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Divestment and Sustainable Development

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Definition

Divestment has multiple meanings. From a business perspective, divestment creates opportunity through elimination of business operations, such as the closing or sell-off of units in foreign locations. Divestment in this manner has allowed firms to focus on core operations and strategically focus on growth. An alternative form of divestment is centered around firms liquidating financial positions in response to some harm, injustice, or political unrest.

Introduction

Divestment practices have occurred in numerous industries and in some countries. What does it mean to divest from a given industry or country? Divestment is the ability of the investing entity to withdraw its financial investments in a particular company or country due to perceived changes in the investment; for example, the investment has become ambiguous in relation to the core strategy of the company or may be unethical with respect to corporate operating parameters or mission statement. However, divestment as...

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Correspondence to Chance Lamberth .

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Lamberth, C. (2019). Divestment and Sustainable Development. In: Leal Filho, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11352-0_275

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