This article points at insights from the subfields of international business and strategic management that are relevant for sustainability transitions research. Specifically, building on the emergent ‘mainstream’ literature on ‘generic’ digital platforms, we explain how a range of digital platform multinationals has emerged which address sustainability challenges, and highlight their potential for accelerating multi-sector transitions across geographies. The article does not cover contested platforms such as AirBnB and Uber, but focuses on sustainability-oriented digital platform multinationals (SO-DPMs), which directly tackle social and/or environmental issues by enabling new linkages between individuals and/or organizations. These SO-DPMs deserve more research attention because of their ability to affect sustainability transitions in their own (home) and foreign (host) countries, and realize interconnections and replication across borders. Besides explicating their relevance for sustainability transitions research, we propose promising areas for investigation, considering SO-DPMs, actors in their networks, and society more broadly.

本文指出了与可持续发展研究相关的国际业务和战略管理子领域的见解。具体而言，我们以关于“通用”数字平台的新兴“主流”文献为基础，解释了一系列如何应对可持续发展挑战的跨国数字平台跨国公司，并强调了它们加速跨地区跨部门转型的潜力。本文不涉及有争议的平台，如AirBnB和Uber，而是重点介绍面向可持续发展的数字平台跨国公司（SO-DPM），这些跨国公司通过启用个人和/或组织之间的新链接直接解决社会和/或环境问题。这些SO-DPM由于具有影响本国（本国）和外国（东道国）的可持续性转变并实现跨界互连和复制的能力，因此值得更多的研究关注。除了说明其与可持续性转型研究的相关性之外，我们还提出了有希望的研究领域，其中考虑了SO-DPM，其网络中的参与者以及更广泛的社会。