IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v6y2014i5p3064-3085d36197.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Involving Corporate Functions: Who Contributes to Sustainable Development?

Author

Listed:
  • Stefan Schaltegger

    (Centre for Sustainability Management, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr. 1, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany)

  • Dorli Harms

    (Centre for Sustainability Management, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr. 1, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany)

  • Sarah Elena Windolph

    (Centre for Sustainability Management, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr. 1, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany)

  • Jacob Hörisch

    (Centre for Sustainability Management, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr. 1, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany)

Abstract

A large body of literature claims that corporate sustainable development is a cross-functional challenge, which requires all functional units to be involved. However, it remains uncertain to what extent and in which way different corporate functions are actually involved in corporate sustainability management. To bridge this research gap, our paper draws on a concept of involvement introduced in the field of consumer behavior. Based on this previous research, our paper distinguishes two components of involvement: first, a cognitive-affective component, incorporating being affected by sustainability issues and being supportive of corporate sustainability; and second, a behavioral component, represented by the application of sustainability management tools. We use this concept to empirically analyze the involvement of corporate functions in sustainability management and find considerable differences in large German companies. Whereas public relations and strategic management are heavily involved, finance, accounting and management control appear not to be involved. A multinomial logistic regression shows that the cognitive-affective component significantly influences the behavioral component, with a functional unit being affected influencing the application of tools the most. Building on the model proposed, the paper provides implications on how to increase a functional unit’s involvement in sustainability management.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefan Schaltegger & Dorli Harms & Sarah Elena Windolph & Jacob Hörisch, 2014. "Involving Corporate Functions: Who Contributes to Sustainable Development?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(5), pages 1-22, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:5:p:3064-3085:d:36197
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/5/3064/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/5/3064/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kalim U. Shah, 2011. "Corporate environmentalism in a small emerging economy: stakeholder perceptions and the influence of firm characteristics," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(2), pages 80-90, March.
    2. Tobias Hahn & Mandy Scheermesser, 2006. "Approaches to corporate sustainability among German companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(3), pages 150-165, July.
    3. Paul Burger & Claus-Heinrich Daub & Yvonne M. Scherrer, 2009. "New Perspectives on Sustainable Business (Editorial)," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(3), pages 479-481, April.
    4. Costanza Consolandi & Ameeta Jaiswal-Dale & Elisa Poggiani & Alessandro Vercelli, 2009. "Global Standards and Ethical Stock Indexes: The Case of the Dow Jones Sustainability Stoxx Index," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(1), pages 185-197, April.
    5. Alan Muller & Ans Kolk, 2010. "Extrinsic and Intrinsic Drivers of Corporate Social Performance: Evidence from Foreign and Domestic Firms in Mexico," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 1-26, January.
    6. Sanjay Sharma & Irene Henriques, 2005. "Stakeholder influences on sustainability practices in the Canadian forest products industry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 159-180, February.
    7. Paul Shrivastava & Stuart Hart, 1995. "Creating sustainable corporations," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(3), pages 154-165, July.
    8. Magalie Marais, 2012. "CEO rhetorical strategies for corporate social responsibility (CSR)," Post-Print hal-02523052, HAL.
    9. Subhabrata Bobby Banerjee, 2001. "Managerial perceptions of corporate environmentalism: interpretations from industry and strategic implications for organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 489-513, June.
    10. Frondel, Manuel & Horbach, Jens & Rennings, Klaus, 2008. "What triggers environmental management and innovation? Empirical evidence for Germany," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 153-160, May.
    11. Nicole Darnall & G. Jason Jolley & Robert Handfield, 2008. "Environmental management systems and green supply chain management: complements for sustainability?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 30-45, January.
    12. Erik G. Hansen & Friedrich Grosse-Dunker & Ralf Reichwald, 2009. "Sustainability Innovation Cube — A Framework To Evaluate Sustainability-Oriented Innovations," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 13(04), pages 683-713.
    13. Saul Estrin & Delia Baghdasaryan & Klaus E. Meyer, 2009. "The Impact of Institutional and Human Resource Distance on International Entry Strategies," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(7), pages 1171-1196, November.
    14. Henri, Jean-François & Journeault, Marc, 2010. "Eco-control: The influence of management control systems on environmental and economic performance," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 63-80, January.
    15. Rajesh Kumar Singh & H.R. Murty & S.K. Gupta & A.K. Dikshit, 2008. "Integrated environment management in steel industries," International Journal of Management and Decision Making, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 9(2), pages 103-128.
    16. Stephen J. Brammer & Stephen Pavelin, 2006. "Corporate Reputation and Social Performance: The Importance of Fit," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 435-455, May.
    17. Nicole Darnall & Irene Henriques & Perry Sadorsky, 2010. "Adopting Proactive Environmental Strategy: The Influence of Stakeholders and Firm Size," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(6), pages 1072-1094, September.
    18. Stephen Fowler & C. Hope, 2007. "A Critical Review of Sustainable Business Indices and their Impact," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 76(3), pages 243-252, December.
    19. Gerard J. Lewis & Brian Harvey, 2001. "Perceived Environmental Uncertainty: The Extension of Miller’s Scale to the Natural Environment," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 201-234, March.
    20. Stefan Schaltegger, 2011. "Sustainability as a driver for corporate economic success," Society and Economy, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 33(1), pages 15-28, April.
    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. Małgorzata Jasiulewicz-Kaczmarek & Katarzyna Antosz & Ryszard Wyczółkowski & Małgorzata Sławińska, 2022. "Integrated Approach for Safety Culture Factor Evaluation from a Sustainability Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-30, September.
    2. Laura Bini & Marco Bellucci & Francesco Giunta, 2016. "Put Your Money where Your Mouth is: The Difference between Real Commitment to Sustainability and Mere Rhetoric," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(2), pages 5-31.
    3. Michela Longo & Wahiba Yaïci & Dario Zaninelli, 2015. "“Team Play” between Renewable Energy Sources and Vehicle Fleet to Decrease Air Pollution," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, December.
    4. González Palencia, Juan C. & Araki, Mikiya & Shiga, Seiichi, 2016. "Energy, environmental and economic impact of mini-sized and zero-emission vehicle diffusion on a light-duty vehicle fleet," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 96-109.
    5. Qiang Zhang & Yuan Ma & Qiyue Yin, 2019. "Environmental Management Breadth, Environmental Management Depth, and Manufacturing Performance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-11, November.
    6. Jasiulewicz-Kaczmarek Małgorzata, 2014. "Is Sustainable Development an Issue for Quality Management?," Foundations of Management, Sciendo, vol. 6(2), pages 51-66, December.
    7. Stephan Blaha & Wim Lambrechts & Jelle Mampaey, 2021. "Twalk Your Talk: On the (Non)-Formative Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility Communication on Supply Chain Sustainability Measures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-21, August.
    8. Paul Burger & Jan T. Frecè & Yvonne M. Scherrer & Claus-Heinrich Daub, 2014. "Strategies for Sustainability: Institutional and Organisational Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(11), pages 1-6, November.

    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. Sarah Elena Windolph & Dorli Harms & Stefan Schaltegger, 2014. "Motivations for Corporate Sustainability Management: Contrasting Survey Results and Implementation," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(5), pages 272-285, September.
    2. Stefan Schaltegger & Jacob Hörisch, 2017. "In Search of the Dominant Rationale in Sustainability Management: Legitimacy- or Profit-Seeking?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 259-276, October.
    3. Hörisch, Jacob & Ortas, Eduardo & Schaltegger, Stefan & Álvarez, Igor, 2015. "Environmental effects of sustainability management tools: An empirical analysis of large companies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 241-249.
    4. Peter S. Hofman & Constantin Blome & Martin C. Schleper & Nachiappan Subramanian, 2020. "Supply chain collaboration and eco‐innovations: An institutional perspective from China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2734-2754, September.
    5. Qi Guoyou & Zeng Saixing & Tam Chiming & Yin Haitao & Zou Hailiang, 2013. "Stakeholders' Influences on Corporate Green Innovation Strategy: A Case Study of Manufacturing Firms in China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, January.
    6. Jacob Hörisch & Matthew P. Johnson & Stefan Schaltegger, 2015. "Implementation of Sustainability Management and Company Size: A Knowledge‐Based View," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(8), pages 765-779, December.
    7. Francisco Javier Forcadell & Elisa Aracil, 2017. "European Banks' Reputation for Corporate Social Responsibility," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(1), pages 1-14, January.
    8. Graham, Stephanie & Potter, Antony, 2015. "Environmental operations management and its links with proactivity and performance: A study of the UK food industry," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(PA), pages 146-159.
    9. James Cordeiro & Manish Tewari, 2015. "Firm Characteristics, Industry Context, and Investor Reactions to Environmental CSR: A Stakeholder Theory Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(4), pages 833-849, September.
    10. Jean‐Pierre Imbrogiano & Elizabeth Nichols, 2021. "How to serve sustainability performance in businesses? An appetizing recipe to link practices to performance in business sustainability research," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1610-1622, May.
    11. Poisson-de Haro, Serge & Bitektine, Alex, 2015. "Global sustainability pressures and strategic choice: The role of firms’ structures and non-market capabilities in selection and implementation of sustainability initiatives," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 326-341.
    12. Qiang Zhang & Yuan Ma & Qiyue Yin, 2019. "Environmental Management Breadth, Environmental Management Depth, and Manufacturing Performance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-11, November.
    13. Kent Walker & Na Ni & Weidong Huo, 2014. "Is the Red Dragon Green? An Examination of the Antecedents and Consequences of Environmental Proactivity in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(1), pages 27-43, November.
    14. Nguyen Phong Nguyen & Samuel Adomako, 2022. "Stakeholder pressure for eco‐friendly practices, international orientation, and eco‐innovation: A study of small and medium‐sized enterprises in Vietnam," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(1), pages 79-88, January.
    15. Troise, Ciro & Tani, Mario & Dinsmore, John & Schiuma, Giovanni, 2021. "Understanding the implications of equity crowdfunding on sustainability-oriented innovation and changes in agri-food systems: Insights into an open innovation approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    16. Norifumi Kawai & Roger Strange & Antonella Zucchella, 2016. "Stakeholder Pressures, EMS Implementation, and Green Innovation in MNC Overseas Subsidiaries," DEM Working Papers Series 121, University of Pavia, Department of Economics and Management.
    17. Quang Le Van & Thanh Viet Nguyen & Manh Hung Nguyen, 2019. "Sustainable development and environmental policy: The engagement of stakeholders in green products in Vietnam," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 675-687, July.
    18. Yunhee Kim, 2015. "Environmental, Sustainable Behaviors and Innovation of Firms During the Financial Crisis," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 58-72, January.
    19. Hyundo Choi & Donggyu Yi, 2018. "Environmental innovation inertia: Analyzing the business circumstances for environmental process and product innovations," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1623-1634, December.
    20. Gary F. Peters & Andrea M. Romi & Juan Manuel Sanchez, 2019. "The Influence of Corporate Sustainability Officers on Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(4), pages 1065-1087, November.

    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:6:y:2014:i:5:p:3064-3085:d:36197. 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.