IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0119036.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Why Sustainability Reporting Based on the Triple Bottom Line Can Be Misleading

Author

Listed:
  • Larissa Shnayder
  • Frank J van Rijnsoever
  • Marko P Hekkert

Abstract

In the packaged food industry, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an informal requirement for which firms account through sustainability reporting. CSR behaviors are often reported and analyzed using the Triple Bottom Line (3BL) framework, which categorizes them as affecting people, planet, or profit. 3BL is useful in determining which of these categories is most elaborated upon by the firm, but has a limited scope and many documented criticisms. This paper aims to address the aforementioned insufficiencies by augmenting the 3BL framework with two important attributes of CSR practices: (1) the presence of change in core firm behavior of the firm itself or of others in the supply chain, and (2) whether the behavior qualifies as being outside of the firm’s normal business practice or is something that they might have done anyway. We qualitatively analyze CSR behaviors described in sustainability reports and interviews from major players in the packaged food industry and categorize them using these attributes as a supplement to 3BL. This enables us to separate the behaviors from their framing and analyze them more critically. Our results demonstrate how the visible CSR efforts of a firm can be misleading at first glance. Using only 3BL, we find that the CSR focus of firms in this industry is people. We then discover that the codes focusing on people (as opposed to planet or profit) require the least amount of real structural change from a firm or its supply chain partners, and thus arguably, the least amount of effort. We also find that behaviors that focus on planet require the most effort within the firm itself, but for behaviors involving supply chain partners, effort is required for behaviors in all three categories. Finally, we find that CSR behavior that is related to planet tends to go beyond normal business practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Larissa Shnayder & Frank J van Rijnsoever & Marko P Hekkert, 2015. "Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Why Sustainability Reporting Based on the Triple Bottom Line Can Be Misleading," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-23, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0119036
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0119036
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0119036
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0119036&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0119036?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carroll, Archie B., 1991. "The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral management of organizational stakeholders," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 39-48.
    2. Roger L. Burritt & Stefan Schaltegger, 2010. "Sustainability accounting and reporting: fad or trend?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(7), pages 829-846, September.
    3. Kolk, Ans & Pinkse, Jonatan, 2006. "Stakeholder Mismanagement and Corporate Social Responsibility Crises," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 59-72, February.
    4. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    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. Tonino Pencarelli & Viktória Ali Taha & Veronika Škerháková & Tomáš Valentiny & Richard Fedorko, 2019. "Luxury Products and Sustainability Issues from the Perspective of Young Italian Consumers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-25, December.
    2. Caroline Tahon & Peter J. Batt, 2021. "An Exploratory Study of the Sustainable Practices Used at Each Level of the Bordeaux Wine Value Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-25, August.
    3. Deniz Tunçalp & Nihan Yıldırım, 2022. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Mapping the Business Landscape for the Last 20 Years," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-21, March.
    4. Rebekka Küchler & Birte Maja Nicolai & Christian Herzig, 2023. "Towards a sustainability management tool for food manufacturing small and medium‐sized enterprises—Insights from a Delphi study," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 589-604, March.
    5. Manveer Mann & Sang-Eun Byun & Whitney Ginder, 2021. "B Corps’ Social Media Communications during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Through the Lens of the Triple Bottom Line," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-21, August.
    6. Elżbieta Izabela Szczepankiewicz & Przemysław Mućko, 2016. "CSR Reporting Practices of Polish Energy and Mining Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-17, January.
    7. Eastmure, Elizabeth & Cummins, Steven & Sparks, Leigh, 2020. "Non-market strategy as a framework for exploring commercial involvement in health policy: A primer," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    8. Larissa Shnayder & Frank J. Van Rijnsoever, 2018. "How expected outcomes, stakeholders, and institutions influence corporate social responsibility at different levels of large basic needs firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1689-1707, December.
    9. Thang Quyet Nguyen & Nguyen Thanh Long & Thanh-Lam Nguyen, 2019. "Impacts of corporate social responsibility on the competitiveness of tourist enterprises: An empirical case of Ben Tre, Vietnam," Tourism Economics, , vol. 25(4), pages 539-568, June.
    10. Bos, Colin & van der Lans, Ivo A. & van Kleef, Ellen & van Trijp, Hans C.M., 2018. "Promoting healthy choices from vending machines: Effectiveness and consumer evaluations of four types of interventions," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 247-255.
    11. Sarah Tiba & Frank J. van Rijnsoever & Marko P. Hekkert, 2019. "Firms with benefits: A systematic review of responsible entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility literature," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(2), pages 265-284, March.
    12. Yanhong Tang & Rui Yang & Yingwen Chen & Mengjin Du & Yichen Yang & Xin Miao, 2020. "Greenwashing of Local Government: The Human-Caused Risks in the Process of Environmental Information Disclosure in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-14, August.

    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. Duygu Turker, 2009. "Measuring Corporate Social Responsibility: A Scale Development Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(4), pages 411-427, April.
    2. Anselm Schneider, 2015. "Reflexivity in Sustainability Accounting and Management: Transcending the Economic Focus of Corporate Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 525-536, March.
    3. Louisa Pollok & Sebastian Spierling & Hans-Josef Endres & Ulrike Grote, 2021. "Social Life Cycle Assessments: A Review on Past Development, Advances and Methodological Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-29, September.
    4. Shelby D. Hunt, 2017. "Strategic marketing, sustainability, the triple bottom line, and resource-advantage (R-A) theory: Securing the foundations of strategic marketing theory and research," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 7(1), pages 52-66, June.
    5. Lis, Bettina, 2012. "The Relevance of Corporate Social Responsibility for a Sustainable Human Resource Management: An Analysis of Organizational Attractiveness as a Determinant in Employees’ Selection of a (Potential) Emp," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 23(3), pages 279-295.
    6. Remmer Sassen & Leyla Azizi, 2018. "Voluntary disclosure of sustainability reports by Canadian universities," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 88(1), pages 97-137, January.
    7. Hannah Jun & Seoyoung Moon, 2021. "An Analysis of Sustainability Integration in Business School Curricula: Evidence from Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-19, March.
    8. Szennay, Áron, 2020. "A vállalati társadalmi felelősségvállalás megközelítései és a fenntartható fejlődés [How popular approaches to corporate social responsibility relate to sustainable development]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(10), pages 1057-1074.
    9. Sojin Jung & Jung Ha‐Brookshire, 2017. "Perfect or Imperfect Duties? Developing a Moral Responsibility Framework for Corporate Sustainability from the Consumer Perspective," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(4), pages 326-340, July.
    10. Mónica Santana & Rafael Morales-Sánchez & Susana Pasamar, 2020. "Mapping the Link between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Human Resource Management (HRM): How Is This Relationship Measured?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-28, February.
    11. Ilenia Ascani & Roberta Ciccola & Maria Serena Chiucchi, 2021. "A Structured Literature Review about the Role of Management Accountants in Sustainability Accounting and Reporting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-25, February.
    12. Víctor Meseguer-Sánchez & Emilio Abad-Segura & Luis Jesús Belmonte-Ureña & Valentín Molina-Moreno, 2020. "Examining the Research Evolution on the Socio-Economic and Environmental Dimensions on University Social Responsibility," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-30, July.
    13. Mª Del Mar Ramos-González & Mercedes Rubio-Andrés & Miguel Ángel Sastre-Castillo, 2017. "Building Corporate Reputation through Sustainable Entrepreneurship: The Mediating Effect of Ethical Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-19, September.
    14. Jun-Der Leu & Larry Jung-Hsing Lee & Yi-Wei Huang & Chia-Chi Huang, 2021. "Sustainable Supply Chains: Evidence from Small and Medium-Sized Manufacturers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-22, August.
    15. Armando Calabrese & Roberta Costa & Nathan Levialdi & Tamara Menichini & Roberth Andres Villazon Montalvan, 2020. "Does More Mean Better? Exploring the Relationship between Report Completeness and Environmental Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-16, December.
    16. Mark Anthony Camilleri, 2017. "Corporate sustainability and responsibility: creating value for business, society and the environment," Asian Journal of Sustainability and Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 59-74, September.
    17. Björn Christensen & Alexander Himme, 2017. "Improving environmental management accounting: how to use statistics to better determine energy consumption," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 227-243, May.
    18. Anna-Maija Lämsä & Suvi Heikkinen & Raminta PuÄ Ä—taitÄ—, 2023. "Social Sustainability, Leadership and Human Resource Management," South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, , vol. 12(1), pages 7-13, April.
    19. Jan Anton van Zanten & Rob van Tulder, 2021. "Improving companies' impacts on sustainable development: A nexus approach to the SDGS," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(8), pages 3703-3720, December.
    20. Emilio Abad-Segura & Francisco Joaquín Cortés-García & Luis J. Belmonte-Ureña, 2019. "The Sustainable Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility: A Global Analysis and Future Trends," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-24, September.

    More about this item

    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:plo:pone00:0119036. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.