Exploring the intentions and application of corporate sustainability integration approaches

Theme
 Exploring the intentions and application of corporate sustainability integration approaches Track 5a Corporate Sustainability Strategies Justification of the paper Companies have become more aware of the impact... [ view full abstract ]

Theme

Exploring the intentions and application of corporate sustainability integration approaches

Track 5a
Corporate Sustainability Strategies

Justification of the paper

Companies have become more aware of the impact they generate on society. Some companies take up the challenge to convert this awareness in an added value to their business system using the support of approaches. There is an extensive amount of Corporate Sustainability (CS) integration approaches but scholars have concluded that its application does not guarantee a successful integration of sustainability in the business system.

Purpose

To explore the intentions of CS approaches and the application of these in businesses, a model was developed and applied. The research focuses on the following research question: to what extent does the intention of CS approaches coincide with the results of their application in practice?

Theoretical framework

Corporate sustainability (Dyllick and Hockerts, 2002)
CS approaches: tools and instruments (Robert et al, 2002; Baumgartner, 2014)
CS integration (Eccles et al., 2011)

Results and conclusions

The conclusion of this research is that the intention and application of the CS approaches do not perfectly meet. Besides, a mixture of approaches is applied in which organizational culture and change management elements are missing. Moreover, the approaches support companies merely by circular or stepwise approaches and do not fit with the iterative dynamics of CS within a company.

Implications for Tipping Points

The insides of this paper can be used to collectively improve CS integration approaches to be adaptable to the ever-changing business environment and supportive to businesses in their search for their own tipping point when sustainable behavior of their employees will make the use of these approaches superfluous.

Key words
Corporate sustainability, approaches, integration, business system, iterative processes