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Meaning Making by Managers: Corporate Discourse on Environment and Sustainability in India

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  • Prithi Nambiar
  • Naren Chitty

Abstract

The globally generated concepts of environment and sustainability are fast gaining currency in international business discourse. Sustainability concerns are concurrently becoming significant to business planning around corporate social responsibility and integral to organizational strategies toward enhancing shareholder value. The mindset of corporate managers is a key factor in determining company approaches to sustainability. But what do corporate managers understand by sustainability? Our study explores discursive meaning negotiation surrounding the concepts of environment and sustainability within business discourse. The study is based on qualitative interpretive research drawing from symbolic interactionism (Blumer, Symbolic interactionism: perspective and method. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1969 ) which postulates that meaning in discourse is an essentially contested domain dependent upon negotiation in the Habermasian tradition of mutually respectful dialogue (Habermas, The theory of communicative action: lifeworld and system: a critique of functionalist reason. Beacon Press, Boston 1987 ). Data from semi-structured intensive interviews of a small sample of senior corporate managers was analyzed to examine how corporate elites in India frame their approach to sustainability issues and respond to external pressures for deeper corporate responsibility. The findings point to the existence of a distinctively local narrative with strong potential for the discursive negotiation of personal and collective understanding of ethical and socio-cultural values that may help internalize broader sustainability considerations into corporate decision-making processes. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

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  • Prithi Nambiar & Naren Chitty, 2014. "Meaning Making by Managers: Corporate Discourse on Environment and Sustainability in India," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 493-511, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:123:y:2014:i:3:p:493-511
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-1848-2
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    Cited by:

    1. Vikrant Shirodkar & Eshani Beddewela & Ulf Henning Richter, 2018. "Firm-Level Determinants of Political CSR in Emerging Economies: Evidence from India," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 673-688, March.
    2. Jacqueline Corbett & Jane Webster & Tracy A. Jenkin, 2018. "Unmasking Corporate Sustainability at the Project Level: Exploring the Influence of Institutional Logics and Individual Agency," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 147(2), pages 261-286, January.
    3. Catherine Le Roux & Marius Pretorius, 2016. "Conceptualizing the Limiting Issues Inhibiting Sustainability Embeddedness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-22, April.
    4. Richard Nyuur & Ružica Brečić & Patrick Murphy, 2019. "Managerial Perceptions of Firms’ Corporate Sustainability Strategies: Insights from Croatia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, December.
    5. Ajay K. Singal, 2021. "CSR Initiatives and Practices: Empirical Evidence From Indian Metal and Mining Companies," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, July.
    6. Onyeka K. Osuji & Ugochukwu L. Obibuaku, 2016. "Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility: Competing or Complementary Approaches to Poverty Reduction and Socioeconomic Rights?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 329-347, June.
    7. Jamali, Dima & Karam, Charlotte & Yin, Juelin & Soundararajan, Vivek, 2017. "CSR logics in developing countries: Translation, adaptation and stalled development," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 343-359.
    8. Catherine Le Roux & Marius Pretorius, 2016. "Navigating Sustainability Embeddedness in Management Decision-Making," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-23, May.
    9. Sadia Samar Ali & Rajbir Kaur & Filiz Ersöz & Bothinah Altaf & Arati Basu & Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber, 2020. "Measuring carbon performance for sustainable green supply chain practices: a developing country scenario," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 28(4), pages 1389-1416, December.

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