Social and sustainability dimensions of regionalization and (semi)globalization

While publications on the regional nature of multinational enterprises (MNEs) have sparked a lively debate about the nature and measurement of regionalization and (semi)globalization, and performance implications are starting to be addressed, the broader societal and sustainability dimensions have received limited attention so far. Likewise, international business research on these issues have generally not considered regionalization and its consequences. This paper extends insights from the regionalization literature, and broadens the debate by exploring aspects that arise when societal and sustainability implications are taken into account as well. It outlines several areas for further research, addressing geographic scope, organizational levels, upstream/downstream and industry peculiarities. In addition, a distinction is made between the situation in developed-country, emerging-country and least-developed countries, and how social and sustainability issues can affect MNEs’ activities in these settings, as a vulnerability or as an opportunity for the development of firm-specific advantages, location-bound or non-location bound