IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v154y2019i3d10.1007_s10551-017-3465-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Leveraging Partnerships for Environmental Change: The Interplay Between the Partnership Mechanism and the Targeted Stakeholder Group

Author

Listed:
  • Lea Stadtler

    (Grenoble Ecole de Management)

  • Haiying Lin

    (Faculty of Environment)

Abstract

Partnerships can play an important role in addressing environmental concerns and fostering environmental improvement. In this context, we argue that a more elaborate understanding is needed of how partners intend to reach beyond the partnership boundaries and target stakeholders at the firm, industry, supply-chain, or societal levels. As environmental improvement is intertwined with the process of change, we build on the theory of planned change to explain how the focus on selected partnership mechanisms may help partners anticipate and overcome barriers when targeting environmental improvement at these different levels. We test our framework, using a sample of 566 environmental partnerships formed in the USA, and provide rich insights into how partners intend to reach beyond the partnership boundaries. From a practical perspective, these insights may inform corporate managers’ decision to configure environmental partnerships in terms of the target group and suitable partnership mechanism. From a theory perspective, the study helps develop a more systematic understanding of what partners intend to do and when (i.e. on the basis of which mechanism) partnerships may provide benefits in addressing level-specific change barriers. These insights provide a first step in positioning partnerships in the broader context of environmental change and encourage future research to move from the intentions to the actual outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Lea Stadtler & Haiying Lin, 2019. "Leveraging Partnerships for Environmental Change: The Interplay Between the Partnership Mechanism and the Targeted Stakeholder Group," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(3), pages 869-891, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:154:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-017-3465-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-017-3465-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-017-3465-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-017-3465-y?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Haiying Lin, 2012. "Cross-sector Alliances for Corporate Social Responsibility Partner Heterogeneity Moderates Environmental Strategy Outcomes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(2), pages 219-229, October.
    2. Ulrich Wassmer & Raymond Paquin & Sanjay Sharma, 2014. "The Engagement of Firms in Environmental Collaborations : Existing Contributions and Future Directions," Post-Print hal-02313050, HAL.
    3. Ans Kolk & Willemijn Dolen & Marlene Vock, 2010. "Trickle Effects of Cross-Sector Social Partnerships," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(1), pages 123-137, July.
    4. Mariko Sakakibara, 1997. "Heterogeneity Of Firm Capabilities And Cooperative Research And Development: An Empirical Examination Of Motives," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(S1), pages 143-164, July.
    5. Bernard Burnes, 2004. "Kurt Lewin and the Planned Approach to Change: A Re‐appraisal," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(6), pages 977-1002, September.
    6. Heather Dixon-Fowler & Daniel Slater & Jonathan Johnson & Alan Ellstrand & Andrea Romi, 2013. "Beyond “Does it Pay to be Green?” A Meta-Analysis of Moderators of the CEP–CFP Relationship," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 353-366, January.
    7. Jonatan Pinkse & Ans Kolk, 2012. "Addressing the climate change sustainable development nexus: the role of multi-stakeholder partnerships," Post-Print hal-00707337, HAL.
    8. Lea Stadtler, 2016. "Scrutinizing Public–Private Partnerships for Development: Towards a Broad Evaluation Conception," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 71-86, April.
    9. Jonatan Pinkse & Marcel Dommisse, 2009. "Overcoming barriers to sustainability: an explanation of residential builders' reluctance to adopt clean technologies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(8), pages 515-527, December.
    10. W. Richard Scott, 2003. "Institutional carriers: reviewing modes of transporting ideas over time and space and considering their consequences," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 12(4), pages 879-894, August.
    11. Rob Tulder & M. May Seitanidi & Andrew Crane & Stephen Brammer, 2016. "Enhancing the Impact of Cross-Sector Partnerships," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 1-17, April.
    12. Vachon, Stephan & Klassen, Robert D., 2008. "Environmental management and manufacturing performance: The role of collaboration in the supply chain," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(2), pages 299-315, February.
    13. Julie Battilana & Bernard Leca & Eva Boxenbaum, 2009. "How actors change institutions : Towards a theory of institutional entrepreneurship," Post-Print hal-00576509, HAL.
    14. Mitchell P. Koza & Arie Y. Lewin, 1998. "The Co-Evolution of Strategic Alliances," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(3), pages 255-264, June.
    15. Ans Kolk & Marlene Vock & Willemijn Dolen, 2016. "Microfoundations of Partnerships: Exploring the Role of Employees in Trickle Effects," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 19-34, April.
    16. Haiying Lin & Nicole Darnall, 2015. "Strategic Alliance Formation and Structural Configuration," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 549-564, March.
    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. Teea Palo, 2023. "The Emergence of Concerned Partnerships in the Ethical Marketization of Place: A Narrative Lens," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 184(4), pages 835-854, May.
    2. Tulin Dzhengiz & Andra Riandita & Anders Broström, 2023. "Configurations of sustainability‐oriented textile partnerships," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7), pages 4392-4412, November.
    3. Rayne, Daniel & Leckie, Civilai & McDonald, Heath, 2020. "Productive partnerships? Driving consumer awareness to action in CSR partnerships," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 49-57.
    4. Mariela Carvajal & Muhammad Nadeem & Rashid Zaman, 2022. "Biodiversity disclosure, sustainable development and environmental initiatives: Does board gender diversity matter?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 969-987, March.
    5. Riandita, Andra, 2022. "To collaborate and innovate for sustainability: Food retailers and their external partners," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    6. Tiziana Russo Spena & Nadia Di Paola, 2020. "Moving beyond the tensions in open environmental innovation towards a holistic perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1961-1974, July.
    7. Qian Yang & Ruoqi Geng & Taiwen Feng, 2020. "Does the configuration of macro‐ and micro‐institutional environments affect the effectiveness of green supply chain integration?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 1695-1713, May.

    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. Mario La Torre & Annarita Trotta & Helen Chiappini & Alessandro Rizzello, 2019. "Business Models for Sustainable Finance: The Case Study of Social Impact Bonds," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-23, March.
    2. Anne M. Quarshie & Rudolf Leuschner, 2018. "Cross-Sector Social Interactions and Systemic Change in Disaster Response: A Qualitative Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(2), pages 357-384, June.
    3. Lea Stadtler & Haiying Lin, 2017. "Moving to the Next Strategy Stage: Examining Firms' Awareness, Motivation and Capability Drivers in Environmental Alliances," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(6), pages 709-730, 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. Haiying Lin & Nicole Darnall, 2015. "Strategic Alliance Formation and Structural Configuration," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 549-564, March.
    6. Ana Cristina Dahik Loor & Todd W. Moss & Suho Han, 2023. "Rural and Urban Place Renewal in Cross-Sector Partnerships," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 184(4), pages 793-812, May.
    7. Pierre‐Xavier Meschi & Anne Norheim‐Hansen, 2020. "Partner‐diversity effects on alliance termination in the early stage of green alliance formation: Empirical evidence from carbon‐emission reduction projects in Latin America," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 250-261, January.
    8. Andrew Peterman & Arno Kourula & Raymond Levitt, 2020. "Organizational roles in a sustainability alliance network," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3314-3330, December.
    9. Marika Arena & Kim Klarskov Jeppesen, 2016. "Practice Variation in Public Sector Internal Auditing: An Institutional Analysis," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 319-345, June.
    10. Govindan, Kannan & Rajeev, A. & Padhi, Sidhartha S. & Pati, Rupesh K., 2020. "Supply chain sustainability and performance of firms: A meta-analysis of the literature," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    11. Lea Fobbe, 2020. "Analysing Organisational Collaboration Practices for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-21, March.
    12. Angeloantonio Russo & Rosamartina Schena, 2021. "Ambidexterity in the context of SME alliances: Does sustainability have a role?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 606-615, March.
    13. Toohey, Kristine & Beaton, Anthony, 2017. "International cross-sector social partnerships between sport and governments: The World Anti-Doping Agency," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 483-496.
    14. Deborah de Lange & Timo Busch & Javier Delgado-Ceballos, 2012. "Sustaining Sustainability in Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(2), pages 151-156, October.
    15. Barnes, Jane & Liao, Ying, 2012. "The effect of individual, network, and collaborative competencies on the supply chain management system," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(2), pages 888-899.
    16. Caroline Mothe & Uyen T. Nguyen-Thi & Ángela Triguero, 2018. "Innovative products and services with environmental benefits: design of search strategies for external knowledge and absorptive capacity," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 61(11), pages 1934-1954, September.
    17. Stella Pfisterer & Rob Van Tulder, 2020. "Navigating Governance Tensions to Enhance the Impact of Partnerships with the Private Sector for the SDGs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, December.
    18. Hazem S Kassem & Salim Bagadeem & Bader Alhafi Alotaibi & Mohammed Aljuaid, 2021. "Are partnerships in nonprofit organizations being governed for sustainability? A partnering life cycle assessment," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-25, March.
    19. Maikel Kishna & Eva Niesten & Simona Negro & Marko Hekkert, 2015. "The role of strategic alliances in creating technology legitimacy: a study on the emerging field of bio-plastics," Innovation Studies Utrecht (ISU) working paper series 15-03, Utrecht University, Department of Innovation Studies, revised Jun 2015.
    20. Elisa Villani & Luciano Greco & Nelson Phillips, 2015. "Business Models and Institutional Complexity: Understanding Value Creation in Healthcare Sector Public-Private Partnerships," BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series BEMPS31, Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen.

    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:kap:jbuset:v:154:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-017-3465-y. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.