PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to fill the void of empirical cross‐industry research in the area of corporate sustainability management and its business case.Design/methodology/approachNine industries (oil and gas, utility, aviation, automotive, chemical, pharmaceutical, technology, financial services and food and beverage) are compared in terms of their environmental and social issues, the pressure they face from their stakeholders, and the resulting business case for corporate sustainability. For this approach, a mixed methods design was employed featuring semi‐structured interviews with managers (sustainability experts, business managers from various functions) and external stakeholders); and self‐completion questionnaires (also targeting sustainability experts and business managers) to collect complementary quantitative data. It was possible to draw upon more than 400 interviews and 1,100 questionnaires.FindingsIt was ascertained that the business case is clearly sector‐specific and difficult for companies to build for several reasons: limited relevance of social and environmental risks and opportunities to companies' core business; numerous and highly‐fragmented stakeholder demands; and lack of basic organizational capacities to collect and process relevant data.Originality/valueThis paper is primarily relevant to practitioners. It looks beyond the usual “sustainability rhetoric”, as it provides a much differentiated (since cross‐industry) view on the drivers and barriers to corporate sustainability.
Today's corporations face many demands from a plethora of different stakeholders, which are often incongruous. While shareholders demand a decent return on their investment, employees demand safe and well-paid jobs, communities stress upon their tax revenues and public pressure groups call for more social and environmental responsibility. Corporations thus require a great deal of corporate diplomacy to prioritise and – where necessary and possible – reconcile these different demands. This paper describes a framework for managerial/corporate attitudes and external pressure levels. Four case studies illustrate varying attitudes towards corporate diplomacy determine the outcome of controversies over genetically modified food products.
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