Who pays the piper and calls the tune for sustainability in North African countries? This is a
timely issue engendered by the globalization and tremendous advances in IT. In this context,
multiple stakeholders are involved in achieving the new goals of sustainability embedded in
the new global order. Sustainability and social responsibility are recognized as key success
factors for economic, social, legal and political actors worldwide. In the digital era,
businesses have undergone major changes to embrace the new challenges introduced by
these developments. In most Western countries, the integration of sustainability and CSR in
business strategies has been widely used to improve market positioning (Ottman, 2011,
2017). More recently, the obligation to embrace sustainability and social responsibility
became a requirement not only to fit the latest legal requirements (i.e. climate change
agreements, the certification norms, International Organization for Standardization 9001-
2015, International Financial Reporting Standards, Social Responsibility, International
Accounting Standards, the Conference of Parties agreements), but also, consumer claims for
sustainability (Jaca, Prieto-Sandoval, Psomas and Omazabal, 2018; O'Rourke, and Ringer,
2016; Ottman, 2011, 2017) and for a safer and cleaner environment (Trivellas, Kakkos,
Vasiliadis, and Belias, 2017). As signatory countries to these agreements, as well as the
General Agreements of Tariffs and Trade (GATT-WTO), Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco and
other North African countries have to comply with these agreements and meet their
international partners’ expectations in terms of sustainability and CSR concerns.
The above agreements were also generated by economies to help them to adapt to the
ongoing trend of globalization triggered essentially by the development of new technologies.
African countries lag behind the rest of the world in terms of Internet penetration (Satista,
2018). Although the North African countries are amongst the top ten Internet users in Africa,
their use of IT to achieve sustainability goals from the different stakeholders’ point of view is
under investigated. There is therefore a need for further studies to understand how
stakeholder adoption of technology can promote CSR and sustainability in North African
countries and beyond. Firms operating in these countries need to shape and adapt their

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strategies, locally and internationally, according to the new requirements of CSR and
sustainability.
Within the marketing literature CSR and sustainability is gaining interest amongst authors.
For example, in the tourism sector, Font and McCabe, (2017), considered the perspectives of
both businesses and consumers and called for a better understanding of how contextual
aspects influence the outcomes of pro-sustainability interventions. North Africa presents a
suitable context due to its strategic geo-economic position in relation to the rest of the
world and the unprecedented political and socio-economic changes that have recently taken
place within these countries.
This conference aims to further knowledge on CSR and sustainability theory and practice by
addressing this gap and calls for research that provides insights into how this particular
geographic context influences sustainability requirements from different stakeholders’
perspectives i.e. businesses, consumers, governments, etc. Additionally, this conference
invites authors to suggest new methodologies that are in line with the specificity of the
North African context.