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From eco-efficiency to eco-effectiveness? The policy-performance paradox

Author

Listed:
  • Mária Csutora

    (Corvinus University of Budapest Department of Environmental Economics and Technology Budapest Hungary)

Abstract

The internalisation level of sustainability issues varies among topics and among countries. Companies give up less internalised issues for more internalised ones. Discrepancies between legal, market and cultural internalisation lead to different escape strategies: firms develop a high level environmental management system and they have nice sustainability policy and reports. These achievements cover the fact that their total emission keeps increasing and they do not proceed in solving the most crucial global community or corporate governance problems. ‘Escaper’ firms are often qualified as ‘leading’ ones, as a current stream of research is also ‘escapist’: it puts too much emphasis on sustainability efforts as compared to sustainability performance. Genuine strategies focus on hardcore sustainability issues and absolute effects rather than on issues easily solved and having high PR effects. They allow for growth in innovative firms, if they crowd out less efficient or more polluting ones. They produce positive environmental value added when sector average eco-efficiency is used as benchmark and do not accelerate market expansion and consumerism

Suggested Citation

  • Mária Csutora, 2011. "From eco-efficiency to eco-effectiveness? The policy-performance paradox," Society and Economy, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 33(1), pages 161-181, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:aka:soceco:v:33:y:2011:i:1:p:161-181
    Note: The research has been supported by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism (project HU-0056).
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Csutora, Mária, 2014. "Összegződnek-e az egyéni törekvések?. A cselekvés és az eredmény közötti szakadék problémája [Can individual efforts be aggregated?. The problem of the action-impact gap]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(5), pages 609-625.
    2. Lisa Koep, 2017. "Tensions in Aspirational CSR Communication—A Longitudinal Investigation of CSR Reporting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-28, November.
    3. Michael Gerlich, 2023. "How Short-Term Orientation Dominates Western Businesses and the Challenges They Face—An Example Using Germany, the UK, and the USA," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, January.
    4. Maria Csutora, 2012. "One More Awareness Gap? The Behaviour–Impact Gap Problem," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 145-163, March.
    5. Philipp Haessler, 2020. "Strategic Decisions between Short-Term Profit and Sustainability," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-31, September.
    6. Szalavetz Andrea, 2018. "Sustainability-oriented cross-functional collaboration to manage trade-offs and interdependencies," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 54(1), pages 3-17, March.
    7. Merriam Haffar & Cory Searcy, 2017. "Classification of Trade-offs Encountered in the Practice of Corporate Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 495-522, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    trade-offs; sustainability; environmental strategies; multinational enterprises; environmental management systems; eco-efficiency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects

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