Prioritizing Sustainability Issues: Insights from Corporate Managers about Key Decision-Makers, Reporting Models, and Stakeholder Communications

Abstract

Capital constraints require companies to prioritize among the host of sustainability issues to which they can allocate capital. In this study, we investigate the role of three important factors that can affect this prioritization process: key decision-makers, sustainability reporting models, and stakeholder communications. We investigate these factors through the lenses of economic theory (i.e., the shareholder value approach), stakeholder theory, and enlightened stakeholder theory by collecting survey evidence from 104 managers in the resource transformation sector who are involved in or familiar with their company's prioritization process. This study contributes to the literature by providing important insights into companies' internal decision-making processes regarding sustainability issue prioritization. JEL Classifications: G34; M14; M41. Data Availability: The data are available from the authors upon request.