Corporate sustainability

About: Corporate sustainability is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3517 publications have been published within this topic receiving 94075 citations.

How an international ambidexterity strategy can address the paradox perspective on corporate sustainability: Evidence from Chinese emerging market multinationals

Abstract: Corporate sustainability (CS) is receiving considerable attention from emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs), playing an important role in the globalized market. However, theoretical and empirical knowledge about how EMNEs address CS is still scant, and the relationship between internationalization and CS has not been widely explored. This study aims to fill this gap, evaluating the relationship between an international ambidexterity strategy and CS in EMNEs, which highlighted the paradox perspective. Then we develop three hypotheses in which we argue how the dynamic capabilities underpinning international ambidexterity could be considered a driver of CS in EMNEs. We test the developed hypotheses against data from 300 Chinese EMNEs obtained by a survey. Our results contribute to shape ambidextrous international strategies and to consider CS as a springboard for the strategic intent to systematically and recursively outperform global competition. Testing a measurement scale of international ambidexterity, we suggest structural ambidexterity as a strategic option of internationalization that allows the achievement of economic, social, and environmental sustainability objectives.

The value relevance of banking sector multidimensional corporate sustainability performance

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate Turkish banks' multidimensional corporate sustainability performance and whether banks' sustainability efforts are value related. Both qualitative and quantitative data analysis, namely content analysis, entropy based and TOPSIS techniques, have been utilized in order to measure the sustainability performance. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient has been employed to investigate the nexus between overall sustainability performance scores of the banks and market value during the years 2013 and 2015. The results of this study are insignificant in the ongoing debate on whether Turkish banks' sustainability efforts are value related. However, a significant and positive relationship has been found between the financial sustainability performance and the market value in the long run. Additionally, a multidimensional corporate sustainability model that has the five dimensions of economic, environmental, social, governance and financial disclosures has been proposed. This paper is among the first to explore the nexus between sustainability performance and market value in Turkey.

Involving Corporate Functions: Who Contributes to Sustainable Development?

Abstract: A large body of literature claims that corporate sustainable development is a cross-functional challenge, which requires all functional units to be involved. However, it remains uncertain to what extent and in which way different corporate functions are actually involved in corporate sustainability management. To bridge this research gap, our paper draws on a concept of involvement introduced in the field of consumer behavior. Based on this previous research, our paper distinguishes two components of involvement: first, a cognitive-affective component, incorporating being affected by sustainability issues and being supportive of corporate sustainability; and second, a behavioral component, represented by the application of sustainability management tools. We use this concept to empirically analyze the involvement of corporate functions in sustainability management and find considerable differences in large German companies. Whereas public relations and strategic management are heavily involved, finance, accounting and management control appear not to be involved. A multinomial logistic regression shows that the cognitive-affective component significantly influences the behavioral component, with a functional unit being affected influencing the application of tools the most. Building on the model proposed, the paper provides implications on how to increase a functional unit’s involvement in sustainability management.

Culture Development for Sustainable SMEs: Toward a Behavioral Theory

Abstract: The present study derives culture development practices among “sustainable” small and medium enterprises (SMEs)that adopt the Thai philosophy of the sufficiency economy. It adopts multiple data collection methods including non-participant observations made during visits to five “sustainable” enterprises, and references internal and published documents among other information about the case enterprises, including annual reports, previous studies about the companies and news reports. In-depth interview sessions were held with top management team members and employees, including CEOs or MDs, and division/functional heads. The “grounded theory” is adopted as an approach to analyze the data. The analysis reveals six emerging organizational culture development practices: identifying virtues, social and environmental responsibility and innovation as core values; leaders acting as models according to these values; growing their own managers to continue their corporate cultures; designing communication channels to emphasize the core values among employees; using the core values as criteria to recruit new employees; avoiding employee layoff to preserve the core values even in times of financial crisis. Limitations and future research directions to develop a behavioral theory of sustainability culture in organizational settings, as well as managerial implications are discussed.