How to encourage business professionals to adopt sustainable practices? Experimental evidence that the ‘business case’ discourse can backfire

An intentional profit-generating strategy can be detrimental to a sustainable organisation

“…However, these other things are rarely equal in people's minds (e.g., Auger and Devinney 2007;Chernev and Blair, 2020;Luchs et al, 2010;Skard et al, 2020), thus setting up unique challenges for sustainable corporations (Ginsberg and Bloom, 2004). This research shows that given its negative association with sustainability, profitability is one of these unique challenges (Rode et al, 2020). However, this research also shows that the ways in which information is framed can shape consumer perceptions and how they consider sustainability, and therefore contributes to overcoming its negative association with profitability.…”

“…From a managerial perspective, our findings shed further light on why companies have struggled to implement profitable sustainability programs in the past (Choi et al, 2020;Rode et al, 2020). Indeed, sustainable corporations looking to promote green products face consistent challenges when it comes to adopting the right marketing strategies.…”

“…Although companies' responsibility towards society is usually presented as the main motivator to promote sustainability, a "business case" discourse has recently been described as an alternative which portrays sustainability as a win-win strategy to increase profitability (e.g., Lee, 2008;Rode et al, 2020;Windsor, 2006). There already exists a substantial body of literature dedicated towards understanding the various types of green marketing strategies (e.g., Dangelico and Vocalelli, 2017), but little is known about consumer perceptions and the underlying reasoning behind them when it comes to the trade-off between sustainability and profitability (Makov and Newman, 2016).…”

“…By taking into account the tension between profitability and sustainability, expressing the contradiction between exchange and communal norms (e.g., Clark and Mills, 1993;Fiske, 1992;Heyman and Ariely, 2004;Tetlock and McGraw, 2005), this article demonstrates that consumers adopt a zero-sum heuristic to infer that profit-generating intentions lead to a negative evaluation of a sustainable product. In this perspective, the "win-win" strategy designed to maximise profits while minimising environmental impacts, and popularised by the "business case" discourse (e.g., Rode et al, 2020),can backfire as consumers perceive superiority on one dimension (here, profitability) as compensated by inferiority on the other one (sustainability).…”

“…The academic debate around the rationale behind organisations seeking sustainability suggests two main perspectives. First, the profit-seeking theory, or "business case" discourse, argues that companies will adopt sustainable practices for the purpose of increasing their profits, creating financial advantages, and for economic success of the organisation (e.g., Lee, 2008;Rode et al, 2020;Schaltegger and Hörisch, 2017;Windsor, 2006). Second, the legitimacy-seeking view emphasises the importance of social and cultural norms, societal obligations, and expectations in driving sustainability decisions (Bruton et al, 2010).…”