Primary Sponsor: Iberoamerican Academy of Management (IAM)
Other sponsors: Organizations and the Natural Environment (ONE), Social Issues in Management (SIM)

Organizer, presenters & facilitators: Tomás Santa María, Universidad del Desarrollo; Angel Sevil, Universidad del Desarrollo; Barbara Galleli, Universidade Federal do Paraná; Pilar Acosta, TBS Education; Punit Arora, City University of New York; Felipe Symmes, EGADE Business School; Susana C. F. Pereira, FGV EAESP; Andrea Lazarte, Centrum PUCP.

Overview

Sustainability management scholarship is expanding rapidly, yet Latin America remains underrepresented in mainstream conversations, despite being a critical arena for the next generation of sustainability challenges and solutions. The region concentrates globally significant biodiversity and ecosystems, faces acute inequality and informality, and operates under distinctive institutional volatility and extractive-development tensions.

This workshop aims to strengthen a durable Latin American sustainability research network, help participants sharpen theoretically distinctive, publication-ready project framing grounded in regional phenomena, and catalyze cross-country collaborations and multi-institution research initiatives.

The PDW combines editorial perspectives from Journal of Business Ethics and Business & Society with short, high-leverage inputs on theorizing from Latin America and organizing collaborative, large-scale projects. Participants then engage in a structured research-interest mapping exercise and facilitated co-creation roundtables to translate shared interests into concrete project pathways, roles, and next steps for post-PDW follow-up.

PDW Format

This 90-minute, highly interactive PDW has two integrated components: a panel presentation with plenary discussion and facilitated co-creation roundtables. The plenary component aligns participants around shared expectations for publishing and theorizing sustainability research grounded in Latin American contexts. The roundtable component converts that shared framing into concrete collaboration pathways by mapping interests and matching participants into working groups to develop actionable project concepts.

Session Agenda

Part 1: Panel presentations

00:00 – 00:05
Welcome and short introduction of the goals and significance of the PDW, program, speakers and participation norms.

00:05 – 00:50
Keynote speakers’ presentations:

• Pilar Acosta, Journal of Business Ethics, Section Editor, Corporate Sustainability; & Punit Arora, Co-Editor in Chief, Business & Society: Editorial Perspectives on the opportunities for the Latin American sustainability research community
• Felipe Symmes, EGADE Business School: Theorizing from Latin America: opportunities, tensions, and contributions to global sustainability scholarship
• Susana C. F. Pereira, FGV EAESP: Lessons learned from collaborative sustainability research projects in Latin America

Questions from the audience.

Part 2: Round table discussions

00:50 – 00:60
Interests Mapping & Matching Activity. Participants will complete a short online survey on research interests, methodological expertise and funding opportunities. Input will be lived-shared and used to form roundtables.

00:60 – 00:80
Co-Creation Round tables. Participants will join small groups with a panelist and a co-facilitator to co-create potential collaboration projects. The aim will be to generate 1-2 project concepts per table, including topic, potential research questions, potential funding and roles & next steps.

00:80 – 00:90
Plenary wrap-up and next steps. Share key project ideas across the room, confirm post-PDW coordination, and follow-up channels.

Relevance

This PDW highlights Latin America’s unique sustainability challenges and opportunities within the global sustainability context. Its primary goal is to enable collaboration among academics and practitioners to develop sustainability projects amid the region’s rich biodiversity, complex socio-political landscape, and economic dynamics.

The workshop will engage scholars from the Iberoamerican Academy of Management, ONE, and SIM divisions in discussions on achieving SDGs, sustainable strategies, and academia’s role in fostering sustainability leaders. Participants will explore promising research collaboration ventures tailored to Latin America’s specific needs and opportunities.