Ecosystem social responsibility in international digital commerce

• Main Authors: YI, Jingtao, LI, Jiatao, CHEN, Liang
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2023
• Subjects: Ecosystem; social responsibility; digital platform; international; society; sustainability; Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics; E-Commerce; International Business; Strategic Management Policy
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/7211; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/8210/viewcontent/s41267_022_00561_3.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Despite the surge of interest in digital globalization, its social dimensions have received far less attention than deserved. The lack of conversation between the two prominent areas of IB research, digitalization, and corporate social responsibility, presents a valuable opportunity for extending the agenda Ioannou and Serafeim (J Int Bus Stud 43(9):834-864, 2012) pioneered a decade earlier. We briefly depict the organizational differences between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and multinational platforms (MNPs), followed by a closer look at how social responsibility of digital platforms might depart from our conventional understanding derived from MNEs. We then propose the notion of ecosystem social responsibility emphasizing social value co-creation before categorizing the main areas of social issues specific to MNPs. Based on these ideas, we derive several new insights into the social challenges faced by firms governing global platforms versus multidomestic platforms, respectively, as they serve international markets. Lastly, we discuss future research directions and, in particular, the implications for ecosystem sustainability.