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The purpose of this paper is to introduce this special issue, conceptualized and realized by a group of scholars engaged in the Global Organizational Learning and Development Network (GOLDEN) for Sustainability programme. It aims to adopt the overarching research question of the GOLDEN research programme “How do firms learn to integrate and manage sustainability in their business models, including their organizational purpose, strategy, processes, systems and culture?” as the guiding principle for case selection.

The paper first presents the key ideas underpinning the previous research question and illustrates the research approach and agenda of GOLDEN for Sustainability. Second, it introduces the eight case studies presented in this special issue.

The cases offer good illustrations of the ongoing transition by both medium‐sized and multinational corporations dealing with learning and change challenges posed by the identification and management of sustainability issues. The selected cases represent firms operating in diverse contexts and industries, and are developed by scholars specializing in various fields connected to corporate responsibility and sustainability.

The paper presents cases of organizations that have made sense of the sustainability challenge and also the different approaches taken to tackle the challenge, and the results stemming from their efforts..

This paper seeks to understand what impact the current economic and financial crisis has had on the business and non‐business sector's corporate responsibility (CR) efforts, as well as to describe the critical obstacles being reported to such efforts. It proposes to do this by examining one key CSR initiative, namely, the United Nations Global Compact (GC).

A two‐part empirical investigation was conducted on a sample of GC participants (US signatories). The first method comprises a comprehensive survey completed mainly by company CEOs. The second approach involves content analysis of CEO statements (extracted from CSR reports – fiscal years 2007‐2009), which describe new strategies for managing under challenging economic and financial times.

It was found that the CSR efforts of participants of the GC that have integrated their CSR into their policies, programs, performance, and goals, and those with lesser conformity with the active principles of the GC will be affected more by the economic crisis. The paper also reports on the challenges, opportunities, and new strategies for managing during the downturn.

While the study focuses on a relatively small sample of CSR‐driven organizations, it is shared with a framework that investigates CSR initiatives in distress and suggest anchors for future research.

To the best of one's knowledge, this research is the first effort to understand the implications of the current economic crisis on the CSR initiatives of GC participants in the USA. In addition to investigating the practical concerns of managers in times of crisis, our research questions the role of the initiative itself in dealing with these concerns.

The British retailer Marks & Spencer aspires to be the world's most sustainable major global retailer by 2015. This paper seeks to examine how the company is embedding sustainability.

The paper is written as part of an ongoing investigation into how businesses do this. It is based on direct dialogue with corporate sustainability specialists inside and outside the company; participation in company stakeholders' briefings held regularly since the launch of Marks & Spencer's Plan A for sustainability in January 2007; and analysis by the company's own corporate sustainability specialists about how they are embedding.

This case demonstrates that, in order to speed their journey, Marks & Spencer have aligned sustainability with core strategy. Top leadership is driving the strategy, which is overseen by the board. M&S have made a very public commitment: Plan A with measurable targets, timescales and accountabilities. The strategy is being integrated into every business function and strategic business unit; and involves suppliers, employees and increasingly customers. To enable implementation, the company is developing its knowledge‐management and training; engaging with wider stakeholders including investors; building partnerships and collaborations; and has evolved its specialist sustainability team into an internal change‐management consultancy and coach/catalyst for continuous improvement.

The value of the case study is that it provides an analysis of how one company, which has been active in progressing corporate sustainability, has evolved its approach in recent years.

This teaching case seeks to explain the main aspects of Acciona's sustainability strategy and the process of transformation of the company after the new CEO took office in 2004. It also aims to present some possible difficulties of maintaining such strategies in the new economic and political environment. The purpose of the case is to show how three aspects play a relevant role in a company's transformation towards sustainability: cultural change; collaboration with external stakeholders; and the innovations introduced.

The paper presents a case study that narrates the process of six years of transformation towards sustainability of a company. The case was constructed through the analysis of company documents and several interviews with key actors in the company as well as external stakeholders.

The paper shows how cultural change, collaboration with external stakeholders and innovation form a vital combination in the transformation process towards sustainability. It also reveals that acquisitions and internationalization can help accelerate or consolidate this process.

The paper is presented as a teaching case with discussion questions at the end. The aim is to engage readers and participants in educational and training programmes in discussions about the factors that may contribute to start and maintain a transformation towards sustainability. The practical implication of the paper is to show how cultural factors, collaboration and innovation form a vital combination for changing the way businesses do things.

The value of the case lies in showing how business efforts of embedding sustainability into business practice can be more effective by combining cultural factors, collaboration and innovation.

This case study aims to single out two companies in Norway belonging to the NCE Subsea cluster in the Bergen region, which are in the process of developing internationalization strategies. Most of the companies in the Subsea cluster are small to medium‐sized companies. Until recently they have not seen or felt the need to make their own understanding or actions regarding Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) explicit, even though knowledge about what CSR entails – now often shortened to CR or even SR (Social Responsibility) – may very well already exist in the mindset of managers and employees. However, to respond to potential international customers' demands – often coming from the larger oil companies – SMEs in the Subsea sector are seeking now a way to resolve this by starting a process within their own organizations, using the new process standard ISO 26000. For this reason, the central element of this study focuses on describing such internal processes, which embed CSR knowledge in the respective companies as part of an organizational learning process.

The paper adopted a case study method known as Appreciative Inquiry (AI).

The findings show that the initial phases of such processes are extremely important. It is crucial to view the embedding process of CSR/CR as part of a strategic implementation process, which is capable of interlinking and interlocking business goals with human, social and environmental objectives in order to foster a financially and socially responsible business.

The two cases provide insights into how ISO 26000 can be adapted by SMEs in order to embed a deeper understanding of CSR into the organization, using a participatory dialogue process. The cases can serve as a model for other SMEs who want to live up to the expectations of their main stakeholders, using a process where strategy, business innovation, personal development and continuous learning are interlocked with understanding social responsibility.

This paper aims to answer the following questions: Is corporate responsibility only a cost, or is it also a profitable business strategy? If so, can the strategy work in a B2B context, as well as in the B2C context typically covered by research on corporate responsibility? Finally, how does the geopolitical context of a developing Asian nation affect corporate responsibility, from both a managerial and a stakeholder perspective?

The paper adopts a case study approach, building from observed data to grounded theory.

In a firm where trust and transparency are both ingrained and enforced among managers, Hayleys PLC used those values as tools to transform relations with key stakeholders from costs to marketing assets. In the process, it created an ethical market network in which membership depends on adherence to the same values. Thus emergent ethical marketplaces are directly related to the spread of CR practices.

The effects of transparency beyond financial disclosure or sustainability reporting on stakeholder relations would be a particularly valuable object of further research. The structure of ethical markets, and the costs and benefits of participating in them, require and justify further study.

An ethical markets strategy can lead to stable long‐term relationships with major buyers. However, in the present circumstances, it also entails dependence on a limited number of major customers. Another issue is that, if “the factory becomes a sales tool”, it may also kill a sale if and when standards slip or a stakeholder creates conflict.

A corporate responsibility strategy may transform not only managerial practices, but also the social environment, by enabling or disabling stakeholder partners or adversaries. The means to this objective include providing services and empowerment to stakeholders (in this case, workers) who cannot obtain them from their traditional interlocutors.

This paper adds insight into the implications of corporate responsibility for firms involved in B2B markets, as well as for Asian multinationals. It also contributes to answering the question of how corporate responsibility adds value, by demonstrating how corporate responsibility may strengthen key productive and commercial relationships with stakeholders essential to the sustainability of the firm.

The changing nature of the interaction between multilateral institutions and the private sector, such as the one extended by the United Nations (UN) through the Global Compact, has raised profound questions about authority and legitimacy in international relations. This paper seeks to provide the criteria for fairly assessing corporate citizenship initiatives as these form an integral part of the changing nature of corporate governance.

This paper uses the Global Compact's 2007 annual review as a point of reference and critical evaluation. The paper refers to the gap found among participants and their inability to answer to the relevant questions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as originally set forth by the UN.

There has been a substantial increase in both scale and impact by this type of private sector initiative: a 50‐fold growth in just seven years – unlike any other international collaborative partnership. Based on the assessment, the ongoing question regarding its legitimacy, its operationality and efficiency for improving global governance still remains a challenge at large.

Empirical research on the impact, accountability, challenges and successes of the Global Compact is limited. The aim of this study is to progress understanding of both the limitations on, and opportunities for, the role of business in global governance when CSR is used as an international tool for community involvement. To this end, in addition to a critique of the UNGC's self‐assessment, the paper proposes a researcher's model for assessing corporate citizenship initiatives.

The purpose of this research is to provide an insight into the learning process leading to the integration of company responsibility, in companies that are moving from a generic approach of Corporate Social Responsibility towards a holistic approach of stakeholder management. The analysis of a case study of a multinational Italian company, Autogrill Group S.p.a., will be explored as an organizational learning process using the framework of a recent approach of Total Responsibility Management.

The method of qualitative research is based on the analysis of the theory of the subject and through the use of various techniques to study the case to give a longitudinal perspective.

The use of the case study suggests that the path from a CSR perspective toward a stakeholder management model of responsibility is a “gradual” learning process that requires vision, commitment, integration, innovation, competence, management systems and resources. This learning process is also very important as a “catalyst” of innovation and for the continuous improvement of the company.

In this research the aim is to inquire: How do companies learn to integrate their responsibilities in the process of management, moving from a generic approach of CSR toward a holistic approach of stakeholder management?

The stakeholder management model of Total Responsibility Management in this research is used to assist understanding the importance of managing the company responsibly and to show a way of reading the progress of a multinational company, which is on the path towards a more stakeholder‐oriented model of responsibility.

Sabaf, a world‐leading manufacturer of components for domestic gas cooking appliances, went through a transformation process between 1993 and 2005 to develop a strategic approach to corporate responsibility that embedded social, environmental and governance issues into its organisation, its approach to business and its overall performance. This case describes the learning and change process within the company that set the ground for today's success.

This teaching case builds on data gathered through sites visits, interviews and company materials. The case research protocol explored the notion that the company was learning how to interact, and respond to its changing context, while its responses were creating the ground for internal organisational change that in turn would impact the relationship between the company and its context.

While on the surface the change process which Sabaf experienced can be regarded as a move from an implicit to a more explicit approach to corporate responsibility, it is also possible to take the view that the company was engaged in developing a more “humanistic” approach to management that permeated the whole organization. What became explicit at Sabaf was not corporate responsibility but rather the term “corporate responsibility” used to describe much older concepts of business that valued people and the natural environment alongside economics. The case also shows the process of organizational leadership for learning, management innovation and change that supported the processes through which this approach was developed and integrated into the company.

This case provides unique insights into the approach Sabaf adopted in its pioneering transformation to become a leading corporate responsibility company and a world leader in its sector. This case can be used as a benchmark for other companies that might embark on the process of integrating corporate responsibility and business performance as a strategic process that has effects that cut across the business as a whole.

The aim of this paper is to examine how corporations in India interpret corporate social responsibility (CSR). Focusing on four commonly known approaches: the ethical, the statist, the liberal, and the stakeholder approach, the paper seeks to investigate the reported drivers and barriers to implementing CSR practices.

The paper surveyed top‐level managers of a sample of companies currently engaging in a CSR initiative, representing a variety of industry sectors.

The study finds that the CSR approach that is most favored by Indian firms is the stakeholder approach and that the caring or the moral motive, followed by the strategic or profit motive, are important drivers for Indian firms to pursue CSR. Further, the results indicate that the most significant obstacles to CSR implementation are those related to lack of resources, followed by those related to the complexity and difficulty of implementing CSR.

The study focuses on the activities of leading Indian firms participating in the UN Global Compact (GC), thereby restricting one's knowledge of CSR practices of non‐participants. Future research should expand on this effort either by conducting comparative studies of non‐participants to the GC, or by investigating CSR practices of firms engaging in other voluntary initiatives.

The majority of studies on CSR are still embedded in the economic and organizational contexts of Europe and the USA. This research aims to address this gap by focusing on the CSR framework of developing nations, particularly the emerging market of India.