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The fifth MESD International Conference (MESD’17) is organized by The MESD Association, in partnership with The Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), Atlanta, US, The ICN Business School, France, The Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business, Atlanta, US and The CEREFIGE, France will hold its fifth International Conference MESD’17 in Atlanta, Georgia, December 7-9, 2017..

Who Should Participate?
This international conference will be of great interest to researchers, scientists, experts, policy practitioners, business decision makers, industry representatives, members of government or non-governmental organizations, consultants, advanced graduate students, and other professionals working in any enterprise committed toward more sustainable business.

Main Topic: Sustainable Development Goals: What Can MNEs Do?
On September 25th 2015, countries adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its set of 17 goals with 169 targets to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years. For the goals to be reached governments, the private sector, civil society and individuals need to do their part. Given their market power, globally distributed operations and political influence, MNEs can be either accelerators or inhibitors of the requisite changes in sustainability. Target 12.6 “[e]ncourage[s] companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle.”

MESD’17 focuses on the following broad topical areas:

• The manner in which MNEs contribute, in countries where they operate, to alleviating poverty and hunger, ensuring equitable education for all, achieving gender equity, ensuring sustainable management of water, offering decent conditions of work for all workers, fostering sustainable innovation, ensuring sustainable production and consumption, combating global warming, or conserving and sustainably using water resources.
• Ways MNEs can positively or negatively influence agenda-setting and political decision-making of governments of countries in which they operate.
• Multinationals’ corporate governance frameworks, decisional structures, organizational behavior, accounting and accountability practices, and/or implementation strategies in various functional areas (human resources, marketing, technology, communications, etc.) for sustainable development.
• The role of macroeconomic (political, social, legal, institutional, cultural, etc.), microeconomic (market, competition, stakeholders, industry sectors, etc.), and organizational (size, hierarchy, executive management, etc.) factors on the emergence and continuity of MNEs’ sustainable practices.
• The impact of MNEs’ sustainable strategies on relevant regional and/or international regimes (trade agreements, treaties, codes, norms, standards, monitoring systems, etc.)
• MNEs’ engagement with outside institutions (other MNEs, NGOs, local governments, etc.) to effectively implement sustainable development goals.
• Role of emerging economies on MNEs’ sustainable development strategies.

The MESD’17 also enthusiastically invites submissions bearing on the following contemporary questions:

• How are MNEs with significant North American operations responding to the evolution of U.S. policy frameworks on sustainability and environmental regulation (New US Administration policy adjustments to climate action, carbon cost issues and impacts on multinational operations based in the U.S.)?
• How are MNEs’ sustainable strategies changing in response to the retreat of the universal ethic of corporate globalization?
• What will follow the emergence of China as leader of globalization and trendsetter for sustainable development policies?
• How do international institutions (UN, NATO, EU, WTO, etc.) shape MNEs’ sustainable development evolving in the context of rising populism in Europe and America (accounting, reporting, compliance, strategy, public/private partnership trends, investment ethics, etc.)?
• What actions have MNEs taken in response to COP21 and the Paris Agreement (operational changes, accounting and disclosure of carbon emissions, etc.)?
• How have MNEs’ corporate communications on sustainability governance evolved with the increasing transparency demanded by digital and social media? How do these communication strategies differ across industries? What are the social impacts ensuing from an enhanced role for MNEs in the implementation of sustainable development goals?

MESD’17 encourages any type of multi-, inter- or transdisciplinary studies and practices linking disciplines, knowledge systems and stakeholders to help MNEs to reach these sustainable development goals. A variety of conceptual and empirical submissions, drawing on a range of theoretical perspectives and diverse methodologies (case studies, in-depth issue studies, speculative analyses) are welcome. MESD’17 also encourages solutions-oriented studies by going beyond the analysis of problems to offer potential for significant sustainability benefit.

Submission types

Extended abstracts: The extended abstracts should be no more than 1500 words long (line space 1.5, Times New Roman, 12). It is intended to establish if the proposed research work fits to the MESD’17 topics. The extended abstract must include: title, authors (in a separate page), key question, main hypotheses, problem, state-of-the art, methods used (if applicable), main findings, and some core references. The manuscripts must include the names of all the authors, their affiliation and contact information, and should be presented in a separate sheet.

Full papers (optional): The full papers should between 6000 and 8000 words (line space 1.5, Times New Roman, 12), including images, tables, figures and appendixes.

Posters: Authors wishing to present a Poster should respect the following dimensions: 120cm x 85cm (approximately A0).

Case studies: This conference aims to link theory to practice, providing a forum for the presentation and discussion of business cases by some of the leading corporations. These case studies will be discussed by renowned experts who will help in defining the future agenda for these topics. They will be moderated by an expert in the area, also involving other institutional and European actors and international organizations. The submission of Case Studies in the areas of (i) idea generation, (ii) idea implementation and (iii) assessment and control, should have the following characteristics: a) Business Model, b) Vision and target, c) Competition, d) Business Strategies, e) Results and f) Future prospects. The Case Studies must be written in English, and should be no more than 20 pages long (line space 1,5, Times New Roman, 12). The document must include the name of all the authors, the institution represented and their contact information.

Best Practices Papers: Best Practices may be defined as an efficient way, method or technique used to accomplish tasks and/or resolve problems, approved and recognized by organizations. The implementation of such practices comes from the need to overcome new problems or the necessity to improve the way organizations operate. The notion of « Best Practices » often implies a long and complex process beginning with the identification of the problem and resulting in its solution. Contributing to « Best Practices » infers providing a detailed description of this process and accepting to exchange and share experiences with other organizations. This allows to broaden the use of the proposed practices, which will eventually become approved and documented for accepted procedures and methods. In order to guarantee a high quality of « Best Practices » papers, it is important that their content be consistent. For this, we recommend that authors organize and structure their contributions in the following manner:

• The problem and its context (20%):Presentation of the organization and its internal and external environments; the problem, its origin, and its impact on the organization's activity; the primary reasons for investigating solutions.
• The process used to solve the problem (40%):The intended goals of the project; the collection and processing of data, statistics, facts; the major steps of the process; the strategy and method employed; performance evaluation criteria.
• Results and perspectives (40%):Fulfillment of economic, environmental, or societal goals; the key success factors; the obstacles and challenges encountered; conclusive information for the organization; perspectives for the future. 

“Best Practices” approvals will not undergo the same review process as research papers and will just be submitted for desk approval.

General Policies
The language of the conference and all submissions is English. Submissions to MESD’17 must be original and must not already have been published or accepted in a journal or conference proceedings nor presented at another conference. Further, they must not be currently under consideration for publication or presentation elsewhere. To encourage broad participation, the program committee discourages multiple appearances by the same individual on the program. Participants are requested to make no more than two submissions. At least one author of every accepted submission must register for the conference.

Important Dates

Extended Abstracts, Papers and Review Process

Extended abstracts need to be uploaded as prescribed in the MESD’17 website without author information as the reviewers will be directly downloading these submissions for evaluation in the double-blind review process. Extended abstracts are submitted to the peer-review process and its approval means the paper has been accepted for presentation at the conference. You have to follow the regular submission process: www.mesd.org/2017/submission.htm. Extended abstracts should be sent before the deadline. In addition to extended abstracts, authors and scholars who are already working under these broad areas are encouraged to submit their working/full papers.
Before undergoing peer review, papers will be checked for compliance with submission guidelines and for overall appropriateness for the conference. Papers that pass the initial screening process will then be double-blind reviewed. The Program Co-Chairs reserve the right to shift a submission from one track to another as they deem appropriate. Reviewers provide constructive feedback and make suggestions to authors in order to improve the quality of the paper. The research papers will be evaluated according to the following criteria: relevance to selected conference topics; clear definition of the core issue; mastery of the concepts used; theoretical and methodological contribution; advancement of the research agenda; usefulness to management practices; depth of the analyses and arguments; validity and consistency of the discussions; quality of the literature review; readability of the text; conformity with submission guidelines.

Final Paper Formatting
In order to give the proceedings a consistent, high-quality appearance, we request the authors follow some basic guidelines. You may download the MESD’17 template from the conference website (http://mesd.org/2017/formatting.htm) and format your final paper according to this document. The easiest way to use this template is to download it from the conference webpage and replace the content with your own material. The template file contains specially formatted styles (e.g., Normal, Heading, Bullet, Table Text, References, Title, Author and Affiliation) that are designed to reduce the work in formatting your final submission. Final papers uploaded for inclusion in the Proceedings must include author information on a title cover page, must not be “locked” and should have no headers, footers or page numbers. These papers may also be downloaded by discussants and sessions chairs, but are not available to the general public.

How to Submit
A paperless submission will be used for the 2017 International MESD Conference. Please submit your extended abstracts or papers using the on-line system: http://mesd.org/2017/howToSubmit.htm. Other means of submission place unnecessary burden on the program chairs, track chairs and reviewers. The submission process is very simple. The submission’s link will be available shortly on conference website (www.mesd.org/2017). If you encounter any difficulty with the submission process, feel free to contact submission17@mesd.org

Fees
Conference registration fees can be paid through conference website, or going directly to the registration website at: https://scheller.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ah3y4bL5TiC3btr. Registration fees include Conference Kit, all conference Tea/Coffee, Lunch and one Dinner but not accommodation. If you are a student, proof of student status, such as scan of your student identification is required and can be e-mailed to: register17@mesd.org. Payment by credit card is strongly preferred. The direct payment link can be found at: https://epay.gatech.edu:443/C20793_ustoresmobile/web/store_main.jsp?STOREID=378&FROMQRCODE=true

*Note: Students must submit a statement of school attendance. The Gala Dinner is not included.

Publications
After the selection process is completed, we will publish extended abstract and presentations in an electronic proceedings book. The most qualified papers will be published in special issues of international journals and books to enrich a growing body of policy and management literature. The publication in association with some leading international journals is being negotiated at the time of this writing. To know more about this special issue and other possible publications, visit MESD’15 website: http://mesd.org/2017/proceedings.htm and http://mesd.org/2017/publications.htm
The publication in association with other international journals is being negotiated at the time of this writing.

For further information, please contact:
E-mail: contact17@mesd.org

We look forward to have you on board

Conference Co-chairs
John McIntyre, Silvester Ivanaj, and Vera Ivanaj