Are Disruptive Transformations Overshadowing or Paving the way for the SDGs Implementation? Challenges and Opportunities for the Organizations and their Stakeholders
8 & 9 December 2022 TUNIS, TUNISIA
Extended submission deadline : September 12, 2022
Introduction
As it enters its third year, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to severe and long-lasting concerns worldwide and in almost all sectors. Reports from the Word Bank (2021) and other International Organizations confirm broaden income losses, gaps in the economic recovery in development between high-income and low-and middle-income economies; a further decline of poor people’s income; a sharp increase of extreme poverty; a “great divergence” in employment recovery trends in terms of total hours worked (ILO, 2021) driven by major disparities in the roll-out of vaccinations and fiscal stimulus packages (around 86 per cent of global stimulus measures being concentrated in high-income countries), greater disparities in productivity which is projected to widen from 17.5:1 to 18:1 in real terms, the highest recorded since 2005. In addition, the pandemic widened preexisting opportunity and achievement gaps, hitting historically disadvantaged students hardest. Its cumulative effects are expected to have a long-term impact on an entire generation of students in terms of lifetime earnings, access to better healthcare, mental health and wellbeing (McKinsey, 2021). Moreover women, unmarried individuals, and students are the most affected groups, with poorer psychological outcomes (Saita et al., 2021). The health crise has also aggravated the underlying climate change impacts threatening food and water security. More largely, the pandemic socio-economic impacts on the global community have disrupted the path towards sustainability and SDGs implementation (Ranjbari et al., 2021) and threatens to reverse the progress of several SDGs (The SDG Report 2020; Galleli et al., 2021). The UN Statistic Division report (2021) confirms this trend and states that the pandemic is magnified and continue to continue to magnify deeply rooted problems e.g., insufficient social protection, weak public health systems and inadequate health coverage, structural inequalities, environmental degradation and climate change. Such views are balanced by other authors considering that whilst the Covid 19 pandemic is compromising the progress of achieving the SDGs, “the emerged unexpected “enemy” can be considered as an opportunity for addressing the SDGs key challenges by exploring the changes that happened in the stipulated time and remap the pathway towards achieving SDGs. Based on the Nobel laureate Paul Romer observation “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste”, some authors claim that “systemic shocks can serve as a momentum-breaking factor that can help bring about big and potentially long-lasting changes.” (Olsen et al., 2021). They argue that COVID-19 responses and stimulus packages offer an opportunity for governments to accelerate action in the sustainable development agenda and build resilience to COVID-like crises. From a micro level perspective, the views on the impact of the pandemic on SDGs achievement by the organizations and their stakeholders are dual, too. The most shared one largely supports a deep impact on organizations across the world, as businesses face their greatest challenges for many decades (Bailey & Breslin, 2021). Indeed, the changes prompted by the health crisis made organizations’ strategic planning entirely irrelevant and commended them to take ad-hoc, not-well-informed decisions (Turhan et al., 2022). This has engendered a worldwide fuzzy situation in almost every domain, within and between organizations, either public or private, in the relationships between citizens and their government and also in the relationship between citizens themselves. A “parallel epidemic” as Yao et al. (2020) quoted, which encompasses the psychological burden of pandemics (distress, sense of isolation, anxiety, mood disorders, insomnia, anger and frustration) and adverse psychological effects prompted by the economic crisis with millions of people left out of work or at risk of losing their job (Brooks et al., 2020; Vigo et al., 2020; Saita et al., 2021). As such, many companies have shifted to the survival mode or “firefighting mode” bartering their sustainability framework referred to as the triple-bottom-line objectives (profit, people, and the planet), for a single bottom-line objective of saving the day and making profits to survive. It is expected that in the post-COVID-19 scenario, the organizations will face difficulties with capital gains and growth. Due to which the business practices might experience a significant change. Nonetheless, according to some authors, such a scenario can be considered as an opportunity to direct the changes towards sustainability and to make the transformations needed to deliver on the promise of the 2030 Agenda. In this regard, Turhan et al. (2022) consider the crisis as one of the driving forces for change not in the short run, but also in the long run as it gives room for organizations to rethink the entire value proposition and focus on how they can align their decisions and operations into the United Nations’ SDGs. For these authors corporate social responsibility (CSR) can play a leading role in decision-making processes of organizations to foster a sustainable future for societies. It should be noticed that for these organizations, negative effects and paradoxically more resilient responses were outlined. Indeed, private organizations have proven to be key allies in addressing such externalities. Many firms have been proactive and engaged in various CSR activities (Hi & Harris, 2020; Brydges & Hanlon, 2020). World Business Council for Sustainable Development member companies (3M, Microsoft Corporation; Banco Santander; Unilever; Shell, etc.) and partners have responded quickly by taking resilient actions to support people, communities and economies around the world. Many public and private organizations redesigned technology and working and/or learning processes to perform tasks virtually in addition to reskilling/rehabilitating and upskilling/molding employees (Collings et al., 2021) and facilitating the sustainability of the students’ learning process (Sánchez Ruiz et al., 2021). They consequently invested and continue to invest in remote tools, virtual platforms, online meetings software, smart tools, bots, virtual endorsers, security solutions, artificial intelligence, IoT solutions, etc. initiating a rapid shift of the digital transformation in almost all domains including education, health care support, in Human Resource Development; retailing, delivery, banking, restaurant industry; etc. (McGuire et al., 2021). We invite authors to expand and deepen knowledge about these responses and their long-term consequences but also about the engagement of public, private organizations, civil society and citizens/consumers with sustainable development in general and the SDGs in particular in the pandemic context and the post-crisis recovery era particularly in medium and low-income economies. In this regard, Ranjbari et al., (2021, p.18) stated: “the literature lacks a comprehensive study to investigate the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the social dimensions of sustainability towards sustainable development especially in developing and less-developed countries.” Studies addressing the effectiveness of the actions taken to undermine the consequence of the pandemic on people, communities, business, economies and society at large and their impact on sustainability achievement, are welcomed. Such issues call for new insights and perspectives for both theories and practice and from different stakeholders’ perspectives e.g., government, international organizations, private and public organizations, Rating agencies, NGOs, civil society, clients, etc. as actors who are invested to build collectively the resilience of the ecosystem (Westley et al., 2013; Tashman, 2020). Moreover, we invite authors to adopt multi-disciplinary perspectives and integrative frameworks to better grasp the levers and inhibitors of a better inclusive sustainability. Authors are invited to consider a large spectrum of reactions, decisions, policies, etc. and to circumscribe and assess their impact on organizations and their stakeholders’ decision-making process, their attitude and behavior as well as on the requirements to successfully navigate the post-crisis environment for a sustainable future. Papers addressing new methodologies in dealing with these issues are also welcomed
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following
- Accounting schemas, reporting regulation and sustainability achievement;
- Barriers for an inclusive sustainable post-covid recovery;
- Circular economy role and SDGs implementation in post-COVID recovery;
- Climate change challenges among organizations and their stakeholders;
- Consumers’ and organizations’ attitude and engagement toward the SDGs implementation;
- COVID/Post-COVID policy interventions to support small and medium enterprises
- Digital transformation levers and barriers to build resilience in the post-covid recovery era;
- Drivers of socially responsible value creation in the post-pandemic era;
- Effective strategies and actions for COVID recovery and SDGs Agenda achievement;
- Ethical issues and post-covid and SDGs achievement;
- Facilitators and inhibitors of a transformative vision of SDGs achievement;
- Factors influencing actors’ relationships attitudinal & behavioral dimensions toward a sustainable new normal;
- Geopolitical shocks and challenges for COVID recovery and SDGs Agenda achievement;
- Governance of the pandemic and its consequences on the sustainability endeavors;
- Low- and medium-income countries: debt management and green and inclusive recovery
- Management of the pandemic negative consequences on organization stakeholders’ mental health and well-being (e.g., remote working, e-learning; infobesity; deviant behavior; etc.);
- New business models for sustainable future in a post-crisis era (e.g., real estate management; circular and sharing economy; etc.);
- New consumption models for a sustainable economy in post COVID-like crises era;
- Post-COVID challenges for HR management and mobilization toward sustainability;
- Post-COVID mental and psychological concerns among vulnerable groups and people;
- Rating agencies role in post-COVID recovery and sustainability achievement;
- Role of the higher education systems in post-COVID SDGs achievement;
- Stakeholders’ strategies to master the climate change turn, rebalance the COVID-like crises inequalities and achieve recovery;
- Sustainability driven CSR in COVID-like crises;
- Sustainable pre-requests and levers in post-crisis recovery;
- Technological progress (Digital, AI, IoT, Virtual Reality, Neuro-Science) and SDGs implementation in post-crisis era (health, economy, etc.)
References
- Brooks, S. K., Webster, R. K., Smith, L. E., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N. (2020). The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. Lancet 395, 912–920.
- Collings, D. G., Nyberg, A. J., Wright, P. M., & McMackin, J. (2021). Leading through paradox in a COVID-19 world: Human resources comes of age. Human Resource Management Journal, 31(4), 819-833.
- Galleli, B.; Semprebon, E.; Santos, J.; Teles, N.E.; Freitas-Martins, M.S.; Onevetch, R.T. (2021), Institutional Pressures, Sustainable Development Goals and COVID-19: How Are Organizations Engaging? Sustainability, 13,12330.
- Mikołajczyk, K. (2021), « Changes in the approach to employee development in organizations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic », European Journal of Training and Development, ahead-of-print.
- Olsen, S. H., E. Zusman, M. Hengesbaugh, N. Amanuma, and S. Onoda. 2021. Governing the Sustainable Development Goals in the COVID-19 Era: Bringing Back Hierarchic Styles of Governance? ADBI Working Paper 1227. Tokyo: Asian Development Bank Institute. Available: www.adb.org/publications/governing-sustainable-development-goals-covid19-era, accessed on March 23, 2022.
- Saita E, Facchin F, Pagnini F and Molgora S (2021) In the Eye of the Covid-19 Storm: A Web-Based Survey of Psychological Distress Among People Living in Lombardy. Front. Psychol. 12:566753.
- Sánchez Ruiz, L. M., Moll-López, S., Moraño-Fernández, J. A., & Llobregat-Gómez, N. (2021). B-learning and technology:Enablers for university education resilience. an experience case under COVID-19 in Spain. Sustainability, 13(6), 3532.
- Turhan, G. D., Bekki, N., & Rady, G. (2022). Socially Responsible Value Creation in the Post-COVID-19 Era: Taking Advantage of Dynamic and Digital Capabilities. In Future Advancements for CSR and the Sustainable Development Goals in a Post-COVID-19 World, pp. 67-89.
- Vigo, D., Patten, S., Pajer, K., Krausz, M., Taylor, S., Rush, B., et al. (2020). Mental health of communities during the Covid-19 pandemic. Can. J. Psychiatry 65, 681–687
- www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_824098/
- www.mckinsey.com/industries/education/our-insights/covid-19- and-education-the-lingering-effects-of-unfinished-learning
- www.unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2021/progress-chart/
- www.wbcsd.org/COVID-19
- www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2021/12/20/year-2021-in-review-the-inequality-pandemic
- Yao, H., Chen, J. H., and Xu, Y. F. (2020). Patients with mental health disorders in the COVID-19 epidemic. Lancet Psychiatry; 7-9.
Panelists and contributors
- Prof. Hanane, Aamoum, Casablanca Hassan II University, Morocco;
- Prof. Fathi, Akrout, University of Sfax, Tunisia
- Prof. Hamid Bouchachia, University of Bournemouth, U.K;
- Prof. Karim Ben Slimane, ISC-Paris;
- Prof. Derrick de Kerckhove, Interdisciplinary Internet Institute, Barcelona, Spain;
- Prof. Abdelmajid, Ibenrissoul, Casablanca Hassan II University, Morocco;
- Prof. Jouhaina, Ghrib, University of Manouba, Tunisia;
- Prof. Khaled, Hussainey, Portsmouth University, U.K;
- Prof. Wafa, Khlif, TBS-Barcelona, Spain;
- Prof. Kaouther, Kooli, University of Bournemouth, U.K;
- Prof. Sangeeta, Khorana, University of Bournemouth, U.K;
- Prof. Riadh, Ladhari, Laval University, Quebec, Canada;
- Prof. Nizar Souiden, Laval University, Quebec, Canada;
- Prof. Len, Tiu Wright, University of Huddersfield, U.K;
- Prof. Samir, Trabelsi, University of Brocke, Canada.
Conference General Chairs
Prof. Hamadi Matoussi & Prof. Hamida Skandrani
Submissions Guidelines
Submissions addressing issues related to the conference themes are highly encouraged. All submissions will be subject to a double-blind review process. We welcome submissions of a standard appropriate for highly ranked journals in English or French, as short or full papers. Short papers should be of 3 to 5 pages (references not included) maximum and full papers of 12 pages maximum (references not included). They should be submitted to: colloque@ligue.rnu.tn.
Manuscripts must be original and unpublished and not under review for publication elsewhere. Success in the review process will not guarantee publication in the special and regular issues supporting this LIC’2022 edition, but to be accepted for publication in these special issues, papers need to be presented at the conference. Authors of selected best short/full papers will be invited to submit a final full version of their contribution for a potential publication in special issues.
Article files should be written in English or in French and provided in Microsoft Word format. Please ensure that the text is in Times New Roman font style, font size 12, with 1.5 spacing.
Articles files should include:
- A cover sheet (page 1) including the title of the paper, the author’s name(s), title(s), institutional affiliations and contact details, with the primary contact person designated.
- A structured abstract on page 2: authors must supply a structured abstract (maximum 250 words in total) set out under 7 sub-headings: 1) Purpose; 2) Design/methodology/approach; 3) Findings; 4) Research limitations/implications; 5) Practical implications; 6) Originality/value; 7) Keywords: a maximum of 4 relevant and short keywords.
- Starting from page 3, a short paper and a full paper should be prepared as follows:
- Introduction
- Literature review
- Design/methodology/approach
- Findings/discussion
- Research limitations/implications
Publication opportunities
A selection of the best conference papers will be considered for publication in the following special and regular issues of ranked journals and in edited books :
Special issues
1-International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation » (ABDC, SCOPUS)
2- Management International (FNEGE, CNRS)
3- Transnational Marketing Journal (SCOPUS)
4-Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting (ABDC, SCOPUS)
Edited Books
1- Ethical Finance and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Framework for Sustainable Development” to be published by Emerald.
2- Handbook of Banking and Finance in the MENA Region » to be published by World Scientific Publishing Company.
Conference fees
- Academics: 150 € or 350 TND
- Ph.D. students: 100 € or 200 TND
- Business participants: 400 TND
Conference fees cover coffee breaks, lunch, and conference pack. There will be no refund of the fees for cancellation.
At least one of the authors of accepted papers is required to register for the conference AND to present the accepted contribution at the time designated in the conference program. Any research submission accepted for presentation but not presented at the conference will NOT appear nor be acknowledged in the official conference program.
Accommodation and Travel Information on nearby accommodation and travel advice will be provided at a later date.
Important dates
- September 12, 2022 Full and short paper submission closes at midnight
- October 28 2022 Review decision notified to authors
- October 29, 2022 Conference registration opens
- November 15, 2022 Conference registration closes
- 8 and 9 December 2022 Conference venue
For further information, please contact
Prof. Hamida Skandrani: hamida.skandrani@iscae.uma.tn
Pro. Hamadi Matoussi: hamadi.matoussi@iscae.rnu.tn