Search results

Universities and colleges, as societal educational institutions, have relatively recently attempted to begin to upgrade their multiple relationships with their natural environments, as have other institutions. However, “greening” initiatives of higher education institutions appear to have received far less attention in various bodies of academic literature than have the environmental policies and practices of these other institutions. This article highlights four US universities’ “campus ecology” projects, initially characterizing major elements of each, using a common organizational effectiveness model which has been widely employed in organization‐related academic fields.

Calls for corporate social responsibility are widespread, yet there is no consensus about what it means; this may be its charm. However, it is possible to distinguish the fi duciary obligations owed to shareholders, as expressed by Milton Friedman, from all other paradigms of corporate responsibility. Friedman maintains that: “ ...there is one and only one social responsibility of business‐to‐use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition, without deception or fraud.” All other paradigms argue that corporations have social responsibilities that extend beyond the pursuit of shareholder benefits to stakeholders. The list of cited stakeholders is ill‐defined and expanding, including non‐human animals and non‐sentient things. This paper defends the intellectual and ethical merits of fiduciary duties, and compares and contrasts it to the stakeholder paradigm. The fiduciary duty to firms’ owners is the bedrock of capitalism, and capitalism will wither without it.

The environment continues to command serious attention as a key consideration in the corporate strategy process, both within the specialised environmental management literature and increasingly from the general management literature (Avila and Whitehead 1993, Porter and van der Linde 1993, Shrivastava 1992). One important area of academic examination is that of corporate environmental behaviour.

Selects European business air travel as an example of a market that displays both industrial and consumer characteristics, and subsequently defines it as having a hybrid nature. Adopts a stakeholder approach to overcome the problems of the identification and analytical complexity associated with the decision‐making unit in this hybrid market. Collects data on three stakeholder groupings in a survey of 827 business travellers. Identifies the nature of the decision‐making process and the influence that each of the stakeholder groupings has in the purchase decision. Indicates that marketing strategies in the business air travel market could prove more successful through addressing multiple stakeholder groups involved in the purchase decision process. Suggests that the stakeholder model may provide a practical research approach to other hybrid markets where the DMU approach is difficult, particularly where there are many purchasing units.

The objective of this paper is to collate and debate the main issues driving the stakeholder theory academic debate.

First, a discussion of the stakeholder concept is set out before moving on to the history and nature of stakeholder theory. The work proceeds with an attempt to bring together systematically the points of divergence among researchers interested in stakeholder theory, and, finally, there is a brief discussion of these theoretical loopholes in conjunction with a proposed research agenda for the field.

Based on the unification of the theoretically problematic issues, research agenda are put forward with the objective of clarifying doubts and resolving the controversies ongoing among academics. As regards the formulation of stakeholder theory, one question requiring resolution is that of the stakeholder concept itself. Additionally, further research should focus on the boundaries as to what constitutes a stakeholder group as well as defining the criteria for attributing individual membership of one or another group. In practical theoretical application, it is correspondingly necessary to target research on aspects such as conflicts of interest between stakeholders and management difficulties in coping with multiple objectives. Finally, there is a need for research that systematizes the knowledge produced with the objective of attaining the theoretical convergence necessary for the development of stakeholder theory.

The main contribution of this paper derives from the systematization of the various shortcomings that need overcoming within the framework of stakeholder theory and the identification of research agendas.

To identify some of the barriers to mobilizing students of higher education in sustainable initiatives, in order to enhance project success on campuses.

Uses a case study of a model green building retrofit on the College of Charleston campus in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. Several constraints already identified in the literature are pin‐pointed in this case study as well as additional barriers important for understanding success (or the lack of success) of sustainability efforts. Using participant observation, delineates new impediments and lists previously studied constraints from existing literature.

Previous barriers identified include: stereotypes associated with activism; apathy among students; lack of tangible results; lack of coordination among the campus community; troubling national policies; cuts in state budgets; lack of project funding; and lack of sufficient time to implement satisfactory projects. New barriers include: the emotional dynamics between students and the issues associated with an urban, municipal, historic campus.

The case study is based on results after one year of project work versus long‐term results. The conclusions are intended to help all campuses, but particularly include historic and urban institutions and emotional dynamics between case study participants.

Overcoming barriers for an urban campus has the practical implications of a beneficial student project for both campus and community stakeholders.

The addition of these constraints to the list of barriers will help campus mobilization efforts to better anticipate and address concerns of students, and take into account the real‐world issues associated with sustainability, such as corresponding with the local municipality's needs, particularly addressing stringent historic preservation codes and various socio‐economic groups.

The authors perform a large‐scale literature review and use conceptual theory building to introduce the concept of sustainability to the field of supply chain management and demonstrate the relationships among environmental, social, and economic performance within a supply chain management context.

Conceptual theory building is used to develop a framework and propositions representing a middle theory of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM).

The authors introduce the concept of sustainability – the integration of environmental, social, and economic criteria that allow an organization to achieve long‐term economic viability – to the logistics literature, and position sustainability within the broader rubric of SSCM. They then present a framework of SSCM and develop research propositions based on resource dependence theory, transaction cost economics, population ecology, and the resource‐based view of the firm. The authors conclude by discussing managerial implications and future research directions, including the further development and testing of the framework's propositions.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the sustainability literature, introduces sustainability to the field of supply chain management, and expands the conceptualization of sustainability beyond the triple bottom line to consider key supporting facets which are posited to be requisites to implementing SSCM practices. The use of conceptual theory building to develop theoretically based propositions moves the concept of sustainability from a relatively a‐theoretical treatment toward new theory in supply chain management.

Microfoundations have become an effective approach for capability scholars to explore the heterogeneity of organizational results. Since the early pioneering work of scholars such as Felin and Foss, the microfoundations of strategic organization had not been extensively studied until 2010. The theoretical and empirical literature associated with the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities has developed rapidly. However, the diversity and fragmentation of micro-elements lead to a lack of a relatively consistent understanding of microfoundations, the study purpose is to aggregate the associated scattered terminology into a cohesive discussion.

A systematic literature review was conducted on research papers published between 2000 and 2022 using a hybrid methodology that included bibliometric and content analysis.

The authors suggest that this line of research can be divided into three stages. The study further develop a framework delineating the main components and mechanism involved in the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities, which in turn help us distill research gaps and opportunities for future work.

The authors construct a framework that can serve as a coherent research platform for further knowledge development. In the framework, the authors highlight that the research of group constructs, culture and leadership, data-driven topics are valuable for our understanding of the microfoundations of dynamics capabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive definition of green management. In the quest to systematically develop an inclusive definition, it seeks to take an exploratory approach to investigate the existing literature on green management from three different perspectives: first, tracing the history of how this concept emerged over time; second, considering the practices in which green organizations actually engage, focusing specifically on one company that has been recognized and honored for its extraordinary efforts toward sustainability; and third, reviewing the current developments in critical theory related to environmental issues and business.

This exploratory review of the literature uses a tripartite approach to forge a sound definition and conceptualization of the term green management. Exploration of green management from the three angles mentioned revealed some commonalities and consistencies in the terminology and concepts. Factors common to the three perspectives were included in the proposed definition of green management.

The ultimate product of the review is a comprehensive definition of green management. The identification of several commonalities using a tripartite approach lends support to the proposed definition and indicates to both researchers and practitioners that certain factors should not be ignored when attempting to study or practice green management.

To the authors' knowledge, green management has never been collectively reviewed from these three perspectives and the systematic approach resulted in a comprehensive definition that can help coordinate future research efforts around a common conceptualization.