Meta-organizations and environmental sustainability: an overview in African context

Abstract This paper offers a conceptual overview of meta-organizations' role for environmental sustainability in the under-researched African context. The current paper is one of the few studies to offer a specific differentiation regarding the role and activities of meta-organizations for environmental sustainability in developed vs. emerging economies’ settings. The paper further offers an in-depth assessment of meta-organizations’ role for environmental sustainability in Africa, along with discussing major hurdles in this concern. Our analysis reveals several problems with business only meta-organizations in Africa, which significantly limit their role in ensuring environmental sustainability in this region. These problems include competing interests resulting in failure to accommodate multiple stakeholders, lack of responsible investing and environmental stewardship, along with institutional voids. Finally, the paper presents some potential solutions to overcome these problems.