Academic Essay

Table of contents Abstract 3 Introduction 3 Paper one 4 Paper two 6 Comparison 8 Evaluation………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………9 Reference list…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………11

Abstract

This paper looks at the overview of two different articles for secondary research which are based on the factors; poverty and social media that affect sustainable development particularly in underdeveloped nations. Initially, this paper looks on the main outlines, giving the short description of each article. Then the contents of each article are compared respectively. It is found that, although both papers have some key differences, they also contain some thematic similarities. The next part consists of the academic evaluation of the articles on the basis of their accuracy, importance in further research, authority of the writers, reliable information of the articles and their date of publication.

Introduction

This article compares two literature surveys which focus on the aspects that affect the sustainability development environmental activities and find out their usefulness for future investigations. The papers which are being inspected are: Paper 1 “The effects of social media on environmental sustainability activities of oil and gas multinationals in Nigeria”, by Nwagbara (2013) and Paper 2- “Harnessing innovations for change: sustainability and poverty in developing countries “, by Khavul and Bruton (2013).Both papers focus on sustainable development and impact of two different factors of social media and poverty on it. Sustainable development activities are those strategies and actions which are implemented for the fulfillment of today’s generation’s needs, properly utilizing the available natural resources without damaging the environmental components and compromising the future generations to meet their needs. It depicts the close relationship between the sustainable development and global issues like climate change and environmental problems.

Paper one

The main theme of Nwagbara’s article is to make the social media a platform for the sustainable development activities done by Multinational Corporations (MNCs) through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for the advancement of commitment to environmental sustainability. It discusses the complications brought about after the gas discovery in 1956 in Nigeria. The Niger Delta region, which is one of the highest oil producers in Africa, is still an extremely poor country on the planet currently facing environmental crises like climate change. As a result, dreadful outcomes occur such as exploitation of natural resources and famine which would obviously lead to more violence. After the industrial revolution, use of carbon has rapidly increased that results to the more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere like carbon, methane that emit radiation heating the earth up which disturbs the ecological balance. Thus, to minimize the impacts of this condition, MNCs have applied CSR plans that are environmentally and socially suitable among the community. The author shows that the social media communication sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are helping for giving instructions and knowledge to local people about the plans and policies that are made for environmental protection, support and delivering the news. To cite an example, one of the online sites, Shell dispatches the information and enables micro-publications to spread around the world through the internet.

In the next section of article, Nwagbara includes the new value creations, integrated ecological, environmental and social strategy planning taken for the environmental and social auditing to modify the performances by adopting the new sustainable and environmental policies like limiting the use of natural resources and interrelationship between organisms for the purpose of protecting earth from environmental degradation. He also says that the MNCs are using social media to receive and manage the conflicts and criticisms that happens among the business shareholders and increase the commitment ideas for environmental and social development through their CSR activities which also help in increment of market income. The local social media sites like Nairaland and Online Nigeria are supporting and funding programs like social intelligence literacy and the protection of the environment.

The writer suggests dome ways for MNCs to upgrade their CSR records such as developing green communities and networking between societies, promoting environmental advocacy, address the public conflicts and misunderstanding and building up partnership between Niger Delta communities and government for the advancement of the environmental sustainability, enhancement of their commitment and lowering the partnership interpretations. Moreover, he praises the power of social media to uplift the development activities in Nigeria. The MNCs like Chevron and Mobil set up organizations involving networks for providing job opportunities, increasing literacy rate and promoting health facilities in Niger Delta region. In addition to this, various bottom-up strategies for the development of infrastructures and funding have been adapted by the MNCs to help people battle the challenges, increase job opportunities, protection of natural resources, improve healthcare and education facilities, bring harmony and make sustainable future for the people of Nigeria.

Finally, the author concludes his writing giving the importance of the involvement of social enterprise in developmental aspects like infrastructure, funding and power projects in Nigeria. He also insists on making enough efforts to surpass the ongoing oil business stakeholder conflicts, manage climate change, develop sustainability activities and using social media and new technologies to solve CSR issues for the socioeconomic and political development of Nigeria.

Paper two

The authors Khavul and Bruton commence the article by highlighting the importance of the knowledge of poverty among the innovators, business entrepreneurs and local people to make the sustainable development. They present the controversial questions among the environmental experts about sacrificing finance for sustainable development in developing nations. Poverty, which is one of the main aspects in obstructing the development, has become a major challenge in trade world. The writers give the definition of sustainable development of sustainability as fulfilling the requirements of today’s world without damaging the environment and leaving the problems for forthcoming generations. They demonstrate the difficulty in calculating the sustainability as they think that sustainability is the exchange between population and finance that needs to be paralleled. They also emphasise knowledge of poverty in achieving sustainability for environmental protection by new discoveries and innovations.

The authors of the article depict that the report says the rate of poverty is high over the last thirty-five years old, however countries like China and India have managed to decrease it while other nations are still in the same condition. They claim that the poverty is bringing many problems to the economy, social behaviour and causing inability for people to save money for the increasement of their productivity. This leads to the destruction of nature and the rise in environmental problems like over population and pollution. Yet, some actions have been taken for the decrement of issues and growth of economic standards. This writing verifies the new discoveries made to promote sustainability. Various electronic communication means like telephone and online technology innovations are quite expensive though they make people’s life easy. Whilst other popular innovations such as ecommerce need the better understanding among customers and business owners. Although numerous innovations have been made over the course of time, they require more effort and money but result in fewer outcomes. From the viewpoint of the writers, the innovations should be made based on the requirements and affordability of the local clients to make their lives more convenient. The inventions including the community networks are more likely to have a chance of eliminating poverty and are very easy to adopt. The writers also suggest to make new discoveries that do not alter the ecosystem which would protect the environment. However, they focus on the knowledge and training about the new technologies provided to the local people so that they can apply them in their daily lives. This will also help to minimise the economic problems by generating more income.

In addition to this, the writers discuss the need of sustainability and poverty alleviation for the future. New academics and researchers need to explore more about poverty and its obstacles in the path of development, people and their behaviours, business networks, natural ecosystem for inventing the best technologies to create environmental sustainability and decreasing poverty from all nations. To conclude the writing, the authors question the time-consuming process of sustainable development, the main reason behind increasing poverty in underdeveloped nations and suggesting scholars to build up new ideas to eradicate the poverty and practice sustainable development.

Comparison

After analysing both papers, it is found that the two articles share some common similarities as well as few noticeable differences. Initially, both writers depict the concept of the sustainable development and its importance in developing countries.

One of the noteworthy similarities is that both articles discuss the problem of global issues and environmental challenges. Both authors have given attention to climate change and global warming and try to show the pictures of obstacles that hamper the sustainable development. Nevertheless, paper one refers to the role of social media in demolishing the gas and oil problems activities by multinational corporations in Nigeria after the discovery of oil whereas paper two illustrates poverty as one of the main obstacles in the way of development. Nwagbara present the current problems of a particular country Nigeria whilst Khavul and Bruton refer to all developing countries of the world and include three case studies on safe drinking water, electricity and fuel-efficient stoves to support their argument in their writings. Nwagbara suggests to make enough efforts using social media to resist rising temperature of the earth whereas Khavul and Bruton suggest to address the poverty by increasing the number of business and local markets. As a whole, the paper of Khavul and Bruton underline the importance of new discoveries, challenges that are brought by poverty and its knowledge among business owners and managers while Nwagbara’s article spotlights on plans and strategies of different international companies for using social media as a path to solve environmental problems and the criticisms of the shareholders in business market.

Evaluation

In terms of accuracy, both articles are based on proven fact and have been published in other respectable journals and appear in scholarly article. The covered information in the articles meet the information needs for further researches as they were published in 2013. About the authority of the writers, they are skilled and qualified to write on their respected topics and have taught at reputed universities. In addition to this, their many articles have been published till this date and are cited by other various sources. The intended purpose of both articles is to promote sustainable development in developing countries and eliminate the issues. However, Nwagbara provides his contact details whereas Khavul and Bruton do not. Additionally, paper one by Nwagbara is more accessibly relevant, written in simple language and contain multiple examples that make it easier for reading compared to paper two. Despite this, Khavul and Bruton’s article is comparatively broad and provides in depth coverage that make it a plentiful source of instructions for upcoming studies. To sum up, both papers give rich information and ideas regarding the issues, their outcomes and suggest ways to solve them.

References

Khavul, S., & Bruton, G. B. (2013). Harnessing innovation for change: sustainability and poverty in developing countries. Journal of Management Studies, 50(2), 285-306. Doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2012.01067.x

Nwagbara, U. (2013). The effects of social media on environmental sustainability activities of oil and gas multinationals in Nigeria. Thunderbird International Business Review 55(6), 689-697. Doi: 10.1002/tie.21584

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Anjana Ghimire_ Literature Survey