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The importance of developing and implementing sustainable business practices has never been greater. Business schools are increasingly tasked with preparing students to contribute to this imperative and although progress is being made, the impact of integrating sustainability into business school curriculum has remained uncertain as studies exploring the impact have been lacking. The purpose of this multi-case study was to examine the impact of integration efforts in two distinct undergraduate business programs at Royal Roads University. The research focused on how students' understanding of sustainability and their associated attitudes and behaviors changed as they progressed throughout their programs. In addition to considering the impact of a sustainability-infused curriculum, other factors affecting sustainability orientations were also explored. The study was unique in both its comparative nature and in its investigation of the various contextual factors shaping sustainability orientations. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and through document analysis. Findings suggest a combination of approaches to integration is most effective in impacting sustainability perspectives. While sustainability was generally understood in a multidimensional manner, there was a noticeable environmental bias and a tendency to view it within the business framework. A need for stronger and more comprehensive conceptualizations was identified. Recommendations include: (a) embed sustainability in a comprehensive manner across the curriculum, (b) move beyond a disciplinary conceptualization of sustainability and introduce stronger sustainability discourse, (c) utilize powerful experiential and place-based pedagogies, (d) pay attention to context and ensure both the formal and the informal curriculum mutually reinforce a pro-sustainability agenda.

Environmental issues have triggered the need for sustainable behavior around the globe. The tourism industry’s rapid growth also contributes to environmental degradation through natural resource depletion and excess water and energy utilization. Based on social identity theory, this study aims to assess the impact of environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives on green customers’ citizenship behavior. Furthermore, the study assesses the mediating effects of green trust, customer–company identification and green image.

This study is a quantitative approach, and purposive sampling technique was used to collect the data from the hotels’ customers from northern areas of Pakistan. This study used partial least square-structural equation modeling to analyze the data of 426 customers.

The study’s findings show that environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives significantly impact green customers’ citizenship behavior, green trust, customer–company identification and green corporate image. However, the relationship between green corporate image and green customers’ citizenship behavior was insignificant. Furthermore, the study’s results revealed that green trust and customer–company identification partially mediate between environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives and green customers’ citizenship behavior.

The findings suggest that hotels’ environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives improve green customer citizenship behavior, green trust and enhance customer–company identification. Therefore, hotel industry managers should consider reinforcing existing environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives and make further efforts to highlight the importance of such initiatives for environmental sustainability, which ultimately affects customers’ green customer citizenship behavior.

This research developed a novel framework to understand green customers’ citizenship behavior in the tourism industry. It extended the literature on environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives and green customers’ citizenship behavior. In addition, the research adds value by confirming the significant direct and mediating role of customer–company identification in tourism industry context.

Employee readiness for change is essential for long-term organizational success. However, organizations often struggle to generate employee support for change as they fail to mitigate associated uncertainties. Studies exploring possible antecedents of employee readiness for change primarily focus on internal organizational practices, while external practices have been overlooked in the discussion. Drawing from uncertainty reduction theory, we examine how external organizational practices in terms of external CSR positively affect readiness for change.

In a survey of 377 employees from 29 German companies, we test the hypothesized chain of effects between external CSR, perceived organizational support, perceived uncertainty, and readiness for change by using structural equation modeling.

Results from structural equation modeling demonstrate a positive relationship between external CSR and readiness for change, which is sequentially mediated by perceptions of organizational support and uncertainty.

By highlighting the role of external organizational practices in promoting change readiness, the paper offers new insights into the mechanisms of effective change management.

The current body of research has separately examined ethics education design and evaluation, as well as the development of ethical identity in managers. However, a notable deficiency in the literature lies in the absence of a comprehensive investigation into the interconnections between these two areas. This conceptual paper aims to address this lacuna.

Building on the theoretical foundations of identity control theory, this paper presents a conceptual model that outlines the dynamics of ethics education for managers, whether outside the organization or as a human resource development (HRD) initiative. Drawing upon a diverse range of literature sources, the model places significant emphasis on the interactive nature of identity formation, taking into account both individual agency and the educational context.

The conceptual model developed based on identity control theory illuminates the functioning of ethics education and its impact. The model illustrates the multifaceted nature of the relationship between ethics education and the development and sustenance of ethical identity in managers. It underscores the iterative process of identity control, wherein managers continuously navigate their ethical identities in response to internal and external influences.

While ethics education in management and HRD studies is widely acknowledged, there is a significant gap in understanding the psychological mechanisms that explain the maintenance of self-identity and the dynamic interplay between individuals and their social environment. This gap is particularly relevant to educational programs, which not only shape the social environment for trainees but also aim to foster the development and preservation of their individual identities.

This study explores how the various aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) impact customer satisfaction (CS) within the restaurant sector. Furthermore, it seeks to reveal if there is a moderating role played by gender in the relationship between CSR dimensions and CS in the realm of restaurant services.

The findings of this research were obtained by analysing 352 questionnaires collected from Iranian restaurants. Structural equation modelling was used to test the conceptual model.

According to this research, responsibility (economic, legal, ethical and environmental) is related to CS. Additionally, this study delves into the specific influence of each facet of CSR on CS, a departure from prior research which treated CSR as a singular entity. Consequently, the findings of this study offer clarity on which dimension of CSR can impact CS. Prior studies examining the correlation between CSR and CS typically encompassed various CSR aspects, including economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic dimensions, with the environmental dimension often subsumed under ethical CSR. This research, however, recognises environmental CSR as the fifth distinct dimension. The results of this research show that CS is directly and significantly influenced by all aspects of CSR (except philanthropy). Also, the findings of this research show that gender does not make a difference on the impact of different dimensions of CSR on CS.

The findings of this study provide restaurant managers with a deeper understanding of CSR and how it can influence CS. The research demonstrates that environmental CSR had the strongest impact on Iranian CS among the five CSR dimensions investigated. The findings also support the notion that Iranian consumers are beginning to use CSR information to evaluate restaurants.

This research represents an early exploration of how individual facets of CSR affect CS. As part of this investigation, Carroll’s initial model was modified to include a novel element, environmental responsibility, to address environmental concerns' growing importance. This study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that CSR activities are not all equally effective.

The paper analyzes socially embedded antecedents of sustainability and compares the results between two distinct contexts of Russia and Italy. Specifically, the paper identifies which forms of embeddedness (network, family and virtual) are associated with proactive environmental sustainability in SMEs.

The data for the study were gathered from the World Bank Enterprise Survey dataset and include observations of 1,106 Russian SMEs and 663 Italian SMEs. Given the dichotomous nature of the dependent variable “proactive environmental sustainability”, the study utilizes a binary logistic regression and test regression models on the Russian and Italian data.

Network embeddedness positively influences proactive environmental sustainability among SMEs in Italy, but not in Russia. Value chain environmental pressure positively impacts proactive environmental sustainability among SMEs in Russia and Italy. Network embeddedness negatively moderates the relationship between value chain environmental pressure and proactive sustainability in Russia, but not in Italy. Virtual embeddedness positively impacts proactive environmental sustainability practices among SMEs in Russia but not in Italy, while family embeddedness positively impacts proactive environmental sustainability practices in Italy, but not in Russia.

We employ social embeddedness theory to determine to what extent certain forms of embeddedness contribute to proactive environmental sustainability among SMEs originating from two very distinct national contexts, a developed economy and a transition (emerging) economy. Our comparative approach allows us to challenge the “traditional” assumptions about SMEs’ sustainability antecedents, by showing the key role of different forms of social embeddedness.

Organizations are partly responsible for the pollution in the world and are expected to contribute towards curbing climate change. Despite the growing importance of the environmental aspect of corporate social responsibility (CSR), i.e. corporate environmental responsibility (CER), current literature focuses more on its antecedents and outcomes rather than drilling deeper into the essential elements of the concept. This has resulted in conceptual confusion as researchers use different aspects to define, understand and measure CER. Hence, this study aims to identify the critical dimensions of CER from a practitioner’s point of view.

Twenty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior sustainability professionals across top Bombay Stock Exchange-indexed organizations in India. Manual content analysis and the Gioia method were used to arrive at the findings.

The critical components of CER are as follows: encompassing environmental responsibility mindset; optimized resource consumption; neutral water, energy and air status; multi-level environmental responsibility approach and targets; compliance, disclosure, reporting and policy formation; and green supply chain.

Our research introduces a comprehensive framework of dimensions to study, measure and represent CER, addressing a critical gap in the current literature. The authors identify and propose novel dimensions, such as the CER mindset and a multi-level approach, which are essential for a holistic understanding of CER. These dimensions, presently absent in academic definitions, render existing research based on those definitions incomplete. Integrating these new dimensions will significantly enhance the rigor and relevance of CER studies, offering a more robust foundation for future research and practical application.

We explore how sustainable management education (SME) can help prepare future leaders to manage crises effectively. Precisely, the intricacies of articulating moral and economic imperatives for businesses in a manner that engages students in sustainable behavior are a serious challenge for SME. We study how to integrate reminders of moral and economic imperatives in a socially responsible investment (SRI) stock-picking simulation created for SME.

Adopting an experimental design, we analyzed how the reminders affected the average environment social governance (ESG) integration in the portfolios of 127 graduate students in finance over a twelve-week period.

Our results show how essential it is to balance the two imperatives. The highest level of sustainable investment is attained when utilizing both reminders.

Our findings have practical implications for implementing and organizing SME in business schools to educate responsible leaders who are able to effectively manage crises. Learning responsible management is most effective when students are exposed to the inherent tension between moral and economic imperatives. Hence, our findings corroborate the win-win conception of SME.

No management decision study has experimentally measured the effects of SME practices on students' actual behavior. Our research fills this gap by complementing previous studies on the effectiveness of teaching practices, first by drawing on behavioral sciences and measuring changes in students' actual sustainability behavior and second by introducing moral and economic imperatives into an innovative teaching resource (TR) dedicated to SME.

Studies showed that stakeholders want the construction sector’s organisations to be more accountable and transparent regarding social and environmental issues through corporate social responsibility (CSR). There is a paucity of literature regarding CSR implementation in the construction sector, especially in developing countries like South Africa. Hence, the study evaluated CSR’s merits and hindrances and suggested solutions to enhance its implementation in the South African construction sector of Mpumalanga Province.

The researchers employed a questionnaire survey method to collect data from 68 useable respondents in the South African construction sector of Mpumalanga Province. The main section of the questionnaire was divided into three parts, each addressing an objective mean item score ranking technique.

Findings show management lacks willingness, absence of recognition for implementing CSR at tender adjudication, professionals regard CSR as a “soft issue,” inadequate ability to carry out CSR initiatives and lax CSR knowledge emerged as the key issues hindering construction stakeholders, especially construction companies, from participating in CSR in South Africa. The research suggests initiatives to enhance CSR in the construction industry.

The study shows that the findings can be used to improve the implementation of CSR engagement and possibly enhance a policy to stimulate friendly CSR in the South African construction sector.

Several organisations dedicate a portion of their budget and business websites to corporate social responsibility (CSR) events. This illustrates the significance attached to CSR events. In Ghana, a social disconnection may exist between the community and the construction sector. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the benefits of CSR in the construction industry, the implementation challenges and measures to enhance CSR in the Ghanaian built environment.

The qualitative technique was adopted using an extensive review of literature supported by structured interviews and analysed by context analysis. The participants include ministry and municipal directors, contractor associations, unions and institutions of engineers. The study achieved saturation.

Findings reveal that the construction industry’s CSR impacts the community’s social behaviour and has economic and environmental significance. The absence of government implementation policy and finance constraints were identified as Ghana’s major CSR implementation challenges. Also, besides the government instituting a mandatory policy on CSR in the industry, findings suggest that stakeholders, especially players in the industry and policymakers, should form an integral part of the CSR decisions.

Findings will support and recommend holistic measures to mitigate CSR implementation hindrances and encourage CSR via a central government's mandatory policy in the Ghanaian built environment.

Besides most studies used questionnaires, the contribution deduced shows that construction companies' management could use the knowledge from this study and involve all the relevant stakeholders when undertaking CSR activities. Also, the study would fill the scarcity of relevant materials concerning CSR in Ghanaian construction sector.