Environmental management systems and environmental product innovation: The role of stakeholder engagement

Environmental product innovation (EPI) is an imperative for contemporary business as it enhances firm competitiveness and provides significant societal benefits. Arguments that the use of environmental management systems—such as ISO 14001—may enhance EPI have not been empirically supported. In this study, we argue that the environmental management systems–EPI relationship is contingent upon the level of a firm's engagement with three groups of stakeholders, namely, suppliers, customers, and the local community. Using a sample of 1,314 manufacturing firms for the period 2003 and 2014, we find empirical evidence that supports our hypothesis for all three groups of stakeholders. Further analysis reveals that for firms with prior experience with quality management systems, engagement with local communities becomes the critical condition. We discuss the implications of these results for both theory and practice.     

Gaining sustainable development by green supply chain innovation: Perspectives of specific investments and stakeholder engagement

Despite general attention has been given to sustainable development and green innovation, little empirical effort has been made to explore the factors influencing green innovation performance in the context of supply chain relationships, especially in emerging countries like China. To address this research gap, from the perspectives of specific investments, we examine the role of specific investments in relation to the outcome of green supply chain innovation. Drawing on knowledge management theory, we propose that knowledge transfer plays a mediating role underlying the relationship. On the basis of the stakeholder involvement theory, we argue that partner social responsibility plays moderating roles not only in specific investments—green supply chain innovation performance link—but also in the link of knowledge transfer and performance. We tested the proposed relationships with a sample consisted of 331 questionnaires and validated responses from 187 high‐tech firms in China. The results generally support the proposed hypotheses, and the integrative model—moderated mediation—is also supported. As such, this study contributes to understand about how specific investments affect the performance of green supply chain innovation, providing new insights on stakeholder involvement and knowledge transfer in green supply chain innovation management.     

Proactive environmental strategy,innovation capability,and stakeholder integration capability: A mediation analysis

This study investigates the underlying mechanisms through which proactive environmental strategy develops organizational capabilities. The results of a survey of publicly listed companies in China reveal that proactive environmental strategy has a more positive influence on stakeholder integration capability than on innovation capability. Moreover, organizational learning plays a greater role in mediating the effect of proactive environmental strategy on innovation capability than on stakeholder integration capability, whereas cross‐functional coordination plays a greater role in mediating its effect on stakeholder integration capability than on innovation capability. These findings provide important implications on organizational capability building via proactive environmental strategy.     

Familiness,business strategy and stakeholder engagement: The internationalisation of Spanish olive oil mills

Based on social capital theory and the family-firm context, this paper studies familiness' composition and the result of the overlap of the family and firm systems, analysing their influence on the internationalisation strategies of family firms. In this relationship, the stakeholder engagement becomes at the same time an antecedent and a result when developing family businesses' strategies, being one of the most relevant the internationalisation strategies. Prior research focused on familiness as the result of proxy variables such as the percentage of ownership and management in family hands, or business size, instead of as psychological variables resulting from shared organisational culture and social interactions. Through a qualitative study based on 12 interviews of general managers and/or export managers of Spanish family olive oil mills, this study asserts that the level of familiness influences internationalisation strategies, the reasons underlying a business becoming international and its commitment to activities abroad being the role of stakeholders crucial in those interactions. The higher the level of familiness, the more likely the family business internationalisation and the higher their levels of international commitment. Additionally, the higher the concern about their stakeholders, the higher their levels of international commitment. The family businesses' concern for their stakeholders and their international commitment share a reciprocal relationship. The results regarding the relevance of familiness as social capital resources in sustaining competitive advantages support the decision to promote, develop and nurture social capital when a family business goes international.     

Strategic stakeholder management,environmental corporate social responsibility engagement,and financial performance of stigmatized firms derived from Chinese special environmental policy

We draw upon the stigma literature and strategic stakeholder management model to develop a framework capable of explaining the link between environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR) engagement and financial performance of stigmatized firms, taking stakeholder‐oriented governance and density of local stigmatized firms into consideration. Using a uniquely compiled dataset of Chinese firms specifically monitored by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, we conducted propensity score matching analysis to estimate the impact of stigma on corporate financial performance and corporate environmental responsibility. The result shows that the financial performance of stigmatized firms is negatively affected by the stigma label, spurring them to engage in more ECSR than their peers to improve their legitimacy. Though ECSR engagement of stigmatized firms is found to be negatively associated with their financial performance in current study. Our results also confirm that (a) the financial performance of stigmatized firms is positively affected by two proxies for corporate stakeholder‐oriented governance (i.e., institutional ownership and corporate transparency) and negatively affected by the density of local stigmatized firms; (b) corporate stakeholder‐oriented governance compensates for the negative effect of ECSR engagement; (c) high intensity of local stigmatized firms provides focal firms with an opportunity to improve their financial performance through ECSR engagement; and (d) the positive effects of corporate stakeholder‐oriented governance are diminished by the density of local stigmatized firms.     

External stakeholder engagement: Complementary and substitutive effects on firms' eco-innovation

In this paper, we investigate whether firms' engagements in collaboration agreements with different types of external stakeholders produce complementary effects on the likelihood of eco-innovation. Although collaboration network and open eco-innovation theories affirm that the combination of external partners such as scientific partners, suppliers and customers produces complementary effects on the firm's likelihood of eco-innovation, several empirical studies found the existence of substitutive effects between them. To bridge this gap in the literature, we shape the nature of the interaction between different external partners, analysing an unbalanced panel sample of 10,918 innovative Spanish firms, covering the period 2008–2016. Consequently, we can show how firms benefit the most from collaboration with external partners. Our results show that firms that simultaneously collaborate with scientific partners, suppliers and customers generate partial complementary effects, which increase the firm's likelihood to eco-innovate the most, and that the combination of customer-collaboration with scientific partners, or supplier-collaboration, produces partial substitutive effects. Taking this in account, our results also confirm that engaging with scientific partners, suppliers or customers, independent of one another, increases firms' likelihood of eco-innovation more than noncollaboration. These results have important implications for managers, researchers and policy designers. For managers, this study provides a correct understanding of the benefits that they can expect to obtain from multi-partner external collaboration. For researchers, it introduces the marginal analysis to estimate interaction on nonlinear models. Finally, for policy designers, it shows the need for sponsored R&D collaboration to encourage coordinated ecosystems in which sustainability goals are pursued together.     

Stakeholder theory and actor-network theory: The stakeholder engagement in energy transitions

The idea of sustainable development highlights the need to address economic, social, and environmental aspects to preserve the rights and needs of future generations. This paper proposes an association between stakeholder theory (ST) and Actor-Network Theory (ANT) that can better explain the dynamics of actors in the energy sector, in the context of sociotechnical transitions to sustainability. By selectively examining the way in which different researchers perceive this subject, we intend to address how the engagement of the stakeholders can promote sociotechnical transitions in the energy sector trough the connection between ST and ANT. We aim to characterize the dynamics of stakeholder's engagement in sociotechnical transitions in the context of sustainability in the energy sector, trough the connection of the two theories. A narrative literature review was performed on scientific databases. The results showed that sociotechnical transitions in the energy sector require the involvement of multiple actors with different interests and that ST associated with ANT provides a good basis for research on this theme. The association of both theories highlights the importance of ST to enhance cooperation in the areas of clean energy research and technology, providing a theoretical tool for understanding the dynamics of transitions and its different pathways. For future studies, it is recommended to deepen the relationship between human and non-human actors and their role as stakeholders.     

CEOs' reputation,quality management and environmental innovation: The roles of stakeholder pressure and resource commitment

In this paper, we examine how and when chief executive officers' (CEOs') reputation enhances environmental innovation by considering quality management as a mediating mechanism of this relationship. In addition, we introduce stakeholder pressures (primary and secondary stakeholder pressures) as important contingencies of the relationship between CEOs' reputation and quality management. Moreover, we test the moderating role of resource commitment on the quality management‐environmental innovation relationship. We test our research model using data from a manufacturing industry sample of 217 firms from Ghana. We find that quality management mediates the relationship between reputation and environmental innovation. Moreover, the relationship between CEOs' reputation and quality management is amplified when levels of both primary and secondary stakeholder pressures are greater. Finally, our findings show that the effect of quality management on environmental innovation is enhanced when resource commitment is greater. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Sustainability reporting and stakeholder engagement in Spain: Different instruments,different quality

The purpose of this paper is to compare the quality of the sustainability information issued following the three most common reporting models: annual report (addressed to shareholders), sustainability report (addressed to stakeholders), and integrated report (addressed to shareholders). To this aim, we create a quality index based on previous literature, analyzing the content of the sustainability information disclosed by Spanish listed companies during the years 2013 to 2015. We find that companies issuing sustainability reports or integrated reports provide higher quality information than companies including their sustainability information within the annual report. We also find that sustainability reports are issued with higher quality than integrated reports. Both findings indicate that companies in Spain are engaged in a dialogue with all stakeholders, not only shareholders. Our results offer insights on the need to improve the framework of the integrated report in order to achieve the objectives of the International Integrated Reporting Council and to get a speed up in the adoption of this new reporting tool.     

Stakeholder management in sustainable supply chains: A case study of the bioenergy industry

Engaging with stakeholders and managing their issues when striving for a sustainable supply chain (SC) is a significant challenge. Although most studies on sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) consider stakeholder management necessary, little is known about related stakeholder management practices in SSCM. Thus, this paper seeks to enrich the theoretical debate on stakeholder management practices in SSCM through a case study approach to bioenergy SCs in Chile. Based on 28 interviews with SC actors and representatives from the surrounding stakeholder environment, the deductive–inductive analysis reveals that stakeholder management combines different practices to discuss stakeholder concerns, address them, and evaluate the process at the SC's external and internal levels. We propose structuring these practices based on two dimensions: “practices to address stakeholder requirements” and “practices whereby stakeholders are integrated.” The analysis' results indicate that although two-way communication with stakeholders can be seen as the core of stakeholder management, a certain willingness to learn and transform SC design is a prerequisite for true orientation toward stakeholder management in SSCM. Additionally, linkage development and local anchoring are practices used to obtain further legitimacy at the external level. Building on these findings, this study can guide practitioners in engaging with stakeholders and managing their issues across the SC.     

Explicit and implicit corporate social responsibility: Differences in the approach to stakeholder engagement activities of U.S. and Japanese companies

This study uses the theoretical frameworks of institutional theory and comparative capitalism to demonstrate how cross‐cultural differences in national institutional frameworks are related to differences in the meaning and the nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and, as a result, how they create different incentives and opportunities for companies to engage in stakeholder management activities. More specifically, we draw upon the framework of “explicit” and “implicit” CSRs to investigate whether and how stakeholder management practices and programs differ between the United States and Japan. We first develop and validate a Stakeholder Engagement Activities (SEAs) scale, designed assess differences in the approach (explicit or implicit) that companies use to address a variety of common SEAs. Then we analyze data and present the results of surveys collected from 227 companies in the United States and Japan. We find that although the SEAs of American companies are characterized by strong “explicit CSR,” in contrast, the SEAs of Japanese companies exhibit strong “implicit CSR.” In the discussion that follows, we attribute these distinctions in the SEAs to differences in the configuration of political, economic, and market mechanisms in each country. The findings of this study contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the differences in prevailing CSR practices of American and Japanese companies than noted by previous researchers. From a practitioner's perspective, the findings of this study reveal that despite the global nature of CSR, stakeholder management practices are both interpreted and operationalized differently due to differences in national institutional frameworks.     

The product‐market performance benefits of environmental policy: Why customer awareness and firm innovativeness matter

Researchers have widely studied the nexus between corporate environmental (“green”) policy and its green performance and firm financial performance, but with mixed findings. A potential explanation for these mixed findings is the focus of extant studies on the direct and immediate impact of environmental performance on financial performance to the exclusion of firm‐specific boundary conditions. Furthermore, all prior research study the effect of environmental performance on either stock market‐based performance measures (i.e., stock return) or accounting‐based performance measures (i.e., return on assets). A missing third dimension of firm performance, product–market‐based performance (i.e., market share), has so far remained unexplored despite representing a crucial objective when innovating. Using Newsweek's annual green ranking as a novel measure of environmental performance for a panel of U.S. firms from 2010 to 2015, this paper attempts to fill these voids in the literature. The results show a positive relationship between firms' environmental performance and market share as a measure of product–market‐based performance. The findings further demonstrate that this relationship is positively moderated by the level of customer awareness and innovativeness of the firm: The higher the level of awareness of a firm's environmental credentials and innovativeness, the stronger the effects of environmental performance on market share. Our results are robust against endogeneity concerns and alternative measures of firm financial and environmental performance.     

The effect of greenwashing on online consumer engagement: A comparative study in France,Germany, Turkey,and the United Kingdom

The effect of the Volkswagen emission crisis in 2015, the biggest greenwashing event in recent years, on the online consumer engagement of Facebook brand pages was investigated in France, Germany, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. These countries have been selected for the reason that Volkswagen sales and diesel‐engine cars and the use of social media are quite common. For 6 years in these four countries, the likes, comments, and shares made by consumers on the Facebook brand page of Volkswagen have been examined. The monthly dataset covers January 2012 to December 2017. The obtained data were analyzed with autoregressive–moving average models. Despite a globally positive approach to green products, countries' attitudes toward greenwashing have been significantly different. The findings showed that online consumer engagement was negative in the United Kingdom and Turkey and in a positive direction in Germany, whereas there was no change in France in the fourth quarter of 2015.     

Exploring the effects of mergers and acquisitions on acquirers' sustainability orientation: Embedding,adding, or losing sustainability

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have been primarily investigated from a shareholder-centric perspective of economic value maximization. However, this type of strategic initiatives also carries relevant implications for companies' capacity to respond to increasing social and environmental concerns among their stakeholders. In this study, we explore the processes related to, and nonfinancial consequences of, acquisitions involving sustainability-oriented firms. Leveraging interviews with business decision makers and secondary data covering the pre- and post-acquisition phases, we find three main paths leading the acquiring firms to embed, add, or lose sustainability. Therefore, three possible post-acquisition outcomes emerge, associated with differences in acquirers' focus on sustainability infusing the deal rationale, their due diligence activity, and practices of stakeholder management and integration in the post-acquisition phase.     

Supplier Development Practices for Sustainability: A Multi‐Stakeholder Perspective

Supplier development for sustainability is a critical element of sustainable supply chain management and requires extensive multi‐stakeholder collaboration. This article establishes a conceptual four‐stage framework to analyse the collaborative mechanisms of supplier development practices, and presents an exploratory, qualitative analysis to identify the major contributors of sustainable supplier development practices, such as NGOs, industrial associations, consulting firms etc. Based on semi‐structured interviews about 63 organizations from different regions and industries, this article identifies three types of contributor: drivers, facilitators and inspectors. Instead of traditional stakeholder engagement processes, these contributors actively collaborate with buying firms and suppliers to design, implement and evaluate sustainable supplier development programs. The article then provides a matrix to describe the supply chain coverage and supplier performance of supplier development practices, given the absence or positive involvement of facilitators and inspectors. We conclude our study by suggesting future research directions as well as discussing managerial implications. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Unleashing the Power of Networks: Shareholder Activism,Sustainable Development and Corporate Environmental Policy

In recent years, a new trend has emerged in which shareholder activists have formed networks to empower shareholders and magnify shareholder voices. This study explores the structural patterns and effectiveness of shareholder activism networks and shows how those networks affect corporate sustainability policies. We draw upon stakeholder influence theory, stakeholder network management theory and recent studies on activism networks to examine a shareholder activism network formed around environmental issues. The study found that (1) the structure of shareholder activist networks is largely driven by organizational attributes such as organization type, organizations’ human resources, media visibility and history; and (2) activist organizations with high centralities and eigenvector centralities enjoy more efficient results. This study contributes to our understanding of the business responses to shareholder demands on improving environmental performance and paves the way for future research on sustainable development through partnerships with shareholder networks. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Cross-national differences in stakeholder management: Applying institutional theory and comparative capitalism framework

Drawing upon the research in institutional theory and comparative capitalism, the present study investigates how cross-national differences in the political, business, and economic institutional contexts of the United States, Italy, and Japan are associated with the ways in which companies in each of these countries prioritize and engage in their stakeholder engagement activities (SEAs). Using Porter and Kramer's framework, which classifies corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities as falling into four categories (good citizenship, mitigating harm from value chain, transforming value chain activities, and strategic philanthropy), we investigate how companies in the United States, Japan, and Italy prioritize and engage in these four SEAs. An analysis of data collected from 340 companies across these countries reveals that while companies in each of these three countries undertake the four types of SEAs, the prioritization and prevalence of the four types of SEAs vary from one country to the other, in ways that align with the prevailing institutional contexts of each country. The results contribute to a more nuanced understanding of why and how companies' approaches to CSR differ across countries. From a practitioner's perspective, the findings highlight the cultural specificity of CSR, implying that despite the global nature of CSR, the implementation of CSR needs to be tailored to a country's context.     

Sustainable development and circular economy: The role of institutional promotion on circular consumption and market competitiveness from a multistakeholder engagement approach

The transition from a linear economy to a circular economy (CE) is a real challenge to achieve long‐term sustainability. To push CE in the market, institutional promotion could become a key driver to positively impact both circular consumption and the competitiveness of the market. This paper analyzes the influence that soft and hard initiatives have on circular consumption and market competitiveness. Based on a survey of 1,281 respondents from different types of stakeholders, structural equations modeling statistical analysis was run. Results show that soft initiatives support the achievement of both objectives, whereas hard ones only influence greater circular consumption. However, the perception of the different stakeholders considered is very heterogeneous. It is indicative that not all institutional promotion initiatives are effective. Thus, institutions should guide, in an adequate and differentiated manner, their efforts to promote CE and sustainable development depending on the stakeholder they are targeting.     

Sustainability core values and sustainability risk management: Moderating effects of top management commitment and stakeholder pressure

This study examines the moderating effects of top management commitment and stakeholder pressure on the relationship between sustainability core values and sustainability risk management (SRM). We collected survey data from senior management in both local and multinational organisations in Sri Lanka. Data were analysed via partial least squares structural equation modelling. We find that the extent to which organisations integrate sustainability into core values has a significant positive impact on SRM. As predicted, top management commitment to sustainability positively moderates the relationship. However, contrary to our expectation, stakeholder pressure for sustainability shows a negative effect on the relationship. We add novel insights into the strategic conformity of internal and external sustainability drivers on SRM.     

Sustainable supply chain management and partner engagement to manage climate change information

Climate change poses significant new risks and challenges for businesses and their supply chains. Additionally, in many sectors, Scope 3 indirect greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the sourcing and distribution of goods and services are larger than firms' own carbon footprints. Here we study how firms engage their key stakeholders in their supply chains in obtaining, processing, and transferring relevant climate change‐related information designed to overcome information asymmetry and drive sustainable development. Grounded in organisational information‐processing theory (OIPT), we draw on data from the Carbon Disclosure Project's Climate Change Supply Chain initiative for a qualitative content analysis of a large sample of global firms. Consistent with OIPT, we find that although firms primarily engage their supply chain partners in a variety of ways to reduce information uncertainty around indirect emissions data, effectively interpreting and managing broader sustainability information equivocality becomes a growing priority. Our findings further suggest that firms engage suppliers, customers, and other supply chain partners through basic, transactional, and collaborative types of engagement. We contribute to literatures on interorganisational information processing and sustainable supply chain management by providing a more detailed understanding of how firms engage supply chain partners in the context of climate change.