topics and trends investigated.
authors. The analysis reveals the absence of a core group of re- To perform the keyword analysis, we first extracted the authors’
searchers, unlike the case in traditional CSR studies. This could be keywords for each article in our dataset. These keywords were then
connected to the absence of a consolidated network of researchers filtered for duplicates, homogenized in terms of spelling, and
centered on the SDGs. unique values were used for the analysis (Dabi c et al., 2019). The
resulting data were analyzed with VOSViewer’s tool for exploring
the co-occurrence of terms, in our case, the keywords. Only key-
3.4. Keywords analysis
words that occurred at least five times were kept. In the results, 37
out of 121 keywords constituted the largest set of connected terms.
The analysis of keyword co-occurrence is based on the principle
7
Fig. 7. Density diagram of the bibliographic coupling of authors.
The five most common keywords are developing countries, Red cluster: Technological innovation through the introduction
engagement, reporting, policies, and education. The heterogeneity of of new policies and business models.
these keywords confirms the multidisciplinary approach that has Green cluster: entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized enter-
characterized SDG studies. However, the results also highlight how prises (SMEs), multinational enterprises (MNEs), and cities’
the concept of sustainable development remains related to devel- contribution to SDGs in developing countries.
oping countries. In this sense, the shift from MDGs to SDGs has Blue cluster: the role non-financial reporting plays in achieving
been not followed by an effective change in perspective for man- the SDGs.
agement scholars. Yellow cluster: the role played by education in achieving the
To complement the analysis of keyword co-occurrence, the SDGs.
network of co-occurrence links among these keywords is presented
through diagrams of the network and density of keywords (Fig. 8). The “Red” cluster is composed of papers that analyze firms’
Thanks to this analysis, it can be seen how SDG studies could be contribution to the SDGs from a technological perspective. The
divided into four clusters: concept of “technology” is related to the innovations firms imple-
ment in order to create competitive advantage through new forms
Fig. 8. Network diagram of the co-occurrence of keywords.
8
of business models and policies (Bocken et al., 2014). In this field, 2017; Hall, 2019).
the orientation toward the SDGs is related to new forms of tech-
nology such as blockchain systems (Kewell et al., 2017a), digital 4. Literature review
risks management tools (Amirshenava and Osanloo, 2018), and the
IoT (Allam and Dhunny, 2019). Furthermore, some of these studies Finally, we have also analyzed the network of interconnected
have tried to correlate the SDGs to the Industry 4.0 program topics based on how articles are categorized according to our tax-
(Quezada et al., 2017). Finally, some authors have analyzed the onomy. Our analysis reveals that the bulk of the studies are char-
contribution to SDGs from the adoption of new business models acterized by the absence of a theoretical framework and by a
inspired by the “circular economy” paradigm (Fuldauer et al., 2019). worldwide perspective for analysis.
The Green cluster includes studies analyzing firms that operate
in developing countries. As shown in Fig. 7, this analysis is of several 4.1. Jurisdiction
different entities, such as MNEs (Adams, 2017), SMEs (Scheyvens
et al., 2016), cities (Rozhenkova et al., 2019), and the public sector The jurisdiction analysis reveals that 184 papers have analyzed
(Hancock et al., 2018). The heterogeneity of these entities suggests firms’ contribution to the SDGs from a supranational perspective
how academics have tried to identify contributions to the SDGs in (Table 5). To elaborate, 76 papers have analyzed the contribution to
developing countries from different perspectives. However, the fact the SDGs from a general perspective, 74 papers have observed the
that academics pay considerably more attention to the “developing phenomenon through a comparison between two or more orga-
countries” and the dearth of specific research on “developed nizations, and 34 papers have studied this topic from a standpoint
countries” is in contrast to the SDGs paradigm that requires an based on industry. Some of the main insights regarding the su-
active contribution from entities in nations throughout the world pranational effects related to the introduction of the SDGs have
(Sachs, 2012). been provided by van Vuuren et al. (2015) and Gusm~ ao Caiado et al.
The Blue cluster is characterized by the presence of topics (2018). In particular, these two researchers have recorded the
typically related to accounting studies. The most relevant paper is weaknesses and barriers resulting from the difficulties policy-
the contribution made by Bebbington and Unerman (2018), who for makers face in defining strategies to satisfy the short-term horizons
the first time highlighted the need to provide scientific contribu- of their policies and the long-term perspective that characterizes
tions for this new type of non-financial reporting. Another relevant the 17 SDGs. This has been confirmed by Schandl et al. (2016), who
contribution has been provided by Adams (2017) who describes the identified a set of possible policies to support firms’ transition to
new operational paradigm firms follow in order to suit their ac- more sustainable business models.
tivities to the SDGs. Specifically, Adams reflects on the connection Another perspective of analysis regards the lack of country-level
between value and corporate reporting through the lens of the regulation informed by the SDGs. In light of this, the choice to
SDGs framework. Other studies provided some insights about the analyze the phenomenon at supranational level could be related to
controversial mining sector (Tost et al., 2018). the difficulty of performing country-level analysis. In fact, despite
Unlike many of the other papers, the Green cluster includes the involvement of 193 states in the definition of the 2030 Agenda,
some based on empirical analysis. Following the traditional the first five years have seen the introduction of few country-level
empirical methodologies that characterize non-financial reporting policies. Thus, many of the analyzing phenomena at the country
studies, these papers have tried to identify which factors impact level have been related to mandatory requirements about non-
firms’ orientation towards the SDGs. Specifically, Rosati and Faria financial practices (Adams, 2017; Pineda-Escobar, 2019). Further-
have tried to evaluate this orientation through two different lenses, more, the studies performed on contexts or sectors without non-
concerning the internal and the external variables which affect financial regulation have stressed the central role played by busi-
firms’ strategies (Rosati and Faria, 2019a, 2019b). ness enterprises’ orientation to sustainable development within
The Yellow cluster is composed of papers that connect the SDGs the processes related to the SDGs (Dangelico, 2017; Mehmann and
to education. It includes a large number of papers published by Teuteberg, 2016).
journals focused on education. Although there are several analysis Finally, a limited number of studies have analyzed contributions
perspectives regarding this cluster, the bulk of these papers dealt to achieving the SDGs from specific organizations such as cities,
with the Principles for Responsible Management Education national parks, and universities (Cottafava et al., 2019; Ricciardelli
(PRME). Specifically, these studies analyze the positive externalities et al., 2018; Sriarkarin and Lee, 2018).
connected to the adoption of the PRME protocol by universities
operating in different countries (Annan-Diab and Molinari, 2017). 4.2. Organizational focus
In this way, academics have started to fill in some of the main
research gaps highlighted in prior studies about sustainable Although few studies have been focused on specific types of
development education. In fact, despite the proliferation of courses organizations, our analysis reveals that over 50% of the studies have
about sustainable development, the current debate still remains analyzed MNEs or a general context including firms with different
inadequately developed within educational programs (García- sizes (Table 6). Typically, the analysis regards either a cluster of
Feijoo et al., 2020; Moggi, 2019). Further studies have tried to large firms or groups of companies operating in the same context or
systematize this debate among the large number of studies pub- industry. Thus, similar to traditional studies on CSR, most aca-
lished (Rosenbloom et al., 2017). Another interesting field of studies demics have based their analysis on MNEs and the private sector.
within the yellow cluster is related to the tourism field. In partic- This is consistent with prior studies about the great contribution
ular, as evidenced by policymakers (UN WTO, 2017) tourism and MNEs provide to achieving the SDGs. In particular, some of the
education have certain similarities in eradicating poverty. The bulk main insights about the impacts of MNEs on the SDGs regard the
of these studies analyze the role tourism enterprises play in integration of new targets within the enterprises’ strategic plans.
generating financial and social value for the local communities Several authors have highlighted the opportunity for MNEs to turn
(Colaner et al., 2018; Jamal and Camargo, 2014; Scheyvens and the constraints related to the adoption of more sustainable prac-
Biddulph, 2018). Furthermore, these studies have been conducted tices into new sources of competitive advantage (Morioka et al.,
with the purpose of outlining a possible framework for the tourism 2017; Topple et al., 2017). However, according to Kolk et al.
industry’s useful contribution to achieving the SDGs (Boluk et al., (2017), the debate should be extended through a deep analysis of
9
Table 5
Jurisdictional focus of SDG articles.
Keyword Papers Cited % Papers % Citation
A1. Supranational/International/Comparative - General 76 50 28,57% 30,12%

A1.1. Supranational/International/Comparative - Industry 34 18 12,78% 10,84%
A1.2. Supranational/International/Comparative - Organizational 74 54 27,82% 32,53%
A2. National e General 36 21 13,53% 12,65%
A2.2. National e Organizational 29 18 10,90% 10,84%
A3. One Organization 17 5 6,39% 3,01%
Table 6 to the high degree of attention MNEs pay to the SDGs. Furthermore,
Organizational focus of SDG articles. the continents with the highest number of studies are Australasia
and Europe. This has also been the case in prior literature reviews
about non-financial topics such as intellectual capital disclosure
B1. MNEs 70 42 26,32% 25,30%
(Guthrie et al., 2012). The results related to the European context
B2. SMEs 37 23 13,91% 13,86%
B3. Cities 21 11 7,89% 6,63% could stem from the increasing attention paid by the European
B4. Public Sector 21 14 7,89% 8,43% Commission to the SDGs (Wong, 2019). Furthermore, a large
B5. Not For Profit 3 2 1,13% 1,20% number of studies have been performed to analyze the contribution
B6. Universities 35 27 13,16% 16,27%
of European universities to the SDGs (Parkes et al., 2017). The
B7. General/Other 79 47 29,70% 28,31%
increasing attention from European scholars has also been
encouraged by the development of specific research lines from
some of the main schools of thought on social and environmental
the official data provided by international organizations such as topics (Bebbington and Unerman, 2018).
UNCTAD. Other papers regard the African (22), South American (10), and
The lack of studies about action to achieve the SDGs by SMEs North American (4) contexts. Despite the relatively low number of
mirrors the state of traditional research about CSR. In fact, the contributions, the research performed on Africa and South America
adoption of sustainable practices by SMEs represents an indepen- represents an interesting field of study for academics, practitioners,
dent field of research for business and management scholars due to and policymakers. Specifically, these studies have provided valu-
small enterprises’ different attitude towards sustainable practices able insights about geographical contexts more exposed to the
(Perrini et al., 2007). Rahdari et al. (2016) have tried to identify the negative effects of un-sustainable development. These studies have
main processes that make it more likely entrepreneurs will adopt analyzed controversial aspects of foreign direct investment (FDI) by
practices oriented to the SDGs. In particular, the authors analyzed MNEs in developing countries. Some have analyzed the paradox of
the phenomenon through different lenses in order to understand beneficial new work opportunities being developed alongside
the differences related to ownership and governance’s composi- negative effects on public health and the environment (Hancock
tions. Another interesting contribution has been provided by et al., 2018; Manu et al., 2019). Furthermore, some academics
Caldera et al. (2018), who identify a set of 9 characteristics that have tried to identify best practices developed by governments in
favor the achievement of competitive advantage when the SDGs are order to develop more knowledge about sustainable entrepre-
integrated into SMEs’ strategies. neurship and investments (Partey et al., 2018; Pineda-Escobar,
Finally, our results highlight how an increasing number of 2019).
management scholars have started to provide insights about the
role played by universities and cities. In particular, the majority of
studies about universities have been conducted analyze the effects 4.4. The field of SDG literature
on society of the PRME being adopted within business schools
(Rosenbloom et al., 2017; Wood & Pansarella, 2019), while the Five years after the launch of the 2030 Agenda, the SDGs could
studies on cities have analyzed strategies adopted to eradicate be considered a topic within the research areas of “Business &
challenges such as poverty and GHG emissions (Manu et al., 2019; Strategy” and “Performance Measurement” (Table 8). Scholars
Rozhenkova et al., 2019). perceive the SDGs as possible strategic drivers for business enter-
prises due to their value relevance. In fact, several studies have
underlined the positive effects of their integration within firms’
4.3. Geographical location
business models and strategic plans (Adams, 2017; Mukhi and
Quental, 2019; Qin et al., 2019). The majority of collected evi-
Analysis of the studies’ geographical focus revealed 62.65% of
dence addresses the adoption of new organizational behaviors
the studies were performed on the worldwide context (Table 7).
within sectors that have a direct impact on the environment, such
This result confirms the observations make in section 4.1 on
as Tourism, Mining, and Oil & Gas (Monteiro et al., 2019; Morioka
jurisdiction. The worldwide perspective of analysis could be related
et al., 2017; Musavengane, 2019).
However, analysis of the data requires an understanding of
Table 7 current conditions. In 2018, more accounting scholars started to
Geographic focus of SDG articles. include the SDGs within their research lines (Bebbington and
Keyword Papers Cited % Papers % Citation Unerman, 2018). Thus the next few years will likely see rapid
growth in the overall number of contributions exploring the ac-
C1. North America 4 2 1,50% 1,20%
C2. South America 10 8 3,76% 4,82% counting and accountability implications of including the SDGs in
C3. Africa 22 10 8,27% 6,02% the managerial decision-making of business enterprises. Moreover,
C4. Europe 26 12 9,77% 7,23% the development of new forms of regulation about non-financial
C5. Australasia 41 30 15,41% 18,07% reporting will also determine the shape of research, especially
C6. World 163 104 61,28% 62,65%
given the evidence-based approach of accounting scholars.
10
Table 8
SDG literature fields.
D1. External Reporting (Media, Websites) 8 2 3,01% 1,20%

D2. Non-Financial Reporting 24 14 9,02% 8,43%
D3. Policy 36 25 13,53% 15,06%
D4. Business Strategy 64 41 24,06% 24,70%
D5. Performance Measurement 61 40 22,93% 24,10%
D6. General/Other 73 44 27,44% 26,51%
However, while Bebbington and Unerman have launched a several authors within their research agenda. In particular,
research agenda, the bibliometric analysis confirms the earlier ex- Bebbington and Unerman (2018) stated that the development of a
istence of accounting research regarding the SDGs. Some of the theoretical framework from accounting scholars will facilitate
main contributions have been provided by Rosati and Faria (2019a, policymakers’ definition of their policies. Similarly, Kolk et al.
2019b), who have performed empirical analysis to evaluate insti- (2017) suggested that international business scholars develop
tutional and organizational factors related to the voluntary inte- theoretical studies to support policymakers in their decision-
gration of the SDGs within firms’ non-financial reports. Another making processes.
relevant contribution has been provided by Ike et al. (2019), who However, only 25.94% of the studies considered a theoretical
evaluated a sample of Japanese firms to identify the main factors framework within them. These studies have been conducted ac-
that influence the prioritization of SDGs within non-financial re- cording to prior frameworks based on economic theories, business
ports. Furthermore, Liu et al. (2018) underlined the need for pre- and management paradigms, or practitioners’ models (Diaz-
parers to revise their approach to environmental accounting Sarachaga and Jato-Espino, 2019; Musavengane, 2019; Rahdari
practices to encourage adoption of a long-term vision approach to et al., 2016). The current state of research does not adopt a spe-
sustainable development. cific framework to analyze the phenomenon, and thus when re-
searchers adopt a framework to use in their papers, this choice does
4.5. Research methods not result from the existence of a clear theory regarding the SDGs,
but rather from the opportunity to analyze them according to
The research methods adopted to describe contributions to the frameworks already widely adopted within researchers’ individual
SDGs are highly heterogenous (Table 9), confirming the multidis- fields. Other authors have tried to develop innovative frameworks
ciplinary approach that characterizes business and management according to the evidence collected within their research (Goyal
studies on sustainable behaviors (Dentchev et al., 2018; Dubey et al., 2018; Muff et al., 2017; Schaltegger, 2018). However,
et al., 2018). Specifically, 27.44% of the papers have been prepared Schaltegger (2018) describes barriers that make it difficult to
through theoretical analyses, 24.44% with quantitative methods, develop a consolidated framework for considering the connection
and 20.68% through qualitative studies. Contrary to traditional between business enterprises and SDGs. For example, different
studies about CSR (Milne and Adler, 1999), only 7.52% of the papers types of goals within the 2030 Agenda require different degrees of
have included content analysis in their methodology. However, the involvement from firms to be achieved.
diversity of research methods used to perform these studies could
lead to the generation of more and better knowledge about 5. Discussion and future research directions
achieving the SDGs. In fact, as Bebbington and Unerman (2018)
remark, research on the SDGs should not be performed only for Since the Rio Conference in 2012, an increasing number of
academic purposes, as these goals play a relevant role for policy- business and management scholars have started to consider the
makers. Representing them through several alternative lenses SDGs in their research. Their inclusion represents an innovative
could favor a wide diffusion of knowledge between the stake- pathway for academics due to the macroeconomic character of the
holders involved in the debate. This has also been observed by Kolk 2030 Agenda. Concepts such as the eradication of poverty, well-
et al. (2017), who highlight the necessity for business scholars to being, and peace have typically been analyzed from a policymaking
develop highly interdisciplinary studies. perspective rather than a scholarly one. In this sense, the research
agenda developed to sustain the analysis of the SDGs at an orga-
4.6. Theoretical framework nizational level will be a relevant challenge for the coming years.
The evidence collected through our bibliometric analysis and
The analysis reveals the absence of a consolidated theoretical literature review have revealed the new challenges faced by busi-
model to investigate the SDGs from a business and management ness and management scholars. In particular, the analysis has un-
view (Table 10). This absence of a consolidated theoretical frame- covered an absence of consolidated literature about the SDGs in the
work within the debate represents one of the main challenges for business and management fields. Instead, papers appear within
business and management scholars, and has been observed by four clusters that could be theoretically divided into the following
Table 9
Research methods of SDG articles.
E1. Case/Field Study/Interview 55 33 20,68% 19,88%

E2. Content Analysis/Historical Analysis 20 15 7,52% 9,04%
E3. Survey/Questionnaire/Other Empirical 65 39 24,44% 23,49%
E4. Commentary/Normative/Policy 53 31 19,92% 18,67%
E5. Theoretical: Literature Review/Empirical 73 48 27,44% 28,92%
11
Table 10
Theoretical framework adopted by SDG scholars.
F0. No Model Proposed 197 124 74,06% 74,70%

F1.0. Applies Or Considers Previous Models 31 18 11,65% 10,84%
F1.1. Proposes A New Model 38 24 14,29% 14,46%
research areas: technological innovation, contribution of enterprises research could analyze educational programs other than the PRME.
and cities to developing countries, non-financial reporting, and Conjoint analysis of the four clusters unveils a high degree of
education. linkages between topics. This evidence appears both in the litera-
Through research related to technological innovation, several ture review, with its heterogeneous results, and the keyword
authors have tried to conceptualize a connection between inno- analysis. Several authors have encouraged the inclusion of contri-
vation and sustainable development. In particular, those studies butions from other fields of study into business and management
have analyzed both the introduction of technological innovation in research so as to involve policymakers within the debate
traditional sectors, such as farming (Partey et al., 2018), and the (Bebbington and Unerman, 2018; Kolk et al., 2017), while our
effects related to the adoption of new tools, such as blockchain and research has shown an absence of widely adopted research
IoT (Saberi et al., 2019). However, the analysis of their research methods. Furthermore, the central role played by the Journal of
methods has shown that only few studies were conducted on single Cleaner Production underlines the multidisciplinary character of the
organizations. Thus, the overall knowledge about the effects of field. A future opportunity could be the inclusion of ecological and
disruptive innovation within the processes should be extended socioeconomical perspectives of analysis to encourage more direct
through the adoption of case studies or content analysis. interlinkages between certain SDGs and business enterprises.
Another interesting perspective is the standalone research area Finally, although we have excluded any limitations in terms of
about developing countries. Understanding the dynamics that keywords and journals from our research strategy, our analysis
affect developing countries can be complicated due to the mixed reveals the absence of an independent framework of analysis to
impacts of FDI from MNEs. Some studies have analyzed FDI by evaluate business enterprises’ contribution to the SDGs. This rep-
describing its direct contribution to the SDGs (Kourula et al., 2017; resents the main future challenge for business and management
van Zanten and van Tulder, 2018). On the other hand, some aca- scholars. In fact, the collected evidence suggests that even the
demics have analyzed the unethical paradoxes that characterize the frameworks traditionally used in business studies do not appear
development of business enterprises in contexts without adequate adequate to represent a complex topic, such as the SDGs. Specif-
protection for local communities’ wellbeing (Hancock et al., 2018). ically, Schaltegger (2018) states that the identification of a clear
In addition, other studies have emphasized governments’ contri- research framework to analyze the SDGs is highly complex due to
bution to the development of new forms of business enterprises the “missing links” between business enterprises and some targets
within these underdeveloped areas (Pineda-Escobar, 2019). How- required by the 2030 Agenda. It appears difficult to conceptualize a
ever, according to the results of the literature review, future theoretical framework that can be used universally to analyze the
research could be focused on the underdeveloped area of South phenomenon due to the differences between countries, industries,
America. and firms. Thus, future research could be addressed to fill this gap
Analysis of the non-financial reporting cluster reveals unex- through the implementation of new frameworks to describe
plored research areas related both to traditional topics, such as the standalone research areas, such as international business and ac-
evaluation of the relationship between SDGs and firm performance, counting practices (Bebbington and Unerman, 2018; Kolk et al.,
and to innovative topics, such as the introduction of new technol- 2017).
ogies for sustainable development (Bebbington and Unerman,
2018; Kewell et al., 2017b). Literature reviews have also suggested
the existence of several research agendas developed over the years, 6. Conclusion
in order to extend the scientific knowledge about SDGs (Ike et al.,
2019; Rosati and Faria, 2019a). In particular, future research The achievement of the SDGs represents one of the main chal-
should address the gaps regarding the comprehension of country- lenges for Governments due to the global pressures made by
level dynamics that affect firms’ adoption of practices inspired by worldwide stakeholders. However, such ambitious goals could not
the SDGs. In fact, as observed in our literature review, little research be gained without the direct involvement of business enterprises.
has been conducted from a country-level perspective. Thus, In fact, despite the SDGs are evaluated at country-level, a large part
extending the current body of knowledge to additional countries or of the SDGs regards corporate strategies and behaviors (Sachs,
to a firm organizational level represents a possible research trend 2012).
that could increase understanding of specific dynamics such as SDG Starting from the MDGs’ experience, the 2030 Agenda filled this
reporting, SDG-inspired business models, or the integration of the gap through the explicit provisions of goals directly concerning
SDGs within strategic plans. companies. In detail, certain SDGs such as 12.6 and 16.6 requires to
The last research area consists of factors related to the re- the UN Member States to sustain the development of a more
lationships between tourism, education and poverty eradication. transparent economic systems through the provision of form of
The field is well developed due to contributions provided by several mandatory non-financial reporting practices. Furthermore, other
academics after the launch of the special issue proposed by Parkes examples are represented by targets related to macro themes, such
et al. (2017) about the PRME. This research area’s relevance is as the eradication of the poverty or the global warming. Thus, the
confirmed by significant papers in the literature about the contri- full achievement of a set of 17 goals characterized by different de-
butions of universities. However, this research could be extended gree of interlinkages between them requires an effective firm
through the development of further studies to evaluate the rela- contribution in a managerial, organizational and reporting
tionship between education and specific SDGs. Furthermore, future perspective.
However, despite this provision, the path toward the full
12
achievement of the SDGs is still far, as a consequence of the Therefore, despite the vast amount of literature reviews carried out,
different degree of knowledge regarding the need to implement most scholars are still in search of an active and shared theoretical
more sustainable practices. framework. Such a finding implies a compelling opportunity for
The development of new knowledge about SDGs required the moving the current body of knowledge forward. Additionally,
direct involvement of business and management scholars that conceiving a new framework might spur further qualitative and
represents the trait d’union between theories and practices. In quantitative studies with the aim to test its rationale.
particular, the contribution provided by those scholars consists of Another result of our empirical analysis is the categorization of
an evidence-based approach that is characterized by several dif- four research areas regarding the relationship between SDGs and
ferences with the research methods traditionally adopted in other business entities. Specifically, our results have described literature
research fields (Bebbington, 2013). In this regard, several academics consolidated on technology, non-financial reporting, education,
highlighted the exigence to take a stand within the debate in order and developing countries. In addition, our findings have high-
to increase the overall knowledge about the contribution given by lighted the lack of studies on other fields that could strategically
business enterprises to the SDGs (Bebbington and Unerman, 2018; benefit the SDGs’ achievement, such as the analysis of the contri-
Kolk et al., 2017). However, despite the increasing number of papers bution provided by developed countries.
published during the first years after the official launch of the 2030 Our implications regards academics, policy makers and practi-
Agenda, the contribution provided by business and management tioners. The theoretical implications pertain the need to further
scholars still remain fragmented. investigate on the connections between SDGs and business enter-
According to this evidence, we have systematized the scientific prises. Although our results reveal the existence of four indepen-
knowledge on SDGs provided by business and management dent clusters, the scientific debate on the topic remains under
scholars. This evidence has been driven from the opportunity to analyzed by business and management scholars. Furthermore, our
contribute to a multidisciplinary debate through a micro-level research confirms the theoretical proposition framed by
analysis of the main strengths and weakness related to the inclu- Schaltegger (2018) concerning the difficult to develop a framework
sion of the SDGs within the business practices. Thus, our analysis useful to identify the connections between a complex topic, such as
have covered a set of topics characterized both by differences and the 2030 Agenda and business enterprises. However, despite the
connections. This evidence is confirmed by Schaltegger’s theoret- limits caused by the existence of goals not directly related to firms’
ical proposition (2018) who underlined the complexities related to activities, our results reveal that an increasing number of academics
the systematization of the topic within a common framework, due have started to develop a research debate over specific topics, such
to its high degree sophistication. In this sense, similar to the SDGs, as reporting, technology, policies and education. Thus, business and
the current debate is characterized by a high degree of heteroge- management scholars could start to identify theoretical framework
neity in term of overall knowledge regard the topic. useful to analyze specific SDGs.
In detail, building on the theoretical construct framed by One policy implication of our research is the opportunity for
Guthrie et al. (2012), our empirical evidence contributes by policymakers to involve business and management scholars in
enriching the current information base about the SDGs. Indeed, in their strategic groups. In fact, despite the policymakers’ skepticism
terms of geographical location, the bulk of papers included in our pertinent to the research outcomes provided by business and
sample (i.e. 61.28%) takes a global view. Arguably, such research management scholars (Garcia-Torea et al., 2019), their contribution
approach emerges from several analyses based on large-sized might be helpful to identify new strategies for achieving a highest
companies, such as MNEs (these analyses made up 26.32% of the sustainable development. In this regard, the preliminary evidences
sample). Along these lines, it is worth mentioning that the Euro- suggested that the involvement of business and management’s
pean context is commonly studied rather than the African and academics could represents an effective way to identify strategies
Australasian areas. Given that corporate sustainability reporting useful to understand the main factors that impact on firms’
was for a time not mandatory in Europe, the comparison of the contribution to sustainable development (Bebbington, 2013).
performance among European and African companies might be Finally, the managerial implications related to our research is
insightful. The entry into force of Directive 95/2014/EU on non- represented by the insights collected within the papers. In partic-
financial disclosures (NFD) might have encouraged the espousal ular, our study reveals that some academics have started to discuss
of the SDGs, and at the same time reduced the differences from the over topics influencing practitioners’ activities. In particular, some
African context, where in countries such as South Africa, integrated of these topics represent new frontiers both for consultants and
reports are compulsory. managers. Interesting examples concern the intense debate on the
Still, in the field of SDG literature, business strategy takes second SDGs reporting or the analyses based on the impacts of new tech-
place according to our study, immediately before performance nologies on SDGs (Quezada et al., 2017; Rosati and Faria, 2019a).
measurement. Conversely, non-financial and external reporting Furthermore, the analysis unveils that an increasing number of
hold the last two positions. Therefore, policies devoted to merely business schools have started to include SDGs within their curricula
enhancing corporate reporting on sustainability do not attract the (Annan-Diab and Molinari, 2017). Thus, the dialogue between
attention of many business and management scholars, who theories and practices will represent a win-win’s opportunity for
seemingly do not find great interest against the exploration of is- scholars and practitioners to adequate their activities to a real life
sues, such as greenwashing imperative. By contrast, a particular theme, such as the 2030 Agenda.
attention deserves the understanding on “how” and “to what The next years will be characterized by a more intense debate
extent” the SDGs can strengthen business strategy and perfor- about the SDGs. This evidence is confirmed by the quick develop-
mance measurement. The focus of the papers comprising our ment of special issues and conferences. Thus, the main limitations
sample is therefore mostly oriented inward rather than outward. of our study is represented by the inclusion within our sample of
Taking up the conceptual pathway suggested by Guthrie et al. studies characterized by different perspective of analysis. This
(2012) allowed us to discover an intriguing association between limitation arguably depends on the novelty of the topic that has
the research methods and the theoretical frameworks put forward. been preliminary introduced in academic and practitioner debates
In particular, on one side, literature reviews are more common than only in 2012 during the Rio Conference. In this sense, the future
both surveys and case studies analyses. On the other side, 74.06% of research could be addressed to fill our physiological gap through a
the papers investigated does not use a theoretical framework. more detailed exploration of specific topics related to the SDGs.
13
CRediT authorship contribution statement Dubey, R., Gunasekaran, A., Childe, S.J., Luo, Z., Wamba, S.F., Roubaud, D.,
Foropon, C., 2018. Examining the role of big data and predictive analytics on
collaborative performance in context to sustainable consumption and produc-
Simone Pizzi: Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing - review & tion behaviour. J. Clean. Prod. 196, 1508e1521. https://doi.org/10.1016/
editing. Andrea Caputo: Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, j.jclepro.2018.06.097.
Investigation, Writing - review & editing. Antonio Corvino: Ferreira, F.A.F., 2018. Mapping the field of arts-based management: bibliographic
coupling and co-citation analyses. J. Bus. Res. 85 (March 2017), 348e357.
Writing - review & editing. Andrea Venturelli: Writing - review & https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.03.026.
editing. Fuldauer, L.I., Ives, M.C., Adshead, D., Thacker, S., Hall, J.W., 2019. Participatory
planning of the future of waste management in small island developing states
to deliver on the sustainable development goals. J. Clean. Prod. 223, 147e162.
Declaration of competing interest https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.02.269.
García-Feijoo, M., Eizaguirre, A., Rica-Aspiunza, A., 2020. Systematic review of
sustainable-development-goal deployment in business schools. Sustainability
The authors declare that they have no known competing
12 (1), 440. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12010440.
financial interests or personal relationships that could have Garcia-Torea, N., Larrinaga, C., Luque-Vílchez, M., 2019. Academic engagement in
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. policy-making and social and environmental reporting. Sustain. Account.
Manage. Policy J. 11 (2), 281e290. https://doi.org/10.1108/SAMPJ-03-2019-0123.
Gaziulusoy, A.I., Boyle, C., 2013. Proposing a heuristic reflective tool for reviewing
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Journal of Cleaner Production 276 (2020) 124033

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Cleaner Production

Management research and the UN sustainable development goals

A1. Supranational/international/comparative - general

C1. North America

D. Focus on SDG literature

D1. External reporting (media, websites)

E1. Case/ﬁeld study/interview

F. Frameworks and models

F0. No model proposed

Source: Guthrie et al., (2012), p. 71.

Fig. 1. Publication by year.

Journal Cited by Articles Avg citation ABS ranking Impact factor

Journal of Cleaner Production 653 58 11,26 2 6395

Title Year Cited

Fig. 2. Density diagram of the largest connected sets of cited references.

Fig. 5. Density diagram of the bibliographic coupling of articles.

Fig. 6. Density diagram of the bibliographic coupling of journals.

Fig. 7. Density diagram of the bibliographic coupling of authors.

Fig. 8. Network diagram of the co-occurrence of keywords.

Keyword Papers Cited % Papers % Citation

A1. Supranational/International/Comparative - General 76 50 28,57% 30,12%

Keyword Papers Cited % Papers % Citation

D1. External Reporting (Media, Websites) 8 2 3,01% 1,20%

Keyword Papers Cited % Papers % Citation

E1. Case/Field Study/Interview 55 33 20,68% 19,88%

Keyword Papers Cited % Papers % Citation

F0. No Model Proposed 197 124 74,06% 74,70%

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