Recipes for Successful Sustainability: Empirical Organizational Configurations for Strong Corporate Environmental Performance

Abstract

We examine 45 existing case studies of firms with strong corporate environmental performance (CEP) to empirically identify four organizational configurations for successful sustainability. These four configurations represent different combinations of variables describing a firm's external environment, organizational structure, and its strategy-related activities. More specifically, these configurations vary in having a benign or challenging external environment, a mechanistic or organic structure, a low-cost or differentiation strategy, hands-on or hands-off participation by the top management team, high or low consideration given to stakeholders, and a short-or long-term time orientation. Taken together the four organizational configurations introduce an understanding of equifinality for achieving CEP. In other words, given an adequate variety of ingredients, there are multiple recipes for successful sustainability. Implications for scholars, practitioners and policy-makers and other stakeholders are discussed.

Organizational Configurations for Sustainability and Employee Productivity: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis Approach

“…Maggetti (2014) analyzes firm-level organizational factors that explain participation in multistakeholder agreements establishing principles against money laundering. Walker et al (2015) study how configurations of external environments, firm organizations, and strategies explain corporate environmental performance. Other articles use QCA to investigate the relationship between different types of CSR practices and corporate performance.…”

Do Women Leaders Promote Sustainability? Analyzing the Effect of Corporate Governance Composition on Environmental Performance

“…Yet increasingly scholars find that allowing companies greater flexibility in crafting their own environmental policies may allow for greater innovation and creativity than a one‐size‐fits‐all regulatory model (e.g. Walker et al , ). This evidence suggests that the role of public policy may lie in providing incentives to companies, rather than quotas or mandates, that encourage, recognize and reward companies for gender diversity and environmental practice.…”

“…Scholarship on the predictors of corporate social responsibility and environmental performance has analyzed several factors that shape corporate practice (e.g. Walker et al , ). This scholarship provides evidence that organizational diversity – particularly among decision makers – enhances corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts and recognition.…”

Munificence, Dynamism, and Complexity: How Industry Context Drives Corporate Sustainability

“…Previous research has also shown that environmental responsibility varies by industry (Berrone et al , ; Brammer and Pavelin, ; Fifka, ; Lee et al , ; Koh et al , ). Despite burgeoning research on the relationship between industrial factors and corporate environmental responsibility, only a couple of studies have taken into account the impact of the general industry context (for instance, Goll and Rasheed, ; Rothenberg and Zyglidopoulos, ; Walker et al , ). Goll and Rasheed () examined the contingent role of industrial munificence and dynamism in the relationship between CSR and firm financial performance.…”

“…Goll and Rasheed () examined the contingent role of industrial munificence and dynamism in the relationship between CSR and firm financial performance. Rothenberg and Zyglidopoulos () focused on the printing industry and measured the dynamism and munificence at the state level to explain the determinants of environmental innovation, while Walker and his colleagues () drew on configuration theory to identify how the organizational configurations interact with each other and influence environmental performance. We extend this approach to investigate the links between three distinct characteristics of industry context and corporate environmental responsibility, namely munificence, dynamism, and complexity (Aldrich, ; Dess and Beard, ).…”