IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i7p2119-d221339.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability Value Creation, Survival, and Growth of the Company: A Critical Perspective in the Sustainability Balanced Scorecard (SBSC)

Author

Listed:
  • Ivo Hristov

    (Department of Management and Law, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy)

  • Antonio Chirico

    (Department of Management and Law, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy)

  • Andrea Appolloni

    (Department of Management and Law, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy)

Abstract

The issue of sustainability in company strategy has assumed crucial relevance in recent years. Many companies have implemented specific environmental and sustainability management systems such as the Sustainability Balanced Scorecard (SBSC), which integrates sustainability and the traditional Balanced Scorecard (BSC). However, environmental and sustainability aspects are often not linked to economic success, and qualitative analysis is not considered adequately by managers. Therefore, these dimensions remain unclear, because it is necessary to analyze the conditions under which the SBSC represents a suitable tool for sustainability value creation in more depth. In this context, the purpose of the study is to propose a new strategic framework to provide a way to manage critical issues connected to the SBSC. Thanks to the information obtained from a survey and interviews conducted with managers of Italian companies, we created an adjusted SBSC (ASBSC) that allows us to consider the critical aspects from a new perspective, named the critical perspective. The conceptual model is developed in five dimensions (conceptual, structural, environmental, social, and economic). Research findings suggest that considering the critical perspective makes it possible to build the ASBSC in order to achieve sustainability and economic success of the company. The proposed framework contributes to the existing literature on improving the performance of the SBSC.

Suggested Citation

  • Ivo Hristov & Antonio Chirico & Andrea Appolloni, 2019. "Sustainability Value Creation, Survival, and Growth of the Company: A Critical Perspective in the Sustainability Balanced Scorecard (SBSC)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-19, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:7:p:2119-:d:221339
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/7/2119/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/7/2119/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shih‐Fang Lo & Her‐Jiun Sheu, 2007. "Is Corporate Sustainability a Value‐Increasing Strategy for Business?," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 345-358, March.
    2. César Álvarez Pérez & Vicente Rodríguez Montequín & Francisco Ortega Fernández & Joaquín Villanueva Balsera, 2017. "Integration of Balanced Scorecard (BSC), Strategy Map, and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) for a Sustainability Business Framework: A Case Study of a Spanish Software Factory in the Financial ," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-23, March.
    3. Cory Searcy, 2012. "Corporate Sustainability Performance Measurement Systems: A Review and Research Agenda," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(3), pages 239-253, May.
    4. Kristel Buysse & Alain Verbeke, 2003. "Proactive environmental strategies: a stakeholder management perspective," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 453-470, May.
    5. Ricardo Malagueño & Ernesto Lopez-Valeiras & Jacobo Gomez-Conde, 2018. "Balanced scorecard in SMEs: effects on innovation and financial performance," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 221-244, June.
    6. Frank Figge & Tobias Hahn & Stefan Schaltegger & Marcus Wagner, 2002. "The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard – linking sustainability management to business strategy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(5), pages 269-284, September.
    7. Fabio De Felice & Antonella Petrillo & Claudio Autorino, 2015. "Development of a Framework for Sustainable Outsourcing: Analytic Balanced Scorecard Method (A-BSC)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-21, June.
    8. Bortolotti, Thomas & Boscari, Stefania & Danese, Pamela, 2015. "Successful lean implementation: Organizational culture and soft lean practices," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 182-201.
    9. Karl Widerquist, 2018. "The Bottom Line," Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee, in: A Critical Analysis of Basic Income Experiments for Researchers, Policymakers, and Citizens, chapter 0, pages 93-98, Palgrave Macmillan.
    10. Tobias Hahn & Frank Figge, 2018. "Why Architecture Does Not Matter: On the Fallacy of Sustainability Balanced Scorecards," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(4), pages 919-935, July.
    11. Susanna Falle & Romana Rauter & Sabrina Engert & Rupert J. Baumgartner, 2016. "Sustainability Management with the Sustainability Balanced Scorecard in SMEs: Findings from an Austrian Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-16, June.
    12. R Chalmeta & S Palomero, 2011. "Methodological proposal for business sustainability management by means of the Balanced Scorecard," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 62(7), pages 1344-1356, July.
    13. W-H Tsai & W-C Chou & W Hsu, 2009. "The sustainability balanced scorecard as a framework for selecting socially responsible investment: an effective MCDM model," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(10), pages 1396-1410, October.
    14. Jijun Gao & Pratima Bansal, 2013. "Instrumental and Integrative Logics in Business Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 241-255, January.
    15. Cory Searcy & Ruvena Buslovich, 2014. "Corporate Perspectives on the Development and Use of Sustainability Reports," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(2), pages 149-169, May.
    16. Idalina Dias‐Sardinha & Lucas Reijnders, 2005. "Evaluating environmental and social performance of large Portuguese companies: a balanced scorecard approach," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(2), pages 73-91, March.
    17. Cristiano Busco & Paolo Quattrone, 2015. "Exploring How the Balanced Scorecard Engages and Unfolds: Articulating the Visual Power of Accounting Inscriptions," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(3), pages 1236-1262, September.
    18. Ioanna Giannoukou & Christina C. Beneki, 2018. "Towards sustainability performance management system of tourism enterprises: a tourism sustainable balanced scorecard framework," International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 17(2/3), pages 175-196.
    19. Hoque, Zahirul, 2014. "20 years of studies on the balanced scorecard: Trends, accomplishments, gaps and opportunities for future research," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 33-59.
    20. Suaad Jassem & Anna Azmi & Zarina Zakaria, 2018. "Impact of Sustainability Balanced Scorecard Types on Environmental Investment Decision-Making," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-18, February.
    21. Andreas Möller & Stefan Schaltegger, 2005. "The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard as a Framework for Eco‐efficiency Analysis," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 9(4), pages 73-83, October.
    22. Evans, John Harry & Feng, Mei & Hoffman, Vicky B. & Moser, Donald V. & Van der Stede, Wim, 2015. "Points to consider when self-assessing your empirical accounting research," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 63635, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    23. Erik G. Hansen & Stefan Schaltegger, 2016. "The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard: A Systematic Review of Architectures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(2), pages 193-221, January.
    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. Saqib Yaqoob Malik & Yasir Hayat Mughal & Tamoor Azam & Yukun Cao & Zhifang WAN & Hongge ZHU & Ramayah Thurasamy, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility, Green Human Resources Management, and Sustainable Performance: Is Organizational Citizenship Behavior towards Environment the Missing Link?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-24, January.
    2. Mingyuan Guo & Chendi Zheng, 2021. "Foreign Ownership and Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-22, January.
    3. Ivo Hristov & Andrea Appolloni, 2022. "Stakeholders' engagement in the business strategy as a key driver to increase companies' performance: Evidence from managerial and stakeholders' practices," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1488-1503, May.
    4. Diego G. Ferber Pineyrua & Alfonso Redondo & José A. Pascual & Ángel M. Gento, 2021. "Knowledge Management and Sustainable Balanced Scorecard: Practical Application to a Service SME," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-24, June.
    5. Suárez-Gargallo, Carlos & Zaragoza-Sáez, Patrocinio, 2023. "A comprehensive bibliometric study of the balanced scorecard," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    6. Ivo Hristov & Antonio Chirico, 2023. "The cultural dimension as a key value driver of the sustainable development at a strategic level: an integrated five-dimensional approach," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(7), pages 7011-7028, July.
    7. Eva Benková & Peter Gallo & Beáta Balogová & Jozef Nemec, 2020. "Factors Affecting the Use of Balanced Scorecard in Measuring Company Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-18, February.
    8. Gianpaolo Abatecola & Alberto Surace, 2020. "Discussing the Use of Complexity Theory in Engineering Management: Implications for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-24, December.
    9. Cabral, Natália Gomes Cavalcante & Gohr, Cláudia Fabiana, 2023. "Sustainable value creation in sharing economy: Conceptual framework proposition and application in Brazilian offline communities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PA).
    10. Jassem Suaad & Zakaria Zarina & Che Azmi Anna, 2020. "Sustainability Balanced Scorecard Architecture and Environmental Investment Decision-Making," Foundations of Management, Sciendo, vol. 12(1), pages 193-210, January.
    11. Ivo Hristov & Antonio Chirico, 2019. "The Role of Sustainability Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in Implementing Sustainable Strategies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-19, October.
    12. Christian Felber & Vanessa Campos & Joan R. Sanchis, 2019. "The Common Good Balance Sheet, an Adequate Tool to Capture Non-Financials?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-23, July.
    13. Muhammad Rafiq & Saif Maqbool & José Moleiro Martins & Mário Nuno Mata & Rui Miguel Dantas & Shumaila Naz & Anabela Batista Correia, 2021. "A Study on Balanced Scorecard and Its Impact on Sustainable Development of Renewable Energy Organizations; A Mediating Role of Political and Regulatory Institutions," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-18, June.
    14. Agnes Pranugrahaning & Jerome Denis Donovan & Cheree Topple & Eryadi Kordi Masli, 2020. "Corporate Sustainability Assessments in the Information Communication Technology Sector in Malaysia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-22, November.
    15. Rafael Lizarralde & Jaione Ganzarain & Mikel Zubizarreta, 2020. "Assessment and Selection of Technologies for the Sustainable Development of an R&D Center," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-23, December.
    16. Ramin Gharizadeh Beiragh & Reza Alizadeh & Saeid Shafiei Kaleibari & Fausto Cavallaro & Sarfaraz Hashemkhani Zolfani & Romualdas Bausys & Abbas Mardani, 2020. "An integrated Multi-Criteria Decision Making Model for Sustainability Performance Assessment for Insurance Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1, January.
    17. Magdalena Zioło & Iwona Bąk & Anna Spoz, 2023. "Theoretical framework of sustainable value creation by companies. What do we know so far?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2344-2361, September.
    18. Maria José Gomes & António Sousa & Jorge Novas & Ricardo Vinícius Dias Jordão, 2021. "Environmental Sustainability in Viticulture as a Balanced Scorecard Perspective of the Wine Industry: Evidence for the Portuguese Region of Alentejo," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-18, September.
    19. Yang Bai & He Yang & Yu Zhao & Min Zhang & Jinyuan Qin & Feng Mi, 2020. "Optimizing the Raw Material Supply Chain of the Wood Biomass Power Generation Industry for Different Stakeholders’ Benefits: An Analysis of Inner Mongolia, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-15, March.
    20. Oriol Iglesias & Nicholas Ind, 2020. "Towards a theory of conscientious corporate brand co-creation: the next key challenge in brand management," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 27(6), pages 710-720, November.
    21. Beata Zyznarska-Dworczak, 2020. "Sustainability Accounting—Cognitive and Conceptual Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-24, November.
    22. Jingjing Hao & Haoming Shi & Victor Shi & Chenchen Yang, 2020. "Adoption of Automatic Warehousing Systems in Logistics Firms: A Technology–Organization–Environment Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-14, June.

    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. Chiara Mio & Antonio Costantini & Silvia Panfilo, 2022. "Performance measurement tools for sustainable business: A systematic literature review on the sustainability balanced scorecard use," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(2), pages 367-384, March.
    2. Ivo Hristov & Antonio Chirico, 2019. "The Role of Sustainability Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in Implementing Sustainable Strategies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-19, October.
    3. Jau-Yang Liu, 2018. "An Internal Control System that Includes Corporate Social Responsibility for Social Sustainability in the New Era," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-27, September.
    4. Erik G. Hansen & Stefan Schaltegger, 2016. "The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard: A Systematic Review of Architectures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(2), pages 193-221, January.
    5. María Luisa Pajuelo Moreno & Teresa Duarte-Atoche, 2019. "Relationship between Sustainable Disclosure and Performance—An Extension of Ullmann’s Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-33, August.
    6. Jimin Shim & Joonho Moon & Won Seok Lee & Namho Chung, 2021. "The Impact of CSR on Corporate Value of Restaurant Businesses Using Triple Bottom Line Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-14, February.
    7. Samara da Silva Neiva & Ramaswamy Arun Prasath & Wellyngton Silva de Amorim & Mauricio de Andrade Lima & Samuel Borges Barbosa & João Marcelo Pereira Ribeiro & Flávio Ceci & Jonas Schneider & André Bo, 2021. "Sustainable urban development: Can the balanced scorecard contribute to the strategic management of sustainable cities?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 1155-1172, November.
    8. Regina F. Bento & Lasse Mertins & Lourdes F. White, 2017. "Ideology and the Balanced Scorecard: An Empirical Exploration of the Tension Between Shareholder Value Maximization and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(4), pages 769-789, June.
    9. Andrea Cardoni & Evgeniia Kiseleva & Paolo Taticchi, 2020. "In Search of Sustainable Value: A Structured Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-18, January.
    10. Ivo Hristov & Antonio Chirico & Francesco Ranalli, 2022. "Corporate strategies oriented towards sustainable governance: advantages, managerial practices and main challenges," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(1), pages 75-97, March.
    11. Jitender Kumar & Neha Prince & H. Kent Baker, 2022. "Balanced Scorecard: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Issues," FIIB Business Review, , vol. 11(2), pages 147-161, June.
    12. Radu Godina & Inês Ribeiro & Florinda Matos & Bruna T. Ferreira & Helena Carvalho & Paulo Peças, 2020. "Impact Assessment of Additive Manufacturing on Sustainable Business Models in Industry 4.0 Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-21, August.
    13. Thaís Vieira Nunhes & Merce Bernardo & Otávio José de Oliveira, 2020. "Rethinking the Way of Doing Business: A Reframe of Management Structures for Developing Corporate Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-32, February.
    14. José Baltazar Salgueirinho Osório de Andrade Guerra & Jonas Schneider & Mauricio Andrade De Lima & Maria Gabriela M. Peixoto & Samuel Borges Barbosa & Samara da Silva Neiva & Robert Birch & Marco Anto, 2023. "Balanced scorecard and eco‐innovation in the industrial sector: A strategic map for environmental innovation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7), pages 4266-4281, November.
    15. Suaad Jassem & Anna Azmi & Zarina Zakaria, 2018. "Impact of Sustainability Balanced Scorecard Types on Environmental Investment Decision-Making," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-18, February.
    16. Diego G. Ferber Pineyrua & Alfonso Redondo & José A. Pascual & Ángel M. Gento, 2021. "Knowledge Management and Sustainable Balanced Scorecard: Practical Application to a Service SME," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-24, June.
    17. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2021. "Determinants of successful adoption of the Balanced Scorecard in Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises," OSF Preprints 5hx2r, Center for Open Science.
    18. Maria José Gomes & António Sousa & Jorge Novas & Ricardo Vinícius Dias Jordão, 2021. "Environmental Sustainability in Viticulture as a Balanced Scorecard Perspective of the Wine Industry: Evidence for the Portuguese Region of Alentejo," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-18, September.
    19. Kaveh Asiaei & Nick Bontis & Omid Barani & Ruzita Jusoh, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility and sustainability performance measurement systems: implications for organizational performance," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 85-126, March.
    20. Tobias Hahn & Frank Figge, 2018. "Why Architecture Does Not Matter: On the Fallacy of Sustainability Balanced Scorecards," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(4), pages 919-935, July.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:7:p:2119-:d:221339. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.