Corporate responsibility coalitions and the sustainability issues management capabilities of firms

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to explore how business-only corporate responsibility coalitions (CRCs) help member firms manage sustainability issues. Design/methodology/approach - This conceptual analysis of business-only CRCs, using the literature on sensemaking and social issues management, explores how participation in CRCs enhances firms’ capabilities for sustainability issues management by improving their sensemaking competencies, abilities to choose and adapt issue responses and efficiency in implementing issue responses through better issue response mechanisms. Findings - Business-only CRCs help firms with high as well as low levels of sustainability orientation better manage sustainability issues by carrying out the exploratory aspects of issues management: scanning, identifying and evaluating issues and proposing responses to issues. Practical implications - The widely applicable, nonbinding and scripted responses proposed by CRCs allow participating firms a high degree of autonomy to choose and adapt their responses. However, firms must approach their CRC memberships with collaborative intent and high transparency to achieve these benefits. Social implications - Participation in CRCs can help scale up firms’ responses to sustainability issues through more efficient issues management processes that allow them to customize issue responses to their needs. Originality/value - Research on the management of sociopolitical issues can be enriched if these issues are understood as collective, multilevel challenges rather than purely strategic issues faced by individual firms. This study contributes to the business collective action and issues management literatures by emphasizing the importance of collective management of sustainability issues and how it may improve firms’ capabilities for sustainability issues management.