TY - JOUR

T1 - In Search of the Dominant Rationale in Sustainability Management

T2 - Legitimacy- or Profit-Seeking?

AU - Schaltegger, Stefan

AU - Hörisch, Jacob

PY - 2017/10/1

Y1 - 2017/10/1

N2 - The academic debate why and how companies are dealing with sustainability is dominated by two main arguments—the profit-seeking and the legitimacy-seeking view. While the first argues that companies (only) establish sustainability management measures if this helps to increase their economic success, others emphasize that companies predominantly react on societal pressure dealing with sustainability (only) to secure legitimacy. Whereas both lines of argument have gained a lot of attention in academia, little is known about their relative importance in shaping corporate practice. This papers aims to fill this gap with an empirical analysis of corporate practices of large companies in ten countries worldwide. To capture the organizations’ rationale in sustainability management practice, we systematically applied various measures related to actors and operational activities focusing on the companies’ intention to pursue sustainability management, the integration of sustainability management to the core business, and the actual implementation of related measures. Overall the findings indicate that seeking legitimacy dominates corporate sustainability management practices.

AB - The academic debate why and how companies are dealing with sustainability is dominated by two main arguments—the profit-seeking and the legitimacy-seeking view. While the first argues that companies (only) establish sustainability management measures if this helps to increase their economic success, others emphasize that companies predominantly react on societal pressure dealing with sustainability (only) to secure legitimacy. Whereas both lines of argument have gained a lot of attention in academia, little is known about their relative importance in shaping corporate practice. This papers aims to fill this gap with an empirical analysis of corporate practices of large companies in ten countries worldwide. To capture the organizations’ rationale in sustainability management practice, we systematically applied various measures related to actors and operational activities focusing on the companies’ intention to pursue sustainability management, the integration of sustainability management to the core business, and the actual implementation of related measures. Overall the findings indicate that seeking legitimacy dominates corporate sustainability management practices.

KW - Sustainability sciences, Management & Economics

KW - Sustainability management

KW - Legitimacy

KW - Profit-seeking

KW - Corporate sustainability

KW - Sustainability management practices

KW - Sustainability management

KW - Legitimacy

KW - Profit-seeking

KW - Corporate sustainability

KW - Sustainability management practises

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84944525620&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10551-015-2854-3

DO - 10.1007/s10551-015-2854-3

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 145

SP - 259

EP - 276

JO - Journal of Business Ethics

JF - Journal of Business Ethics

SN - 0167-4544

IS - 2

ER -