Pub Date : 2020-09-01DOI: 10.1177/1086026619858858
Jason Good, A. Thorpe
Organizational and natural phenomena mutually constitute one another through time and across space. Yet the current management literature that involves both organizational and natural phenomena is piecemeal and dualistic. In being piecemeal, domains are disconnected, and in being dualistic, they tend to assume that organizations and nature are separate and opposing. This article addresses these issues by developing an analytical framework of the relations that mutually constitute organizational and natural phenomena, while couching the effort in the burgeoning sustainability management literature. The framework development process produces four types of relations that mutually constitute organizational and natural phenomena: here-now, here-then, there-now, and there-then relations. The article then uses this framework to connect disparate domains of the organizational literature that involve natural phenomena. Ultimately, the article suggests an overarching proposition for further research, as well as practical questions for organizations to consider in order to better manage their relations with the natural world.
{"title":"The Nature of Organizing: A Relational Approach to Understanding Business Sustainability","authors":"Jason Good, A. Thorpe","doi":"10.1177/1086026619858858","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026619858858","url":null,"abstract":"Organizational and natural phenomena mutually constitute one another through time and across space. Yet the current management literature that involves both organizational and natural phenomena is piecemeal and dualistic. In being piecemeal, domains are disconnected, and in being dualistic, they tend to assume that organizations and nature are separate and opposing. This article addresses these issues by developing an analytical framework of the relations that mutually constitute organizational and natural phenomena, while couching the effort in the burgeoning sustainability management literature. The framework development process produces four types of relations that mutually constitute organizational and natural phenomena: here-now, here-then, there-now, and there-then relations. The article then uses this framework to connect disparate domains of the organizational literature that involve natural phenomena. Ultimately, the article suggests an overarching proposition for further research, as well as practical questions for organizations to consider in order to better manage their relations with the natural world.","PeriodicalId":47984,"journal":{"name":"Organization & Environment","volume":"33 1","pages":"359 - 383"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1086026619858858","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47344646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-01DOI: 10.1177/1086026620929791
{"title":"Special Issue of Organization & Environment on “The Organizational Dynamics of Business Models for Sustainability”","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/1086026620929791","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026620929791","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47984,"journal":{"name":"Organization & Environment","volume":"33 1","pages":"483 - 487"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1086026620929791","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44223563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-01DOI: 10.1177/1086026619858878
Sangchan Park, Daegyu Yang, Hyeonjin Cha, Seobin Pyeon
Although firms generally strive to enhance social evaluations, scholars have noted that such evaluations may not completely reflect actual performance of the firms. Extending this approach to the domain of environmental sustainability, we focus on the importance of social evaluation heuristics and explore how a firm’s status, or generalized evaluation not directly linked to environmental performance, plays a key role in shaping audience perceptions on its environmental reputation. Using multiple sources of data on 178 global companies’ green reputation, status, and environmental performance, our study shows that a firm’s status significantly enhances its environmental reputation assessed by general consumers and that the status effect varies significantly according to media frames. These findings illuminate the richness and complexity in the relations between status, reputation, and media-provided information in the area of environmental sustainability.
{"title":"The Halo Effect and Social Evaluation: How Organizational Status Shapes Audience Perceptions on Corporate Environmental Reputation","authors":"Sangchan Park, Daegyu Yang, Hyeonjin Cha, Seobin Pyeon","doi":"10.1177/1086026619858878","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026619858878","url":null,"abstract":"Although firms generally strive to enhance social evaluations, scholars have noted that such evaluations may not completely reflect actual performance of the firms. Extending this approach to the domain of environmental sustainability, we focus on the importance of social evaluation heuristics and explore how a firm’s status, or generalized evaluation not directly linked to environmental performance, plays a key role in shaping audience perceptions on its environmental reputation. Using multiple sources of data on 178 global companies’ green reputation, status, and environmental performance, our study shows that a firm’s status significantly enhances its environmental reputation assessed by general consumers and that the status effect varies significantly according to media frames. These findings illuminate the richness and complexity in the relations between status, reputation, and media-provided information in the area of environmental sustainability.","PeriodicalId":47984,"journal":{"name":"Organization & Environment","volume":"33 1","pages":"464 - 482"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1086026619858878","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48448194","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-01DOI: 10.1177/1086026619839364
E. Bettinazzi, Lorenzo Massa, Kerstin Neumann
Who invests in sustainability as a strategic choice? We adopt a behavioral theory perspective to explain the heterogeneity of sustainability-driven investments. Building on problemistic search and organizational inertia arguments, and contrary to resource-based explanations, we argue that a firm’s competitiveness might actually reduce its likelihood to invest in sustainability. We also propose that less competitive firms invest in sustainability to improve their economic situation and, thus, that this choice results in positive performance effects. We further theorize that a firm’s level of commitment to its stakeholders will strengthen its likelihood to invest in sustainability. In a sample of 780 North American public companies in the period from 2007 to 2011, we find evidence to support our proposed model. Based on our findings, we draw implications for the further study of the behavioral roots of strategic change as well as for sustainability-oriented managerial practice and policy making.
{"title":"Sustainability as a Competitive Tool for the Brave? Or for the Best? A Behavioral Theory Perspective","authors":"E. Bettinazzi, Lorenzo Massa, Kerstin Neumann","doi":"10.1177/1086026619839364","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026619839364","url":null,"abstract":"Who invests in sustainability as a strategic choice? We adopt a behavioral theory perspective to explain the heterogeneity of sustainability-driven investments. Building on problemistic search and organizational inertia arguments, and contrary to resource-based explanations, we argue that a firm’s competitiveness might actually reduce its likelihood to invest in sustainability. We also propose that less competitive firms invest in sustainability to improve their economic situation and, thus, that this choice results in positive performance effects. We further theorize that a firm’s level of commitment to its stakeholders will strengthen its likelihood to invest in sustainability. In a sample of 780 North American public companies in the period from 2007 to 2011, we find evidence to support our proposed model. Based on our findings, we draw implications for the further study of the behavioral roots of strategic change as well as for sustainability-oriented managerial practice and policy making.","PeriodicalId":47984,"journal":{"name":"Organization & Environment","volume":"33 1","pages":"408 - 436"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1086026619839364","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44301581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-08-06DOI: 10.1177/1086026620947145
C. Feger, L. Mermet
Businesses are increasingly called upon to contribute to efforts to protect biodiversity and natural capital. Our article presents the results of an action research conducted with a major company in the environmental sector that has been experimenting with innovative services dedicated to ecosystem management. We show the specific organizational and social challenges the company faced in upscaling this strategy due to its path dependency to its historical value creation model, and to the collective action issues that characterize biodiversity management. We introduce a new interdisciplinary theoretical framework for the development of what we refer to as “business models for ecosystem management services,” defined by the very central place they give to the achievement of measurable biodiversity performances. We then propose four such new business models designed through participatory methods that combine in a unique way a corporate value creation model with an ecological value cocreation model at the ecosystem level.
{"title":"New Business Models for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management Services: Action Research With a Large Environmental Sector Company","authors":"C. Feger, L. Mermet","doi":"10.1177/1086026620947145","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026620947145","url":null,"abstract":"Businesses are increasingly called upon to contribute to efforts to protect biodiversity and natural capital. Our article presents the results of an action research conducted with a major company in the environmental sector that has been experimenting with innovative services dedicated to ecosystem management. We show the specific organizational and social challenges the company faced in upscaling this strategy due to its path dependency to its historical value creation model, and to the collective action issues that characterize biodiversity management. We introduce a new interdisciplinary theoretical framework for the development of what we refer to as “business models for ecosystem management services,” defined by the very central place they give to the achievement of measurable biodiversity performances. We then propose four such new business models designed through participatory methods that combine in a unique way a corporate value creation model with an ecological value cocreation model at the ecosystem level.","PeriodicalId":47984,"journal":{"name":"Organization & Environment","volume":"35 1","pages":"252 - 281"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2020-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1086026620947145","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46303329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-08-06DOI: 10.1177/1086026620945343
Christin Hoffmann, K. Thommes
Triggering the energy-efficient behavior of agents in firms simultaneously decreases costs and mitigates CO2 emissions. If firms use team tournaments to increase energy-efficient behavior and thus employee performance, they may face unintended consequences, like a bifurcation effect: Individuals drop out if they believe that they cannot win the contest. By contrast, high-performing employees may overexert themselves. Additionally, some individuals might be tempted to free-ride. In a field experiment with truck drivers, we analyze whether proportional sharing of the bonus within teams based on individual effort instead of egalitarian sharing reduces both bifurcation and free-riding during team tournaments. Our results reveal that (1) the team contest improves performance; (2) this increase in performance is overall slightly stronger under the proportional than under the egalitarian sharing rule, using ceteris paribus comparisons; and (3) the performance increase is mainly driven by the team member performing worse.
{"title":"Combining Egalitarian and Proportional Sharing Rules in Team Tournaments to Incentivize Energy-Efficient Behavior in a Principal-Agent Context","authors":"Christin Hoffmann, K. Thommes","doi":"10.1177/1086026620945343","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026620945343","url":null,"abstract":"Triggering the energy-efficient behavior of agents in firms simultaneously decreases costs and mitigates CO2 emissions. If firms use team tournaments to increase energy-efficient behavior and thus employee performance, they may face unintended consequences, like a bifurcation effect: Individuals drop out if they believe that they cannot win the contest. By contrast, high-performing employees may overexert themselves. Additionally, some individuals might be tempted to free-ride. In a field experiment with truck drivers, we analyze whether proportional sharing of the bonus within teams based on individual effort instead of egalitarian sharing reduces both bifurcation and free-riding during team tournaments. Our results reveal that (1) the team contest improves performance; (2) this increase in performance is overall slightly stronger under the proportional than under the egalitarian sharing rule, using ceteris paribus comparisons; and (3) the performance increase is mainly driven by the team member performing worse.","PeriodicalId":47984,"journal":{"name":"Organization & Environment","volume":"35 1","pages":"307 - 331"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2020-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1086026620945343","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48195676","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-07-28DOI: 10.1177/1086026620945342
T. Cort, D. Esty
We are pleased to serve as guest editors of this special issue of the journal Organization & Environment on the State of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) Standards. Calls for standardization of corporate sustainability data continue to mount as a growing segment of the mainstream investor community seeks greater clarity and comparability regarding relative company performance on ESG issues. While ESG reporting standards have driven greater transparency over the years, there remains a great deal of work to undertake in order to better understand and formulate the standards for ESG data that will underlie decision-useful information in future disclosures.
{"title":"ESG Standards: Looming Challenges and Pathways Forward","authors":"T. Cort, D. Esty","doi":"10.1177/1086026620945342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026620945342","url":null,"abstract":"We are pleased to serve as guest editors of this special issue of the journal Organization & Environment on the State of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) Standards. Calls for standardization of corporate sustainability data continue to mount as a growing segment of the mainstream investor community seeks greater clarity and comparability regarding relative company performance on ESG issues. While ESG reporting standards have driven greater transparency over the years, there remains a great deal of work to undertake in order to better understand and formulate the standards for ESG data that will underlie decision-useful information in future disclosures.","PeriodicalId":47984,"journal":{"name":"Organization & Environment","volume":"33 1","pages":"491 - 510"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2020-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1086026620945342","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44313278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-07-23DOI: 10.1177/1086026620942968
M. Haffar, C. Searcy
The practice of corporate sustainability is beset with compromise; it involves inevitable tensions across competing social, environmental, and economic objectives, across a wide range of divergent stakeholders and across time. The purpose of this study is to determine whether, and why, companies are reporting on tensions decisions in their sustainability reports. This study relies on a group of the largest companies in Canada and analyzes sustainability reports and interviews with sustainability managers. The study finds that 92% of all reporting companies in the sample had encountered sustainability tensions but had failed to disclose these discussions explicitly in their reports. Evidence of these accounts are nevertheless present in the implicit (or latent) content of the reports, surrounded by “legitimizing talk”—affirmations of the companies’ commitment to, and demonstration of sustainability principles. These findings highlight the negative light in which many companies perceive tensions (as “bad news”) and the potential legitimacy threat that their disclosure poses.
{"title":"Legitimizing Potential “Bad News”: How Companies Disclose on Their Tension Experiences in Their Sustainability Reports","authors":"M. Haffar, C. Searcy","doi":"10.1177/1086026620942968","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026620942968","url":null,"abstract":"The practice of corporate sustainability is beset with compromise; it involves inevitable tensions across competing social, environmental, and economic objectives, across a wide range of divergent stakeholders and across time. The purpose of this study is to determine whether, and why, companies are reporting on tensions decisions in their sustainability reports. This study relies on a group of the largest companies in Canada and analyzes sustainability reports and interviews with sustainability managers. The study finds that 92% of all reporting companies in the sample had encountered sustainability tensions but had failed to disclose these discussions explicitly in their reports. Evidence of these accounts are nevertheless present in the implicit (or latent) content of the reports, surrounded by “legitimizing talk”—affirmations of the companies’ commitment to, and demonstration of sustainability principles. These findings highlight the negative light in which many companies perceive tensions (as “bad news”) and the potential legitimacy threat that their disclosure poses.","PeriodicalId":47984,"journal":{"name":"Organization & Environment","volume":"33 1","pages":"534 - 553"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2020-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1086026620942968","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48132200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-07-02DOI: 10.1177/1086026620935638
T. Busch, A. Bassen, Stefan Lewandowski, Franziska Sump
To assess the robustness and sensitivity of the findings in Delmas, Nairn-Brich, and Lim, we conduct a replication and an extension study. In the replication, we use their research design but analyze another time frame. In our extension, we furthermore expand the geographical scope, and use another carbon performance measure as well as a different set of control variables. We show that the finding that higher carbon emissions are associated with higher short-term financial performance is very robust. By contrast, we also find strong evidence for higher carbon emissions being associated with higher long-term financial performance. This outcome is supported by several supplementary analyses and robustness checks. We derive theoretical implications for the debate on tackling grand challenges. Since there seem to be negative financial performance implications for firms reducing carbon emissions, we highlight a clear need for further policy intervention to pave the way for a low-carbon economy.
{"title":"Corporate Carbon and Financial Performance Revisited","authors":"T. Busch, A. Bassen, Stefan Lewandowski, Franziska Sump","doi":"10.1177/1086026620935638","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026620935638","url":null,"abstract":"To assess the robustness and sensitivity of the findings in Delmas, Nairn-Brich, and Lim, we conduct a replication and an extension study. In the replication, we use their research design but analyze another time frame. In our extension, we furthermore expand the geographical scope, and use another carbon performance measure as well as a different set of control variables. We show that the finding that higher carbon emissions are associated with higher short-term financial performance is very robust. By contrast, we also find strong evidence for higher carbon emissions being associated with higher long-term financial performance. This outcome is supported by several supplementary analyses and robustness checks. We derive theoretical implications for the debate on tackling grand challenges. Since there seem to be negative financial performance implications for firms reducing carbon emissions, we highlight a clear need for further policy intervention to pave the way for a low-carbon economy.","PeriodicalId":47984,"journal":{"name":"Organization & Environment","volume":"35 1","pages":"154 - 171"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1086026620935638","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45310523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-29DOI: 10.1177/1086026620937461
S. A. Sunny
Although organizational scholars and social scientists have recently called for the integration of the natural environment into management theories, natural scientists have long espoused integrative frameworks. Gottfried Leibniz, the founder of differential calculus, sought integration long before the industrial revolution and Ludwig Boltzmann, the pioneer of statistical mechanics, before the oil boom. Alfred Lotka formalized this notion long before the financial crisis of 1933, while Howard Odum extended it before the oil crisis of 1973. In this essay, and accompanying simulation, I summarize and visualize how the laws of thermodynamics are independently insufficient yet jointly necessary alongside market economics to address the pressing problem of global climate change.
{"title":"“Nature Cannot Be Fooled”: A Dual-Equilibrium Simulation of Climate Change","authors":"S. A. Sunny","doi":"10.1177/1086026620937461","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026620937461","url":null,"abstract":"Although organizational scholars and social scientists have recently called for the integration of the natural environment into management theories, natural scientists have long espoused integrative frameworks. Gottfried Leibniz, the founder of differential calculus, sought integration long before the industrial revolution and Ludwig Boltzmann, the pioneer of statistical mechanics, before the oil boom. Alfred Lotka formalized this notion long before the financial crisis of 1933, while Howard Odum extended it before the oil crisis of 1973. In this essay, and accompanying simulation, I summarize and visualize how the laws of thermodynamics are independently insufficient yet jointly necessary alongside market economics to address the pressing problem of global climate change.","PeriodicalId":47984,"journal":{"name":"Organization & Environment","volume":"34 1","pages":"619 - 633"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2020-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1086026620937461","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47290159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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