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By the end of this chapter, you should be able to demonstrate an understanding of:

The importance of big data in the information revolution.

The resource-based view of the firm and dynamic capabilities as they relate to big data.

The use of big data in marketing decisions.

Consumer security concerns over the storage and processing of big data.

This chapter outlines the need for global actions on mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and introduces the six chapters contained in this issue. The impact of GHG emissions on the environment undoubtedly exacerbates the consequence of climate change and is not constrained within the borders of the emitting countries and companies. Emitting countries (and companies) export much of the harm created by GHG emissions given that the earth's atmosphere intermixes globally. GHG top emitters are not necessarily the victims of its consequences, since the extent to which each country is affected by adverse weather such as floods depends on the distribution of climate vulnerability rather than jurisdictional emission. Hence, global collective actions are required to find plausible solutions to reduce GHG emissions. This issue consists of one literature review and five empirical chapters. The insight from the literature review highlights the dearth of studies addressing GHG emissions reporting and management in Africa and the Middle East. The first three empirical chapters examine the efficacy of corporate governance in facilitating GHG disclosures and performance in China, the United States and India. The fifth chapter examines the effect of the Paris Agreement on climate change disclosures in South Africa. There is mixed evidence as to how corporate governance affects GHG disclosure, but it is clear that the Paris Agreement had a positive impact on climate change disclosures in South Africa. The sixth chapter examines the social determinants of GHG in top 100 emitting countries and documents evidence that energy use determines the extent of GHG emissions in both developed and developing countries. However, the results show that other social determinants such as urbanisation, literacy and corruption contribute in varying ways to GHG emissions in developing countries. Taken together, the collection of chapters in this issue provides incremental understanding to the effect of GHG emissions and necessary actions that can help in mitigating them.

In this chapter, we conduct a metadata analysis of articles published in accounting, business and finance journals ranked by Australian Business Dean Council (ABDC), and benchmarked against the Chartered Association of Business Schools (ABS) ranking, that discuss firm- and country-level greenhouse gas (GHG) emission practices and reporting. Number of publications on GHG research, research methods, number of citations and ratio, across countries and continents are some of the topics we cover. We employ a list of articles on accounting, business and finance journals ranked A* and A in the ABDC journal rankings from 2015 to 2022. The study uses a structured literature review to analyse 74 papers on GHG reporting practices at the firm- and country level. Although this line of enquiry is still nascent and developing, the study found underrepresentation of Africa and the Middle East in GHG literature generally. In addition, majority of the articles examined also concentrate on quantitative methods. Most of the articles on GHG research are A-ranked in the ABDC ranking scheme. It was also found that few studies focus on the countries and companies with the highest emissions. While there has been some progress in interrogating GHG across the globe, there is still much room for further research. A key area of future research is exploring the GHG reporting practices in the African and the Middle Eastern sub-regions. There is also a need to examine countries and companies with high emissions. A further study needs to explore the benefits of other research methods in addition to quantitative methods, as different research methods could yield different insights that would enhance research-based conclusions.

Public-interest entities – among which are listed companies – are obliged to publish nonfinancial disclosure in some countries and regions. The European Commission established mandatory nonfinancial disclosure by Directive 2014/95/EU. While a large body of literature was developed on sustainability reporting quality (SRQ) in voluntary context, evidence about the effect of mandatory nonfinancial disclosure on SRQ is controversial and previous experiences worldwide did not make clear if obligatoriness improves SRQ. This chapter aims to bridge the gap of empirical evidence about this phenomenon in European countries, focusing on first implementation of new legislation by Italian and German companies. The research has an explorative character and it adopts content analysis methods performed on sustainability reporting practices of companies listed in FTSE-MIB and DAX 30. The analysis aims to understand if obligatoriness affects SRQ, causes some changes in reporting practices such as harmonizing Italian and German ones by performing a cross-country comparison. The findings suggest that obligatoriness improves reporting quality and, above all, it fills the gap between different countries by fostering the adoption of international guidelines and the consequent introduction of some content, such as materiality analysis and quantitative measures of social and environmental performance.

Considering the dearth of industry-specific empirical research exploring sustainability reporting in the context of developing countries, this chapter aims to critically examine the extent and the nature of sustainability information disclosure of environmentally polluting industries in India.

Data are collected from business responsibility reports (BRRs), sustainability reports, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports and integrated reports of all 57 energy and mining companies included in NIFTY500 Index at National Stock Exchange of India for the year 2017–2018 and 2018–2019. Content analysis is used to examine the sustainability disclosure practices and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical analysis is performed to test the difference across various dimensions of sustainability reporting of companies.

The results indicate low environmental reporting of the key indicators by energy and mining companies in India. It is found that state-owned companies have better social reporting practices against private sector companies. The findings also indicate that Global reporting initiative (GRI) based reporting have better sustainability disclosure practices and companies reporting based on BRR lack quantitative information disclosure.

The findings of the present chapter have several implications for policymakers, investors, regulators and management of these high environmental and social impact companies in India. The findings which coincide with the key areas of sustainability disclosure can be used for improving sustainability disclosure practices by the various stakeholders.

This is one of the first studies to investigate the nature and extent of sustainability performance disclosure of the companies from polluting industries in India. This chapter also contributes to the existing sustainability reporting literature by providing evidence on industry-specific disclosure in the context of a developing country.

Business sustainability urges firms to simultaneously address economic, ecological, and social concerns. It innately combines different potentially competing organizational elements. Therefore, sustainability represents a suitable context for the study and practice of hybridity. Based on an understanding of hybridity as a continuum, in this chapter, the author distinguish between four different forms of hybridity for business sustainability, depending on the degree of integration and autonomy of sustainability initiatives in business organizations. With ceremonial hybridity, businesses only leave the impression to pursue business and sustainability goals but focus their practices on conventional business priorities. Contingent hybridity denotes an approach where ecological and social concerns are only pursued to the extent that they align with business goals. With peripheral hybridity, firms pursue sustainability initiatives in their own right but do not integrate them with core business activities. Full hybridity puts both business as well as sustainability at the core of the organization without emphasizing one over the other. These different forms of hybridity in business sustainability are illustrated with examples from various business organizations. By characterizing different degrees of hybridity in business sustainability, the argument and the examples highlight how organizational hybridity and business sustainability can fruitfully inform one another. The author develop research opportunities for using business sustainability as a context for studying different degrees as well as the dynamics of hybrid organizing and for using different degrees of hybridity for achieving a better understanding of different pathways toward substantive business contributions to sustainable development.

The nature of technologies that are recognised as Artificial Intelligence (AI) has continually changed over time to be something more advanced than other technologies. Despite the fluidity of understanding of AI, the most common theme that has stuck with AI is ‘human-like decision making’. Advancements in processing power, coupled with big data technologies, gave rise to highly accurate prediction algorithms. Analytical techniques which use multi-layered neural networks such as machine learning and deep learning have emerged as the drivers of these AI-based applications. Due to easy access and growing information workforce, these algorithms are extensively used in a plethora of industries ranging from healthcare, transportation, finance, legal systems, to even military. AI-tools have the potential to transform industries and societies through automation. Conversely, the undesirable or negative consequences of AI-tools have harmed their respective organisations in social, financial and legal spheres. As the use of these algorithms propagates in the industry, the AI-based decisions have the potential to affect large portions of the population, sometimes involving vulnerable groups in society. This chapter presents an overview of AI’s use in organisations by discussing the following: first, it discusses the core components of AI. Second, the chapter discusses common goals organisations can achieve with AI. Third, it examines different types of AI. Fourth, it discusses unintended consequences that may take place in organisations due to the use of AI. Fifth, it discusses vulnerabilities that may arise from AI systems. Lastly, this chapter offers some recommendations for industries to consider regarding the development and implementation of AI systems.

Sustainable development is a central issue for the world economy today. The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are associated with both responsible business practices and strategic orientation for competitive advantages. While most multinational enterprises (MNEs) want to ensure that their businesses will maintain or even enhance sustainability across borders, they face enormous challenges, often due to a lack of capabilities and inefficient institutions in host countries. In the nexus between the SDGs and international business (IB) research, the contexts of emerging markets and developing countries have particular significance, because they impose complex constraints on the achievement of the SDGs. At the same time, there is a high potential for MNEs to have positive effects internationally through their sustainable practices. This chapter discusses the recent trend in IB research on sustainability by showcasing current issues addressing several interrelated SDGs. The exemplary topics touch upon child labor, innovation for social sustainability, challenges in the green transition, MNE activities associated with the pollution haven, and health and safety concerns in global supply chains. The discussion cuts across various contextual settings and calls for actions by all stakeholders, including business entities, governments, and scholars.

This chapter reviews the relevant theories associated with sustainability reporting, in its first section nine theories supporting sustainability reporting were discussed. In the following section four theories against sustainability reporting were explained. The last section is the theoretical framework used in this book. The theoretical framework built based on integration of three theories: stakeholder theory, legitimacy theory and political-economy theory.