This special issue aims to advance scholarly knowledge on how multinational enterprises (MNEs) form international partnerships to create social value. Research in multinational business scholarship has examined the international activities of MNEs in addressing the broader sustainability agenda. However, there remains limited understanding of the specific challenges, tensions, and opportunities MNEs face when engaging in multi-stakeholder international partnerships for social value creation. Given the increasing centrality of such partnerships in global sustainability efforts, addressing this gap is both timely and important. The motivation for this special issue is to advance new theoretical and empirical knowledge into how MNEs' international partnerships enable social value creation.

MNEs often form partnerships to expand into foreign markets; however, their roles in creating social value for multiple stakeholders remains largely underexplored. Multi-stakeholder partnerships are complex phenomena due to varying stakeholder expectations and underlying institutional complexities and differences. Such partnerships can serve as catalysts for social value creation given the complex nature of social problems, which are often too protracted to be addressed through unilateral organizational actions and capabilities. Hence, it is important to develop knowledge on how MNEs navigate the complexities of partnerships and institutional differences in the pursuit of social value creation.

MNEs' role in inter-organizational partnerships has been noted as important for creating value for multiple stakeholders. However, different types of partnerships (e.g., equity vs non-equity) may provide different pathways for generating social value. Such partnerships are well recognized for enabling access to partners' valuable knowledge and capabilities, thereby supporting innovation development. Prior studies have mainly considered the role of inter-organizational partnerships in cross-border supplier development, technological knowledge transfer, organizational learning and firm growth, and achieving strategic goals within partnership arrangements. Whilst recent studies have begun to highlight firms' potential to create social value through relationships within communities and cooperatives, much less is known about how different forms of inter-organizational partnerships and the multiple stakeholders involved across diverse institutional environments contribute to social value creation.

MNEs commonly form non-market partnerships in international markets for purposes such as gaining legitimacy. However, what remains largely overlooked in the international business literature are the comparative opportunities and challenges associated with non-market versus market-based international partnerships in MNEs' social value creation processes. Multinationals must learn to cooperate in order to address global societal problems. In the context of grand societal challenges, MNEs can engage in international social alliances. Building on this line of inquiry, studies can generate new knowledge on what, where, and how MNEs' international cooperation and partnerships contribute to societal well-being and value creation for multiple stakeholders.

Social problems are increasingly complex, potentially creating new dynamics in cross-border partnerships and tensions in achieving social value creation objectives. These complexities open several promising avenues for contributing to the international business literature. For example, studies could examine the role of international alliance management capabilities as well as the structures and configurations of international partnerships, given that prior literature has primarily examined these aspects in the context of economic value creation. Furthermore, scholars can advance theoretical understanding by exploring the strategic attributes of different types of international partnerships in understanding how partner resource scope, alliance portfolio size, and social network power facilitate social value creation. In addition, research could examine when and how contractual clauses in international partnerships create complexities or, alternatively, support the achievement of social value creation goals.

In creating value for a particular society, partnerships may require certain dynamic capabilities, such as sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring in finding novel solutions to complex social problems. Research could examine partners' possession of dynamic capabilities (e.g., distinctive resources), capability deployment (e.g., resource allocation), and capability upgrading (e.g., dynamic learning). International cooperative alliances and joint ventures may also serve as mechanisms for developing organizational agility in addressing social problems, enabling timely and effective responses. Accordingly, these aspects provide valuable avenues for advancing knowledge on how MNEs leverage dynamic capabilities within international partnerships to create social value.

Any concrete organizational form can be understood as an adaptive social structure in which the purpose of cooperation must be clearly defined. MNEs' international partnerships align with this perspective, as economic motives are often embedded within these relationships. However, the social purpose of MNEs in the context of multi-stakeholder international partnerships remains understudied. MNEs face institutional pressure in fulfilling their social responsibilities; consequently, there is a need to explore how institutional-level factors, MNE-level dynamics, and multi-stakeholder-specific challenges and opportunities influence social value creation.

Resources, capabilities and strategies can be aligned with and directed towards a corporate purpose. While research has recently focused on social purpose organizations, there remains limited understanding on how social (re)purpose in international partnerships facilitates social value creation. Social purpose must be clearly understood and effectively communicated to stakeholders. From this perspective, there is a valuable opportunity to investigate how social purpose can be integrated across upstream (e.g., production processes) and downstream (e.g., marketing processes) activities and partners within the global value chain.

Another central area for scholarly attention is partnerships across different markets and institutional settings. While existing literature has examined the opportunities and challenges in multi-partner alliances, there remains limited understanding of how alliances and ventures originating from different countries—compared to domestic alliances—facilitate or complicate social value creation in particular markets. The special issue also provides an opportunity to explore the role of prevailing institutions in international markets in supporting social value creation through partnerships. In this context, scholars can investigate the nature and consequences of institutional frictions—such as ignorance, sensemaking challenges, and lack of responsiveness—that may arise in social value creation via partnerships and how these challenges can be addressed. Furthermore, the efficacy of home and host institutional support, institutional configuration and voids, and political connections can be examined in facilitating and hindering social value creation processes in the context of MNEs' international partnerships.

In line with the aim and scope of the Multinational Business Review, we invite submissions that present new or counterintuitive findings on MNEs' international partnerships in creating social value—particularly insights that have not yet been addressed, examined, or resolved in the existing literature. We welcome empirical studies that provide new perspectives, advance, or challenge existing theories and their underlying assumptions, and demonstrate methodological rigor. Submissions that adopt a multidisciplinary approach are particularly encouraged.

Potential topics

• Which types of societal problems (e.g., poverty, food insecurity, public health) are best addressed through MNEs' international partnerships, and which forms of partnerships are most effective in tackling these problems and generating social value?
• How do MNEs' international and domestic partnerships create value for multiple stakeholders and communities?
• Under what circumstances do MNEs' international partnerships produce unequal social outcomes, and what social benefits—such as enhanced legitimacy—do they provide to participating firms?
• Are there limits to the types of social challenges that MNEs' international partnerships, or specific forms of such partnership, can effectively address?
• What inter-partner challenges arise in pursuing social value creation across cross-border settings, and how can these challenges be effectively managed?
• What internal and external drivers motivate MNEs to establish international partnerships for social value creation, and what are the boundary conditions that determine the effectiveness of these partnerships?
• Which dynamic capabilities are necessary for social value creation that can be developed through, or leveraged in, international partnerships, and how do these capabilities vary across different partnership types (e.g., equity vs. non-equity alliances, horizontal vs. vertical social alliances, and international joint ventures)?
• How can social purpose be integrated in MNEs' upstream (e.g., production) and downstream (e.g., marketing) value chain activities, and what roles do value-chain partners play, including the associated challenges and opportunities, in this process?
• What are the nature and consequences of institutional frictions that arise in social value creation through MNEs' international partnerships, and how can these challenges be effectively addressed?
• What roles do home and host market institutions play in facilitating MNEs' international partnerships for social value creation?
• What industry- or country-specific factors influence MNEs' multi-partner and cross-border social alliances?
• In the context of international partnerships involving platform firms and digital ecosystems, what unique challenges and opportunities do multi-sided networks present for MNEs in creating social value?
• How do governance structures and decision-making processes in MNEs' international partnerships influence the trade-offs between economic and social value creation?

Timeline

• January 3, 2027: Opening date for manuscripts submissions
• March 31, 2027: Closing date for manuscripts submission