IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/buetqu/v31y2021i2p275-307_5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reactivity to Sustainability Metrics: A Configurational Study of Motivation and Capacity

Author

Listed:
  • Slager, Rieneke
  • Gond, Jean-Pascal
  • Crilly, Donal

Abstract

Previous research on reactivity—defined as changing organizational behaviour to better conform to the criteria of measurement in response to being measured—has found significant variation in company responses toward sustainability metrics. We propose that reactivity is driven by dialogue, motivation, and capacity in a configurational way. Empirically, we use fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to analyze company responses to the sustainability index FTSE4Good. We find evidence of complementary and substitute effects between motivation and capacity. Based on these effects, we develop a typology of reactivity to sustainability metrics, which also theorizes the use of metrics as tools for performance feedback and the building of calculative capacity. We show that when reactivity is studied configurationally, we can identify previously underacknowledged types of responses. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications for studying and using sustainability metrics as governance tools for responsible behaviour.

Suggested Citation

  • Slager, Rieneke & Gond, Jean-Pascal & Crilly, Donal, 2021. "Reactivity to Sustainability Metrics: A Configurational Study of Motivation and Capacity," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(2), pages 275-307, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:31:y:2021:i:2:p:275-307_5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1052150X20000202/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kumar, Satish & Sahoo, Saumyaranjan & Lim, Weng Marc & Kraus, Sascha & Bamel, Umesh, 2022. "Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) in business and management research: A contemporary overview," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    2. Radka MacGregor Pelikánová & Robert Kenyon MacGregor & Martin Èernek, 2021. "New trends in codes of ethics: Czech business ethics preferences by the dawn of COVID-19," Oeconomia Copernicana, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 12(4), pages 973-1009, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:31:y:2021:i:2:p:275-307_5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/beq .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.