In Search of the Dominant Rationale in Sustainability Management: Legitimacy- or Profit-Seeking?
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In: Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 145, No. 2, 01.10.2017, p. 259-276.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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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 -