Boroomand, F., Tsui, AnneS., Djabbarov, I., van Witteloostuijn, A. and Mijnhardt, W. (2026). Business and management research on societal wellbeing: a historic, multi-journal and large language model analysis of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals Journal of International Business Studies.

The United Nations{\textquoteright} 17 Sustainable Development Goals provide a framework for categorizing research that addresses global challenges and advances societal wellbeing. Using multiple large language models, this study analyzed 47,197 articles published in 18 business and management journals, including the Journal of International Business Studies, representing five business and management disciplines over 55 years (1970–2024). The objective was to assess the extent to which scholars, including those in IB, are tackling issues related to grand challenges as captured by the United Nation{\textquoteright}s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Findings show that among the 47,197 articles, 17.4% relate to one or more SDGs. This percentage increased over time, from 8% before the introduction of UN Agenda 21 in 1992 to 31% after the launch of UN Agenda 2030 in 2015. SDGs 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), and 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions) accounted for 78% of the SDG-aligned articles. The JIBS is among the leading journals contributing to these SDGs. We offer suggestions on how IB research can contribute to societal wellbeing by paying more attention to complementarities among goals and exploration of trade-offs where progress on one goal may impede advancement on another.