Business Cases for Sustainability: A Stakeholder Theory Perspective

Abstract

The “business case for sustainability” is a notion often referenced in the corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility literature. Whereas some see sustainability and the business case as contradictions and thus emphasize the existence of trade-offs, others highlight how (potential) business cases can be created by managing ecological, social, and economic aspects. Both views have in common that the “business case” is implicitly or explicitly seen as creating financial performance, often for one group of stakeholders, only. The fact that a business case is not a given phenomenon but has to be co-created in the exchange between and with contributions from various stakeholders has so far not been analysed in depth. By taking a stakeholder theory perspective, this article extends the existing research on what business and a business case are about and analyses the understanding of business cases for sustainability and how they can be created with and by stakeholders.

Sustainable entrepreneurship, innovation, and business models: Integrative framework and propositions for future research

“…Ács, Autio, & Szerb, ; Simón‐Moya, Revuelto‐Taboada, & Guerrero, ). Stakeholders, such as customers, non‐governmental organisations, or the media, demanding that firms integrate sustainability considerations into their core businesses can be another important motivational factor (Amankwah‐Amoah et al ; Hörisch, Freeman, & Schaltegger, ; Schaltegger, Hörisch, & Freeman, ). And on the individual level, personal values such as altruism, universalism, or benevolence can drive sustainable entrepreneurship (Breuer & Lüdeke‐Freund, , ).…”

“…Exploring and exploiting market opportunities for their sustainability innovations should allow entrepreneurs to realise so-called business cases for sustainability (Schaltegger & Burritt, 2018). In essence, business cases for sustainability are based on positive interrelations between business success and contributions to a sustainable development of the natural environment, society, and economy (Dyllick & Hockerts, 2002;Salzmann, Ionescu-Somers, & Steger, 2005;Schaltegger et al, 2019;Schaltegger & Burritt, 2018;Schaltegger, Lüdeke-Freund, & Hansen, 2012). Assuming that radical innovations are crucial for improving a firm's sustainability performance-without neglecting the effects of accumulated incremental steps-the theoretical relationships between a firm's financial success and its ecological and social performance can be illustrated as in It is important to note that the horizontal axis shows the voluntary (or mainly voluntary) ecological and social performance of a firm, that is, additional initiatives beyond laws and regulations (Schaltegger & Burritt, 2018).…”

Engaging with the Natural Environment

“…Indeed, there is an increasing stream of stakeholder literature that is in agreement with giving the nature a stakeholder status as non-human stakeholders can and are affecting the premises, actions and outcomes of organisations (Driscoll & Starik, 2004;Hart & Sharma, 2004;Haigh & Griffiths, 2009;Starik, 1995;Orts & Strudler, 2002;Waddock, 2011). At the same time, however, many academics continue to argue that stakeholder engagement is about collaboration with and between social or human stakeholders as they can voice their interests and participate in negotiations about the purposes, values and targets of organisations (Barnett et al, forthcoming;Hörisch et al, 2014;Phillips & Reichart, 2000;Schaltegger et al, 2019). In the following, we will take a closer look at each of these stakeholder research streams.…”

Sustainability Reporting in International Hotel Chains

“…The adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies (Carroll, 1979;Elkington, 1997), sustainability orientation (Brundtland, 1987) and enhancement of the importance of stakeholder view (Freeman, 1984;Jacoby, 1973;Longstreth & Kesenblum, 1973;Donaldsond & Preston, 1995) and stakeholder engagement (Sloan, 2009) have promoted integration in organisations between the economic and social-environmental dimensions. These actions serve as drivers for the improvement of the collection of additional economic information which results in the provision of new data, aimed at ensuring coherence among governance choices, organisational conduct and sustainable performance (Carroll, 1999;Freeman et al, 2010;Harrison et al, 2015;Schaltegger et al, 2017;Salvioni & Gennari, 2017).…”