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The move of organizations towards corporate global responsibility (CGR) is often a major change process that requires leadership throughout the organization. Despite an array of studies on managerial competencies in this area, previous research on leadership for CGR has not studied the actual leadership practices that are employed in a company's journey to CGR. The paper aims to fill this gap and to show how leadership for CGR is enacted by individuals and organizations that are highly successful CGR leaders.

The paper uses a comparative case‐study approach of five multinational companies that are recognized as industry leaders for CGR. A total of 54 semi‐structured interviews with senior managers were complemented by ten focus groups and an examination of company reports, value charters and mission statements. Interviews as the main source of information were double‐coded in a three‐step process with the goal of knowledge development.

The paper identifies eight interrelated categories of leadership practices for global responsibility: developing CGR vision, strategy, and goals; integrating CGR into business decisions and operations; top management role modeling of CGR; engaging across boundaries; employee development and empowerment; systematic communication about CGR; developing accountability for CGR; and visible integrity in management behavior and decision making.

The findings suggest that focusing on these leadership practices helps organizations build a strong leadership culture that is supportive of CGR.

The examination of actual leadership practices on multiple levels complements the existing knowledge on individual management competencies that are useful for driving CGR in organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to expand the field of sustainability/corporate social responsibility research to include a focus on leadership. It aims to present an exploratory study of senior leaders in organizations formally adopting principles of sustainability and how these leaders enact the tasks of leadership: setting direction, creating alignment, and maintaining commitment within the context of sustainability.

The study uses a qualitative approach, sampling senior executives from organizations formally adopting sustainability practices and using a structured interview to uncover their leadership practices related to sustainability.

Leaders adopting sustainability practices are similar to other “effective” leaders and yet they also have additional capacity and mindset to include a wider expanse of stakeholders and a different mindset as to the purpose of organizations.

Limited sample of senior executives/CEOs, as well as a difficulty in attesting an organization's level of commitment to sustainability; this research links the field of leadership to the field of sustainability and calls for a more in‐depth investigation into the roles leaders and leadership play in the successful implementation of sustainability practices.

Leaders interested in pursuing a sustainability agenda should pay attention to how the concept is framed and introduced into the organization; they should build capacity in their systems (educational, communication, rewards, performance, etc.) and culture to support sustainability, and broad and deep stakeholders engagement is essential for success.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role played by leadership in divestment decision making and indeed during the corporate restructuring phase for retail organisations. In doing so, the paper aims to contribute to a growing body of research that seeks to develop understanding of the factors leading to retail divestment and the nature of corporate response to divestment.

A multiple case approach is utilised. The cases are selected from a database of international retail divestment activity over a longitudinal period.

The paper demonstrates that divestment can be a response to “failure”, however, support is also provided for the assertion that divestment can be a strategic decision to devote resources more efficiently elsewhere, either at home or abroad. A key finding is the role of leadership and managerial stability in relation to divestment and restructuring at home and abroad.

The themes presented in this paper are developed from observational data. The validity of the themes should be examined further through in‐depth, qualitative case studies of divestment activity. Future research could examine the role of new CEOs both in relation to the divestment itself and during the process of restructuring following divestment.

The role of leadership and managerial stability in divestment and corporate restructuring processes are highlighted. Insights are provided into the organisational response to divestment actions and the implications for further international strategies.

Academic debate on divestment has highlighted a wide range of reasons that lead to retailers divesting international operations and the strategic value of divestment. This paper adds to existing knowledge by examining the role of leadership within the divestment process.

Organizational culture plays a central role when dealing with the issue of digital business transformation (DBT). Managers handling a DBT and involved in digital strateging are expected to modify the organizational culture of firms to make it more fitting with the paradigm of digital economy and having more chance of success. Thus, it is noteworthy to inspect the role they can have over DBTs. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the behavior that managers assume when they approach DBTs by investigating whether they act as mentors/facilitators or entrepreneurs/innovators, as coordinators or decision makers.

To achieve the above purpose, ten case studies about manufacturing firms have been selected. Case studies, retrieved by the Digital Innovation Observatories of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano, are studied and analyzed by means of a qualitative content analysis on textual data. This allows getting specific insights into organizational culture before and after DBT and about the role played by managers.

Achieved results disclose that managers need to modify the organizational culture of their firms to handle a successful DBT. However, firms can assume different organizational culture and thus the role assumed by managers handling a DBT can change as well.

To the authors knowledge, this paper is among the first that aim to investigate the role that mangers assume when handling DBTs. In particular, originality lies in the fact that assumed roles are rebuilt in reference to their ability to modify organizational culture.

This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing debate about the relevance of sustainability in management education through exploration of the needs and expectations of a key group of business schools’ stakeholders – senior executives of leading corporations.

The paper presents findings from a survey regarding sustainability within management education returned by executives from a wide span of global companies. The study includes 194 survey responses by senior executives from companies that are signatories of the United Nations Global Compact.

Results from a survey of executives from leading multinational enterprises reveal widespread recognition that sustainability issues are increasingly important for effective management, thus that managers must be appropriately trained for these emerging challenges. Survey results also indicate the kinds of skills and qualities seen as valuable by corporate leaders.

It is not possible to extrapolate from this study the aggregate sentiment of all senior business executives, but the sample of 194 respondents is significant.

The expressed demand from business leaders provides context for business school faculty and administrators involved in the development of appropriately trained professionals.

The study provides indication of demand from a significant subset of influential executives, providing support for the on-going progress of the integration of sustainability topics and training in the curricula of business and other fields.

The purpose of this case study is to explore the depth of integration of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), defined as the triple bottom line (3BL), throughout the Wilh. Wilhelmsen (WW) Shipping Company. The endeavor is to understand how the company defines CSR, the developmental experiences of the leaders toward CSR and to identify strategies, policies and practices implemented to support CSR.

As a part of a larger CSR research project on European‐based companies practicing CSR, Wilh. Wilhelmsen was the first organization selected to be studied in understanding the levels of integration of CSR throughout the company. The methodology used for collecting the data consisted of one‐on‐one interviews with senior executives and focus group sessions conducted with a cross‐section of staff employees and middle level managers at Wilh. Wilhelmsen headquarters in Lysaker, Norway.

Interviews and focus group sessions indicated that CSR and sustainability are not typically understood as the execution of a 3BL strategy among the majority of WW employees. However, when the 3BL concept was explained as the focus of the research, all seemed to be clear as to how it fits in the WW goals and objectives, and the responses from senior executive interviews and employee focus groups were very similar. In terms of how social responsibility got started at WW, most agreed that the practice is a tradition initiated by the Wilhelmsen family generations back and sustained by the current majority owner Mr Wilhelm Wilhelmsen. While all agreed that CSR leadership had been strong at WW, employees and mid‐level managers saw some problems in the consistent enactment of company values across the organization and some made suggestions for improvements. However, the employee/middle manager groups positioned WW, as a whole, closer to having a fully‐integrated sustainability practice than did the individual senior executives interviewed.

Interviews and focus groups were the methods used to collect data; however, data collection was mostly limited to senior executives and managers. Frontline workers (e.g. ship employees) were not present for either focus group. These frontline workers, particularly those who work on the ships internationally and interact with various cultures as they transport goods from country to country, may have offered a somewhat different perspective regarding implementation of CSR practices world‐wide.

Organizational leaders benefit from learning more about what practices, systems, and organizational culture components are important in initiating and sustaining CSR in business operations world‐wide.

As a case study, the paper provides an up‐close picture of the challenges one company has faced in implementing CSR and the factors underlying its success thus far.

This study examines a general education, hands-on and 100 per cent online laboratory course to better understand the prospects for fostering green building literacy through experiential online education.

The mixed-methods research design included pre- and post-course surveys (n = 42) together with semi-structured interviews mid-semester (n = 10) and four to six months post-course (n = 5). Data were collected for two semesters.

Students experienced significant increases in green building knowledge and skills, environmental sensitivity and pro-environmental behaviors from the beginning to the end of the course. Qualitative results indicate that the hands-on laboratory assignments were the primary pedagogical interventions affecting change. Interviews four to six months after the course revealed that motivation, convenience and supportiveness of the context were key factors impacting the pro-environmental behaviors that were maintained versus those that were discontinued by students when the course was over.

This paper shares effective approaches used to deliver an online course with hands-on laboratories that lead to positive increases in sustainability knowledge and behaviors stretching beyond the semester.

While online and experiential learning are both well-studied themes in higher education, very little empirical work examines experiential online learning, and this is particularly the case for online laboratory courses. The work here contributes to the understanding of general education online laboratories that are designed to increase knowledge and behavior change through hands-on experiential learning techniques.

The research presented here initiates the process of the detailed analysis of international retail divestment activity through the identification of the volume of global divestment activity and the characteristics of that activity during the timeframe of 1987‐2003.

The methodology followed here is essentially historical in nature and draws on a wide range of contemporary periodicals, reports and other sources.

The paper reports findings on: the form and extent of divestment activity; the year of divestment; divestment by retail sub‐sector; divested chain size; length of time spent in the market of divestment; divestment by retail sub‐sector; and the market of origin of divesting retailer.

This paper provides an initial indication of the volume and nature of international retail divestment in the period considered. Such material has not been available previously. International retailing research has primarily focused on the internationalisation process rather than retail divestment from international markets. However, divestment from international markets is an issue of increasing importance within the competitive global environment. Previously research into retail divestment has focused on individual company experience. For the first time, the research presented here attempts to build a picture of the scale and dimensions of international retail withdrawal. The paper shows that patterns of international divestment are discernible.

The emergence of gender-nonconforming behavior in a child presents an opportunity and, often, significant pressure for parents to question the gender beliefs they have taken for granted. The purpose of this research is to examine how parents of gender-diverse youth respond to such pressures and ultimately come to understand and support their children’s gender identity.

This research is guided by Ridgeway’s theoretical concept of gender as a primary frame for coordinating social life. Using in-depth interviews with 36 supportive parents of gender-diverse children, the author details the process by which parents developed a critical consciousness of gender and subsequently adopted trans-affirming beliefs in response to their children’s gender-nonconformity.

Findings illustrate the power of gender as a primary frame for organizing life within the family as well as the circumstances under which hegemonic gender beliefs can be disrupted and alternative beliefs can be formed. The analysis shows that the process of making space for gender diversity within the home, which is taken on almost exclusively by mothers, invokes competing maternal mandates of raising “proper” children versus modeling selfless devotion to children’s happiness and well-being. As mothers navigate these conflicting requirements to create greater gender freedom for their children, they reinforce and perpetuate gender stereotypes that cast women as natural caregivers. Ironically, the work of intensive mothering is also the mechanism through which women come to develop alternative gender beliefs that they then use to expand gender possibilities for their children.