Sustainable corporate purpose and sustainable corporate governance: Integrative theoretical framework and reform recommendations

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In view of the grand challenges in business economy (e.g., climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic), several researchers have demanded corporate purpose and corporate governance reforms. As contributions to the literature, we develop an integrative theoretical framework for sustainable corporate purpose and corporate governance and deduce regulatory recommendations for sustainable boards and sustainable institutional investors to practically apply the theoretical implications. To achieve this, we combine political corporate social responsibility theory with agency and key management theories (stakeholder, stewardship, team production, and resource-based/dependence theories). This results in our definition of sustainable corporate purpose as long-term value creation for firms and society in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainable corporate governance is the sum of monitoring, stakeholder-mediating, incentive, and resource-activating functions to foster sustainable corporate purpose.
Original languageEnglish
Article number3
JournalZeitschrift für Umweltpolitik & Umweltrecht
Volume44
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)287-323
Number of pages36
ISSN0931-0983
Publication statusPublished - 2021