Beyond What and Why: Understanding Organizational Evolution Towards Sustainable Enterprise Models

Zollo, Maurizio; Cennamo, Carmelo; Neumann, Kerstin

doi:10.5465/ambpp.2013.16220abstract

Cited by 93 publications

(154 citation statements)

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“…While many firms are increasing their commitment to social and environmental issues (Warbuton and Horn-Phathnothai, 2007) there are a diverse range of alternative approaches that can be adopted to achieve responsible outcomes (Polonsky and Jevons, 2009). Environmental issues and sustainability are considered as important competitive advantages (Zollo, Cennamo and Neumann, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enviropreneurial marketing in greening corporate activities

Song-Turner

Polonsky

2016

EBR

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Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the enviropreneurial marketing approach used by firms in China and its impact on the success of green marketing actions, with the aim of drawing useful lessons from the literature and successful green firms. Design/methodology/approach This study follows the inductive case study approach, and the qualitative data come from a study of four firms engaging in enviropreneurial marketing activities. Interview data were triangulated with qualitative data from other sources. Findings The evidence from this study indicates that enviropreneurial marketing plays a central role in developing innovative product or services, adopting an innovative and pragmatic green marketing mix that differentiates and creates changes within industry and markets. Research limitations/implications The main limitation of this study is that data samples are from successful firms labelled as “green” by the Chinese authorities, based on winning “official” awards. These do not necessarily represent the opinions of a cross section of firms within China with respect to enviropreneurial marketing. Future studies should include a mixed population of firms. Practical implications Policy makers and marketing practitioners need to consider drivers to ensure that Chinese firms integrate enviropreneurial marketing activities, which need to complement the delivery of functional value. Social implications Green initiatives/changes within the firm seem to be partly driven by the environmental orientation of these firms’ founders, thus, developing an environmental orientation in managers may be important to drive enviropreneurial marketing activities. Originality/value This study contributes by confirming the current literature on green marketing and examining the positive impact of enviropreneurial marketing on firms’ performance in the context of marketing in emerging markets.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enviropreneurial marketing in greening corporate activities

Song-Turner

Polonsky

2016

EBR

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“…Against the backdrop of mounting evidence indicating that efforts towards improving environmental conditions remain wholly insufficient (Whiteman et al, 2013, UNEP, 2012, there are increasing calls for firms to incorporate sustainability into their business plans and strategies (Schaltegger et al, 2012, Zollo et al, 2013, Rusinko, 2007, Seshadri, 2013. A key imperative of such approaches is the organisational capability of developing a greater focus on generating income by delivering sustainable outcomes, rather than by purely charging for products and services without any consideration for their environmental and social impacts (Ford et al, 2003).…”

Section: Sustainability Goals and Performance-based Contractingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Umbrella Agreements in Achieving Sustainability Goals: Energy Efficiency at the Empire State Building

Dahlmann¹,

Veal²

2016

Journal of Green Building

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In this paper we investigate whether innovative and flexible contractual arrangements can support the process of achieving ambitious sustainability goals. We explore this question through an analysis of the role of umbrella agreements in driving energy savings in the building sector. Drawing on a case study of the iconic Empire State building, we examine the typical challenges faced by clients and contractors in devising suitable agreements that facilitate managing contractual and performance risks, as well as the sharing of responsibilities and cooperation between multiple project stakeholders. We find that the project arrangements appear to exhibit the adoption of the key characteristics commonly found in umbrella agreements which incorporate sustainability measures that maximize income through efficient delivery of outcomes. Specifically, this means that they need to enable stakeholders to manage repeated review cycles, complex perceptions and expectations, and different tacit assumptions and codes of behaviour, as well as managing and communicating in networks and obtaining agreement also from non-contractual parties. Moreover, we demonstrate that umbrella agreements can facilitate a network perspective of business relationships by emphasizing value co-creation and the embeddedness of firms within a network of interactions.

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“…In a recent article reviewing research in the field, Zollo, Cennamo, and Neumann [7] observe that a great deal of research effort to date has been allocated to the two "broad sets of questions: why should companies move beyond serving merely economic purposes and what makes a company more sustainable" (p. 242). As a supplement to work on the theoretical, long-term models, they argue, we should also study the stepwise process of organizational evolution towards sustainability i.e., where "sustainable" business practice is now and where it may be going.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing Nature–Business as Usual: Resource Extraction Companies and Their Representations of Natural Landscapes

Brown

2015

Sustainability

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This article contributes to knowledge of how one category of business organization, very large, British-based, natural resource extraction corporations, has begun to manage its operations for sustainability. The object of study is a large volume of texts that make representations of the managing-for-sustainability practices of these multinational corporations (MNCs). The macro-level textual analysis identifies patterns in the wording of the representations of practice. Hajer's understanding of discourse, in which ideas are contextualized within social processes of practice, provides the theoretical approach for discourse analysis that gives an insight into how they understand and practice sustainability. Through this large-scale discourse analysis, illustrated in the article with specific textual examples, one can see that these natural resource MNCs are developing a vocabulary and a "grammar" which enables them to manage natural spaces in the same way that they are able to manage their own far-flung business operations. They make simplified representations of the much more complex natural landscapes in which their operations are sited and these models of nature can then be incorporated into the corporations' operational management processes. Their journey towards sustainability delivers, in practice, the management of nature as business continues as usual.

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Beyond What and Why: Understanding Organizational Evolution Towards Sustainable Enterprise Models

Cited by 93 publications

References 0 publications

Enviropreneurial marketing in greening corporate activities

Enviropreneurial marketing in greening corporate activities

The Role of Umbrella Agreements in Achieving Sustainability Goals: Energy Efficiency at the Empire State Building

Managing Nature–Business as Usual: Resource Extraction Companies and Their Representations of Natural Landscapes

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