Sustainable development management systems in global business organizations

Purpose – This paper seeks to identify a requirement for a new sustainable development management system (SMS) model for global business organizations (GBOs) and proposes some essential features for such a model. Design/methodology/approach – The concept is developed in four stages. First, a definition of a GBO is developed, after reviewing existing definitions and identifying their limitations. The characteristics of GBOs are reviewed, with emphasis on their implications for the management of sustainability programmes. A review of SMS literature and of existing SMS codes and standards has been made, and the limitations of existing SMSs are critically reviewed. Drawing on this three‐part analysis, a new model of an SMS suitable for use in GBOs is described. Findings – Existing definitions of global business organizations are inadequate. Existing sustainability management systems standards and codes do not meet the requirements of global businesses (or indeed of other, regional businesses) in several respects. Originality/value – The paper shows that there are special requirements for SMSs in GBOs, and that these are not met by any of the existing models or proposals in the literature. The paper proposes a new model, which combines best‐practice from existing literature with new features.