Toward Inclusive Economic, Social and Environmental Progress in Asia: An Introduction

This introductory chapter discusses the challenge of fostering sustainable development in Asia, where the economic, social and environmental contingencies are changing rapidly and concerns over, inter alia, climate change, environmental degradation, population growth and social deprivation provide for a complex terrain for decision-making. A number of perspectives that have been used in the extant literature to explain the specific societal role of business organisations in this region are critically reviewed and an emphasis is placed on their general lack of depth and contextualisation. This leads to the observation that this volume represents a timely contribution to our understanding of an understudied phenomenon: corporate sustainability-oriented practices in Asia. The book develops a collection of illustrative company cases that help us to clarify some conceptual and practical issues that surface the societal role of multinational companies in the Asian context. We hereby join a growing movement of research that seeks to unveil the conditions giving rise to a better and more context-sensitive way of integrating concerns for social and environmental impacts into corporate management decisions.