The Role of Multinational Companies in Sustainable Development (Dissertation Sample)

The Role of Multinational Companies in Sustainable Development
1.0.Introduction
Multinational Companies (MNCs) have a more significant role in promoting sustainable development in the countries they are located in. However, Ishak et al. (2017) note that there is little progress toward the success of sustainable development where the MNCs are involved. Through the development of businesses where there is the creation of jobs and the dependence on the natural environment, there is a need to ensure safety (Esty, 2009). Caring for and protecting the environment extends beyond the rhetoric of company public relations to a more extended concern for saving nature as one of the goals of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) (Joe, 2022). The companies have started to play a critical role in ensuring that they impact all spheres of making a sustainable development plan through their undertakings by incorporating the SDGs in their company score cards and objectives (Joe, 2022).
Through the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) report for 2015, several improvements have been noted in the last two decades in the state of individuals in the world. From the UNDP (2017), the notable change in the efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger has indicated a fall to 14% of the total population compared to the 47% in 1990. The number seven goal of attaining sustainability has been identified as a milestone towards achieving the goals. The number of people with access to clean water increased from 2.3 billion in 1990 to 4.2 billion in 2015 (UNDP, 2017). There have been noted a wide gap in the issue of climate and sustainability; on average, there has been an increase of at least 2.7 degree Celsius of temperature in the current century (UNEP, 2021), where it was noted that only 17 of the G20 countries are responsible for over 70%of the total global emissions globally. There were agreements among the countries with efforts to reduce methane production, which accounts for a quarter of the greenhouse gas effect (UNEP, 2021). Further issues noted were the increased marine pollution by plastic which accounts for 85% and is predicted to triple by 2014: the presence of mercury on the food chain, and more hazardous chemicals in the air causing air pollution (UNEP, 2021).
The question of sustainability in the event of production has been in the limelight, especially with the report on air pollution in India from the World Bank Group (2021). People have continued to die prematurely due to poor air quality; in 2017, there were 5.39 million deaths from air pollution (World Bank Group, 2021). Primary production of food and more large-scale production of the pollutants has cost India's population to be exposed to PM2.5, and in 2017 the country lost about 0.3% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from air pollution alone, which is approximately $30-78billion; the average cost of labor lost (World Bank Group, 2021). In an in-depth analysis, multinational companies' role in promoting sustainable development will dominate the more significant portion of this study.
Figure: 1
Multinational companies are at the center of propelling sustainable development goals in developing countries. The Corporate Finance Institute (2022) defines MNCs as companies with branches in various countries or regions with a centralized managerial location in the host country. The MNCs' expansion contributes to the availability of cheap labor and natural resources and the avoidance of high tariffs in the mother country's hance-seeking operations in a less strict country (Corporate Finance Institute, 2022). Sustainability, which has a variety of definitions, has one central theme that the scholars accept; in its purest form, it is the ability to meet own needs without compromising future generations' needs (Ishak, 2017). The question of sustainability cannot be limited to the economic sphere alone, as the United Nations (U.N)failed in the 20th century in elevating poverty levels through industrialization alone. Sustainability stretches to three critical pillars: environment, society, and economic activities (University of Alberta, 2013). Sustainability is therefore simplified to include these three pillars in the meaning. The derived definition is: "Sustainability is the process of living within the limits of available physical, natural and social resources in ways that allow the living systems in which humans are embedded to thrive in perpetuity." (University of Alberta, 2013)
Aim(s)
* To investigate the role of MNCs in reaching sustainability.
1.2. Objectives
* To identify how institutional pressure influences MNCs to adopt sustainable practices. 
* To discover MNC's responsibility for protecting the environment, improving society, and practicing good governance
* To outline global business approaches to sustainability through the sustainability assessment method (SAM). 
* To identify specific aspects of sustainable practice
2.0. Literature review
3.0. Methodology
In this section, the discussion was about the methods used in the acquisition of data for the research. The main aim of this research was to find the role played by the MNCs in reaching sustainability in developing countries, especially India, a fast-growing country with a rich MNC involvement. The research focused on the pressure which institutions influence the MNCs in the adoption of sustainable practices, discovering MNCs' responsibility for protecting the environment, improving society, and practicing good governance; outlining global business approaches to sustainability through the sustainability assessment method (SAM) and the identification and specification of sustainable practices.
3.1. Research Design
The research design used in this study was correlational research design which investigates the relationship between variables the researcher has no control about. In this study, there were two variables, namely Multinational Companies, and sustainability, where the independent variable was MNCs, and the dependent variable was sustainability. There was also the use of a case study where Interface company was studied for its sustainable business model. The research was built on secondary data from other researchers who have established their research on the subject. Internet sources were relied on for supporting the evidence in the studies and the research authentication. Journals, books, and reports from international corporations such as the U.N. have been used. Government and other corporations' reports have also been used in building this study's credibility. The use of Sustainable Assessment Methodologies has quantified the comparisons of data.
Additionally, the analysis of this research follows the explanatory path due to the data used in the building of studies. The relevance of this analysis was impacted by the nature of the independent variable (MNCs), which changes bring about changes in the dependent variable (Sustainability). The general research was quantitative, developed by using secondary sources. The choice of the research design was made by several factors which have been identified to be necessary. The explanatory research analysis has the advantage of giving meaning to existing research with an identified gap. The second aspect of using the approach was its convenience by being time-effective and cost-sensitive, allowing secondary data analysis (George, 2022). The correlational approach in this study was practical in multiple ways where the purpose, variable control, and validity were concerned, as highlighted by Bhandari (2022). The methodology helps measure the strength between relating variables, and in this study, the variables were MNCs and sustainability; on the other hand, it was challenging for the researcher to manipulate the variable, and the limited control ensures that other variables can play a role in the relationship such as the Non-Governmental Organizations in this study (Bhandari, 2022). Lastly, using the correlational design approach, it was easier to generalize data on other researches in the same spectrum. The case study was another methodology used in this research. It has its significance as its widely used in business study settings and social sciences, as noted by Crowe et al. (2011). The researchers accredit case study as an efficient method for its explorations in an in-depth and multifaceted way, especially to real-time issues. In summation, the quantitative research approach is functional when time is limited, the number of variables involved is minimal, and the findings from this approach are easily generalized (Queirós et al., 2017)
3.2. Limitations of methodologies.
The conveniences steer the choice of the research methodologies it causes to the researcher and the relevance to the kind of studies used. However, no procedure does not have limitations, and the methods used in the research here are discussed. Formplus (2020), a research service company, notes that the correlational research design was insufficient as it only allows the study of two variables. The invention also does not account for the causal effects of variables. Queirós et al. (2017) notes that using case studies in research has disadvantages as it is difficult to replicate, making the data gathered only valuable for one study. The use of interface company data might have none or very minimal relevance when studying other corporations. The use of explanatory research design has its downside, such that there was a lack conclusively in the result found from the research (Swedberg, 2020). Swedberg noted that the qualitative nature of the design was often biased and prone to judgment. Since the data was from secondary sourc...