Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Business, society, and the need for stewardship orientation

Business, society, and the need for stewardship orientation Organizational change involves optimizing a firm’s sustainability performance. The purpose of this paper is to explore how strategic orientations concerning the interface between business and society influence organizations’ sustainability performance. To explain how different strategic orientations – especially stewardship and instrumental orientations – impact sustainability performance, dynamic managerial capability theory is explored.Design/methodology/approachOurs is an inductive, qualitative study based on the template analysis of interviews conducted among sustainability managers from stock-listed multinational corporations headquartered in the Eurozone.FindingsCorporations with a stewardship orientation develop different dynamic managerial capabilities underlying sustainability performance than corporations that apply a more instrumental orientation. Results also show an “in-between” position: an equidistant orientation.Research limitations/implicationsThis study proves the emergence of different dynamic managerial capabilities that depend on companies’ strategic orientation, but follow-up research based on appreciative inquiry is needed to investigate the development of these capabilities over time.Practical implicationsFor achieving a higher level of sustainability performance, a stewardship orientation offers a stronger foundation than an instrumental orientation. Also companies with an equidistant orientation have a better sustainability performance than companies with an instrumental orientation, but based on a more central corporate level. The strategic orientation must be grounded in the development of fitting dynamic managerial capabilities that include an emphasis on shared cognition of long-term objectives, inclusion of stakeholders and setting objectives. Also strong internal and external ties, leadership of the CEO, educational background and how to deal with lack of knowledge are important aspects of managerial social and human capital.Social implicationsDue to its focus on the sustainability performance of companies and the identification of the supporting dynamic managerial capabilities, this paper is socially highly relevant.Originality/valuePrevious research has focused on strategic orientation, but little to no research has investigated how various strategic orientations toward the interface between business and society impact sustainability performance or what role dynamic managerial capabilities might play in the related change process. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Organizational Change Management Emerald Publishing

Business, society, and the need for stewardship orientation

Download PDF
19 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/business-society-and-the-need-for-stewardship-orientation-LDzXjIFnbF
Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
0953-4814
DOI
10.1108/jocm-09-2017-0348
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Organizational change involves optimizing a firm’s sustainability performance. The purpose of this paper is to explore how strategic orientations concerning the interface between business and society influence organizations’ sustainability performance. To explain how different strategic orientations – especially stewardship and instrumental orientations – impact sustainability performance, dynamic managerial capability theory is explored.Design/methodology/approachOurs is an inductive, qualitative study based on the template analysis of interviews conducted among sustainability managers from stock-listed multinational corporations headquartered in the Eurozone.FindingsCorporations with a stewardship orientation develop different dynamic managerial capabilities underlying sustainability performance than corporations that apply a more instrumental orientation. Results also show an “in-between” position: an equidistant orientation.Research limitations/implicationsThis study proves the emergence of different dynamic managerial capabilities that depend on companies’ strategic orientation, but follow-up research based on appreciative inquiry is needed to investigate the development of these capabilities over time.Practical implicationsFor achieving a higher level of sustainability performance, a stewardship orientation offers a stronger foundation than an instrumental orientation. Also companies with an equidistant orientation have a better sustainability performance than companies with an instrumental orientation, but based on a more central corporate level. The strategic orientation must be grounded in the development of fitting dynamic managerial capabilities that include an emphasis on shared cognition of long-term objectives, inclusion of stakeholders and setting objectives. Also strong internal and external ties, leadership of the CEO, educational background and how to deal with lack of knowledge are important aspects of managerial social and human capital.Social implicationsDue to its focus on the sustainability performance of companies and the identification of the supporting dynamic managerial capabilities, this paper is socially highly relevant.Originality/valuePrevious research has focused on strategic orientation, but little to no research has investigated how various strategic orientations toward the interface between business and society impact sustainability performance or what role dynamic managerial capabilities might play in the related change process.

Journal

Journal of Organizational Change Management – Emerald Publishing

Published: Feb 18, 2019

Keywords: Adaptation; Strategic orientation; Stewardship; Sustainability performance; Dynamic managerial capabilities; Stock-listed enterprise

References

  • Corporate effects and dynamic managerial capabilities
    Adner, R.; Helfat, C.E.
  • Strategic renewal of organizations
    Agarwal, R.; Helfat, C.E.
  • What we know and don’t know about corporate social responsibility; a review and research agenda
    Aguinis, H.; Glavas, A.
  • Similar but not the same: differentiating corporate responsibility from sustainability
    Bansal, P.; Song, H.C.
  • Institutional theory and entrepreneurship: where are we now and where do we need to move in the future
    Bruton, G.; Ahlstrom, D.; Li, H.
  • Corporate environmentalism and top management identity negotiation
    Cherrier, H.; Russell, S.V.; Fielding, K.
  • Towards a stewardship theory of management
    Davis, J.H.; Schoorman, F.D.; Donaldson, L.
  • The impact of corporate sustainability on organizational processes and performance
    Eccles, R.G.; Ioannou, I.; Serafeim, G.
  • The impact of dynamic capabilities on sustainable performance: theory and evidence from Dutch SMEs
    Eikelenboom, M.; de Jong, G.
  • Building theories from case study research
    Eisenhardt, K.M.
  • The greening of organizational culture
    Harris, L.; Crane, A.
  • Dynamic managerial capabilities: review and assessment of managerial impact on strategic change
    Helfat, C.E.; Martin, J.
  • Promoting stewardship behavior in organizations: a leadership model
    Hernandez, M.
  • Toward an understanding of the psychology of stewardship
    Hernandez, M.
  • The theory of the firm: managerial behavior, agency cost, and ownership structure
    Jensen, M.C.; Meckling, W.H.
  • Using indicators to measure sustainability performance at a corporate and project level
    Keeble, J.J.; Topiol, S.; Berkeley, S.
  • Strategic resource or ideal source: discourse, organizational change and CSR
    Kemp, D.; Keenan, J.; Gronow, J.
  • Dynamic capabilities and knowledge management
    Krzakiewicz, K.
  • Misery loves companies: rethinking social initiatives by business
    Margolis, J.; Walsh, J.
  • Dynamic managerial capabilities and the multibusiness team: the role of episodic teams in executive leadership groups
    Martin, J.A.
  • Dynamics of social capital and their performance implications: lessons from biotechnology start-ups
    Maurer, I.; Ebers, M.
  • Sustainability and the need for change: organisational change and transformational vision
    Millar, C.; Hind, P.; Magala, S.
  • Stewardship climate scale: an assessment of reliability and validity
    Neubaum, D.O.; Thomas, C.H.; Dibrell, C.; Craig, J.B.
  • Measuring corporate sustainability performance
    Nicolăescu, E.; Alpopi, C.; Zaharia, C.
  • The glass ceiling of corporate social responsibility: consequences of a business case approach towards CSR
    Nijhof, A.H.J.; Jeurissen, R.J.M.
  • Sustainability indexes: why join in? A study of the ‘corporate sustainability index (ISE)’ in Brazil
    Orsato, R.; Garcia, A.; Mendes-Da-Silva, W.; Simonetti, R.; Monzoni, M.
  • Corporate social responsibility orientation: theorizing through the Williamson framework
    Rath, J.; Gurtoo, A.
  • Integrating ESG into valuation models and investment decisions: the value-driver adjustment approach
    Schramade, W.
  • How was competitive advantage sustained in management consultancies during change
    Seyed Kalali, N.; Heidari, A.
  • Dynamic capabilities as patterns of organizational change
    Sune, A.; Gibb, J.
  • About us section
  • Some practical aspects of qualitative data analysis: one way of organizing the cognitive processes associated with the generation of grounded theory
    Turner, B.A.
  • Dynamic capabilities: a review and research agenda
    Wang, C.L.; Ahmed, P.K.
  • Reporting matters: communicating on the sustainable development goals
  • Long-term stewardship and our capital markets
    Wellum, J.
  • Corporate social responsibility: three key approaches
    Windsor, D.
  • Corporate social responsibility revisited
    Wood, D.J.
  • Strategic corporate social responsibility of multinational companies’ subsidiaries in emerging markets: evidence from China
    Yin, J.; Jamali, D.
  • Mainstreaming corporate social responsibility: developing markets of virtue
    Berger, I.; Cunningham, P.; Drumwright, M.
  • Dynamic capabilities: what are they
    Eisenhardt, K.; Martin, J.
  • Corporate social responsibility theories: mapping the territory
    Garriga, E.; Mele, D.
  • A holistic corporate responsibility model: integrating values, discourses and actions
    Ketola, T.
  • Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning
    March, J.G.
  • The satisficing principle in capability learning
    Winter, S.G.