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This paper aims to describe and discuss a balance model of theoretical business sustainability, to leverage the inferior side, so as to enhance performance.

A conceptual description and discussion are provided, along with an empirical depiction.

The empirical illustration presents one organization that embodies the goals of theoretical business sustainability in the marketplace and society.

Further research is needed to enhance our understanding of the phenomenon and performance of business sustainability in supply chains.

Findings highlight that there is no justification for practitioners to strive consistently for anything other than theoretical business sustainability, and stakeholders need to push organizations in that direction.

The paper contributes to our understanding of what should be done and why business sustainability performance should be improved in supply chains.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize and describe how service providers’ and service receivers’ teleological actions relate to negative emotions after critical incidents in service encounters have occurred.

Three categories of teleological actions are used: transformative – ad hoc and present-based actions, formative – pre-determined and past-based actions and rationalist – goal-directed and future-based actions.

The empirical findings indicate that airline ground staff should interact differently with air passengers based on the negative emotions involved and the teleological actions undertaken after critical incidents in service encounters have occurred.

The current research improves the interactive and sequential understanding of how to manage negative emotions through teleological actions in service encounters between a service provider and a service receiver after critical incidents have occurred, as well as providing numerous opportunities for further research in services.

It is an important and relevant insight that it is necessary to understand both the initial and derived causes of negative emotions and the subsequent effects and outcomes occurring in service encounters after critical incidents have arisen.

This current study provides theoretical and managerial contributions to manage negative emotions after critical incidents have occurred in service encounters.

The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent that a selection of economic, social and environmental factors is taken into corporate consideration (importance and priority) the longitudinal aspects of sustainable business practices.

This study is based on an inductive approach taking into account the longitudinal aspects and an in-depth case study of a Scandinavian manufacturer recognized for its initiatives and achievements of sustainable business practices.

The key informants indicated that economic factors are always important when it comes to sustainable business practices, social factors are to some extent important, and the environmental factors are generally important.

The planning, implementation and follow-up of sustainable business practices and related efforts require a consideration of economic, social and environmental factors.

The framework of a triple bottom line (TBL) dominant logic for business sustainability applied may guide the corporate assessment to plan, implement and follow-up the importance and priority of the longitudinal aspects of sustainable business practices.

A TBL dominant logic for sustainable business practices adequately frames corporate efforts regarding importance and priority making a relevant contribution addressing the longitudinal aspects to complement existing theory and previous studies.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the similarities and differences relating to sustainability initiatives between health-care organizations. The aim is to provide a framework of factors and their determinants to enable a profiling of organizational sustainability initiatives.

Based on an inductive approach, judgmental sampling was applied to select relevant health-care organizations. Informants were identified according to their knowledge of their organizations’ sustainability initiatives.

Several factors and their determinants for characterizing differences and similarities were found. The results also reveal that organizational sustainability initiatives are either value-driven or business-driven.

The reported framework of factors and their determinants serves the purpose of profiling organizational sustainability initiatives. Opportunities for further research are provided.

This paper provides managerial guidance for characterizing the differences and similarities with respect to organizational sustainability initiatives in relation to other organizations.

This study establishes a framework for characterizing organizational sustainability initiatives. It also contributes to reveal whether organizational sustainability initiatives are value – or business-driven and considers intrinsic-oriented differences and extrinsic-oriented similarities.

The purpose of this study is to compare and validate firms’ internal and external stakeholder considerations in sustainable business practices across business settings. It aims to assess the validity and reliability of a stakeholder framework appearing in previous studies.

The study uses a questionnaire survey and a cross-industry sample consisting of the largest firms in corporate Sweden. Multivariate analysis tests the stakeholder framework. Each of the 294 key informants was initially identified and contacted by telephone, generating a response rate of 36.5 per cent.

The tested stakeholder framework appears valid and reliable across countries to assess the internal stakeholders of focal firms, as well as their up- and downstream, market and societal stakeholders. This study provides additional empirical support to categorize firms’ stakeholder considerations in sustainable business practices.

This study validates previous findings in terms of Swedish firms’ considerations of internal and external stakeholders in sustainable business practices in relation to one similar country (Norway) and one different country (Spain). The study also shows how the three countries perceive the focal company and societal stakeholders differently.

The tested framework sheds light on focal firms’ stakeholder considerations in sustainable business practices and elucidates the extent to which firms’ account for their internal and external stakeholders in sustainable business practices.

This study contributes to the development of valid and reliable stakeholder theory across contexts and through time. In particular, it contributes to the development of a valid and reliable framework to categorize firms’ stakeholder considerations in sustainable business practices.

The purpose of this paper is to validate or refute the previous empirical findings of a TBL dominant logic for business sustainability and to expand the TBL dominant logic for business sustainability with additional dimensions and items. The study aims to provide bottom-up-based multi-dimensional framework in relation to the sustainable development goals (SDG) of the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development.

Key corporate informants in top Spanish companies were requested to participate in the study. A total of 89 usable questionnaires were returned, generating an initial response rate of 42.4%.

A framework for a TBL-dominant logic in the context of business sustainability has been empirically tested successfully across contexts and through time, thus providing substantiation for universal applicability.

This study provides a relevant and important substantiation for validity and reliability across contexts and through time. It is important in research to establish a theoretical framework at the corporate level for business sustainability in connection with SDGs. This study is not without its limitations, but offers opportunities for further research.

The framework provides practitioners with a foundation to assess their efforts at business sustainability, taking into account a broad selection of aspects across environmental, social and economic elements that contribute to SDGs.

This study makes two relevant and valuable contributions to developing a framework of TBL dominant logic for business sustainability, namely, validation and expansion. It offers also multiple opportunities for both research and practice to assess business sustainability efforts across environmental, social and economic aspects in relation to SDGs.

The purpose of this paper is to assess both private and public organizations in order to compare the similarities and differences between the organizational priority logic of TBL elements. The research objective is, therefore, to describe the organizational logic, so as to prioritize between economic, social and environmental elements of the triple bottom line (TBL). The approach is also to describe the common denominators and differentiators between private and public organizations.

Based on judgmental sampling and in-depth interviews of executives at private and public hospitals in Spain. Data were collected from the directors of communication of private hospitals, and from the executive in charge of corporate social responsibility of public hospitals.

The organizational logic for prioritizing the elements of TBL differs between private and public hospitals. The economic element of TBL is crucial to survival for private hospitals. Compliance with the legal requirements and certifications of the environmental element is the major concern for public hospitals. Private and public hospitals would both pay considerably greater attention to the social element of TBL, if there were no judicial and economic restrictions.

This study differs from previous ones in terms of exploring the interfaces and relationships between TBL elements, which focus on the organizational logic to prioritize between the elements of TBL. There are both common denominators and differentiators between private and public hospitals, when it comes to the priority logic of TBL elements.

The priority logic of determining the most important TBL element it is mainly about satisfying organizational needs and societal demands. Determining the second most important TBL element is mostly about organizational preferences and what it wants to achieve. Determining the least important TBL element it is about the organizational mindset for and with respect to the future.

This study contributes to determining the appropriate organizational priority logic of the TBL elements, as well as common denominators and differentiators between private and public organizations. It also contributes to explaining the organizational reasoning as to why one TBL element may be prioritized over another, an issue which has not been addressed in existing theory and previous studies.

The purpose of this study is two-fold: to determine the extent to which companies’ efforts aimed at sustainable business practices consider stakeholders in their organisations and business networks, the marketplace and society; and to validate or refute a stakeholder framework of business sustainability efforts within focal companies, the marketplace, society and business networks.

The study is based on a questionnaire survey targeting large companies across industries and sectors in Spain. The sample consisted of 231 companies generating a useable response rate of 38.5 per cent. Exploratory factor analysis was performed on a cross-industry sample to test a five-dimensional framework.

This study reports on the validation of initial and refined factor solutions. The factor analysis confirmed five stakeholder dimensions related to business sustainability efforts of organisations, their business networks, marketplace and society. The validated results indicate satisfactory convergent, discriminant and nomological validity and reliability through time and across contexts.

The stakeholder framework in connection with business sustainability efforts in supply chains consisting of five factors was validated: the focal company, downstream stakeholders, societal stakeholders, market stakeholders and upstream stakeholders. Suggestion for further research is provided.

The validated framework of stakeholders allows an insight into the environment in which stakeholders operate and how they influence the focal company.

The manuscript contributes to the validation of a stakeholder framework of business sustainability efforts within focal companies, their business networks, the marketplace and society. The measurement properties provide support for acceptable validity and reliability across contexts and through time.

The triple bottom line (TBL) is still commonly explored in research without joint consideration of economic, social and environmental elements of business sustainability (BS). The purpose of this paper is to re-test and validate a BS framework based on the TBL approach.

This study is based on a questionnaire survey consisting of the largest firms in corporate Sweden. A total of 107 usable questionnaires were ultimately received, for a response rate of 36.5 percent.

The findings validate and extend a framework of a TBL-dominant logic for BS. A total of 19 dimensions indicating satisfactory validity and reliability of the BS framework were identified.

The BS framework offers relevant insights to monitor and assess a TBL-dominant logic for BS. It also provides opportunities for further research.

Managers can use the BS framework as a tool to map firm priorities in connection with BS. Each dimension of the BS framework offers insights into how to monitor and assess firms’ efforts in the TBL.

This study contributes to validate and extend the TBL-dominant logic for BS. The BS framework also offers a timely and relevant contribution to both scholars and practitioners engaging in business sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to validate a triple bottom line (TBL) construct, as well as to describe the TBL reasons for implementing sustainable business practices in companies and their business networks.

This study reports on the validation of a TBL construct, in a Spanish context, of a study originally conducted in Norway. In this validation study, 230 companies were selected for participation. A total of 89 usable questionnaires were returned, generating a response rate of 38.5 per cent.

The empirical findings indicate major similarities and minor differences between organizations in Spain and Norway across two studies. By extension, the empirical findings appear to be valid and reliable across contexts and through time.

This study explains the structural properties of the main reasons for business sustainability (economic, social and environmental) and business sustainability efforts in companies and the supply chains or business networks.

Business sustainability efforts need to be assessed in a systematic manner, and the validated TBL construct offers a foundation for doing this, though it needs to be complemented with other elements and details in connection with business sustainability.

Business sustainability efforts have been evolving over time and are increasingly seen to consider economic viability, as well as environmental sustainability and social responsibility. This study deals with how these elements of TBL are interrelated with respect to business sustainability.