Research

My research expertise focuses on global sustainability strategy, driven by a strong interest in exploring how firms can design and implement strategies to tackle pressing sustainability issues, such as climate change and public health deficiencies.

Extant focus in this area has largely revolved around the conditions under which it pays for firms to do good—i.e., how addressing sustainability issues offers financial, relational, and reputational benefits to firms. Yet there remains a great need for research to shed light on how firms embed sustainability into their ordinary strategies. 

I study the reciprocal relationship between strategy and sustainability in two main areas: (i) how firms design and implement strategies to advance sustainability and (ii) how sustainability issues affect firm strategies. I also examine how firms help tackle a public health crisis to catalyze scholarly interest in such an urgent sustainability issue.

1. Firm strategy to advance sustainability

• Montiel, I., Cuervo-Cazurra, A., Park, J., Antolín-López, R., & Husted, B. W. (2021). Implementing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals in international business. Journal of International Business Studies, 52(5), 999–1030.

• Cuervo-Cazurra, A., Doh, J. P., Giuliani, E., Montiel, I., & Park, J. (2022). The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals: Pros and cons for managers of multinationals. AIB Insights, 22(1), 32530.

• Business-NGO partnerships for sustainability, target: Academy of Management Perspectives.

2. Impact of sustainability issues on firm strategy

• Park, J., Cuervo-Cazurra, A., & Montiel, I. (2023). The evolution of sustainability concerns over business activities: From local to cross-national to global. In Goerzen, A. (Ed.), The research handbook on international corporate social responsibility. Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham, UK, (forthcoming).

• Environmental performance and divestitures, target: Strategic Management Journal.

3. Business and public health

• Park, J., Montiel, I., Husted, B. W., & Balarezo, R. (2022). The grand challenge of human health: A review and an urgent call for business-health research. Business & Society, 61(5), 1353–1415. 

• Montiel, I., Park, J., Husted, B. W., & Velez‐Calle, A. (2022). Tracing the connections between international business and communicable diseases, Journal of International Business Studies, 53(8), 1785–1804.

• Montiel, I., Park, J., Husted, B. W., & Velez‐Calle, A. (2022). A primer for preventing pandemics: Insights for business. Rutgers Business Review, 7(3), 267–273.

• Problems of dismissing business as a vector of disease, target: The Lancet.