IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v34y2025i8p9743-9760.html

“Sustainability Comes First”: An Institutional Entrepreneur Enacting Its Principles to Challenge a Dominant Norm

Author

Listed:
  • Tina Sendlhofer
  • Arno Kourula

Abstract

Institutional entrepreneurs abound in sustainability. Although the hybridity and balance of economic, social, and environmental goals have received scholarly attention, we still know little about how these institutional entrepreneurs approach the new norm where business organizations favor social and environmental sustainability over economic sustainability. We examine an established resource‐constrained institutional entrepreneur and how this organization enacts a new norm in its attempt to challenge the dominant one. Drawing on data from a qualitative case study about an outdoor apparel retailer, we examine how the business enacts the norm “sustainability comes first.” This norm is based on two principles: (1) challenge, which alludes to being different, and (2) candor, which alludes to being open. We deliver novel insights about how a business organization can prioritize social and environmental sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Tina Sendlhofer & Arno Kourula, 2025. "“Sustainability Comes First”: An Institutional Entrepreneur Enacting Its Principles to Challenge a Dominant Norm," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(8), pages 9743-9760, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:34:y:2025:i:8:p:9743-9760
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.70077
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.70077
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.70077?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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:bla:bstrat:v:34:y:2025:i:8:p:9743-9760. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    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.