Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility最新文献

{"title":"Reimagining the sustainable consumer: Why social representations of sustainable consumption matter","authors":"Urša Golob,&nbsp;Klement Podnar,&nbsp;Franzisca Weder","doi":"10.1111/beer.12656","DOIUrl":"10.1111/beer.12656","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Globally, consumers are increasingly turning to sustainable consumption practices. This article emphasizes the importance of social and cultural context in the study of sustainable consumption, drawing on social representations. It attempts to explain and empirically demonstrate how sustainable consumption is socially represented. The aim of the study was to investigate the construction of representations of sustainable consumption as knowledge and its appropriation in relation to the purchase and consumption of food. Online focus groups were employed in a cross-sectional study conducted in Slovenia and Austria. The results of the study not only show how the “global” concept of sustainable consumption is appropriated and reflected in practices in a specific national and cultural context, but also highlight the importance of social representations in terms of how their meanings can influence the emergence of new practices. Furthermore, they show how sustainable consumption can occasionally be seen in actions that precede reflection or exist in a more abstract form unrelated to actions. The results offer several implications for practitioners seeking to promote sustainable consumption.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"33 4","pages":"847-859"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/beer.12656","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139498491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Consultants as discreet corporate change agents for sustainability: Transforming organizations from the outside-in","authors":"Jean-Pascal Gond,&nbsp;Luc Brès,&nbsp;Szilvia Mosonyi","doi":"10.1111/beer.12649","DOIUrl":"10.1111/beer.12649","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Despite their central role in the construction and development of the market for virtues as well as in the design, implementation, and evaluation of corporate sustainability strategies and governmental sustainability policies, sustainability consultants remain at best “hidden” corporate change agents. In this paper, we bring sustainability consultants back to the fore to account for how these actors discreetly regulate and shape contemporary sustainability transformations from the outside-in. We do so first by unpacking various roles of consultants as <i>engineers</i>, <i>market builders</i>, <i>power vehicles</i>, <i>boundary workers</i>, <i>issue translators</i>, and <i>soft regulators</i>; then we conceptualize how, through these roles, they contribute to <i>empowering</i>, <i>legitimizing</i> but also potentially <i>supplanting</i> and <i>undermining</i> the activities of corporate change agents operating inside corporations. We finally propose some research orientations for studying further the role of sustainability consultants in corporate transformations toward sustainability.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"33 2","pages":"157-169"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/beer.12649","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139449190","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Relationality in transaction cost economics and stakeholder theory: A new conceptual framework","authors":"Vladislav Valentinov,&nbsp;Steffen Roth","doi":"10.1111/beer.12652","DOIUrl":"10.1111/beer.12652","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Stakeholder scholars have long explored how stakeholder relationships differ from economic transactions. We contribute to this ongoing inquiry by developing a conceptual framework of relationality in stakeholder theory that encompasses a stakeholder-theoretic extension of Williamson's contracting schema and a new typology of stakeholder relationships. Premised on understanding relationality as the need for informal human relationships beyond formal governance, our framework locates the key difference between transaction cost economics and stakeholder theory in their treatment of informal relationships. While transaction cost economics perceives informal relationships to be shaped by formal governance structures and enforced by contractual safeguards, stakeholder theory is open to the possibility that some informal relationships between stakeholders may be genuinely moral and thus irreducible to formal governance and contractual safeguards. These stakeholder relationships may lead to unique economic effects described by instrumental stakeholder theory. The difference that we identified between the two literatures shows how stakeholder theory's embrace of relationality surpasses that of transaction cost economics.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"33 3","pages":"535-546"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/beer.12652","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139374573","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Emotions, norms, and consequences as the forces of good and evil: An investigation on sales professionals","authors":"Mücahid Yıldırım,&nbsp;Şuayıp Özdemir","doi":"10.1111/beer.12647","DOIUrl":"10.1111/beer.12647","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Traditionally, the consequences of employees' behavior (teleology) and the norms attributed to the behavior (deontology) have been two familiar determinants of ethical decision making (EDM). More recently, emotions have also gained considerable attention for their ability to affect EDM. Marketing ethics literature overlooks how emotions are related with norms and consequences. Hence, this study investigates how normative, consequentialist, and emotional factors interactively influence EDM in a sales ethics context. Using scenarios with a 2 × 2 between-groups factorial design, we collected data online from 303 sales professionals. Then we used independent samples <i>t</i> tests and hierarchical regression models to analyze the hypothesized relationships. Results indicate that violation of and obedience to deontological norms stimulate negative and positive anticipated emotions, respectively, leading to stronger EDM. However, to a lesser extent, when violation of and obedience to deontological norms do not stimulate anticipated emotions, those emotions lead to weaker EDM. Moreover, consequences do not stimulate any anticipated emotions. Instead, consequences moderate the relationship between anticipated emotions and EDM. In addition, deontological and teleological evaluations mediate the relationship between anticipated emotions and EDM. These findings highlight the importance of considering the interplay between normative, consequentialist, and emotional factors in the formation of ethical judgments and intentions. The article discusses the implications of these results for sales professionals and organizations and suggests future research directions.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"33 4","pages":"828-846"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/beer.12647","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139374598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Global standards and the philosophy of consumption: Toward a consumer-driven governance of global value chains","authors":"Guli-Sanam Karimova,&nbsp;Ludger Heidbrink,&nbsp;Johannes Brinkmann,&nbsp;Stephen Arthur LeMay","doi":"10.1111/beer.12648","DOIUrl":"10.1111/beer.12648","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study delves into the significant ethical criteria in the context of global standards. It addresses the moral wrongdoings and adverse side effects associated with global value chains as discussed in the business ethics literature. The methodology involves theoretical application and synthesis. The study employs ethical principles from deontology, consequentialism, and political cosmopolitanism to establish normative criteria such as “injustice and harm to others” and “bad outcomes.” It further investigates how these criteria should influence consumers' decisions, actions, and responsibilities. These criteria are then used to examine the moral wrongdoings and negative effects mentioned in global standards. The study explores how global standards implicitly express consumers' roles in governing global value chains. It scrutinizes consumers' actions and decisions by applying ethical frameworks to global standards. The study outlines consumers' individual and political responsibilities in achieving the goals of global standards. The research findings have implications for governments, consumers, and organizations in practicing shared responsibility. The aim of this research is to provide normative guidance for responsible actions.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"34 1","pages":"280-294"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-12-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/beer.12648","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139067176","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Corporate change agents for sustainability: Transforming organizations from the inside out","authors":"S. Schaltegger,&nbsp;V. Girschik,&nbsp;H. Trittin-Ulbrich,&nbsp;I. Weissbrod,&nbsp;T. Daudigeos","doi":"10.1111/beer.12645","DOIUrl":"10.1111/beer.12645","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Sustainable development requires sustainability transformations of (so far unsustainable) companies. Sustainability transformations of companies do not happen by themselves but are the result of individuals and groups who purposefully act for sustainability. It is individual managers and employees within an organization—so-called “change agents for sustainability”—who play a vital role in advancing corporate sustainability, as they are responsible for starting initiatives, making decisions, and implementing measures. Recent contributions have started to address the transformational role of individual sustainability professionals and employees shaping decisions around social and environmental issues in organizations. An overview and conceptualization of what can be understood by change agents for sustainability, their roles, and interactions is however missing. This article therefore proposes a framework and typology of six archetypes of change agents for sustainability: their key competencies and roles in initiating, scaling, and sustaining change in and beyond organizational boundaries.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"33 2","pages":"145-156"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/beer.12645","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139066890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Going green? On the drivers of individuals' green bank adoption","authors":"Maxime Merli,&nbsp;Jessie Pallud,&nbsp;Mariya Pulikova","doi":"10.1111/beer.12641","DOIUrl":"10.1111/beer.12641","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In a context where individuals are increasingly more sensitive to corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and where mobilization of savings for the energy transition is essential, our article is the first to study the drivers of online green bank adoption. By analyzing 1075 questionnaires from a panel of French individuals in charge of financial decisions in their households, we show that altruism and green consumption values are significant drivers of individuals' green banking adoption and reveal that willingness to adopt a green bank is mediated by the preference for green savings. These results extend the nascent literature dealing with the link between responsible consumption and saving behaviors. Briefly speaking, green banks (and associated savings products) have the potential to enable households to express their consumption values through their investments. That said, our results suggest that households' financial well-being and financial literacy can be barriers to the mobilization of green savings. Our results also demonstrate the significant influence of information system variables, such as personal innovativeness and trust, on willingness to adopt green banking. By shedding light on the drivers of individuals' green bank adoption, our results provide valuable insights for the banking industry.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"33 4","pages":"780-794"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/beer.12641","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139036518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Stakeholder engagement disclosures in sustainability reports: Evidence from Italian food companies","authors":"Rubina Michela Galeotti,&nbsp;Mark Anthony Camilleri,&nbsp;Fabiana Roberto,&nbsp;Fabiana Sepe","doi":"10.1111/beer.12642","DOIUrl":"10.1111/beer.12642","url":null,"abstract":"<p>More businesses are embedding stakeholder engagement (SE) practices in their corporate disclosures. This article explores the extent to which SE practices are featured in the sustainability reports (SRs) of 48 Italian food and beverage businesses, following the latest Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. The researchers analyze the content of their SRs dated 2020 and 2021. They utilize a panel regression technique to examine the relationship between stakeholder engagement disclosures (SED) and corporate financial performance (CFP), and to investigate the mediating role of SR assurance. The results show a positive and significant relationship between SED and CFP. They also confirm that there is a moderating effect from SR assurance on this causal path. However, the findings reveal that SED in SRs of Italian food companies is still moderate. This contribution builds on the logic behind the stakeholder theory. It implies that there is scope for food companies to forge relationships with stakeholders. It indicates that it is in their interest to disclose material information about their SE practices in their SR and to organize third party assurance assessments in order to improve their legitimacy with stakeholders.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"34 1","pages":"260-279"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/beer.12642","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139036515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"What entrepreneurial skillsets support responsible value creation in health and social care? A mixed methods study","authors":"P. Lehoux,&nbsp;H. P. Silva,&nbsp;J.-L. Denis,&nbsp;S. N. Morioka,&nbsp;N. Harfoush,&nbsp;R. P. Sabio","doi":"10.1111/beer.12646","DOIUrl":"10.1111/beer.12646","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Although various scholars underscore the importance of innovating responsibly in view of today's societal challenges, less attention has been paid to the entrepreneurial skillset, that is, the range of individual skills and organizational capabilities, that innovation-based organizations mobilize to deliver new responsible products and services. This paper thus explores the relationships between the entrepreneurial skillsets of 16 Canadian and Brazilian for-profit and not-for-profit organizations producing Responsible Innovations in Health (RIH) and their degree of responsibility. Our mixed methods study includes interviews with entrepreneurs (<i>n</i> = 23) and fieldnotes as well as quantitative results from the RIH Assessment Tool. Our findings identify four skillset orientations—Technical, Technical + Business, Social, and Social + Business—that not only reflect (co)founders' training and entrepreneurial motivations but also a proclivity toward the consolidation of either “Technical” or “Social” skills and capabilities. Such consolidation is made possible by recruiting high-level executives with diverse backgrounds or by tapping on external knowledge sources (e.g., boards of directors, incubators, or volunteers). As five enterprises had no formal business skills, patterns associated to their overall RIH score (ranging from 1 to 5) reveal intriguing results. Organizations with a Social + Business skillset have a slightly lower RIH score (4.1) than those with a Social skillet (4.4) and those with a Technical + Business skillset have a slightly higher score (3.5) than those with a Technical skillset (3.0). The presence of business skills thus appears to mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial skillsets and the degree of responsibility, which may be linked to the distinct roles of ordinary (“doing things right”) and dynamic capabilities (“doing the right things”). These exploratory findings have scholarly and practical implications. First, the tensions and synergies characterizing responsible value creation should be approached by examining the complementary skills and capabilities that need to be assembled and consolidated. Second, the eight cases with a Social + Business skillset clarify the unique capabilities needed to produce highly responsible health innovations. Third, entrepreneurs with a scientific or engineering background should recognize that a Technical skillset is not enough. Fourth, recognizing that “falling in love with the cause” of RIH is not sufficient, investors and boards of directors should adequately support responsible entrepreneurs towards the proper orchestration of skills and capabilities that can reconcile economic and social goals.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"33 4","pages":"807-827"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/beer.12646","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138825275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Corporate sustainability professionals: The landscape of sustainability job positions","authors":"Barbara Lespinasse-Camargo,&nbsp;João Henrique Paulino Pires Eustachio,&nbsp;Denise Bonifacio,&nbsp;Nayele Macini,&nbsp;Adriana Cristina Ferreira Caldana","doi":"10.1111/beer.12644","DOIUrl":"10.1111/beer.12644","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Sustainable development requires several stakeholders, including companies, to take action. For this, employees need to have their positions and sustainability roles defined so they can carry out activities. In turn, activities need alignment with corporate policies and strategy. However, the literature lacks discussion about job specifications and which activities relate to sustainability. Therefore, this article aims to explore the panorama of positions and professional activities of corporate sustainability professionals. To achieve this goal, we conducted a bibliometric assessment of terms related to corporate sustainability professionals and to understand what scholars have addressed in the area thus far. In the second stage, we tackle this problem by conducting a world survey of 143 professionals working in sustainability-related positions. The methods are complementary because they provide different types of information that can be used to gain insights into research topics and trends. In this sense, this research contributes to the literature and practice in two main ways. First, the sustainability professionals' positions are still recent and under construction; few sustainability professionals are leaders. Second, this research identified that the sustainability professionals' actions focus on the environmental dimension, suggesting that companies have to invest more in social and governance dimensions. In addition, the findings evidence the need for more reporting on these dimensions as well as aligning all sustainability-related policies, practices and activities with the strategy's company. Theoretical and practical implications, such as the need for more training on sustainability aspects, and the study's limitations are also addressed.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"33 2","pages":"184-200"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138715059","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}