IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/tefoso/v196y2023ics004016252300567x.html

The creation of desirable futures: A call for supererogatory management to foster sustainability transitions

Author

Listed:
  • Snellman, Kirsi
  • Fink, Matthias
  • Hakala, Henri
  • Bor, Sanne

Abstract

Accelerating the sustainability transition demands managers to more intensively and more frequently envisage in supererogatory acts. Supererogatory action is not legally or morally required but consist of praiseworthy acts beyond duty that have the capacity to build a better future. This perspective paper argues that strategic decision-making during sustainability transitions should be more supererogatory, and research should pay more explicit attention to the supererogatory acts of managers and business organizations. Supererogation is especially important in any transition, where the business environment is changing rapidly and fundamentally, where stakeholder preferences conflict and first-mover advantages are significant. Our argument is that perceived rightness and confidence are prerequisites for managers to envisage desirable futures and act in ways that transcend duty. We also critically reflect on the threats implied by supererogatory management. Our arguments are illustrated by interview data collected from Finnish managers with first-hand experience with supererogatory acts in the current sustainability transitions of the food packaging industry. We call for empirical research explaining the role of supererogatory management in driving sustainability transitions in different settings and hope that this perspective paper can spur the awareness of managers and policy makers regarding the power of supererogatory acts in management.

Suggested Citation

  • Snellman, Kirsi & Fink, Matthias & Hakala, Henri & Bor, Sanne, 2023. "The creation of desirable futures: A call for supererogatory management to foster sustainability transitions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:196:y:2023:i:c:s004016252300567x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122882
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004016252300567X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122882?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Moro, Andrea & Maresch, Daniela & Fink, Matthias & Ferrando, Annalisa & Piga, Claudio, 2020. "Spillover effects of government initiatives fostering entrepreneurship on the access to bank credit for entrepreneurial firms in Europe," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    2. Andreas Georg Scherer & Christian Voegtlin, 2020. "Corporate Governance for Responsible Innovation: Approaches to Corporate Governance and Their Implications for Sustainable Development," Post-Print hal-02623585, HAL.
    3. Eric Lamm & Jennifer Tosti-Kharas & Cynthia King, 2015. "Empowering Employee Sustainability: Perceived Organizational Support Toward the Environment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 207-220, April.
    4. Anton Shevchenko & Moren Lévesque & Mark Pagell, 2016. "Why Firms Delay Reaching True Sustainability," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(5), pages 911-935, July.
    5. Rodolphe Durand & Luc Paugam & Hervé Stolowy, 2019. "Do investors actually value sustainability indices? Replication, development, and new evidence on CSR visibility," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(9), pages 1471-1490, September.
    6. Susanna Khavul & Garry D. Bruton, 2013. "Harnessing Innovation for Change: Sustainability and Poverty in Developing Countries," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 285-306, March.
    7. Southern, Jen & Ellis, Rebecca & Ferrario, Maria Angela & McNally, Ruth & Dillon, Rod & Simm, Will & Whittle, Jon, 2014. "Imaginative labour and relationships of care: Co-designing prototypes with vulnerable communities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 131-142.
    8. Stilgoe, Jack & Owen, Richard & Macnaghten, Phil, 2013. "Developing a framework for responsible innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(9), pages 1568-1580.
    9. Gideon D. Markman & Michael Russo & G. T. Lumpkin & P. Devereaux (Dev) Jennings & Johanna Mair, 2016. "Entrepreneurship as a Platform for Pursuing Multiple Goals: A Special Issue on Sustainability, Ethics, and Entrepreneurship," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(5), pages 673-694, July.
    10. Grinin, Leonid E. & Grinin, Anton L. & Korotayev, Andrey, 2017. "Forthcoming Kondratieff wave, Cybernetic Revolution, and global ageing," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 52-68.
    11. Kautonen, Teemu & Schillebeeckx, Simon J.D. & Gartner, Johannes & Hakala, Henri & Salmela-Aro, Katariina & Snellman, Kirsi, 2020. "The dark side of sustainability orientation for SME performance," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).
    12. Dimo Dimov, 2010. "Nascent Entrepreneurs and Venture Emergence: Opportunity Confidence, Human Capital, and Early Planning," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(6), pages 1123-1153, September.
    13. Marinakis, Y. & Harvey, H.A. & Walsh, S.T., 2021. "The emergence of peace engineering and innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    14. Daina Mazutis, 2014. "Supererogation: Beyond Positive Deviance and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 119(4), pages 517-528, February.
    15. Ali Aslan Gümüsay & Juliane Reinecke, 2022. "Researching for Desirable Futures: From Real Utopias to Imagining Alternatives," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 236-242, January.
    16. Laura J. Noval & Günter K. Stahl, 2017. "Accounting for Proscriptive and Prescriptive Morality in the Workplace: The Double-Edged Sword Effect of Mood on Managerial Ethical Decision Making," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 589-602, May.
    17. Tom Waas & Jean Huge & Thomas BLOCK & Tarah Wright & Francisco Javier Benitez Capistros & Aviel Verbruggen, 2014. "Sustainability assessment and indicators: Tools in a decision-making strategy for sustainable development," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/189410, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    18. Tencati, Antonio & Misani, Nicola & Castaldo, Sandro, 2020. "A Qualified Account of Supererogation: Toward a Better Conceptualization of Corporate Social Responsibility," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(2), pages 250-272, April.
    19. Inigo, Edurne A. & Albareda, Laura, 2019. "Sustainability oriented innovation dynamics: Levels of dynamic capabilities and their path-dependent and self-reinforcing logics," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 334-351.
    20. De Smedt, Peter & Borch, Kristian & Fuller, Ted, 2013. "Future scenarios to inspire innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 432-443.
    21. Owen, Richard & Pansera, Mario & Macnaghten, Phil & Randles, Sally, 2021. "Organisational institutionalisation of responsible innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(1).
    22. Gary, Robert F. & Fink, Matthias & Belousova, Olga & Marinakis, Yorgos & Tierney, Robert & Walsh, Steven T., 2020. "An introduction to the field of abundant economic thought," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Slitine, Romain & Chabaud, Didier & Richez-Battesti, Nadine, 2024. "Towards local sustainability: How intermediation fosters social innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    2. Bor, Sanne & O'Shea, Gregory & Hakala, Henri, 2024. "Scaling sustainable technologies by creating innovation demand-pull: Strategic actions by food producers," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sophie Bacq & Ruth V. Aguilera, 2022. "Stakeholder Governance for Responsible Innovation: A Theory of Value Creation, Appropriation, and Distribution," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 29-60, January.
    2. Ye, Dandan & Yuan, Ruizhi & Luo, Jun & Liu, Martin J. & Yannopoulou, Natalia, 2025. "Responsible artificial intelligence (AI) for responsible innovation in Chinese manufacturing: From the affordance–actualization theory," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    3. Leopoldo Gutierrez & Ivan Montiel & Jordi A. Surroca & Josep A. Tribo, 2022. "Rainbow Wash or Rainbow Revolution? Dynamic Stakeholder Engagement for SDG-Driven Responsible Innovation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(4), pages 1113-1136, November.
    4. Christian Voegtlin & Andreas Georg Scherer & Günter K. Stahl & Olga Hawn, 2022. "Grand Societal Challenges and Responsible Innovation," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 1-28, January.
    5. Chipangamate, Nelson S. & Nwaila, Glen T. & Bourdeau, Julie E. & Zhang, Steven E., 2023. "Integration of stakeholder engagement practices in pursuit of social licence to operate in a modernising mining industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    6. Madeleine Rauch & Shahzad (Shaz) Ansari, 2022. "From ‘Publish or Perish’ to Societal Impact: Organizational Repurposing Towards Responsible Innovation through Creating a Medical Platform," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 61-91, January.
    7. Tina C. Ambos & Katherine Tatarinov, 2022. "Building Responsible Innovation in International Organizations through Intrapreneurship," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 92-125, January.
    8. Tachia Chin & Francesco Caputo & Yi Shi & Mario Calabrese & Chiraz Aouina‐Mejri & Armando Papa, 2022. "Depicting the role of cross‐cultural legitimacy for responsible innovation in Asian‐Pacific business models: A dialectical systems view of Yin‐Yang harmony," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(6), pages 2083-2093, November.
    9. Lorenzo Ardito, 2023. "The influence of firm digitalization on sustainable innovation performance and the moderating role of corporate sustainability practices: An empirical investigation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5252-5272, December.
    10. Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M. & Wentland, Alexander & Ruge, Luise, 2023. "Understanding regional innovation cultures: Narratives, directionality, and conservative innovation in Bavaria," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(3).
    11. Jacobsen, Lina Fogt & Frank, Darius-Aurel & Søndergaard, Helle Alsted & Peschel, Anne Odile, 2025. "From diversity to distinction: Exploring the role of diversity and inclusion related to consumer perceptions of company innovativeness and attractiveness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    12. Fink, Matthias & Maresch, Daniela & Gartner, Johannes, 2023. "Programmed to do good: The categorical imperative as a key to moral behavior of social robots," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    13. Fleming, Aysha & Jakku, Emma & Fielke, Simon & Taylor, Bruce M. & Lacey, Justine & Terhorst, Andrew & Stitzlein, Cara, 2021. "Foresighting Australian digital agricultural futures: Applying responsible innovation thinking to anticipate research and development impact under different scenarios," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    14. Boso, Nathaniel & Danso, Albert & Leonidou, Constantinos & Uddin, Moshfique & Adeola, Ogechi & Hultman, Magnus, 2017. "Does financial resource slack drive sustainability expenditure in developing economy small and medium-sized enterprises?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 247-256.
    15. Ehlers, Melf-Hinrich & El Benni, Nadja & Douziech, Mélanie, 2025. "Implementing responsible research and innovation and sustainability assessment in research projects: A framework and application," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(2).
    16. Jennifer E. Díaz-Correa & Miguel A. López-Navarro, 2018. "Managing Sustainable Hybrid Organisations: A Case Study in the Agricultural Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-17, August.
    17. Hongryol Cha & Sung-Min Park, 2024. "Organizational Agility and Communicative Actions for Responsible Innovation: Evidence from manufacturing firms in South Korea," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 1345-1372, September.
    18. Stahl, Bernd Carsten & Brooks, Laurence & Hatzakis, Tally & Santiago, Nicole & Wright, David, 2023. "Exploring ethics and human rights in artificial intelligence – A Delphi study," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    19. Felix Ostertag, 2023. "Integrating OCBE Literature and Norm Activation Theory: A Moderated Mediation on Proenvironmental Behavior of Employees," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-27, May.
    20. Valero-Gil, Jesus & Surroca, Jordi A. & Tribo, Josep A. & Gutierrez, Leopoldo & Montiel, Ivan, 2023. "Innovation vs. standardization: The conjoint effects of eco-innovation and environmental management systems on environmental performance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(4).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:eee:tefoso:v:196:y:2023:i:c:s004016252300567x. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00401625 .

    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.