Search results

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework which sheds new light on how sustainability control systems (SCS) can be used in proactive strategic responses to corporate sustainability pressures.

Design/Methodology/Approach – Corporate sustainability pressures are identified using insights from institutional theory and the resource-based view of the firm.

Findings – The paper presents an integrated framework showing the corporate sustainability pressures, proactive strategic responses to these pressures, and how organizations might use SCS in their responses to the corporate sustainability pressures they face.

Practical Implications – The proposed framework shows how organizations can use SCS in proactive strategic responses to corporate sustainability pressures.

Originality/Value – The paper suggests that instead of using traditional financial-oriented management control systems, organizations need more focus on emerging SCS as a means of achieving sustainability objectives. In particular, the paper proposes different SCS tools that can be used in proactive strategic responses to sustainability pressures in terms of (i) specifying and communicating sustainability objectives, (ii) monitoring sustainability performance, and (iii) providing motivation by linking sustainability rewards to performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of integrating sustainability into the corporate strategy of an emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNE) to achieve and maintain corporate legitimacy over time. The research explores how deploying a corporate sustainability strategy enhances the company’s long-term competitive relevance by creating and maintaining corporate legitimacy and transferring practices based on sustainable development goals within the organization.

The study adopts a qualitative single-case design, focusing on a corporate energy services company (Interconexión Eléctrica S.A.) operating in volatile, uncertain and turbulent environments.

The findings indicate that integrating sustainability into the corporate strategy enables subsidiaries to effectively meet global requirements, considering internal and external pressures. This integration also fosters the development of unique capabilities and the internalization of standards, addressing liabilities in foreign markets, thus providing a competitive advantage and safeguarding corporate legitimacy among stakeholders.

This research contributes to the international business literature by providing insights into strategy development and implementation in EMNEs. Specifically, it demonstrates how a Latin American emerging multinational enterprise (multilatina) adopts new sustainability strategies to enhance its business competitiveness. The study also offers guidance for emerging market companies on developing sustainability strategies and transferring them to subsidiaries operating in complex institutional environments. Furthermore, the research provides a rationale for governments and civil society organizations on why firms are committed to sustainability, highlighting its positive impact on firm’s competitiveness and survival in international markets.

Understanding the role of corporate strategies in sustainability has become a hot topic for scholarly research. Meanwhile, firms strive to innovate and shape their positive image in the contemporary business arena. Past research has ignored investigating whether and how sustainability-oriented corporate strategies could drive innovation and firm image among external stakeholders. To address the said research gap, this paper examines the path through which sustainability-oriented corporate strategy and environmental regulation improve green corporate image and green innovation capabilities (i.e. green process and product innovation).

This study adopted a quantitative survey-based method. The online survey was adopted to collect data from employees working at the managerial level in the equipment manufacturing sector. The data collected from 343 managers that was complete in all aspects was used for empirical analysis using structural equation modeling. Direct and indirect relations were evaluated.

The findings reveal that sustainability-oriented corporate strategy and environmental regulation drive green innovation and green corporate image. Findings further show that external knowledge adoption underpins these effects of sustainability-oriented corporate strategy and environmental regulation.

The study delivers theoretical and practical understandings of the importance of sustainability-oriented corporate strategies to green corporate image and green innovation capabilities.

Organisations are confronted with the challenge of navigating various pressures arising from activities that shape environmental and social impacts, which stakeholders find significant. This research endeavours to ascertain a process facilitating the analysis and seamless integration of sustainability into corporate strategy. The goal is to establish an “integrated” ESG governance framework adept at effectively managing institutional pressures.

This research employs an action research approach, focusing on a leading company within the sugar industry. The investigation delves into the relationship dynamics associated with business issues through a process that engages, either directly or indirectly, board members, top managers, as well as industrial and commercial customers, along with final consumers.

The formulation of a sustainability strategy serves as a guiding framework for the Board of Directors in effectively navigating tensions arising from environmental, social and economic pressures.

The research contributes to bridging the realms of business governance and institutional theory (viewed under a paradoxical lens). On a managerial level, the study introduces a structured process aimed at seamlessly integrating sustainability objectives into governance, aligning with international ESG guidelines (OECD, 2023; WEF, 2020).

The originality of this research lies in crafting a sustainability strategy by the BoD that takes into account the impact of governance and responds to the demands of strategic stakeholders.

The purpose of the paper is to present a conceptual framework and a set of conditions within which nations and business can strive to embed sustainability in corporate/national strategy. The objective is to motivate business and national leaders to do so with sustainability mindsets and strategic leadership. The pre‐conditions that will accelerate the “motivation” to do so are identified, as are interventions identified. The sphere of influence business and national leaders have to impact sustainable globalization is identified.

The approach is to focus on information in the public domain that outlines the “real” challenges faced by nations and business as they consider the need for sustainability and key issues such as “poverty and climate change”, which if not addressed could have detrimental strategic implications for the planet, business and nations. The changes that have taken place since 1982 when global leaders signed up to Agenda 21 and the relatively insignificant movement that has occurred to date is outlined to strengthen the case for quantum leaps in the short to medium term. The strategic framework recommended is one that combines the need for organizations to set a new gold standard for “corporate responsibility”, which is a “commitment to sustainable business” followed by a commitment to differentiating the business or nation on a sustainability paradigm. This is presented as means to embedding sustainability in strategy in the form of the concept of “strategic corporate sustainability”. The concept of strategic corporate sustainability is presented as a two‐step approach that initially requires both national and corporate leaders to commit to the need for sustainability by developing triple bottom line strategies. This is followed by the need to embed sustainability strategy as the corporate strategy that differentiates the nation and the business, strategically setting it apart from those that have not done so. This is presented as one of the ways to move forward to achieve the goal of sustainable globalization.

The key findings from information in the public domain of nations and business that have embedded a sustainability policy and are demonstrating that enlightened leaders who have sustainability mindsets as a primary requirement for the future are presented with the examples of General Electric and Unilever. The process of nations embedding sustainability policy, which in turn motivates business to strive for sustainable business, which finally leads to sustainable consumption, is presented in a sequential manner.

The originality of the paper is in the form of the concept of strategic corporate sustainability, which was first mooted in 2008 at Cambridge University and has since been accepted as a key subject and elective for MBA and AMP programs between 2008 and 2012 at many business schools, confirming both its validity and its originality.

This paper empirically addresses the effect of coercive, normative and mimetic pressures on sustainability results, focussing on the three dimensions of the triple bottom line approach: environmental, economic and social. The mediating role of compliance, analyser or proactive corporate strategies towards sustainability is also considered.

The hypotheses developed in this study were tested using data from a sample of private companies from two industries: manufacture of chemicals and chemical products, and manufacture of basic metals.

The results confirm the role played by institutional pressures for sustainability in explaining the involvement of organisations in economic, social and environmental aspects. The mediating effect of corporate strategy is also confirmed, although only for environmental aspects.

Research into sustainability development is evolving rapidly; however, few studies have explored its diffusion amongst organisations from a triple bottom line perspective by considering the role of different current external pressures, the corporate strategy and the diverse results.

本研究擬對強制壓力、規範壓力和模仿壓力對可持續性成果的影響進行實證研究。研究的焦點放在三重底線法的三個層面上,即是環境層面、經濟層面和社會層面。研究人員亦探討尋求可持續性的承諾、分析儀和積極主動的公司戰略的中介作用。

研究人員測試其建立的各項假設; 使用的數據取自兩個企業的私人公司的樣本,它們是製造化學品和化學產品的企業,以及製造基本金屬的企業。

研究結果確認了尋求可持續性所帶來的制度壓力,在解說企業於經濟、社會和環境三方面的參與上所扮演的角色。研究結果亦確認了公司戰略的中介作用,唯這只見於環境的層面上。

探討可持續性發展的學術研究發展迅速,唯當中較少從三個基本的角度去探討可持續性發展在組織內的傳播; 本研究考慮了目前各種外來壓力、公司戰略和不同的結果所扮演的角色,以彌補這研究差距。

This study explores the relations among corporate sustainability strategies, the intense use of sustainability control systems (SCSs) to implement these strategies and the emergence of organizational capabilities for sustainability.

Using survey data from a sample of 157 European firms across different industries, the authors explore differences between reactive and proactive sustainability strategies in their impact on the intense use of SCSs. The authors analyze the joint impact of a proactive sustainability strategy and an intense use of SCSs on the emergence of the organizational capabilities of sustainable market orientation, sustainable organizational learning and sustainable innovation. Furthermore, we explore the relevance of single levers of control for these capabilities.

The results show that a proactive sustainability strategy is associated with an intense use of SCSs and with the development of the three organizational capabilities. The authors provide evidence that the intensity of use of SCSs mediates the association between proactive sustainability strategy and the emergence of the three organizational capabilities. An interactive use of controls is constantly more important than a diagnostic use of controls in the emergence of the three capabilities.

The findings provide novel empirical evidence on the mechanisms through which corporate sustainability strategy is implemented in European organizations. The results contribute to an improved understanding of the organizational determinants underlying the development of organizational capabilities for sustainability.

This paper aims to provide an inside view and analysis of corporate eco-efficiency/sustainability strategy resulting in recommendations for the consumer goods industry.

The paper is framed by a literature review and case studies of corporate sustainability strategies. Original research was conducted via in-depth, face-to-face interviews (26) of Henkel senior management familiar with the company’s “Factor 3” strategy.

This research identifies certain challenges to corporate sustainability strategy including consumer use of products and how best to measure ecological and social footprints. It shows that many managers find the Factor 3 strategy to be clear and understandable but with challenging goals and metrics; managers and executives are optimistic about success and feel Factor 3 gives Henkel a competitive edge. This paper uncovers areas of in the strategy that need improvement including consumer education, industry partnering, accountability and supply chain strategy, and also finds that the Factor 3 affects employees on a personal level, changing behavior and evoking positive responses.

While there is considerable literature on corporate eco-efficiency sustainability strategies, there has not been sufficient critical third-party analysis of how these strategies are progressing, the challenges they face and what their trajectory is. Because strategies like Henkel’s Factor 3 represent an increasingly popular corporate vision and set of articulated goals, researchers and practitioners need a deeper understanding of how large, global companies are tackling sustainability and how successful these strategies have been.

This chapter discusses the evolvement of the sustainability concept and its importance in the strategic management context. First, the authors review the development of the concept over the last century and presents the most commonly used sustainability definitions. Then, the three pillars of sustainability (economic, natural and social) are reviewed, highlighting the sustainability aspect of each pillar individually and the problems of their non-substitutability, irreversibility and non-linearity. Based on the literature review, this chapter discusses the main motives for integration of sustainability concept into the overall strategy of the company, namely compliance with regulation, response to public concern, expected competitive advantage and top management commitment. Furthermore, important distinctions between reactive and proactive approaches are presented, and the results and benefits (such as cost reductions, differentiation and added value) of proactive approaches to corporate sustainability are analyzed. Nevertheless, such benefits can only be achieved if corporate sustainability is understood and treated as a holistic concept, which is deeply embedded in the company’s strategy and is approached proactively from the interdisciplinary viewpoint, looking at all three dimensions simultaneously.

This paper aims to explore the development of sustainability accounting information systems through lens of contingency theory. In this digital age when companies are confronted with massive sets of data, integration of financial and non-financial data, little empirical evidence exists on how sustainability issues are integrated or linked within internal corporate information systems.

A questionnaire-based survey, hypothesis testing, principal component methods and hierarchical clustering are used to provide original empirical evidence from major Lithuanian companies.

The main findings reveal that most companies surveyed include a sustainability strategy in their core strategy, but there is a lack of linkage with measuring and integrating sustainability outcomes within the entirety of corporate financial results. Unexpectedly, the association between stakeholders' involvement and sustainability accounting information system design was not as strong as hypothesized theoretically. Therefore, it deserves further investigation, constituting an important implication for future research. Specifically, three profiles of sustainability accounting information systems were explained, namely, integrated, fragmented and compliance systems.

The limitations of this study relate to the small sample size, as sustainability-related information is still regarded quite confidential.

This result could serve as a specific reference for companies to apply integrated sustainability accounting information systems that might serve as a good practice model for companies, however, fragmented and compliance profiles are the prevailing ones.

The findings are important for fostering corporate social responsibility by developing sustainability accounting information systems.

This paper contributes to the sustainability accounting and information systems literature by providing empirical evidence linking contingent factors with the development of sustainability accounting information systems.