1 Companies and UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure Janice Denoncourt* Nottingham Law School, UK Abstract: This article analyses the important connection between corporate longevity, social responsibility and intellectual property rights (IPR) assets in the context of sustainability. Society is demanding greater transparency of the footprint corporate entities leave on the planet as a result of how their business model is activated. The private sector response necessary to operate sustainably in the long term is critically examined specifically in connection with the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (SDG 9). SDG 9 aims to "Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation". Certain characteristics of companies in the century club are contrasted with those of the younger MNEs with IP-reliant digital business models to illustrate the important connection between innovation, IP, sustainability and corporate longevity. Learning from the management literature about the characteristics of established companies in the ‘century club’ together with a deeper understanding of core innovation theory may buttress the new digital MNE’s adaptability, commercial success and longevity, within the wider sustainable industrialization context. Keywords: business model; corporate governance stewardship code; corporate longevity; corporate social responsibility (CSR); digital economy; innovation; intangibles; intellectual property; IPR; sustainability; UN sustainable development goal 9; UK Intellectual Property
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1
Companies and UN 2030 Sustainable Development
Goal 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Janice Denoncourt*
Nottingham Law School, UK
Abstract:
This article analyses the important connection between corporate longevity, social
responsibility and intellectual property rights (IPR) assets in the context of sustainability.
Society is demanding greater transparency of the footprint corporate entities leave on the planet
as a result of how their business model is activated. The private sector response necessary to
operate sustainably in the long term is critically examined specifically in connection with the
United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
(SDG 9). SDG 9 aims to "Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable
industrialization and foster innovation". Certain characteristics of companies in the century
club are contrasted with those of the younger MNEs with IP-reliant digital business models to
illustrate the important connection between innovation, IP, sustainability and corporate
longevity. Learning from the management literature about the characteristics of established
companies in the ‘century club’ together with a deeper understanding of core innovation theory
may buttress the new digital MNE’s adaptability, commercial success and longevity, within
the wider sustainable industrialization context.
Keywords: business model; corporate governance stewardship code; corporate longevity;
corporate social responsibility (CSR); digital economy; innovation; intangibles; intellectual
property; IPR; sustainability; UN sustainable development goal 9; UK Intellectual Property
2
Office; UKIPO; World Intellectual Property Organization; WIPO; World Trade Organization;
WTO.
1. Introduction
To sustain the planet and its future population of 8.5 billion by 20301 innovation and
creativity will be vital to driving more efficient and better use of resources. The global task of
achieving the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has
the overarching societal goal of ensuring ‘development that meets the needs of the present
while safeguarding Earth’s life-support system, on which the welfare of current and future
generations depends’.2 Such development necessarily has a private sector corporate
innovation and intellectual property (IP) asset dimension that appears to be missing in the
sustainability literature to date. Further, as society has changed traditional manufacturing and
simple supply chains have declined and are often being replaced by digital and IP-reliant
business models operating in the intangible (virtual or weightless) economy. Firms with new
digital technologies create new markets and value networks that impact on established
markets, firms, products and alliances.3 Our creators and innovators across the globe will
need to invent the future essential for achieving the UN SDG Agenda. However, not only
will innovation need to be harnessed, companies will need successful and adaptable business
models to be profitable in the long term, well beyond 2030, if they are to achieve corporate
longevity, and the profitability needed to support CSR activities that contribute to a
sustainable future. Certain enterprises may even join the select group of century club firms
and achieve sustainable industrialization envisaged by SDG 9.
The research in this article examines, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the
important connection between innovation and IP rights, corporate longevity and CSR, which
arguably provide the foundation for the sustainable industrialization contemplated in SDG 9.
The new digital business models driving the virtual economy are heavily reliant on
3
innovation protected by monopolistic intellectual property rights (IPRs) such as copyright (to
protect software and creative content), patents (to protect technology) and trade marks (to
protect corporate and house brands). Researchers agree that intangible1 assets which include
IPRs typically comprise the majority of financial corporate value. This article identifies
certain characteristics of younger multinational corporations (MNEs) with IP-reliant digital
business models contrasted with more established patent-reliant pharmaceutical firms to
illustrate the links between innovation, IP, sustainability and corporate longevity. It identifies
the need for companies to have a better understanding of core innovation theory to optimize
the selection and adaptation, over time, of their core business model to maintain a level of
profitability that actuates corporate social responsibility activities. In theory, a deeper
understanding of core innovation theory and the characteristics of companies who have
sustained for over a century or longer, may provide corporations with insights to enable them
to better adapt with a view to achieving commercial success and longevity, within the wider
sustainable industrialization context. The question, “In whose interests is the company run?”
juxtaposed with the SDG 9 concept of ‘sustainable’ industrialization contemplates that
companies adopt a broader pluralist approach beyond shareholder primacy.4 To provide
background to the analysis, the next section introduces the UN 2030 Agenda and in
particular, SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.
1.1. UN 2030 SDG 9: Innovation, IPRs and sustainable business models
When the Heads of State and Government met in New York on 25 -27 September 2015 to
celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the United Nations (UN), they decided to adopt the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development5 to enhance and extend the UN’s Millennium
Development Goals made 15 years earlier. They boldly committed to achieving sustainable
1 From a corporate reporting and financial accounting perspective, the International Accounting Standard 38
Intangibles defines intangibles as intellectual assets lacking in physical presence with an uncertain future value or
amount of benefit that benefit an entity over several accounting periods. See
https://www.iasplus.com/en/standards/ias/ias38 accessed on 22 March 2019.
or other private share ownership (opposed to public ownership) over time, which typically
leads to the delivery of a higher level of CSR and sustainability initiatives.
Addressing distrust in IPRs by adjusting existing legal frameworks
While there is an element distrust of the magnitude of corporate IPR ownership embraced
by MNEs, the competition law and compulsory licensing legal frameworks already exist but
could be upgraded and amended to deal with sustainability and the UN SDG 2030 agenda as
discussed in section 4. In particular, fresh thinking resulted in the recommendation that the
WTO TRIPS Agreement article 27 be amended to address sustainability as a ground for
applying for compulsory IPR licences, as is presently the case in public health emergencies
that require urgent access to patent-protected pharmaceuticals. For example, if innovating
firms invent new technologies that can help fix and restore the planet, the existing open access
patent databases such as Espacenet will capture how the technology works, new patent filings
can be monitored and potentially (if TRIPS Article 27 allows) compulsorily licensed. This
solution also has the advantage of providing immediate funding for the firm to grow and
expand. In summary, it is contended that the compulsory licensing system established under
TRIPS needs to embrace not only big pharma, but big tech and sustainability as well to engage
stakeholders and garner support for the merits of IP rights.
Assisting FAANGs and digital MNEs to accelerate SDG 9
Large and public companies across the globe have a key role to play in achieving the
UN 2030 SDG Agenda. Harnessing the economic power wielded by the private sector digital
MNES into CSR activities outside the USA and Europe and into LDCs and struggling regions
43
will contribute to UN2030 SDG 9 and bridge the digital technology divides that exist across
the globe. Positive examples of MNE engagement in CSR and sustainability initiatives include
such as Virgin and the global pharmaceutical firms in the century club Merck, GSK, Pfizer,
Bayer, Eli Lilly and Roche which have been widely recognised as having good practice.
Increasing the dialogue between these pharmaceutical MNE firms to share and mentor boards
and senior executives of the FAANGS to develop their own CSR and sustainability strategies
could prove fruitful. In conclusion, this article has contributed to the sustainability literature
by demonstrating how to activate a greater role for the private sector and the FAANGs in
innovation, developing new business models, achieving corporate longevity and engaging in
CSR tempered by competition law and potentially furthered through compulsory licensing to
accelerate the UN 2030 SDG agenda.
* Dr Janice Denoncourt (BA McGill, LLB Western Australia, LLM Bournemouth, PhD Nottingham, SFHEA)
Senior Lecturer, Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University, UK [email protected] 1 World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision Report (25 July 2017) UN Department of Economic and
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chairman of the World Economic Forum. His wife, Hilde, co-founded the Schwab Foundation for Social
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policy at the University of Geneva from 1972 to 2002. Since 1979, he has published the annual Global
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the UN with 191 member states (see www.wipo.org). WIPO’s mandate, governing bodies and procedures are set
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report.html 72 E. M. Emerson Diffusion of Innovations (2003) 5th ed. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-5823-4 73 Ibid, Rogers 1962 edition, p 150 74 C. M. Christensen, Michael Raynor and Rory McDonald. ‘What is Disruptive Innovation?’ Harvard Business
Review (December 2015) Vol. 93 No. 12, pp. 44–53. Professor Christensen is the Kim B. Clark Professor of
Business Administration at the Harvard Business School; and is a leading expert on innovation and business
growth. 75 Airbnb, Inc. is a privately-held global company headquartered in San Francisco, US that operates an online
marketplace and hospitality service which is accessible via its websites and mobile apps. Members can use the
service to arrange or offer lodging, primarily homestays, or tourism experiences. It was founded by CEO Brian
Chesky in August 2008 and has a revenue of 2.6Billion USD (2017) as well as subsidiaries, Tilt.com and Trooly,
Inc. 76Uber Technologies Inc. is a peer-to-peer ridesharing, taxi cab, food delivery, bicycle-sharing, and transportation
network company headquartered in San Francisco, California, with operations in 785 metropolitan areas
worldwide. Its platforms can be accessed via its websites and mobile apps. It was founded by Travis Kalanic and
Garret Camp in March 2009 in San Francisco, US and has a revnuew of 6.5billion USD (2016) as well as
subsidiaries, Uber Eats, Jump Bikes, Otto, Rasier LLC, deCarata, and MORE. 77 Supra [n56] 78 Adapted from Deloitte Israel
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public identification as the originator, or anonymously. A defensive publication prevents others from later being
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years form the date the patent application was filed (Article 33 TRIPS). Members cannot discriminate between
different fields of technology, or place of invention or whether products are imported or locally produced (Art
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https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/factsheet_pharm02_e.htm accessed on 17 June 2019. 106 Section 60 UK Competition Act 1998 provides that UK rules are to be applied in line with European
jurisprudence and as with all competition law prohibiting practices that restrict free trade and competition
between business entities and banning abusive behaviour by a firm dominating a market, or anti-competitive
practices that tend to lead to such a dominant position. Practices controlled in this way may include predatory
pricing, tying, price gouging, refusal to deal etc. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority enforces
competition law on behalf of the public. 107 T. Wu, The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age (13 November 2018) Columbia Global
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http://unctad.org/en/PublicationChapters/wir2017ch4_en.pdf 115 Forbes Global 2000: World’s Largest Public Companies (June 2018) edited by H. Tourvalai and K. Stoller
&utm_campaign=sprinklrForbesMainFB#44be79f3335d accessed on 13 June 2018. The methodology for
compiling the rankings relies on data from FactSet Research systems to screen for the biggest public companies
in four metrics: sales, profits, assets and market value. 116 J. Bonamazzo ‘Uber’s SEC-Approved Business Model’ (25 October 2017) The Observer at
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worldwide. WIPO cooperates with national IP office around the world to provide the most up-to-date global IP
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models in the creative industries; instead it is seen as a ‘secondary influence’. However, within the various
branches of the creative and cultural industries, different strategies of value appropriation have evolved,
accompanied by conflicting views as to if, and how, to renew copyright-related business models. 130 Joint EPO-EUIPO study highlights economic benefits of IP for Europe (25 October 2016) European Patent
Office available at https://www.epo.org/news-issues/news/2016/20161025.html 131 UNCTAD, 2015a 132 Facts and Figures ITS 2017 Report (2017) ITU available at https://www.itu.int/en/itu-
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on 28 September 2018 at https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/02/21/world-bank-supports-
young-digital-entrepreneurs-in-botswana 134 XL Africa Accelerating Africa’s Digital Start Ups (18 December 2017) at
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2017/12/18/xl-africa-accelerating-africas-growth-oriented-start-ups 135 Supra n[66] 136 The road ahead: The KPMG Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting (2017) KPMG, available at