Handbook of Sustainability-Driven Business Strategies in Practice

‘Addressing the grand challenges of our time will require collaborative efforts across organizational and disciplinary boundaries. Sustainability is arguably one of the major challenges that has received attention for quite some time but for which progress is also hampered due to limited perspectives on both problems and solutions. Luckily, this book offers a step in the right direction as it not only bridges sustainability and business strategies—in itself a major factor for actually achieving change—but it also does so by drawing on different disciplines. By offering a basis for comparing and contrasting different domains and perspectives, this book helps to better understand the complexity of the underlying problem and thereby also contributes to research and practice.’
– Marcel Bogers, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands

‘I strongly recommend the Handbook of Sustainability-Driven Business Strategies in Practice as an essential reading for all stakeholders in the sustainability ecosystem, wishing to make concrete and practical efforts in driving sustainable business in the real world. The challenge in sustainability is always moving beyond rhetoric to actual practice and implementation, and this Handbook can provide useful tips and strategies to push for more progress and make our world a better place.’
– Dima Jamali, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

‘Sustainability is high on the corporate and public agenda but developing and implementing strategies for sustainability often remains challenging. In this edited volume, Markovic, Sancha, and Lindgreen bring together a rich collection of chapters examining sustainability-driven business strategies from a holistic perspective. Considering sustainability strategies across the main functional business areas, the different chapters offer an inspiring set of ideas and experiences that can guide both research and practice on this important theme.’
– Frank de Bakker, IESEG School of Management, France

‘Sustainability has quickly become a key business imperative in contemporary markets. Stefan Markovic, Cristina Sancha, and Adam Lindgreen have edited a timely Handbook that covers the perspectives of versatile business domains and functions in a comprehensive manner, and offers rich insight for developing and researching sustainability-driven business strategies. This book is useful for anyone seeking to understand how businesses can realize opportunities for differentiation, renewal, and enhanced value creation through sustainability.’
– Elina Jaakkola, University of Turku, Finland

‘Professors Markovic, Sancha, and Lindgreen have compiled in a single Handbook a great set of actionable ideas on how to design and deploy sustainability strategies across a variety of organizations, industries, and countries. What is most appealing is that the Handbook moves beyond corporate strategy and takes the reader to how corporate strategies get applied across each of the key functional areas such as marketing, finance, and HR, with a closing section discussing specific cases to further illustrate sustainability-driven business strategies in action.’
– Ruth V. Aguilera, Northeastern University, US

‘Sustainability is today’s leading business imperative. For the sake of our planet and humanity, businesses must find effective, profitable ways to assure a future for our natural environment, while providing safe, meaningful work that allows employees to live and prosper. Sustainability efforts cannot simply address pieces of business—they must permeate all operations. This book offers a comprehensive approach to sustainability, addressing all functional areas, including marketing, human resources, operations, accounting, finance, and more. It also covers all facets of sustainability, including people, planet, and profit. This thorough coverage is followed by several practical case studies to demonstrate sustainability efforts in action. This book offers business practitioners and academics a comprehensive approach to meaningful, viable sustainability efforts.’
– Debra Z. Basil, University of Lethbridge, Canada

‘This well-structured Handbook edited by Stefan Markovic, Cristina Sancha, and Adam Lindgreen is an important step forward in our understanding of sustainability-driven business strategies. Sustainability is one of the most critical issues of the 21st century for businesses and societies. The Handbook begins with definitional materials and ends with selected case studies. The sections in between address sustainability in various functions of business: marketing, innovation and entrepreneurship, operations and information systems, finance and accounting, human resources, and also cross-functional integration. Both researchers and practitioners will find lots of new insights and recommendations concerning sustainability-driven business strategies.’
– Duane Windsor, Rice University, US

‘Addressing sustainability issues is one of the key mission of enterprises in the coming decades. This book provides insights and tools to assist managers to develop and execute business strategies in key functions of organizations, including marketing, innovation, operations, finance, and human resources management. The Handbook of Sustainability-Driven Business Strategies in Practice offers not only information, but also inspiration for everyone who wants to gain insights into sustainability practices.’
– Christina Wong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

‘Sustainability has become a strategic imperative of today''s businesses. Accompanied by a cast of international academics, Professors Markovic, Sancha and Lindgreen lead you on a comprehensive journey through the essential areas of management, brilliantly addressing the strategic role of sustainability. This content oriented to practice together with the case studies that illustrate previous concepts, make the Handbook of Sustainability-Driven Business Strategies in Practice a reference and inspiration resource for all those who want to understand the strategic role of sustainability.’
– Leopoldo Gutierrez, University of Granada, Spain

Contributors: Pilar Acosta, Armando Agulini, Michael Antioco, Selena Aureli, Melek Akin Ateş, Nüfer Yasin Ateş, David M. Boje, Federico Caniato, Rosalía Cascón-Pereira, Siriwan Chaisurayakarn, David Coldwell, Susana Costa e Silva, Mara Del Baldo, Rasmus Downes-Rasmussen, Andreas Dutzi, David B. Grant, Ilia Gugenishvili, Sreyaa Guha, David Harness, Roberto Hernandez-Chea, Ana Beatriz Hernández-Lara, Oriol Iglesias, Nicholas Ind, Thomas E. Johnsen, Slobodan Kacanski, Nikolina Koporcic, Polina Landgraf, Verónica León-Bravo, Adam Lindgreen, Joan Llonch Andreu, Rosa Lombardi, Pilar López Belbeze, Joana César Machado, Tahereh Maghsoudi, Maral Mahdad, François Maon, Toloue Miandar, Milena Micevski, Andrew Ngawenja Mzembe, Giorgia Nigri, Inês Padilha Campelos, Yuqian Qiu, Mohammad B. Rana, Miguel Saiz García, Marija Sarafinovska, Julian Schröter, Sophia Schwoy, Natalia Semenova, Sarah Shaw, Alex Nikolai Shenin, Kristian J. Sund, Valérie Swaen, Ilona Szöcs, Minh Thai, Karin Tollin, Jan-Åke Törnroos, Remi van der Sloot, Robert Venter, Francisco Villegas Pinuer, Duane Windsor, Eshari Withanage

Contents:

Preface xxxiii

PART 1 DEFINING A SUSTAINABILITY-DRIVEN BUSINESS STRATEGY
1 Developing a sustainability strategic agenda 3
François Maon, Adam Lindgreen and Valérie Swaen
2 Corporate foundations as vehicles for sustainable development: how do
corporate foundations work with parent companies to achieve sustainability? 18
Pilar Acosta
3 Materiality analysis as the basis for sustainability strategies and
reporting – a systematic review of approaches and recommendations for
practice 35
Sophia Schwoy and Andreas Dutzi
4 Defining a sustainability-driven business modeling strategy with a
“storytelling science” approach 59
David M. Boje and Mohammad B. Rana

PART 2 SUSTAINABILITY-DRIVEN BUSINESS STRATEGIES IN
MARKETING
5 Corporate responsibility as an effective marketing practice for
improving consumers’ brand evaluations – critical overview, new
insights, and future directions 79
Ilona Szőcs and Milena Micevski
6 Promises, promises: how to showcase the authenticity of sustainability
claims through digitalization 94
Nicholas Ind and Oriol Iglesias
7 Interactive network branding: towards a sustainability-driven strategy
of small and medium-sized enterprises 108
Nikolina Koporcic and Jan-Åke Törnroos
8 How does brand-cause fit influence the success of CrM campaigns? 121
Inês Padilha Campelos, Susana Costa e Silva and Joana César Machado

PART 3 SUSTAINABILITY-DRIVEN BUSINESS STRATEGIES IN
INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
9 Business model innovation for sustainability: the intersections among
business models, innovation, and sustainability 144
Stefan Markovic and Karin Tollin
10 Social challenges within sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems 158
Roberto Hernandez-Chea, Maral Mahdad and Minh Thai
11 The UN Global Compact SDG Action Manager: how benefit
corporations and purpose-driven businesses are driving the change 173
Giorgia Nigri, Armando Agulini and Mara Del Baldo

PART 4 SUSTAINABILITY-DRIVEN BUSINESS STRATEGIES IN
OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
12 SMEs, environmental sustainability and waste management:
a comparative empirical study of Spain and Chile 191
Francisco Villegas Pinuer, Joan Llonch Andreu and Pilar López Belbeze
13 Adoption of environmental management systems: perspectives from
UK, Finland and Thailand 226
David B. Grant, Sarah Shaw, Siriwan Chaisurayakarn and Alex Nikolai Shenin
14 The role of purchasing in the diffusion of sustainability in supply networks 244
Thomas E. Johnsen, Federico Caniato and Toloue Miandar
15 Sustainability assessment in the food supply chain 260
Verónica León-Bravo and Federico Caniato
16 Sustainable data management 278
Sreyaa Guha and Polina Landgraf

PART 5 SUSTAINABILITY-DRIVEN BUSINESS STRATEGIES IN
FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING
17 Do CSR reports impact firms’ stock returns? A pilot study analysis 304
Andreas Dutzi, Julian Schröter and Eshari Withanage
18 An analysis of business actions in private social reporting 323
Natalia Semenova
19 How environment, social and governance scores impact company
financial performance indicators: evidence from Denmark 338
Slobodan Kacanski
20 The role of the internal audit function in fostering sustainability reporting 352
Mara Del Baldo, Selena Aureli and Rosa Lombardi

PART 6 SUSTAINABILITY-DRIVEN BUSINESS STRATEGIES IN
HUMAN RESOURCES
21 Sustainability-driven HRM: the WHAT, the WHAT FOR and the HOW 371
Rosalía Cascón-Pereira, Tahereh Maghsoudi and Ana Beatriz Hernández-Lara
22 The role of human resource management function in the
institutionalization of sustainability: the case study of the Dutch hotel industry 392
Andrew Ngawenja Mzembe
23 Profits with purpose: corporate and entrepreneurial toxic leadership and
threats to organizational sustainability 413
David Coldwell and Robert Venter

PART 7 SUSTAINABILITY-DRIVEN BUSINESS STRATEGIES
ACROSS FUNCTIONAL AREAS IN AN ORGANIZATION
24 Cross-functional integration in sustainability-driven business practice 432
Duane Windsor
25 Strategic alignment of purchasing for sustainability: a multi-level framework 454
Melek Akın Ateş and Nüfer Yasin Ateş
26 Purchasing and marketing of social and environmental sustainability in
high-tech medical equipment 477
Adam Lindgreen, Michael Antioco, David Harness and Remi van der Sloot

PART 8 CASE STUDIES ON SUSTAINABILITY-DRIVEN
BUSINESS STRATEGIES
27 Ecoalf: a brand with a conscience 497
Nicholas Ind
28 Sustainability as strategy: the case of Comwell Hotels 503
Kristian J. Sund and Rasmus Downes-Rasmussen
29 Boat trip adventure changing the lives of thousands: the story of Song
Saa Private Island 507
Ilia Gugenishvili and Nikolina Koporcic
30 Doing business the sustainable ‘Novo Nordisk Way’ 514
Marija Sarafinovska and Yuqian Qiu
31 Sustainability in the chemical industry through an industrial spin-off:
the case of Apricot 523
Miguel Saiz García

Index 527