revised Version

This study will focus on understanding the factors that deter or make it possible for MNEs to engage in problem-solving or enhance sustainability in society. The preparation for the future is uncertain, and this makes it essential to develop the best solutions while at the same time preventing expensive bets on given outcomes. The reason for this study is three-fold. The first is to determine the role of MNEs in enhancing the achievement of sustainability in society. The second reason is to determine how government legislation and policies on technology, research and development contribute to stimulating competitiveness and increased innovation in MNEs. It increases the aspects of some of the policies aligning with the ambitions of sustainability development (Durugbo & Amankwah‐Amoah, 2019; Scuotto et al., 2022; Sarkar & Kedas, 2020). The third focus is how technological advancements support the development of sustainability approaches through the innovativeness of MNEs. Through this study, it will be possible to identify the limitations in government policies for the MNEs' involvement in innovation for sustainability (Stendahl, Tippmann & Yakhlef, 2022; Voegtlin & Patzer, 2020). Secondly, this research will identify the role of MNEs in enhancing sustainability and lastly, it will show the technological limitations of sustainability.

Literature Survey

The problems of globalization and climate change have changed the economic landscapes creating new issues in society that need to be resolved. The national economies in the world are connected through globalization in new ways that have denationalized aspects such as technology, access to information, knowledge and financial capital (Lucena-Giraldo, Rodríguez-Crespo & Salazar-Elena, 2022; Kurki & Lähdesmäki, 2022). The national sectors and economies compete in international markets by producing new innovative and superior technologies in niche markets. The MNEs are using measures to enhance cost-cutting and increase their economies of scale, resulting in shedding labor, health, safety and environmental hazards (Sauer & Hiete, 2019). The governments must, thus, balance the participation of MNEs in sustainability development and the impacts they have on society and manage them using regulations and policies.

In the past decades, organizations used technological developments to increase problem-solving in society without considering their impacts on the environment and other spheres of society (Voegtlin et al., 2022; Gifford McKelvey & Saemundsson, 2021; Burritt et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2020). The changes in the use, ownership of products, and location require changes in managerial and social innovations and attitudes (van den Buuse & Kolk, 2019; van der Waal, Thijssens & Maas, 2021). It requires government interventions in the form of regulations to enhance the strategic approach of achieving sustainability transformations in the industries.

Achieving sustainable development and effectively resolving sustainability challenges requires improvements in material and energy efficiency and increasing the opportunities for developing adequate purchasing power for the customers. Thus, George and Schillebeeckx (2022) argued that technological, organizational, and institutional changes are necessary to ensure that MNEs engage in innovation development towards addressing sustainability challenges. The necessary changes in dealing with sustainability challenges should be systemic, multidimensional and disruptive (Verbeke, Hutzschenreuter & Pyasi, 2021; Fernhaber & Zou, 2022; Prasanna et al., 2019; Denoncourt, 2020). The primary factor hindering the achievement of sustainability in innovation for the MNEs is the policies set by the governments (Salamzadeh et al., 2022; Awan, Sroufe & Kraslawski, 2019). These are concerns that require legal interventions, hence reducing the capacity and willingness of the MNEs to engage in innovation and technological changes that enhance the resolution of sustainability challenges.

National Governments integrate environmental, economic, and technological policies to enhance consumer protection. However, incorporating the critical interventions by the MNEs, the policies, and the mission of these agencies helps to develop a domain-specific policy that does not limit the efforts of the organizations (Mead, Jeanrenaud & Bessant, 2022; Tsalis et al., 2020; Chouaibi, Chouaibi & Rossi, 2021). Solving sustainability challenges requires advancing technology that leads to positive changes in demand and effective management of environmental challenges. The globalized world, thus, requires developing policies that support the MNEs' efforts in innovating and resolving the existing challenges. The national technology regulation, organizational and institutional regulation ensures the gains by the MNEs, such as cost-cutting and trade expansions, are balanced with environmental and labor protection (Eden & Wagstaff, 2021; Piila et al., 2022; Ordonez-Ponce Clarke & MacDonald, 2021; Gupta et al., 2022). The regulations enhance the protection to ensure as technologies are used in innovating and resolving the sustainability challenges, the environmental quality is not compromised. The sustainability challenges in society require technological innovation with competitiveness and environmental protection (Lång & Ivanova-Gongne, 2019; Dasgupta, Carbery & McDonnell, 2022; Yao et al., 2022). The policies chosen can have a significant impact on the innovativeness of the MNEs and their contribution to the development of solutions that enhance sustainability. Thus, governments should incorporate policies that integrate and foster successful technological innovations and help attain environmental and environmental sustainability goals.

The managers are constantly urged to reduce the costs and risks of various business activities. The inability to comply with government regulations results in massive fines (MacMillan, 2020). Therefore, the MNEs are constantly becoming aware of their responsibility to bring solutions to the sustainability challenges by exploiting the new demands and opportunities in enhancing innovation which is the primary means of attaining sustainability in society (Forcadell & Aracil, 2019; de Azevedo Rezende et al., 2019; Zhan & Santos-Paulino, 2021). However, the managers have problems dealing with sustainability challenges and their pressures. The innovation strategies, in some cases, are inadequate in accommodating the complex nature of the problems. It requires an integration of goals that incorporate innovation and sustainability in the problem-solving process.

Purpose of the Study

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that motivate or demotivate the MNEs into using technological innovations to resolve sustainability challenges in society. The MNEs use technological innovation to provide numerous solutions to the problems that arise in society. However, the primary purpose of innovation is to overcome competition and improve the quality and safety of the products while simultaneously reducing costs. On the other hand, the government is mandated to ensure that technological innovations bringing sustainability into the economies can reduce pollution and waste, enhance energy efficiency, and provide consumers with better products. Investigating the limitations to innovation towards resolving sustainability challenges is essential in helping to understand the factors to consider before undertaking any form of innovation and how technological innovations can work against sustainability to help managers work towards preventing it.

Theory and Hypothesis Development

Innovation in the 21st century is different from what characterized the industrial revolution. Most of the businesses are profit-oriented and target a larger population. The motive of innovation is thus to generate economic value (Afshar Jahanshahi, Al‐Gamrh & Gharleghi, 2020; Prashantham & Birkinshaw, 2020). However, businesses must look ahead, identify the problems in society, and look into the future to develop products and systems that enable them to address these challenges. This leads to the development of the first hypothesis in this research (H1), which is competitive rivalry in the industry results in increased technological innovation and innovative solutions to sustainability challenges (Tolliver et al., 2021; Van Zanten & Van Tulder, 2018; García-Álvarez de Perea, Ramírez-García & Del Cubo-Molina, 2019). Companies want to work towards fostering innovation to create public value. Innovation is the key to developing long-term competitiveness in industries coupled with higher productivity and confronting global and social challenges.

Policymakers are significant stakeholders in enhancing sustainability development. Modern economies need collective actions to integrate sustainability challenges into research and innovation (Rădulescu et al., 2020; Aguilar-Fernández & Otegi-Olaso, 2018). New approaches coupled with efficient policies are essential in enhancing technological progress and business activities' evolution in solving societal problems. The second hypothesis (H2) is. Thus, governmental regulations influence the efforts of the MNEs to engage in innovative solutions for solving sustainability challenges. The sustainability challenges are complex, numerous, and urgent, creating a need to develop an opportunity cost and determine which is more critical to solving (Boadu et al., 2018). The policies need to reflect the innovation occurring today to bring a paradigm shift in how MNEs respond to these challenges.

Innovation in MNEs is meant to address the challenges in society; thus, these innovations must cope with the existing barriers. The new technological developments support organizational approaches towards developing new solutions to existing ones (Aldieri, Kotsemir & Vinci, 2020; Ike et al., 2019; Mudd, 2021). Thus, the third hypothesis (H3) is that technological developments result in increased willingness for the MNEs to develop solutions for sustainability challenges. Innovation addresses society's challenges to balancing market processes with customer demands (Chin et al., 2022; Li et al., 2019; Sheng, 2019). However, inefficiency in addressing these challenges can be caused by the lack of innovations that aim to deal with them directly. The MNEs have prospects of large profits in such inventions, which hinders the number of investments and incentives they commit to such activities.

The growth of the economic system and modernity has resulted in complex challenges in society. The increasing disconnect between economic growth and social welfare in societies shows that development does not translate to social welfare (Anand et al., 2021; Zeng, Khan & De Silva, 2019; Dudaklı, Felekoğlu & Baykasoğlu, 2022). The result is an increase in social challenges in different countries. However, MNEs use social innovation as an opportunity and ensure the integration of social challenges into the core of the innovation activities. Thus, the fourth hypothesis (H4) would be that the innovativeness of the MNEs is increased by rising cases of sustainability challenges in society which creates opportunities for further developments. The innovation process is not linear due to the rising complexities of the challenges (Dong et al., 2021; Schotter, 2021). Thus, the sustainability challenges are conveyed to the core of innovation processes to produce a product or service that is innovative and, therefore, acknowledged as a competitive asset.

The sustainability solutions to the existing sustainability challenges require actions to be taken on different fronts. These include ensuring the MNEs take advantage of the potential technological innovations to develop products that resolve the sustainability challenges and improve the organizational positioning in the industry (Ryan et al., 2021). The fifth hypothesis (H5) is that sustainability solutions are driven by the ability of the MNEs to take advantage of the existing challenges. Innovations can be fostered through taking action to meet the global sustainability goals regarding the vulnerable and marginalized in the current and future generations.

Methodology

Discussion

The study aims to understand how technological regulations through government policies influence the levels of innovativeness by MNEs towards sustainability challenges. Government policies protect people's interests and ensure sustainability (Berning, 2019; Mortazavi et al., 2020). However, with the new challenges, continuing to use the same policies can adversely affect the ability of MNEs to come up with innovations suitable for problem-solving. Therefore, this research will provide sufficient knowledge on why the government needs to evolve its policies as technological advances continue. Through this study, it will be possible to identify the existing limitations and some practical approaches that can be used to ensure the MNEs commit their resources and work together with the governments to enhance sustainability.

The research will use robust academic and popular literature to help improve knowledge and understanding of the relationship between sustainability innovations and competitiveness in the industry (Akhtar et al., 2020). The MNEs focus on increasing competitiveness by coming up with the right innovations. However, it is essential to understand how sustainable an innovation is or whether it increases the use of resources without a positive outcome. Sustainability innovations need not create a complicated solution that makes the firms incur high costs and reduced profit margins.

The attainment of sustainability goals depends on a nation's ability to have the proper skill set. Besides creating job opportunities, MNEs can also ensure that they positively impact the skill set of the people in the areas in which they have set operations. MNEs have two ways through which they can improve the skill set of a given society. Knowledge transfer and introducing new technology can help people learn how to innovate and use worldwide-approved technology in their work (Liu et al., 2018; Tapaninaho & Heikkinen., 2022; Lu et al., 2021; Onofrei et al., 2020; Aoki, 2020; ). Knowledge transfer is the process through which business transfer their skills, abilities, and experiences from one place to another. Knowledge helps MNEs in ensuring that there is quality standardization in the production process (Muñoz & Cohen., 2018; Al‐Shaer, 2020; Mokhtar et al., 2020). It can be done by transferring employees to gain job training at a specific location or using equal production tools there are similar across different locations. The art of knowledge transfer was initially used by the Chinese MNEs when they sent a group of students to work and volunteer in Japan and U.S. The paired work method is among the most common methods used in knowledge transfer (Wang et al., 2019; Jiao et al., 2020; Thakur et al., 2020). It is a situation where experienced employees are paired with those who are green to the market. It helps pass practical knowledge from one employee to the other. Regardless of the method adopted to transfer knowledge by the MNEs, the greatest beneficiaries are the employees of the recipient country. For example, most chocolate manufacturing raw material comes from West Africa (Nelson & Phillips., 2018; Thorlakson, 2018).To ensure that the cocoa produced is of the best quality, American companies have to train the employees in cocoa farms to ensure that their skill sets are by the standards of the western world. When the employees working with the MNEs terminate their services, they look for jobs in a nation's local companies and carry either the on-job or expert skills they got from the MNE.

At the center of knowledge transfer is unbiased human resource management. Human resource managers should ensure that the people they are picking for training have unique talents. The reason is that most MNEs have the best technologies in the world and demand that they only work with the best employees (Adams et al., 2018; Yong et al., 2020; Yong et al., 2022). Some companies sometimes give opportunities to young graduates graduating top of their classes to tap the best skills. To cut knowledge transfer costs, MNEs can choose to employ mentorship, ensuring that their technical positions are occupied by people they have trained. By doing so, they ensure that the skills are well impacted through the supervision of the workforce. Knowledge transfer can also be done through the mutual exchange of training programs and opportunities between MNEs (Crossley et al., 2021; Andersen & Esbjerg., 2021; Aman et al., 2022) . Simulation has also been one of the most effective methods of knowledge transfer. It involves using mind teasers that help improve the creativity levels of an organization's employees. The method has been effective in improving creativity in different information technology fields. MNEs are also responsible for passing knowledge to other local SMEs they engage in business with. They can do so by organizing seminars and sponsoring employees of dedicated SMEs to study their products in different locations. Through knowledge transfer, there is a collectiveness in ensuring that customer demands are addressed similarly in different market sections.

The most critical factor in the growth of the MNEs is their technological impact on the host nations. MNEs deploy large-scale technologies to increase production. Through interacting with different parts of the economy, the technology spread across. The technique has been effective in West Africa, where the technology used in cocoa production has found its way into other agriculture sectors. Some MNEs, especially those in construction, only set plants for a given time, leaving the technology behind (Kam et al., 2022). The effect is that those technologies are either handed over to the local or national governments. The same was evidenced in Kenya when the China and Road Bridges Company left a lot of structures and technology to the nation's railway operator after it finished constructing the Standard Gauge Railway (Githaiga & Bing., 2019). Technology is not always about the structures but the means of operations and policies. With a government concerned about its population, it can also enter into agreements with the MNEs to ensure that among their corporate social responsibility, there is a provision that the MNEs will train their local populations. When MNEs set their technology in a given country, they give the country new methods to conduct their businesses and open up the society's innovation capabilities (Khan et al., 2022; Hermelingmeier et al., 2022; Naz et al., 2022). In short, they provoke the mindset of a nation's young population to focus in a specific direction. As governments interact with the MNEs, they also learn the methods they can use to influence the technological advancement of their nation. MNEs train their people for the sole purpose of using their labor, not knowing of the positive long-term implications that the same have in local communities (Boersma,2018; Saha et al., 2021).They completely redefine the reasoning patterns of a given community. People realize that there is a better to achieve production goals. Therefore, governments that are concerned with improving the life workforce skills, they should be in the forefront of providing the best working environment to MNEs

Contribution of the Study

This study focuses on the new relationship between sustainability challenges and corporate social responsibility. There are many sustainability challenges created by aspects such as global warming. On the other hand, resolving these challenges and providing efficient and effective solutions using innovation is essential. However, the MNEs are also concerned about their corporate social responsibility. They need to establish a balance between corporate social responsibility and the urgency to develop solutions for the existing sustainability challenges. Through this research, a relationship between the two and how a balance needs to be established will be sought. In some cases, innovation is considered necessary to salvage a difficult situation. However, it is essential to consider the adverse effects of every innovation in the long term and how it can affect the customer perception of the company.

Recommendations for Managers

MNEs have a role in enhancing sustainability, especially with the increase in sustainability challenges. Thus, managers should ensure they comply with government regulations to develop novel products and services through sustainable innovation. Companies need to invent products that directly contribute towards sustainability. Novelty and sustainable innovations are essential because technology continues to change quickly. Therefore, imitating existing products or remodelling them makes it easier for them to become obsolete, reducing the company's competitiveness in the industry. However, novelty brings new ideas aligned with customer demands and existing problems, making sustainable products. However, managers should also remember that sustainability does not lie in developing novel products alone. The MNEs need to engage in research and development and deploy innovation in developing sustainable processes. The goal is to use the resources efficiently and improve the usefulness of products through changes in design, production, or marketing strategies.

The second recommendation for the managers is to assess every innovation to determine whether it is sustainable. Every innovation costs the organization financially and in terms of time. It is due to this reason that managers should learn to work with facts as opposed to implementing every new idea that arises. The effect is an increased adherence to government policies and prevents innovation development. Sustainable technological innovations must be efficient in solving sustainability problems in the long run to avoid other issues arising from new developments. Taking time to test the technological innovations and their applications is the best approach to ensuring the MNEs engage in the development of products that are required to overcome sustainability problems and, at the same time, increase the company standing with the public by having an excellent public image which increases the corporate social responsibility.

Future Research Direction

This research will focus on the government technological regulation barriers that reduce or enhance the engagement of the MNEs in innovating towards overcoming sustainability challenges. However, future research is required to determine the managerial, technological, or organizational considerations that positively or negatively influence the willingness of SMEs to address the existing sustainability challenges. SMEs constitute the most effective forms of business in the world. As such, these businesses understand the problems faced in society and their effects. Their contribution towards sustainability can be seen through innovation and participation in solving the problems existing problems. Sustainability challenges affect all organizations irrespective of their size; hence, it is essential to take the proper steps and prevent further complexities. However, the engagement of SMEs in such activities is low. It is necessary to understand the factors limiting them in the future and how their contributions can change the situation in dealing with sustainability challenges.

In addition, further research will need to be conducted to determine the role played by different legislation types in ensuring that MNEs cause appropriate integration of SMEs into the global world economic system. There is a need to conduct a comparative study on how different MNEs impact the local economies of the nations they operate in. This study can only tell the overall impact of MNEs worldwide without mentioning specific areas in depth. For example, are there differences between the roles played by MNEs in developing countries and developed ones? Likewise, the legal approach needs to e approached more profoundly. The research identified that technological legislation is tied to other forms of human rights. Studies should determine what those other specific human rights are and the extent to which MNEs have contributed to the success of those laws. The lasting influence of politics on the affairs of MNEs should be tested in this context.

The most exciting part of future research is examining the role of technological and economic power in the success of MNEs and its possible implications. Current studies look at the overall financial impact of regional politics on business. With a more holistic approach, researchers can identify the underlying factors in explaining the dynamics involved in understanding how government positions on large corporations affect SMEs. All this research hs can then be compared with this study’s findings to improve or critique some of its parts. It is through comparative analysis that the results of this research can be put to the test. All said and done, this study will act as the foundation on which the majority of other researchers will emanate.

References