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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Corporate sustainability'
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Roldão, David José de Abreu. "Corporate sustainability." Master's thesis, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/4333.
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Eidenskog, Maria. "Caring for Corporate Sustainability." Doctoral thesis, Linköpings universitet, Tema teknik och social förändring, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-117098.
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Corporate sustainability comes in a variety of shapes and the boundaries defining what can be called sustainability are disputed. This thesis explores the making of sustainability at a medium-sized company in Sweden, in this study called HygieneTech, that actively works with sustainability. Inspired by theories from science and technology studies (STS), the author discusses how different versions of sustainability are created in practices. The study is based on a theoretical approach, actor network theory (ANT), which understands reality as performed rather than observed, and since reality and its objects are enacted differently in diverse situations, reality and objects are considered multiple. Moreover, inspired by Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, “thinking with care” enables the study to tell new stories about how companies work with sustainability. This view of the actors as doing sustainability through care practice in a corporate setting paves the way for a caring analysis, exploring the different versions of sustainability as different matters of care. The enactment of sustainability is studied through participant observation, interviews and document studies. The most frequently enacted versions of sustainability are sustainability as saving resources, sustainability through standards/labels, sustainability as caring for people, and sustainability as a conscious choice. The study shows how some versions of sustainability in one setting can clash, such as when the employees at HygieneTech have to decide between caring for saving resources or caring for labelled products. Even so, in other settings versions of sustainability can be added together and thus enable the employees to care for sustainability both as a marketing device and as a conscious choice. Furthermore, the thesis shows that sustainability is sometimes made absent in relation to other matters of care, such as cleanliness and economy, while in other settings economy and sustainability can be added together. Finally, the thesis shows how sustainability, while enacted in several versions, still can cohere though professional tinkering.Hur företag arbetar med hållbarhetsfrågor kan se väldigt olika ut och många gånger uppstår stridigheter kring vad som får kallas hållbart. Denna avhandling studerar hur hållbarhet iscensätts i ett medelstort företag i Sverige som arbetar aktivt med hållbarhetsfrågor. Företaget är i denna studie anonymiserat och kallas HygieneTech. Genom att använda teorier från studier av teknik och vetenskap (STS) studeras hur olika versioner av hållbarhet skapas i olika praktiker. Studien utgår från ett teoretiskt angreppssätt, aktör-nätverksteori (ANT), som genom en symmetrisk analys studerar såväl materiella som mänskliga aktörer. ANT anser att verkligheten och dess objekt görs snarare än upplevs och eftersom verkligheten iscensätts på olika sätt i olika situationer, är verkligheten och objekten multipla. Genom att studera hållbarhet som omsorgspraktiker, inspirerad av Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, skriv nya typer av historier kring hållarbetsarbete på företag. Att tänka med omsorg (”thinking with care”) ger forskaren möjlighet att istället för att återberätta den traditionellt återkommande historien om företaget som en vinstmaximerande rationell agent, lägga fokus inte bara på rationalitet, utan även affektion. Hur hållbarhet görs i praktiken studeras genom deltagande observationer, intervjuer samt dokumentstudier. Denna avhandling visar på att det finns ett flertal olika versioner av hållbarhet som iscensätts vilka ofta är sammanknutna i varandra. Några av de viktigaste versionerna av hållbarhet i HygieneTech handlar om hållbarhet genom att spara resurser, hållbarhet genom märkningar/standarder, hållbarhet genom omsorg om människor och hållbarhet som ett medvetet val. Vissa av dessa versioner kan adderas samman, men i andra situationer ställs de mot varandra. Studien diskuterar även exempel på när hållbarhet görs osynligt på grund av att andra värden såsom renlighet och ekonomi istället sätts i fokus, samt hur hållbarhet trots sina olika versioner hålls samman.
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Pinchuk, Natallia. "Corporate sustainability assessment methodology." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/66056.
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Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Global Operations Program at MIT, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 100-102).
Sustainability is a vague concept specifically in the context of a corporate world. There are numerous definitions for corporate sustainability and just as many ways of evaluating it. This work attempts to define, structure and assess corporate sustainability in a standardized robust manner through development of a comprehensive framework. The framework is developed based on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines to serve as a common measure system allowing for meaningful assessment of current state and comparison between companies in a variety of industries. Based on this framework and earlier developed Sustainability Assessment by Fuzzy Evaluation (SAFE) model a quantitative method is developed in MATLAB code. The new method is demonstrated on five companies within software industry through evaluation of publicly available data. The outcome of the evaluation is a relative ranking of companies with respect to economic, social and environmental aspects as well as intermediate components of each. Additionally high impact components, which have the potential to improve the ranking outcome the most, are identified for one of the companies as an example of practical application of such assessment. Evaluation of these components could serve as a base for recommendations development of further management action on improving of company's sustainability.
by Natallia Pinchuk.
S.M.
M.B.A.
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Pascon, Tiziana <1990>. "Corporate Sustainability e Sustainability Conference Calls. Un’analisi empirica." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/6200.
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Gli avvenimenti economici e politici degli ultimi decenni hanno portato all’evoluzione del concetto di sostenibilità e all’urgenza di cambiamento nella gestione aziendale. La scarsità di risorse, l’aumento di emissioni inquinanti e le tensioni sociali, la crisi economica ed il fallimento di molti imperi aziendali, hanno condotto alla definizione multiforme di sostenibilità (ambientale, sociale ed economica) e alla necessità, nella realtà aziendale e societaria, di far proprio questo cambiamento, implementando strategie orientate al profitto tanto quanto alle modalità in cui esso viene realizzato. Alle imprese che intendono rimanere nel mercato viene chiesto di essere flessibili rispetto al mondo che le circonda, aperte e reattive ai cambiamenti sociali, tecnologici, ambientali e relativi alle risorse, si spinge verso l’adozione di un’ottica di lungo periodo e verso una gestione che venga percepita come sostenibile anche dagli investitori. Le realtà aziendali sono quindi portate a superare il concetto di Corporate Social Responsability, principalmente legato a principi etici e filantropici nella lettura dell’agire aziendale nella società e nell’ambiente che la circonda, e ad abbracciare quello di Corporate Social Innovation. Quest’ultimo sembra meglio adatto a fornire all’azienda gli strumenti (innovativi) necessari a gestire le problematiche legate alla sostenibilità sociale ed aziendale, tra i quali si riconosce anche l’“ESG Investor Briefing Project”, progetto lanciato dall’UN Global Compact e dal Principles for Responsible Investment, volto a migliorare la comunicazione azienda-investitore in materia ambientale, sociale e di corporate governance, ovvero in materia di sostenibilità. Il progetto, che attualmente interessa cinque società, mira ad aumentare la disclosure aziendale in tema di sostenibilità verso il popolo degli investitori attraverso lo strumento delle conference calls, le quali, nella nuova forma di Sustainability Conference Calls, ovvero di ESG Briefing Calls, vanno a connotarsi, per la loro struttura, come uno tra i più efficienti strumenti comunicativi. L’obiettivo dell’elaborato è valutare, partendo dalle valutazioni circa il progetto presentate da G. Eccles e G. Serafeim nel “Journal of Applied Corporate Finance” (2013, vol.25), se nelle cinque aziende aderenti al programma il tema della sostenibilità, nella sua accezione multiforme, è effettivamente trattato e in quale modo.
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Dysli, Claire. "Managing Emerging Corporate Sustainability Initiatives." St. Gallen, 2008. http://www.biblio.unisg.ch/org/biblio/edoc.nsf/wwwDisplayIdentifier/02402196001/$FILE/02402196001.pdf.
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Ritz, Hayley Lynn. "CREATING SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH CORPORATE BRANDING." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2007. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/2112.
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This thesis provides a thorough definition of corporate branding, including its benefits when used as a strategic marketing tool. There are many who believe that the logo of a corporation is its brand. However, the logo is only one interpretation of the brand. The brand is the corporation's ethos. It is the fundamental character or spirit of the corporation. It is an expression of who the corporation is. It is the essence that links the corporation's product or service with its consumer through loyalty and emotional attachments. Corporations use various processes and methodologies when they begin to create and enhance their corporate brand. Corporations must define their corporate personality, build recognition, standardize, and fulfill brand promises. There are also obstacles and challenges that corporations face in their endeavor to implement a branding guideline, and the chance of overcoming them without defined leadership is unrealistic. This study focuses specifically on existing literature about corporate branding and cites case study examples to show what makes the best brands successful and where failing brands could have been more successful. The study concludes by providing insight into the future for corporate branding and offering suggestions for technical communication professionals who find themselves a part of the brand building and defining process. There are various rules to branding and traits that are common to every top brand in the world. By instilling its brand with such traits, and following certain processes with focus, passion, and persistence, and most of all a long-term commitment to the brand, a corporation will find its brand among the most recognized brands in the world.M.A.
Department of English
Arts and Humanities
English MA
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Maitland, Roger. "Exploring emergence in corporate sustainability." Doctoral thesis, Faculty of Commerce, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/31139.
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As the impacts of climate change intensify, businesses are increasingly committing to ambitious sustainable development goals, yet an enduring disconnect remains between corporate sustainability activities and declining global environment and society. This study adopts a complexity view that reductionism associated with Newtonian thinking has played a key role in creating many of the sustainability issues now faced by humanity. This dissertation departs from the premise that sustainability needs to be integrated into an organisation and uses a complexity view to argue that corporate sustainability is a co-evolutionary process of emergence. Whilst many studies have examined how sustainability can be integrated into a business, less is known about corporate sustainability as an emergent process. To address the knowledge gap, this research answered three questions: (1) How does sustainability emerge in financial institutions? (2) What is the role of coherence in the emergence of sustainability? and (3) What conditions enable the emergence of sustainability? A mixed method sequential design was used. In the initial quantitative strand of the research, a holistic business assessment survey based on integral theory was implemented in two financial services organisations in Southern Africa. The results were analysed using self-organising maps and explored in narrative interviews in the subsequent qualitative strand of the research. The study makes three contributions to our understanding of emergence in corporate sustainability. First, by proposing four modes by which corporate sustainability is enacted; these elucidate how integral domains are enacted in corporate sustainability. Second, by clarifying the process of emergence by articulating how zones of coherence emerge between embodied and embedded dimensions. Third, by explaining how the shift to corporate sustainability occurs by means of four conditions. These contributions serve to advance our understanding of corporate sustainability as a fundamental shift in the functioning of an organisation towards coevolutionary self-organisation. It is recommended that corporate sustainability is holistically cultivated to support emergence and self-organisation, rather than being integrated through a linear process of change.
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Daniel, Oluwakemi. "The Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Sustainability, and Corporate Financial Performance." ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/5847.
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Some business executives are reluctant to engage in social responsibility and sustainability practices because of the assumption that these projects are costly and impair profitability. The purpose of this correlation study was to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility, sustainability (as proxied by the 2016 Best Corporate Citizens index), and corporate financial performance (as measured by ROA and Tobin's Q). Stakeholder theory was the theoretical framework for the study. The results of linear regression analyses indicated an insignificant positive relationship between corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and financial performance. The yield of the linear regression analyses was as follows: F(1, 12) = .023, p = .881, R2 = .002 for ROA and F(1, 12) = .060, p = .811, R2 = .006 for Tobin's Q. The findings from the study revealed that the relationship between social and sustainable activities and financial performance is indifferent regardless of whether financial performance is assessed using accounting or market measures. The presence of a direct, though insignificant, association calls for business managers' attention. The reason is that with the positive association, it is arguably useful to suggest that the more social and sustainable projects are embarked on by firms, the greater the probability of an increased financial outcome.
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Lin, I.-HSIANG. "Users' and Preparers' Perception of Sustainability Reporting and Corporate Sustainability." NSUWorks, 2010. http://nsuworks.nova.edu/hsbe_etd/62.
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The purpose of this study was to explore users' and preparers' perception of sustainability reporting, especially for accountants and financial analysts who are involved with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines and GRI based sustainability or CSR reports in the United States. With the increasing trends to sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR), it is important to understand what level users and preparers currently hold towards the sustainability reporting. This study used samples from the following resources: all companies included in the GRI report list as a report preparer group and financial analysts as report users, whose companies' core business focused on social and environmental investing. This study examined four hypotheses concerning general corporate sustainability & reporting and sustainability performance indicators in environmental, economic and social aspects suggested by the GRI Guidelines.
This paper contributes to corporate social responsibility and sustainability reporting. This paper studied users' perception of sustainability reporting and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Prior research mainly focused on preparers' perception or attitudes toward sustainability reports (Guthrie & Parker, 1990; Kolk, 2004; Lindgreen et al., 2009; White, 2005). Also, this paper adds to the literature on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and its guidelines that have not been extensively studied in prior research.
The results revealed that users and preparers agreed on the important issues asked for the general corporate sustainability and reporting, and both groups held similar attitudes towards the environmental, economic and social performance indicators and felt most of them as important to be included in a sustainability report. In addition, both groups indicated the GRI as the preferred standard setting body for sustainability reporting and gave support to GRI for its effort to establish and promote the standards for sustainability reporting. Finally, a considerable number of users and preparers agreed that the GRI report can fairly measure a company's environmental, economic and social performance.
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Scandelius, Christina. "Strategic ambiguity in corporate sustainability communications." Thesis, Brunel University, 2014. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/12763.
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Purpose: The aim of this thesis is to develop a better understanding on how businesses should communicate their sustainability strategy to their stakeholders. Businesses are facing the challenge of designing sustainability communications strategies that appeal to stakeholders of various interest and knowledge on the topic, and stakeholders whose objectives might even be contradictory to that of the company. In order to facilitate the communications process to encourage a better uptake of sustainability initiatives by corporations and the public, it is essential to find solutions to these communications challenges. Methodology: The study focuses on the food and drink value chain in Western Europe and is based on empirical evidence from a multiple case study methodology involving in-depth interviews with 25 senior managers and directors from food and drink manufacturing companies, retailers, and some of their stakeholders. Findings: A framework for corporate sustainability communications is developed, depicting five communications strategies. The framework also offers an insight how stakeholders can be categorised into the most appropriate communications strategy through the application of certain segmentation attributes. It is further illustrated how the application of strategic ambiguity can add value to the communications process in order to stimulate interest, initiatives and innovation from stakeholders. Theoretical and practical implications/originality: Previous research on corporate communications strategies, has seen limited empirical validation, is primarily focussed on consumers, and more importantly is lacking in advice regarding how to craft communications that not only appeal to a multitude of stakeholders, but that also encourage collaboration. The findings therefore add confirmation and extension to the previous research and, importantly, it provides a link between theories of strategic ambiguity and the corporate communications literature. The framework also offers practical value as it provides managers with a clear guidance on how to design effective corporate sustainability communications, ensuring diverse appeal and/or engagement for collaboration. Thus it provides a tool that has the potential of facilitating holistic sustainability progress in a value chain.
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Rosengren, Anna, Elsayed Mohamed Maher, and Niklas Eklund. "Corporate leadership development programs towards sustainability." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Institutionen för strategisk hållbar utveckling, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-14780.
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With the increasing level of complexity that leaders face today, represented in the accelerating pace of technology advancement and globalization, along with the climate change indicators reaching unprecedented levels, the need for good leadership quality has become more crucial than ever. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development provides a systems perspective, a principle-based definition and a way to strategically move towards sustainability, however still there is a need to specify what is required for leaders to lead organizations through this process. The aim of the thesis is to explore how corporate leadership development companies can develop the essential leadership competencies to address the sustainability challenge. The study used the Key Competences in Sustainability Framework as a base to interview six leadership development companies from different areas in the world. The findings revealed that there is an essential need for self-development for leaders to handle complexity, as well as the need from leaders to create the proper conditions for their organizations to utilize the competences from the KCSF. Furthermore the results also showcased the need for standard common definition regarding sustainability.
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Aboud, Mathilde. "Corporate Sustainability as a Foresight Activity : Can Corporate Sustainability help companies survive in an increasingly competitive environment?" Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Industriell teknik, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-385760.
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In many corporations, sustainability has become an important activity to focuson, with the aim of preparing corporations for the future. Foresight, a newerfield, is increasingly becoming an important activity of corporations, with thepurpose of surviving long-term. These motives make companies’ involvement with corporate sustainability and with corporate foresight fundamental. However, because foresight is a recent field, it implies processes that are less mastered by professionals than sustainability. Since the motives of corporate sustainability and corporate foresight are similar, the purpose of this thesis is therefore to understand if corporate sustainability can contribute to corporate foresight implementation. Specifically, the purpose of this thesis is to identify which corporate sustainability (CS) activities can be integrated to which corporate foresight (CF) activities, to facilitate and foster foresight. Consequently, the contributions of the research consist in extending the knowledge about sustainability as a foresight activity and in proposing suggestions to incorporate sustainability to foresight activities. This study reviews several CS frameworks and several CF frameworks, provides a deeper understanding of the underlying processes needed for the implementation of CS and CF, and identifies the similarities. The study specifically builds on the Maturity Model of Corporate Foresight from the book Corporate Foresight – Towards a Maturity Model for the Future Orientation of a Firm from Rohrbeck (2010). Based on the theoretical findings, qualitative interviews of sustainability professionals are carried out. Those interviews are meant to test the theoretical findings. The research provides knowledge on the management of corporate foresightby providing insights on foresight practices that benefit from incorporating sustainability practices. The conclusion of the paper consists in a model thatpresents explicit ways in which corporate sustainability contributes tocorporate foresight. In fact, it is shown that corporate sustainability fosters strong internal and external networks and creates a corporate culture favourable to change. Internal and external networks facilitate cross-functional collaboration and communication; and employees favourable to change are more open to new ideas; both being key for foresight implementation. Thus, Corporate Sustainability supports Corporate Foresight because it sets up a favourable corporate culture, and because it paves the way for appropriate work processes (internal and external collaboration for instance).
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Leithner, Jürgen. "Corporate Sustainability : Interpretation, Implementation and the Employee." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Ekonomihögskolan, ELNU, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-19741.
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Sustainability indicates one of the core topics among society as well as in current business life. On this account it seems highly important to elaborate further on this crucial issue. This research focuses in particular on the implications of the implementation of Corporate Sustainability on the organizational as well as the private values of the employee. To analyse this issue, both theoretical secondary literature and empirical data from expert interviews was used. The research indicated three core findings. 1.) A unified and globally accepted definition and interpretation of Corporate Sustainability seems to be missing. This led to the understanding that organizations use various different methods and tools during the implementation of Corporate Sustainability. 2.) On the basis of the first finding as well as the theoretical background and empirical input, a framework was drawn which may guide organizations during the implementation of Corporate Sustainability. 3.) On the basis of this framework and the interpretations of scholars and experts it emerged, that the key issue during the implementation of Corporate Sustainability seems to be the corporate culture and values. Therefore, it emerges, that the employee has to take a central or key role within such an attempt, as the organizational culture is defined as the sum of the individual values of the employees. In principle, as found, indicates Corporate Sustainability a rather extensive change process, which has its roots and implications on the employee and their values.
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ROSATI, FRANCESCO. "Measuring corporate sustainability: models, methods and findings." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata", 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2108/203417.
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In recent decades there has been increasing attention to the social and environmental impacts of business. Stakeholders are ever more concerned and responsible about environmental and social issues and prefer to deal with companies that act sustainably. Accordingly, companies are called to continuously communicate with stakeholders about their corporate social responsibility (CSR), in order to improve stakeholder perceptions and meet their expectations. In this dissertation, I focus on the measurement of corporate sustainability, providing new methods for assessing, monitoring and improving corporate sustainability performance. These methods are mainly based on CSR reporting and stakeholder CSR perceptions and expectations.
This dissertation contains four articles, three of which propose and apply new models and methods for measuring corporate sustainability performance. In particular, one provides a two-dimensional CSR model for measuring the development of CSR programs and the CSR commitment disclosed by the company. The other two articles provide a method to compare company disclosed CSR commitment with stakeholder CSR perceptions and expectations, and a model to classify customers according to these comparisons. The last article of this dissertation explores the impact of individual characteristics (gender, education and age) on CSR perceptions and expectations.
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Alvesson, Due Billing Miha. "Small Scale Sustainability : A Qualitative Study of Corporate Sustainability in Swedish SMEs." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-295807.
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This qualitative study aims to contribute to the research field on corporate sustainability (CS) in small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs), in hopes of helping policymakers better understand the circumstances for Swedish SMEs and how they work with CS. Empirical data about motivations behind working with CS, implementation of CS activities, and effects of CS work were collected through in-depth interviews with 18 company representatives. The major reason for motivation was found to be personal interest and commitment to these kind of practices, followed by strengthening the competitiveness, marketing, initiative from management and board, and profitability aspects. The implementation process is often informal in nature with concrete measures and activities rather than formal policies and strategies, although a few of the companies make use of tools such as environmental management systems. How the companies communicate their CS work differs and the response from stakeholders varies too. Lastly, profitability was found to be an important effect for some, while others more heavily emphasize the personal satisfaction from doing the right thing and being sustainable. The social effects were mostly improved working conditions and more engagement from stakeholders, while the environmental impact was understood to mostly concern a decrease in consumption of finite resources, and a more efficient use of material and energy. Suggestions for improving CS work in Swedish SMEs are increased support and encouragement from the government, and more education and information about what companies can do and how they can do it with appropriate tools. Concluding, CS in Swedish SMEs must be studied further to gain a more comprehensive picture of how to support those SMEs already working with CS and those in the path of transitioning towards a more sustainable development.
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Engvall, Tove. "Records roles in Corporate Sustainability Reporting : An explorative study of corporate sustainability reporting from an archives and information science perspective." Thesis, Mittuniversitetet, Institutionen för informationssystem och –teknologi, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-36765.
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Calls for more responsible companies, have led to initiatives and legislations of sustainability reporting, in order to improve corporate transparency and accountability regarding companies economic, environmental and social impact. The aim of the research was to explore records roles in corporate sustainability reporting, which is discussed from an archives and information science perspective. Records are regarded as evidence of business activities and therefore crucial to accountability and decision-making processes. A sustainability report is a record, and records are also used to create a sustainability report. The thesis is based on a qualitative explorative methodology with interviews as data gathering technique. Interviews were carried out with four employees at three different companies who work with sustainability reporting, a sustainability consultant who works with sustainability reporting, and an auditor who assesses the companies´ annual and sustainability reports. The interviews have addressed records’ role in different aspects of sustainability reporting, exploring how sustainability reports are created, used and pluralized. As well as how the records, generated as an effect of the reporting process, are used, what impact they have on the business and efficiency of the process. The thesis also explore respondents´ perspectives on reliability and credibility of the reports in relation to records qualities. Results from the interviews have been analysed with the lens of Records Continuum Model and the ISO standard for records management, ISO 15489-1:2016. Results show that records are key assets that provide evidential information that enables different functions and benefits –both to companies that report and to stakeholders. Primary benefits of the reporting that have been emphasized are that it enables transparency and accountability, informed decision-making, management of risks, compliance with legislation, ability to demonstrate corporate responsibility and meeting sustainability goals, greater business efficiency, evidence-based analysis and development activities, formation of business culture and identity, and protection of corporate and collective memory about the corporates’ work regarding sustainability. Records are also valuable assets for governance and continuous improvements. It enables to monitor trends and assessment on how the company meets its targets. The thesis gives an increased understanding of records’ role in a socio-economic context. It also suggests some areas for further research and development in order for sustainability reporting to further support a sustainable development. One of the major tasks would be to make pluralization of sustainability-related records more efficient, in order to facilitate further utilization of the information. This may enhance corporate accountability and decision making based on sustainability criteria, and would make the work more efficient for companies. The global records governance environment can be improved further, in order to support global sustainable development. Important is also to raise awareness about the role of trustworthy records.
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Gordon, Wayne Barry. "Corporate culture and strategy in environmental sustainability interventions." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/29655.
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The influence of corporate culture on the strategies used by firms to meet the environmental sustainability challenge has been explored in this dissertation. This was investigated through web-based questionnaires that were administered to employees in companies who would have knowledge of both their employer‟s corporate culture and corporate sustainability practices.To determine this, the respondents were requested to rate both the corporate strategies undertaken to meet the environmental challenge, as well as the corporate culture where they work. The corporate strategies were evaluated using a bespoke instrument which was constructed from various strategy instruments found in the literature. The corporate culture was evaluated using a well-known organisational culture instrument available in the literature. Potential contextual variables pertaining to the perceptions of the respondents, as well as to the business and industry sector characteristics, were evaluated as well.The findings indicated that the contextual variables had little or no effect on either the corporate culture or the corporate strategies undertaken by the firm, and that a strong comprehensive culture correlated strongly with positive corporate strategies. Corporate cultures that emphasise social coordination (or organic culture forms) exhibited stronger correlations with positive corporate strategies than those which emphasise formal control methods (or mechanistic forms). The focus of the firm, whether on internal dynamics or the external environment, did not show a significant effect on the corporate strategies that were undertaken by the firm.A sustainability culture was synthesised from the findings of the research, which concludes with recommendations regarding further research into this topic.Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012.
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
unrestricted
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Li, Zhongtian. "Corporate sustainability in Australia: Performance, disclosure and governance." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2020. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/202715/1/Zhongtian_Li_Thesis.pdf.
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This thesis focuses on sustainability disclosure, sustainability performance, and sustainability committee. Analysing a sample of Australian firms, the thesis found that good performers disclose more information and communicate in optimistic, certain, and clear terms; they also present their information in a more readable way; the experience of sustainability disclosure improves the performance, and sustainability committee also contributes to the performance. The findings should of interest to investors, directors, managers, and regulators in Australia.
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Kok, Nils. "Corporate governance and sustainability in global property markets /." [S.l.] : [s.n.], 2008. http://aleph.unisg.ch/hsgscan/hm00216606.pdf.
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Law, Man-suet Michelle, and 羅文雪. "Achieving corporate sustainability through environmental education and training." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10722/206704.
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Education and training are recognized as the crux of developing green organizational cultures in the achievement of corporate sustainability. Should ecology training be linked with the practical work of corporate members? Should they “learn by doing” or “do by learning”? The present study covered the links between environmental education and training and its success in greening the employees and corporate cultures. It investigated the effectiveness of environmental training and models a suitable training approach in developing environmentally aware corporate cultures. The study first revealed the drivers and challenges of implementing environmental education and training in managerial perception. 13 environmental managers of sustainability leading corporations and governmental departments in Hong Kong were surveyed by either face-to-face interviews or mailed questionnaires survey.
The role of environmental education and training in raising employees’ awareness toward a more sustainable manner has been fully recognized by the surveyed mangers. However, engaging employees in environmental learning was found to be the single biggest challenge among the managers. Managers have faced a dilemma when designing training content and training approaches. A wide range of rationales and determining factors were identified in the study. They were employee interests and motivation, training practicability and applicability, justification of resources and continuity of training impacts.
A series of environmental education and awareness training programmes of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) were used as a case study. Evaluation of the training outcomes, in terms of changes in participants’ environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, was surveyed by using self-completion questionnaires with retrospective post- and then-test design. Across the 47 responses, the results show that employees gained knowledge and changed their values and behaviour towards the environment significantly. The acquisition of knowledge and attitude change leads to the development of green behaviour both in the workplace and at home.
Training design and approach, relevance and applicability of training content were found to have the greatest impact on the training outcomes. A combination of direct- and indirect- experiences in the training is also essential as the employees have direct contact with nature for affective-based attitudes while a proportion of indirect experience training is responsible for intellectual development. Training should be available for employees from each stratum in the company rather than only focusing on pinpointed management staff since it could promote a workable interface between employees and the corporation. Furthermore, organizational support including supervisory and peer support is vital to the training outcomes by encouraging employees to perform pro-environmental behaviour at work, in turn, greening the corporate culture. This study brings to the conclusion that, even though transition of sustainable corporate culture is a long process, it could be achievable in real-life businesses through utilizing an effective environmental education and training with properly designed strategies.published_or_final_version
Kadoorie Institute
Master
Master of Philosophy
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Dai, Wenjin. "The great vessel rarely completes : translating corporate sustainability." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/15027.
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This thesis contributes to our understanding of Corporate Sustainability (CS) in Multinational Corporations (MNCs) by offering a non-western perspective. A review of the extant literature reveals CS-related studies are mainly based on theories and implications in and for western contexts. It leads us to question the definitions of CS that have been taken for granted in current management and organisation studies. This thesis argues CS should be considered as a non-fixed, contextual and culturally-sensitive notion. When the ideas of CS travel from western scholarship to Chinese organisation practices, the meanings are forever constructed, altered, and mobilised. This is beyond linguistic translation, and functions as a continuous stream of temporary hermeneutic processes of translating. This research explores how CS has been translated in a Japanese MNC in China (the organisation is called ‘OMG’ in the research). The ethnographic enquiry provides a visual and narrative representation of corporate culture as promoted in OMG; ‘Communal Vessel’ evolves as a translational construct symbolising the culturally-derived meanings of CS. The intrinsically oxymoronic meanings of ‘Communal Vessel’ can be drawn from classical Chinese philosophies, which could have implications for understanding contemporary organising practices in China, and globally. In summary, this thesis problematises the construction of CS, and contributes an indigenous, non-western way of understanding CS via an ethnographic representation focusing on processes of translating. The implications are summarised through an analysis of the classical phrase ‘The Great Vessel Rarely Completes’.
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Nordin, Neda. "Embedded Corporate Sustainability as a Driver for Competitiveness." Thesis, KTH, Industriell ekonomi och organisation (Inst.), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-170725.
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Sustainability is increasingly requested by society due to rising global issues. However the majority of companies, particularly the large and hierarchical ones, face huge challenges in properly integrating sustainability in their business, and most importantly - in understanding the opportunities sustainability offers both for their competitiveness and shared value creation. The purpose of the thesis is to holistically define and explain the major aspects that are critical for win-win corporate sustainability (CS) embedding into large established companies. Firstly, a framework of CS embedding has been developed which is supported by a simple CS three-stage model to be used in assessing the CS integration stages and processes in a company. The framework in particular focuses on three major CS aspects: strategic and operational integration, innovation, and organisational culture. Secondly, the created model is applied in the case study of the large power company Vattenfall AB in order to assess its overall CS implementation situation, the challenges it faces and the stage of CS practices. The analysis resulted in structured findings and a list of major strategic recommendations to advice the company on CS advancement. The outcomes of the study can be applied as learning material in other large conservative companies of similar complexity that struggle with sustainability performance. The research has contributed in filling the knowledge gap of understanding how CS embedding works, its major aspects, challenges and opportunities it provides. The framework developed for embedding CS when used in conjunction with the CS three-stage model could be used for further empirical research or alternatively for practical application by companies themselves.
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Deffee, Abigail. "Corporate sustainability and responsibility in the Cape Winelands." Master's thesis, Faculty of Humanities, 2019. https://hdl.handle.net/11427/31831.
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Several studies have examined the business case of corporate sustainability and responsibility (CSR) but there is less evidence which demonstrates the lasting positive impact of CSR on society. This exploratory study examines the perceptions of business responsibility in the wine industry from the social perspective. Bound by the legacies of slavery, the Cape wine industry has been shaped by unequal social, racial and cultural dynamics of power since the 1600s. The qualitative research approach adopted was designed so as to draw out insights from key decision-makers via nine semi-structured interviews. Positioned within a holistic framework, and drawing upon systems thinking, this research produced a number of key findings. Firstly, there is some evidence of systemic CSR in the dataset; firms placed explicit emphasis on the training and upskilling of previously marginalised groups, and took collective responsibility for solving social problems. There were examples of business creativity in establishing share schemes, although the success of these in remedying deep structural inequalities remains unclear. Secondly, the findings provide evidence of paternalistic behaviours on wine estates operating within existing hegemonic power structures. The participants’ experiences of social initiatives largely equates to the empowerment of community groups via specific benevolent projects. The main conclusion drawn is that CSR in the Winelands commonly manifests as a mutation of entrenched paternalism, and thus is not a substitute for broader structural reform.
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Fang, Yiwen. "Sustainability information network (SIN) and corporate financial distress." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2021. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/211478/1/Yiwen_Fang_Thesis.pdf.
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In this thesis I examine the relationship between corporate sustainability information networks (SIN) and financial distress. I propose that firms that are more central in the SIN have better access to key sustainability information which in turn results in lower financial distress. Using 5,521 in-network firms and their propensity scored matching (PSM) firms over the five-year period 2015-2019, I find strong support for my hypothesis. The findings suggest that SINs provide an important role in reducing financial distress.
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Pinilla-Urzola, Angela. "Assurance in corporate sustainability reporting in the United Kingdom : stakeholder and corporate perspectives." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2011. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12094/.
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Sustainability assurance is developing rapidly in the United Kingdom, despite a negative stance from management. Previous studies have examined the practice as represented in statements from 2001 to 2004, companies’ reasons for commissioning assurance services, and the views of assurance providers on stakeholder-centred practice. Despite the importance of stakeholder participation within sustainability assurance exercises, far too little attention has been paid to stakeholders and their views on the phenomenon of sustainability assurance. This research identifies the trends and emerging issues in the practice between 2001 and 2007, investigates corporate management’ views on those issues, and examines stakeholders’ perspectives on the potentialities and problems of assurance practice. The research follows a mixed-methods two phase explanatory model. A content analysis of assurance statements issued by a sample of FTSE100 companies was used to collect quantitative data on tendencies as to the choice of provider, standards used, level of assurance adopted, procedures employed, and methods of stakeholder inclusion used. Then, these issues were explored via a programme of semi-structured interviews conducted with ten representatives of FTSE100 companies, and eight representatives of different stakeholder groups, and the resulting data analyzed through the lens of key strands of Michael Power’s theory, and legitimacy and stakeholder theories. Emerging trends of hiring accountancy firms and using the AA1000AS in tandem with the ISAE3000 standard indicate change in the practice. Assurance exercises conducted with substantive test procedures, and of limited level, persist. The AA1000 is the most used standard, however, is not leading to direct participation of stakeholders. While there is some evidence of stakeholder interest, particularly on the part of nongovernmental organisations, the real driving force behind assurance is internal. Organisational constraints, particularly cost considerations, influence further development of the practice. Corporate management did express a desire to bring stakeholder involvement through stakeholder panels. Corporate management view sustainability assurance as creating value by delivering organisational legitimacy and enhancing reputation. In the current climate of voluntarism, there is a high risk of sustainability assurance being used as greenwashing. For management, sustainability assurance should serve the interest of the organisation and shareholders over other stakeholders. Through the assurance process, organisations manage and control key stakeholder groups. This view is supported by one influential stakeholder group, the investment community. Therefore, the role of stakeholder groups representing other civil society needs is fundamental to ensure that through sustainability assurance accountability is discharged to society at large.
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Burns, Clare. "Exploring how Australian finance directors' corporate sustainability espoused values are embedded into subordinate subculture and why corporate sustainability assumptions are not." Thesis, Griffith University, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/410475.
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Since 1893 legal and compliance investigations into the Australian finance industry have continually found problematic elements in the culture; however, none of these investigations have led to a solution (Hickson & Turner, 2002). To address the paucity of fieldwork literature in the critical area of finance, which impacts millions of Australians every day, organisational development (OD) and corporate sustainability (CS) have been brought together for investigation. The following interpretive, exploratory case study features real-world insights from representatives of the 490,000 Australian finance staff who look after millions of customers, many who are vulnerable (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021). In the Royal Commission into Misconduct in Banking, Superannuation, and Financial Services Industry (Commission), evidence was presented of customers losing their livelihoods and in some instances their life (Farnsworth & Selvaratnam, 2018; Hayne et al., 2019; Ziffer, 2018). The culture of Australia’s large finance organisations has a significant impact on communities’ economic, social, and environmental common good.
A study into OD, subculture particularisations within a finance organisation, provides an angle few have explored. This study asks how and why the most dominant subculture—directors—embed or do not embed the CS values (economic, environmental, social) they espouse. The exploration has involved listening to the voice of archetypal subcultures: directors, designers, and operators, within an organisation. As part of a rigorous four-phase thematic content analysis, three data sets (interviews, archival documents, and observation) were triangulated to ascertain what concepts corroborated or contradicted. Findings revealed both homogenous and heterogeneous themes in the organisational culture (OC). Directors of the large finance organisation (LFO) embedded a key espoused CS social value: customer centricity, to their subordinate subcultures through enacting the value themselves. These directors also embedded command and control (C2) hierarchical power assumptions. Day-to-day director defensive behaviours contributed to the LFO’s espoused values: daring, brave, collaboration, and skilled, not being embedded to subordinates. Defensive routines detracted from embedding CS because when directors used defensive mechanisms such as blocking upward communication, denial, and creating “undiscussable,” their subordinates did this too.
A new, rigorous CS-OC finance framework incorporating defensive and embedding mechanisms was developed and applied to the LFO data. The purpose of this framework was to provide a trustworthy understanding of where an organisation sits on the CS spectrum. When the relevant data from the case study was collated and placed into the framework, the LFO was at the lowest end of the CS spectrum because environmental considerations were not deemed a valid assumption. That said, the LFO OC did align to a number of the economic attributes of CS, as well as a few of the social elements—in some instances operating above the industry norm (Hayne, 2019a). Practitioners could learn from the LFO’s customer centric approach.
Other practitioner implications include the need for directors to have meaningful, authentic feedback loops which would inform them if their CS espoused values were a lived reality or not. In the case study, directors were not aware their subordinates could not speak up because it was not psychologically safe. Directors firmly espoused the organisation’s commitment to fiduciary duty (FD), yet were unaware their operators did not know what FD means. The lack of trustworthy subordinate feedback allowed directors an overconfidence in their OD capabilities.
A key academic contribution from this study is a holistic research design for understanding CS culture in large organisations. This design was used in the case study to respond to the multi-dimensional research questions. The OD design calls for different organisational voices to be heard, and allows for particularisations in subcultures to be identified rather than defaulting to untrustworthy cultural scripts (Alvesson et al., 2017; Bell et al., 2020).
One further contribution to the CS literature is the deep insight OD plays in large finance organisations; this insight is important for understanding defensive routines which can prohibit CS being fully integrated. The key enablers of defensive routines (directors) in this investigation promoted C2 assumptions, which meant subordinate subcultures could not report up on CS OC issues. Subordinates were expected to, and did, uphold an egalitarian façade, all the while being frustrated and underperforming. The work discussed in the thesis begins to address the large OD culture gap in finance literature (Li et al., 2013). The new framework is presented for both practitioners and academics to hold up a mirror to the lived reality of organisations entrusted with millions of Australians life savings and businesses which bring harm or good to the environment.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Dept Bus Strategy & Innovation
Griffith Business School
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El, hajjari Borg Mounia, and Elin Sundberg. "Licence to Talk : Sustainability Managers and their Managerial Realities within the Corporate Sustainability Paradox." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-448552.
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While sustainability-dedicated managers and related titles represent a profession that has hardly existed for more than a decade, it is not surprising that the field of research concentrating on these professionals is in itself relatively new. With an increasing demand for corporations to take their social and environmental responsibility, and a corporate sustainability characterized by tension and paradox, we found it of importance to explore the role and entanglements of these professionals. By analysing 17 in-depth interviews with sustainability-dedicated professionals from the private sector in Sweden, our interpretation is that sustainability managers hold the function of selling sustainability, with talk as their main weapon. Expressly, in the intersection between business-case logics and sustainability logics, sustainability managers have to, above all, make a convincing case for sustainability, inwards and outwards. Therefore, they draw dynamically on different narratives which we conceptualise in three roles: the chameleon, the pragmatic, and the nagging manager. Through these roles, we intend to capture the fluidity with which the managers relate and engage with sustainability, and hence we do not mean to ossify a role’s dynamics within a single, static or stereotypical category. We discuss these findings and concepts to the background of previous studies and existing literature.
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Johannes, Jonathan. "Corporate social responsibility in South Africa : how corporate partnerships can advance the sustainability agenda." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/5519.
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Magister Legum - LLMCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is not a new issue. There has and will always be the need for organisations to make profits and the needs of society. CSR has been considered more strongly than ever since the early 1990's, building on a trend that had been growing since the start of the 20th century. CSR broadly refers to all of an organization's impacts on society and the need to deal responsibly with the impacts on each group of stakeholders. The King IV Report on Governance for South Africa 2016 encapsulates the idiosyncratic South African context of CSR. In the African context these moral duties are manifested in the concept of Ubuntu which is captured in the expression 'uMuntu ngumuntu ngabantu', 'I am because you are; you are because we are'. This model being the premise upon which the CSR partnership is researched herein. Ever since the publication of the King Reports on Corporate Governance, South African businesses have sharpened their focus on their commitment to the 'triple-bottom-line'. It is impossible for organizations to ignore the impact of social, ethical and environmental issues on their business and the economy and the cost of neglecting these issues will be high. CSR has gained increasing prominence as a result of increased stakeholder demands, limitations of government and civil society to address complex societal issues, and the realization by most businesses that their sustained success depends on their ability to address local sustainable development challenges. Corporate sustainable development, despite not being a business' core responsibility, is doubtful to be achieved without the support of other businesses as they represent the productive resources of the economy. Although there is consensus that businesses have a vital role to play in addressing sustainable development challenges, companies still have a responsibility to more traditional elements of what constitutes business success. In this regard companies have to meet somewhat conflicting expectations of markets and stakeholders, the economic bottom line being a dominant factor in decision making. Companies therefore may not be able to meet the level of resources essential to achieve the scale and impact so as to address the challenges of these competing priorities. For business to effectively move the sustainability agenda forward, there is a need for a systemic approach, as sustainability cannot succeed in an unsustainable system. In order to achieve the scale, speed and impact necessary, an integrated approach that leverages key role players is critical to drive change and support sustainability. It is in this regard that this research paper will explore, the wider definition of regulation 43(5) (a) (ii) (bb) published in relation to the Companies Act and whether it provides for corporate partnerships, if so, does it achieve contributions to community development and does this advance the corporate sustainability agenda.
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Crepaldi, Veronica <1989>. "Programmazione e controllo nella Reverse Logistics: Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Sustainability e indicatori GRI." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/5757.
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Il presente lavoro mira all'analisi della programmazione e controllo della Reverse Logistics in un'ottica di sostenibilità, con l'intento di evidenziare come le due tematiche siano strettamente legate. Nel primo capitolo viene definita la funzione di RL e descritta nelle sue diverse configurazioni, così come è stata trattata in letteratura. Poiché si tratta di una funzione piuttosto giovane, si trovano diverse definizioni tra cui spicca quella del Reverse Logistics Executive Council. Nel secondo capitolo vengono studiati quali sono gli strumenti a disposizione dei responsabili di programmazione e controllo individuati in letteratura. In particolare sono analizzati gli indicatori per la misurazione della performance, gli strumenti per la presa di decisioni e per la pianificazione della RL, soffermandosi anche sulla possibilità di affidare l'attività ad un provider esterno. Nel terzo capitolo è presentato il concetto di sostenibilità e delle derivate nozioni di Corporate Sustainability e Corporate Social Responsibility. Una trattazione particolare viene fatta anche sul Sustainability Reporting, la Global Reporting Initiative e l'applicazione della sostenibilità alla funzione della RL. Infine, nel quarto capitolo, viene presentato il social responsibility reverse logistics index, dello studio di Nikolaou e altri (2013), come misurazione della responsabilità sociale della RL ed indivuati gli possibili sviluppi e limiti della ricerca.
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Pohl, Eva. "Towards Corporate Sustainable Development : The ITT Flygt Sustainability Index." Licentiate thesis, Mälardalen University, Department of Public Technology, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-145.
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This thesis suggests a method for measurement of corporate contribution to sustainable development, looking at how well a company stands up to its policies and commitments regarding sustainable development.
A sustainability index is developed and calculated for ITT Flygt AB over a three years period (2002-2004). The index structure is based on scientific literature and interviews with ITT Flygt and four other engineering companies.
The purpose of the index is to support corporate sustainability-management.
The index is calculated by aggregating some forty sustainability-indicators. These indicators are individual to each company and are designed to measure the significant sustainability aspects of the company.
Besides from providing one aggregated sustainability-value of the company, the index also provides sub-indices, which support the interpretation of the index result.
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Karlsen, Olav Andrè. "Racing Towards Sustainability? : Formula 1 and Corporate Social Responsibility." Thesis, Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, Institutt for sosiologi og statsvitenskap, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:no:ntnu:diva-13032.
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Traies, Samantha Jane, and mikewood@deakin edu au. "Corporate sustainability: Greenwash or a path to sustainable capitalism?" Deakin University. School of History, Heritage and Society, 2005. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20050902.105421.
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The problems of unsustainable development and the increased-awareness of corporate power in the global era have contributed to an agenda of corporate citizenship. This thesis explores the meanings and practices that fall under the banner of the triple bottom line of corporate citizenship through forty-two in-depth interviews with representatives from the corporate sector and NGO sector (including trade unions) in Australia. This purposive sample includes a specific range of corporate industries and NGO types, all of which have involvement with various areas of sustainability. Interviewees described their feelings and experiences in relation to the concept of the triple bottom line, the potential and limitations of this type of sustainability and the purpose and impacts of partnerships between NGOs and the corporate sector.
On the basis of this research, this thesis argues that corporate citizenship is at best, a set of initiatives for making minor adjustments to the way companies perform their day-to-day operations and at worst, a program for improving corporate image rather than performance and for shifting the agenda of sustainable development toward corporate interests. While radical steps are required to achieve a sustainable society and environment, the terms of corporate citizenship offer very limited opportunities for change. The self-regulatory and market based model of citizenship does not challenge the impact of consumerism or the legitimacy of particular industry types and their products, except where threats are perceived to the longevity of the companies involved. Furthermore, while the exploitation of the environment and society has occurred as a result of corporate self-interest, corporate citizenship is justified on the same basis. The self-interest rationale and the tyranny of the economic bottom line in particular, substantially limit the fields of responsibility that can be included in the citizenship paradigm. While there are undoubtedly some well-intentioned corporate representatives who are working toward attaining a more
sustainable corporate culture, the discourse is primarily used to shift the sustainable development agenda toward corporate paradigms and interests.
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Cahyandito, Martha Fani. "Corporate sustainability reporting a new approach for stakeholder communication." Remagen Kessel, 2004. http://deposit.ddb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?id=2642318&prov=M&dok_var=1&dok_ext=htm.
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Bartlett, Brian D. "The Effect of Corporate Sustainability Reporting on Firm Valuation." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/489.
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The topic of corporate sustainability reporting has seen rapid growth in the past couple of years as more firms are placing a greater emphasis on becoming sustainable. However, the true impact of sustainability reporting on firm value has been widely debated, often due to the nature of the qualitative data in sustainability reports. This thesis uses a normalized sustainability scoring system to examine the effects of sustainability reporting on firm value. In particular, this paper analyzes these effects during the Great Recession to note if there was any change in the effects on a year-by-year basis due to macroeconomic differences. This study finds that not only is superior corporate sustainability reporting positively correlated with increased firm value, but also that the degree of the impact greatly drops during the recession. These findings suggest that sustainability could be an advantageous business tool during stable economic times but not nearly as important in terms of increasing firm value during times of recession. Therefore, the results of this thesis have important practical uses and serve as a basis for analyzing the financial effects of corporate sustainability initiatives as this type of reporting becomes more prevalent in the future.
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Chan, Wai-mun, and 陳慧敏. "Motivation in corporate volunteering and factors affecting its sustainability." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2010. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B45444997.
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Bouvrain, Stanislas, and Darius Sarka. "Compatibility of Corporate Sustainability with a Cost Leadership Strategy." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-120077.
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BACKGROUND Exploring literature about corporate sustainability and cost leadership strategy and to study the collusion of the two concepts through the case of Ikea. AIM Researching whether firms can align corporate sustainability approach to doing business on the imperatives of a cost leadership strategy. The contribution aims to provide guidance on choosing appropriate sustainability activities within the context of cost leadership strategy. Furthermore, it should be noted that this paper sets out to analyze the compatibility between sustainability and cost leadership remaining/gaining competitiveness. METHODOLOGY The study regards Ikea’s implementation of sustainable business practices through a mixed method, via informal interview, bottom-employees survey and secondary data. FINDINGS Companies having a deep understanding of sustainability can achieve to conciliate their efforts toward sustainability with their cost leadership strategy. KEYWORDS Corporate sustainability, cost leadership strategy, triple bottom line, maturity phase, challenges, competitive advantage
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Comyns, Breeda Bernadette. "Corporate sustainability reporting : towards an understanding of reporting quality." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2013. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/5280/.
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Corporate sustainability reporting quality has been criticised as being unbalanced, presenting an overly positive view of the company or failing to address material issues. The purpose of this study is to provide an understanding of sustainability reporting, to observe the evolution of the quality of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reporting and to propose how reporting quality issues may be addressed in future. A theoretical framework is developed which combines the legitimacy and accountability perspectives using Akerlof’s (1970) Market for Lemons theory. Akerlof’s approach is extended by differentiating between three types of information in sustainability reports namely search, experience and credence with each type of information having a different quality. Using this typology, sustainability reports cannot be considered as being of uniform quality but are more likely to be a mixture of qualities. Results of the empirical study shows that GHG reporting quality remains low but steady and has not developed significantly between 1998 and 2010. The study also shows that quality does not evolve in the same way in each quality dimension. This is linked with the search, experience and credence information typology. Factors such as firm size, regulation and reporting according to international guidelines are found to be determinants of GHG reporting quality. While companies do not increase reporting quality in response to media pressure, companies highlighted in the media on the issue of climate change have a higher quantity of reporting. The results support the view that reporting is being used as a legitimising exercise by companies but that regulation of the entire sustainability report may not be necessary to improve quality. Stakeholder pressure and voluntary guidelines will be adequate to improve the quality of search and experience information while regulation or mandatory assurance of reports will be required to improve the quality of credence information.
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Simionato, Enrico <1990>. "Sustainability Reporting and its Impact on Corporate Financial Performance." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/5339.
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Sustainability has been assuming a key role into companies’ and society’s development as a consequence of worldwide economic and market situation: there is instability, caused by market vitality and dynamism, in particular after the recent financial crisis. This overall situation has increased the asymmetry between corporate disclosed information and stakeholders’ informational needs, which cannot be satisfied through the traditional financial statement. For these reasons, especially over the last decade, sustainability reporting has been adopting by more and more companies, also thanks to international organisation work such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) that provides guidelines and standards for a common format of sustainability reporting. The practise to report the economic, social, environmental, and governance information can have a relation or impact on the corporate financial performance and enterprise value, perceived by stakeholders.
In this dissertation, there is an in-depth analysis of sustainability concept, sustainability reporting, in particular related to GRI Guidelines, and an empirical analysis about the relationship between GRI sustainability indices and corporate financial data, utilising a sample of about 45 companies listed in Fortune 500.
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Hussain, Nazim <1985>. "Determinants and consequences of corporate sustainability performance and disclosure." Doctoral thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/8354.
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Since the UN Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in 1972, and following the great resonance of the Bruntland report issuance in 1987, corporate sustainability has climbed the ranking of governance priorities. Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting have become an increasingly relevant topic in business and academia. The body of knowledge about the determinants and outcomes of sustainability reporting has grown in last two decades. Although the relationships between key elements of corporate governance (CG) and the sustainability disclosure is a research question of many studies in recent literature, to the best of our knowledge no major reviews of the developments in this field have so far been presented. Similarly, last three decades have witnessed a huge amount of research trying to establish how company’s sustainability performance (SP) is related with financial performance (FP). Researchers have applied various methods and theoretical frameworks to investigate this relationship but results are still fragmented and competing.
Keeping in view the fragmented results in the domain of corporate sustainability research, in this research I developed three related studies on determinants and consequences of corporate sustainability performance disclosure. In first essay I present a systematic review of 201 outcomes from 49 studies published in business, management, and accounting journals from year 1992 to 2014. Based on the discursive review and analytical results, we recognize the need of theory development to explain the underlying relationship. Findings provide concrete bases for theorizing the underlying relationship and development of a new comprehensive theoretical framework which can provide rationale to explain existing and future empirical evidences.
In second study I empirically examine determinants of the relationship between corporate governance and various dimensions of sustainability performance in the context of dominant theories in CG and CSR nexus. The study is first attempt to quantify the sustainability performance using specific performance criteria. I apply manual content analysis on sustainability reports of US based companies and measure triple bottom sustainability performance. The empirical findings reveal that not all the governance mechanisms are equally important to foster triple bottom line performance of company. The most important implication for practitioners is the support for sustainability practices, which may be gained through implementation of specific mechanisms of corporate governance. Findings of the study intrigue the rethinking process about effectiveness of sustainability performance reporting frameworks.
In third essay, I analyze the relationship between SP measures (Economic, Environmental, and Social) and FP. Data for all SP dimensions are obtained by applying manual content analysis. Differently from existing literature, in this study sustainability disclosure (SD) and SP are considered jointly through a composite index. The compliance of sustainability report with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines ensures a high degree of comparability and quality of information provided by the companies. Results obtained from fixed effect regression models reveal that the economic performance information is not relevant, while the impact of environmental and social dimensions of sustainability remains relevant and significant across different measures of FP. No evidence shows any relation between SP and capital structure. The use of control sample further corroborates the relevance of sustainability dimension to explain changes in FP.
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Zanella, Giorgio <1993>. "Governing Corporate Environmental Sustainability: The case of Speedline S.r.l." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/15513.
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The call for companies’ awareness about environmental problems has been spreading by many international organisations. The main initiatives concern the disclosure of non financial information (for all EU Dir. 95/2014) and in particular of environmental data in order to highlight the related future risks and promoting the use of low emission technologies. This raising consciousness has encouraged governments to play an active role in the mitigation and adaptation of climate change. Companies are ruled at international and national level at the aim of reducing the negative environmental impact of their production activity. Further, good environmental performance indicators may allow companies to improve their brand image and to attract new investors. At corporate level, an internal process of redesign is therefore undergoing toward a green supply chain management suitable with environmental protection. The current thesis aims at investigating such an internal perspective focusing on corporate carbon strategies adopted by a company to reduce carbon emission. Relying on the corporate carbon strategy framework developed by Damert et al. (2017) I investigated the case study of Speedline S.r.l.
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Nyfeler, Judith Katharina. "The Three Pillars of Sustainability : Juxtaposing two Swedish fashion companies and their corporate sustainability concepts." Licentiate thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för mediestudier, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-104093.
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The fashion system has increasingly been imbued by ecology and sustainability. While in the recent years a lot on approaches to more sustainable consumption behaviour from the con- sumers’ side have been suggested, this study focuses on the very practice of how sustainabil- ity - in an applied matter - is realised within a fashion company. In this dissertation, two Swe- dish fashion brands, Nudie Jeans co and Filippa K, are being investigated and analysed due to their brand philosophies and concepts dealing with sustainability. If Nudie Jeans co’s first all- organic denim collection launched in Autumn 2012 or Filippa K’s emphasis to the longevity of clothing by classic shapes and plain colours; both ideas foster a slow fashion movement. One of this thesis’ implications is the fact, that the term sustainability is much more far- reaching and expansive as commonly defined. Also timelessness and tradition could be sus- tainable, if still taking care of environment and society. Finally, concepts of sustainability which are commonly not highlighted shall be identified and fill the yet existing gap.
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Peters, Nils. "Inter-organisational design of voluntary sustainability initiatives increasing the legitimacy of sustainability strategies for supply chains." Wiesbaden Gabler, 2009. http://d-nb.info/998737534/04.
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Campbell, Carolyn M. "Corporate Sustainability and the Recession: Firms' Strategy Response in a Financial Crisis." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2010. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/17.
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As the modern world deals with an increasing number of environmental and social crises, corporate sustainability is becoming ever more imperative for business. There is broad agreement that profit maximization can no longer be the exclusive goal of a company, with firms working to align environmental, social, and financial performance. Companies have demonstrated a wide variety of experiences in regards to the financial crisis and its effects on corporate sustainability. While some firms experienced serious setbacks in achieving environmental and social goals others firms claimed to have been ramping up sustainability efforts during the recession. However, most firms report that their corporate sustainability strategies have not been significantly affected by the recession.
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THOMAZ, JULIA FURTADO. "DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY COMPETENCIES: A RESEARCH OF EBX GROUP AND ITS SUSTAINABILITY PLAN." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2012. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=20500@1.
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Este trabalho teve como objetivo abordar a sustentabilidade empresarial
pelo viés das competências organizacionais e individuais, buscando identificar as
competências necessárias para suportar o Plano de Sustentabilidade do Grupo
EBX, - holding que concentra sua atuação nos setores de infraestrutura e recursos
naturais - sob a visão dos profissionais da empresa, bem como sugerir estratégias
de Recursos Humanos para apoiar o desenvolvimento e/ou manutenção destas
competências. Para tal, foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa, utilizando-se
entrevistas abertas e um questionário fechado com os profissionais da área de
Sustentabilidade. O conteúdo das entrevistas foi categorizado e analisado assim
como os resultados dos questionários para posterior discussão com os
profissionais da área de Recursos Humanos com o objetivo de se estabelecer
ações estratégicas de recursos humanos, englobando a visão desses sujeitos. Como
resultado da pesquisa, foram identificadas competências anteriormente previstas
pela literatura e pelo modelo de competências do Grupo e de seu Plano de
Sustentabilidade, e também, foram identificadas novas competências. Além disso,
foi identificado o papel da área de Recursos Humanos no apoio à formação da
cultura e valores da organização, e identificadas possíveis implicações estratégicas
para a área de Recursos Humanos para o apoio ao desenvolvimento e manutenção
dessas competências, objetivando também um maior alinhamento estratégico
entre as áreas de Recursos Humanos e Sustentabilidade.This research approaches Corporate Sustainability by the individual and organizational competencies perspective. The main objectives were to identify the necessary competencies to support the EBX Group s – holding that focuses its activities in the infra-structure and natural resources sectors - Sustainability Plan, by capacitating the company s employees, as well as suggesting Human Resources strategies to support the development and maintenance of these competencies. For this purpose, a qualitative research was conducted. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and the application of a questionnaire to Sustainability professionals. The content of the interviews was categorized and analyzed as well as the results of the questionnaires, to be use in following discussions with Human Resources professionals, aiming the establishment of Human Resources strategic actions embracing their points of view. As a result, competencies provided by the literature, by the EBX s competencies model and its Sustainability Plan and also new competencies were identified. Furthermore, it was identified the Human Resources role on shaping the organizational culture, values and strategic implications to support sustainability competencies development and maintenance, aiming a greater strategic alignment between Human Resources and Sustainability areas.
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Mohamed, Bibri. "Corporate Sustainability/CSR Communications and Value Creation : A Marketing Approach." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Sektionen för management, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-4173.
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The purpose of this study is to explore the current practices in corporate sustainability/CSR communications and how this trend contributes to corporate value creation. More specifically, this study looks at this subject from the angle of how companies can use corporate sustainability/CSR communications in marketing activities to attain corporate marketing objectives. To achieve the aim of this study, an examination of the current practices in corporate sustainability /CSR communications was performed through a pertinent empirical and theoretical literature review as well as a quantitative and qualitative empirical method using a survey questionnaire. The author attempted, in the same way, to illustrate how corporate sustainability/CSR communications can strengthen corporate reputation and directly enhance financial performance. For theory, two bodies of literature (corporate communications and corporate sustainability) were selected for review in terms of the degree of synergy and integration between them and their implications for this thesis. The key findings from literature review and empirical study showed that the practices of corporate social responsibility communications occurs through CSR, Triple Bottom Line (PPP) or corporate sustainability reporting, stakeholder dialogue on sustainability issues and social and environmental communication programs. Also, the auditing and assurance of CSR reporting is carried out through different measures including internal (i.e. human resources management, CSR and/or PR department) and external (i.e. business partner, consulting or risk management firm) or both measures. It was also found that sustainability has been a part of corporate culture and strategy development for a number of organizations pursuing the sustainability path for decades. Moreover, public relations activity is ranked the most effective in communicating sustainability at corporate level and has the potential to reach a wide spectrum of stakeholder audiences. However, a level of skepticism was noticed among stakeholders towards corporate sustainability/CSR communications. Nonetheless, knowing how stakeholders perceive corporate image and what they expect in return for their support is fundamental in designing effective corporate and marketing communications strategies. Stakeholders’ relations management is the bottom line for success and sustainability of the business and lies at the core of CSR practice and its reporting. Further, the growth of corporate sustainability/CSR communications has reflected the keen interest from all stakeholders; hence, it has become a topic of major importance and also, as it was found, a key factor that experts and planners in the field should capitalize on and watch in competitive marketplaces. Furthermore, having a pro-social and environmental agenda means having a sound corporate and marketing communications strategies that can build a company’s reputational standing and create sustainable competitive advantages. The trend towards injecting sustainability into corporate decisions making and strategy development has come about through what organizations have achieved in terms of value creation pertaining to reputation and financial performance enhancement. The author’s review of the literature makes an advance on extant reviews of the literature by highlighting the importance of corporate sustainability/CSR communications in marketing with respect to corporate value maximization. Overall, this thesis endeavours to present contributions, avenues and departure of journeying for further empirical research and development.+46704352135
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Danielsson, Ellen, and Sara Nordkvist. "Sustainability in Practice : A Qualitative Case Study Exploring the Perceptions of Corporate Managers." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-176489.
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This qualitative case study seeks to explore and understand how managers work with and perceive the sustainability engagement of a large multinational corporation. The analytical framework used was based on the techniques and procedures of grounded theory as described by Corbin and Strauss (2008), following the key concepts of theoretical sampling and constant comparison of findings. The findings of this study show that engaging in sustainability is a complex process where clear targets and communication is perceived to be crucial for the sustainability performance of the corporation. However, if sustainability is driven by business and becomes a natural part of the everyday work of managers it is perceived as profitability work and a ticket to play. By describing the work, stories, and perceptions of managers working in a corporation, the findings of this study can contribute to contemporary research on sustainability that is often normative in its nature, only telling corporations what to do, but not how this can be done and how it can be perceived. This study also helps inform practitioners, managers as other stakeholders, of how a sustainability engagement affects everyday work.
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Lenczuk, Hannah. "From Corporate Greenwashing to Ecopreneurship: Sustainability as a Business Model." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för datavetenskap och kommunikation (CSC), 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-218280.
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Being green has never been as omnipresent as nowadays. Finite resources, growing population, natural resources degradation, and biodiversity loss to name some examples are reasons why major changes towards greener strategies in the economy are needed (Volery, 2015). Although research in the field of sustainable entrepreneurship has increased in the past two decades, no clear definition of ecopreneurship is existing yet. Many different terms are used to describe a similar concept (Gast, Gundolf, and Cesinger, 2017). It is self-explanatory that ecological sustainable entrepreneurship is a subfield of entrepreneurship, but the relation to social entrepreneurship gets blurry. With the help of a systematic literature review and interviews with experts, the question of how ecological sustainable entrepreneurship, which in the following is named ecopreneurship, can be defined as a subfield of entrepreneurship, is answered. The results of the literature review are analyzed with the focus on similarities and differences in definitions and put into context in a concept map to create a new and clearer definition of ecopreneurship. Furthermore interviews with experts in research and the industry are used to verify the newly formed definition and compare the findings in the literature with how researchers and practitioners see the field. Throughout the analysis, the question of how ecopreneurship differentiates from social entrepreneurship, is present. A detailed analysis of the relations between sustainability-related subforms of entrepreneurship brings better insights on how ecopreneurship is linked to social entrepreneurship. In summary defining ecopreneurship is di cult, because some characteristics can be interpreted in many dfferent ways depending on the perspective it is looked at. Findings in the literature are very much in line with how researchers and practitioners see and define the field. Nevertheless, different approaches towards ecopreneurship result in slightly different characteristics of ecopreneurship. This work provides future researchers with a clear defini- tion of what ecopreneurship is and how it is related to concepts like social entrepreneurship, sustainability entrepreneurship and traditional entrepreneurship.
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Pureza, Alvaro, and Siti Mustapha. "Using a Strategic Sustainable Development Approach to Corporate Social Sustainability." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Sektionen för ingenjörsvetenskap, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-3468.
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The awareness of the unsustainable path we are heading and the pressing need to act has been growing for the last few decades. Organisations, in particular corporations, play an important role in the necessary changes and they are increasingly being obliged by a growing range of stakeholders to play a positive part in society as corporate citizens. This has led to the current proliferation of initiatives and standards on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and has created confusion and misunderstanding about what is a strategic corporate responsibility approach. We found that current CSR lacks principles of sustainability and a universal ethical guideline. This paper argues that current CSR can be made strategic by considering a scientifically relevant whole systems approach of sustainability as its fundamental objective. We present some implementation guidelines for CSR based on principles of sustainability and on the universal ethical principle of non-harm. Analysis of selected organisations in Brazil and Malaysia using the proposed guidelines provided recommendations and insights on how these organisations can contribute towards a sustainable society.
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Panagiotakopoulos, Panagiotis D. "A systems and cybernetics approach to corporate sustainability in construction." Thesis, Heriot-Watt University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10399/1126.
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Visser, Wayne Africa Merlin-Tao. "Meaning in the life and work of corporate sustainability managers." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.439851.
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