Welcome

The "Multinational Enterprises and Sustainable Development" (MESD) association is a non-profit organization established under the Law of July 1, 1901. Its main mission is to create, share and diffuse scientific research knowledge and the best practices on strategies of multinational enterprises pertaining to sustainable development.

More than ever, the global economic, socio-political, and technological environments are evolving at increasing rates, requiring new capacities to cope with attendant uncertainty and risk. With economic and market globalization, in the midst of successive financial crises, the influence and scope of corporate actors has become inherently border-crossing while the competition they face also is fiercer. In the context of intense competition and challenged strategies for multinational corporate actors, sustainable development, in its multifaceted aspects, has become a key factor to define success and an essential element of differentiaton for multinationals.

Given the size and scope of trans-border activities, corporate actors are the leading actors in defining the contours of sustainability, writ large with evident impacts on the economic, environment and social future shape of the world. These actors can be both catalysts, if not accelerators, or inhibitors of the requisite changes in sustainability. Hence, global research on best practices, positive and negative impacts of corporate behavior and choices is an area that deserves an increasing amount of attention and resources. This emphasis is our organization’s mission, primarily academic in intent and international in scope, grounded in the world of academia but in close symbiosis with economic actors sharing the same concerns.

The founders of the MESD association
Silvester Ivanaj, John McIntyre et Vera Ivanaj