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Taking environmental partnerships seriously

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  • Wassmer, Ulrich
  • Pain, Guillaume
  • Paquin, Raymond L.

Abstract

Increasingly, firms are integrating environmental sustainability into their business strategies. Yet, sustainability is a complex topic and many firms need to form environmental partnerships to access additional resources—in the form of investments, technologies, expertise, public image, and/or political influence—to develop competitive advantage. Environmental partnership decisions are difficult, however, because they often need to reconcile multifaceted sustainability issues with multi-level, and potentially divergent, strategic goals. To meet their intended objectives, companies should carefully consider the type of environmental partnerships and partners that can best meet their needs. Based on a review of the literature, interviews with executives responsible for environmental partnerships, and publicly available data, we find firms engage in three main types of environmental partnerships: innovation-seeking, legitimacy-building, and policy-influencing. Each type of partnership benefits from different types of resources and partner choices. Herein, we describe the advantages of each type of environmental partnership and partners that may best support them. Given that many firms develop environmental partnership portfolios, managing multiple environmental partnerships simultaneously, we also discuss the implications of our research for environmental partnership portfolios.

Suggested Citation

  • Wassmer, Ulrich & Pain, Guillaume & Paquin, Raymond L., 2017. "Taking environmental partnerships seriously," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 135-142.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:60:y:2017:i:1:p:135-142
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2016.09.009
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ulrich Wassmer & Pierre Dussauge & Marcel Planellas, 2010. "How to manage alliances better than one at a time," Post-Print hal-02313047, HAL.
    2. Magali A. Delmas & Maria J. Montes‐Sancho, 2010. "Voluntary agreements to improve environmental quality: symbolic and substantive cooperation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(6), pages 575-601, June.
    3. Pierre Dussauge & Ulrich Wassmer & Marcel Planellas, 2010. "How to Manage Alliances Better Than One at a Time," Post-Print hal-00537079, HAL.
    4. Ulrich Wassmer & Raymond Paquin & Sanjay Sharma, 2014. "The Engagement of Firms in Environmental Collaborations : Existing Contributions and Future Directions," Post-Print hal-02313050, HAL.
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    2. 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.
    3. Eduardo Ordonez‐Ponce & Amelia Clarke, 2020. "Sustainability cross‐sector partnerships: The strategic role of organizational structures," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(5), pages 2122-2134, September.
    4. Riandita, Andra, 2022. "To collaborate and innovate for sustainability: Food retailers and their external partners," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    5. Eduardo Ordonez‐Ponce & David Talbot, 2023. "Multinational enterprises' sustainability practices and focus on developing countries: Contributions and unexpected results of SDG implementation," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(2), pages 201-232, March.
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    9. Dessart, Laurence & Standaert, Willem, 2023. "Strategic storytelling in the age of sustainability," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 371-385.

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