Business Strategy and The Environment最新文献

{"title":"Digitalization and Environmental, Social, and Governance Reporting: Evidence from the US Banking Industry","authors":"Sebastian J. Schmid, Vanessa Flagmeier","doi":"10.1002/bse.71622","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71622","url":null,"abstract":"We examine the relation between digitalization and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting using a sample of listed US banks from 2010 to 2022. Our study is based on a two‐step theoretical framework, building on voluntary disclosure and signaling theory: First, we expect and find technological progress to enhance internal information quality. Second, we examine whether banks pass on this improved information to stakeholders via ESG reports. Our results suggest that banks are more likely to disclose an ESG report as they become more digitalized. Further, we find that digitalization is related to a higher extent and quality of ESG reporting. A difference‐in‐differences test and a mediation analysis corroborate our findings. Cross‐sectional tests indicate an attenuated association between digitalization and ESG reporting for banks with low data privacy and security disclosure. Our findings have practical implications because they highlight the potential of digitalization to improve ESG reporting but also possible drawbacks as digitalization comes along with certain risks.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149130466","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From Green Culture to Sustainability Performance: Unpacking a Sequential Capability Pathway Through Environmental Leadership and Circular Economy Practices","authors":"Kwesi Amponsah‐Tawiah, Christopher Kofi Silimbu, Abdul‐Razak Suleman, Priscilla Ofori‐Attah","doi":"10.1002/bse.71640","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71640","url":null,"abstract":"Although green organizational culture has been associated with sustainability outcomes, less is understood about the mechanisms through which sustainability‐oriented cultural values are translated into organizational action and performance. Drawing on the Natural Resource–Based View (NRBV) theory, this study examines how environmental leadership and circular economy practices independently and sequentially transmit the effects of green organizational culture to sustainability performance. Using a quantitative explanatory design, survey data were collected from 1209 employees across Ghana's oil and gas, power generation, transmission and distribution, and regulatory segments and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS‐SEM), supplemented by cluster‐robust sensitivity analyses. The findings show that green organizational culture positively influences sustainability performance and environmental leadership. Environmental leadership, in turn, enhances circular economy practices and sustainability performance, while circular economy practices positively influence sustainability performance. However, circular economy practices do not independently mediate the green organizational culture–sustainability performance nexus. Instead, significant indirect effects operate through environmental leadership and sequentially through environmental leadership and circular economy practices, while the direct effect remains significant. These findings extend the NRBV by revealing how sustainability‐oriented culture translates into performance through interconnected leadership and operational capabilities rather than through cultural orientation alone. The study provides large‐sample evidence from an under‐researched emerging‐economy energy context and demonstrates the practical importance of aligning green organizational culture, environmental leadership, and circular economy implementation to enhance sustainability performance.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149151755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"When Premium Product Strategy Meets Sustainability: Environmental–Economic Trade‐Offs in Japanese Manufacturing","authors":"Jaewook Kim, Gang‐Hoon Seo, Eunji Seo, Shengyi Zhou, Insik Jeong","doi":"10.1002/bse.71659","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71659","url":null,"abstract":"Corporate sustainability has become a central concern for business stakeholders, yet little is known about how premium product strategies shape firms' sustainability orientations and performance. Drawing on stakeholder theory, this study examines whether pursuing premium products is associated with firms' adoption of environmental and economic sustainability orientations and how these orientations, in turn, relate to corporate performance. Using survey data from 128 directors and managers responsible for overseas operations in manufacturing firms listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, analyzed with structural equation modelling, we find that a premium product strategy is positively associated with both environmental and economic sustainability orientations. However, their performance implications differ: economic sustainability is positively related to firm performance, whereas environmental sustainability shows a significant negative association. These results suggest that, among Japanese manufacturing exporters, premium product strategies simultaneously foster sustainability ambitions and expose firms to short‐term trade‐offs between environmental and economic outcomes.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149130459","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Contracting as Sensemaking Infrastructure: Enacting Sustainability Strategy in Business‐to‐Business Relationships","authors":"Mohammad Naji Shah Mohammadi, Ebru Metin","doi":"10.1002/bse.71652","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71652","url":null,"abstract":"Firms articulate sustainability objectives but depend on suppliers and business partners to enact them. As commitments cross organizational and professional boundaries, their meaning may fragment even when parties agree in principle. This theory‐synthesis article examines B2B contracting as sensemaking infrastructure for enacting sustainability strategy across interorganizational relationships. Integrating sensemaking, proactive contracting, and contract design, it develops the sensemaking‐based contracting framework. The framework identifies four interdependent functions: framing clarifies what the relationship seeks to govern; translation connects that understanding to responsibilities, data, and routines; adaptation organizes legitimate revision; and signaling connects relationship‐level performance to external credibility. The article repositions contracting from downstream compliance to strategy enactment. It shows that preserving contractual wording is insufficient when purpose becomes disconnected from performance and directs managerial attention to connections among purpose, responsibility, capability, review, and evidence. Whether this infrastructure supports shared meaning depends on power, network position, and actors' ability to question established interpretations.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149130462","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Organizational Growth Reconsidered: A Systems‐Based Review and Research Agenda","authors":"Swantje Freund, Josua Oll, Joern Hoppmann","doi":"10.1002/bse.71561","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71561","url":null,"abstract":"Recent years have witnessed a significant increase in post‐ and degrowth research, which explores the social and ecological consequences of, and alternatives to, economic growth. To date, however, the debate has primarily occurred at the macroeconomic level, leaving a gap in our understanding of the role of organizational growth in a post‐growth context. Therefore, in this paper, we review the general management and corporate sustainability literatures, which have long investigated organizational growth, to gain insights into the inputs, processes, and outputs of organizational growth across multiple levels of analysis. Drawing on these findings and adopting a systems perspective, we devise a research agenda for future growth‐critical research at the organizational level. We suggest that studying emergence, adaptation, interdependence, and feedback in relation to organizational growth has significant potential to advance the fields of both corporate sustainability and post‐ and degrowth. Additionally, our integrative review offers practical advice for managers and policymakers seeking to guide organizations toward post‐growth pathways.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"171 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149130463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Water as a Strategic Design Variable for Climate‐Resilient Urban Farming: Reconfiguring Sustainable Business Models Through the Water‐Enabled Resource Architecture Framework","authors":"Nicolò Gianmauro Totaro, Gianvito Nesca, Federica Stella Blasi, Marta Sozzo, Giovanni Schiuma","doi":"10.1002/bse.71646","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71646","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines how water sourcing and management can be embedded within urban farming business models to enhance environmental sustainability, climate resilience, and economic viability. It introduces the water‐enabled resource architecture (WERA) framework, which conceptualizes water as a strategic design variable capable of reshaping value proposition, governance arrangements, value capture logic, feasibility conditions, and performance indicators. The framework is illustrated through a comparative case study of an urban aquaponics installation in which two structurally equivalent systems operate under closely aligned conditions and different water sourcing strategies: centralized potable water supply and rainwater harvesting. Within the analyzed case, the decentralized configuration is associated with greater water autonomy and estimated operating‐cost reductions, while also redistributing organizational responsibilities and requiring additional infrastructure, treatment, and monitoring routines. WERA therefore provides an analytical lens for examining how water choices reshape governance, stakeholder value, cost‐risk mechanisms, and resource resilience within urban farming business models. It also clarifies how water choices reshape governance, stakeholder value, and cost‐risk mechanisms in urban systems.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149151751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Digitalisation, Organisational Innovation and Firms' Environmental Protection Expenditures: Evidence From Spanish Manufacturing","authors":"Alexy Apolo‐Romero, Pedro Sánchez‐Sellero","doi":"10.1002/bse.71597","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71597","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates how digitalisation and organisational innovation shape firms' routine environmental protection efforts in Spanish manufacturing. Using an unbalanced panel of 2348 firms and 7603 firm‐year observations from 2009–2023 drawn from the Survey on Business Strategies (ESEE), the study examines the determinants of current environmental protection expenditures as a recurrent form of operational green capability rather than radical eco‐innovation. The empirical analysis relies on panel‐data logit models that relate firm characteristics at time (2009–2022) to current environmental protection expenditures at time (2010–2023), with firm‐level controls and sector and period effects, and reports average marginal effects. The results show that digitalisation is strongly and consistently associated with routine environmental protection efforts. Firms that use robotics in production, invest in external ICT training and implement software‐based process innovations exhibit around 8–11 percentage points higher predicted probabilities of undertaking current environmental protection expenditures than otherwise similar firms. Organisational innovation, measured through the introduction of new work‐organisation practices, also displays a positive and significant association, with an average marginal effect of about 8–9 percentage points. Participation in EU research programmes is likewise positively associated with environmental protection expenditures, although this result applies to a relatively small share of firms and should be interpreted with caution, as it likely reflects the behaviour of a self‐selected subset of highly capable, outward‐oriented firms. The findings indicate that digital and organisational capabilities, together with cooperative engagements, act as key enablers of operational green practices, even though interaction terms provide only weak evidence of strong complementarities in this specific outcome. The paper contributes novel firm‐level evidence on how the twin green–digital transition materialises in ongoing environmental management within a manufacturing sector dominated by SMEs in Spain, shifting attention from one‐off eco‐innovations towards the stabilisation of everyday environmental routines and highlighting the role of capability bundles in supporting sustained environmental protection efforts.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"61 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149130464","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Sustainability Claim Paradox: When Green Marketing Encourages Greater Consumption","authors":"Ruta Birutyte, Ricardo Correia, Martin Aubel, Dominyka Venciute","doi":"10.1002/bse.71621","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71621","url":null,"abstract":"Sustainability claims are assumed to promote responsible consumption, yet consumption itself drives environmental harm. Drawing on moral licensing theory, this study asks whether such claims instead licence greater consumption across the purchase, use/replacement and disposal stages of one cycle. A between‐subjects experiment ( <jats:italic>N</jats:italic> = 303) manipulated claim strength (control, light, strong) in a product advertisement, and the hypothesised effects were estimated jointly using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Stronger claims raised perceived environmental impact, which raised intended purchase quantity, and this belief carried the total purchase effect entirely, consistent with static moral licensing. The evidence is mixed thereafter: Claim strength had no net effect on intended use or replacement, and although it showed a small total effect on justifying earlier disposal, perceived impact did not carry that effect, and the direct path was inconclusive under the inferential rule adopted here. Environmental concern attenuated rather than amplified the effect.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"245 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149130461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Employee Perceptions of Organizational Sustainability: A Systematic Review and Integrative Multilevel Framework","authors":"Salah Bitar, Said Elbanna","doi":"10.1002/bse.71618","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71618","url":null,"abstract":"Employee perceptions are central to whether organizational sustainability initiatives become embedded in workplace practice or remain symbolic. This study reviews 123 peer‐reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2024 to clarify how employees interpret organizational sustainability and how these interpretations are associated with workplace outcomes. The findings show that perceptions are linked to individual values and capabilities, leadership signals, green HRM practices, sustainability communication, perceived authenticity, and wider stakeholder pressures. Favorable perceptions are associated with engagement, pro‐environmental behavior, creativity, and organizational citizenship for the environment, whereas perceived greenwashing or corporate hypocrisy is associated with weaker trust and commitment. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory, the Resource‐Based View, and Signaling Theory, the study proposes an association‐based multilevel framework that positions employee perceptions as the interpretive link between sustainability drivers and individual, organizational, and external outcomes.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149123543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beyond Linear Paths: Configurations of Networks, Knowledge, and Dynamic Capabilities for Sustainable MSMEs","authors":"Ruchi Mishra, K. B. Kiran","doi":"10.1002/bse.71634","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71634","url":null,"abstract":"Despite extensive research on entrepreneurial business networks (EBNs), knowledge management (KM), and dynamic capabilities (DC), three questions remain theoretically underdeveloped and empirically unexplored in resource‐constrained MSMEs. These concern the integrative mechanisms through which EBN and KM jointly cultivate DC, the differential mediation logic of DC across sustainability outcome types, and the configurational pathways through which these constructs collectively produce sustainability outcomes. Using PLS‐SEM and fsQCA on data from 316 manufacturing MSMEs in Uttar Pradesh, India, this study finds that DC fully mediates the effects of EBN and KM on sustainable competitiveness (SComP), whereas sustainable performance (SP) retains direct network and knowledge effects, reflecting its operational proximity to resource inputs. The necessity analysis confirms no single condition is individually necessary for high SP, and fsQCA reveals nine equifinal configurations, showing that high SP is achievable through multiple strategic routes. These findings offer actionable insights for managers and policymakers in emerging‐economy contexts.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149123544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}