Ecocentric management mindset: a framework for corporate sustainability
Critical Perspectives on International Business
ISSN: 1742-2043
Article publication date: 14 August 2021
Issue publication date: 15 June 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to propose a framework to drive organizations, and particularly multinational enterprises, to understand and internalize a sustainable mindset for implementing efficient and effective corporate sustainability initiatives and helping them achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Design/methodology/approach
The framework is based on the bidirectional iterative process of the flexible pattern matching methodology. The literature on ecocentric management was examined from top to bottom in its dialogue with corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The bottom-up phase was based on highly visible deviant cases of companies that were significantly recognized for their CSR or for their sustainability programs but became well-known examples of unsustainability. Additionally, an illustrative case was analyzed to examine the mindset in practice.
Findings
The study offers a framework based on six constructs that were identified in ecocentric management literature. It translates the ecocentric management mindset framework into behaviors for organizations that want to conduct efficient sustainable programs that help them achieve the SDGs.
Originality/value
The proposed new framework highlights the conceptual pillars of ecocentric management, and offers practical and theoretical perspectives on how sustainability can be better addressed at the corporate level, and help achieve the SDGs.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
“This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001 and we also thanks FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation) for the doctoral fellowship of one of the authors (Grant 2018/26505–5).”
The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedbacks. The authors are also grateful to Ann Cunliffe and Luciana Hashiba for their comments on an earlier version of this paper.
Citation
Araujo, C.L., Picavet, M.E.B., Sartoretto, C.A.P.d.S., Dalla Riva, E. and Hollaender, P.S. (2022), "Ecocentric management mindset: a framework for corporate sustainability", Critical Perspectives on International Business, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 518-545. https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-07-2020-0095
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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