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Despite the scholarly attention for the integration of sustainability within business strategy and processes, little is known about how strategic orientations of companies influence this integration. Drawing on stewardship theory, this paper aims to analyse the influence of strategic orientation of companies on their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance and the moderating effect of three different political models of economy (Rhine, British and American).

This paper creates a measurement for strategic orientations by using a coding scheme with a five-category evaluation matrix. The main empirical analysis is done by a fixed-effect model with a panel data set covering 179 publicly traded companies over the 2009-2016 period.

The conclusions of this paper present that – consistent over time – a stronger orientation on stewardship positively associates with higher ESG performance. Additionally, the political model of economy significantly alters the relationship indicating the effect of strategic orientation on ESG performance. The relationship is significantly stronger in the Rhine model and significantly weaker in the British model, when both compared to the American model.

The implications of this paper are vital to understanding corporate strategic orientation and its relationship to actual corporate behaviour and long-term performance. Implementing the elements of focus, motivation, commitment, support and communication linked to a stewardship orientation is fundamental to achieve higher levels of sustainability performance.

This paper aims to explore how the dynamic capabilities sensing and seizing could support a sustainable (either instrumental or stewardship) strategic orientation in the apparel industry.

Through qualitative and inductive research design, ten companies from the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, specifically focusing on brands, were researched. Employees in strategic positions were interviewed. Subsequently, thematic analysis was realized to extract findings from both instrumental and stewardship organizations.

Instrumental organizations focus on increasing their brand, mainly by following market demands. They sense opportunities via a hierarchical organizational structure that allows for incremental innovation based on internal competition. Stewardship organizations believe in a collective approach toward conducting business effectively. While building a “sustainable case for business”, a stewardship-oriented company senses by involving their stakeholders and seeks unorthodox opportunities using a long-term internal compass as a beacon for decision-making.

Key capabilities are revealed that allow businesses and managers to reach higher levels of sustainability in a specific sector: the apparel industry. Especially the capabilities of stewardship-oriented companies and its ambidexterity provide a fertile base for future research at the nexus of organization development and sustainability.

Organizational change involves optimizing a firm’s sustainability performance. The purpose of this paper is to explore how strategic orientations concerning the interface between business and society influence organizations’ sustainability performance. To explain how different strategic orientations – especially stewardship and instrumental orientations – impact sustainability performance, dynamic managerial capability theory is explored.

Ours is an inductive, qualitative study based on the template analysis of interviews conducted among sustainability managers from stock-listed multinational corporations headquartered in the Eurozone.

Corporations with a stewardship orientation develop different dynamic managerial capabilities underlying sustainability performance than corporations that apply a more instrumental orientation. Results also show an “in-between” position: an equidistant orientation.

This study proves the emergence of different dynamic managerial capabilities that depend on companies’ strategic orientation, but follow-up research based on appreciative inquiry is needed to investigate the development of these capabilities over time.

For achieving a higher level of sustainability performance, a stewardship orientation offers a stronger foundation than an instrumental orientation. Also companies with an equidistant orientation have a better sustainability performance than companies with an instrumental orientation, but based on a more central corporate level. The strategic orientation must be grounded in the development of fitting dynamic managerial capabilities that include an emphasis on shared cognition of long-term objectives, inclusion of stakeholders and setting objectives. Also strong internal and external ties, leadership of the CEO, educational background and how to deal with lack of knowledge are important aspects of managerial social and human capital.

Due to its focus on the sustainability performance of companies and the identification of the supporting dynamic managerial capabilities, this paper is socially highly relevant.

Previous research has focused on strategic orientation, but little to no research has investigated how various strategic orientations toward the interface between business and society impact sustainability performance or what role dynamic managerial capabilities might play in the related change process.