Anja Schaefer

Addressing Sustainability and Consumption

This article examines issues of sustainability in relation to consumption. The authors first discuss the notion of sustainable consumption and the link between individual consumer behavior and the macroconcerns of understanding and influencing aggregate consumption levels. The authors then reflect on the differing perspectives on whether consumption patterns are in need of adjustment. In the main part of the article, the authors then explore the issue of sustainable consumption through the lens of two broadly differing conceptualizations of consumption itself, discussing four main questions for each of these conceptualizations: (1) How is this view of consumption linked to prevalent current understandings of sustainable consumption? (2) How would sustainability be achieved following this perspective on consumption? (3) To whom would this view of sustainable consumption appeal or not appeal? and (4) What would the roles and responsibilities of different social actors be in achieving sustainability following this view of consumption?

Consumer knowledge and country of origin effects

Consumer knowledge has frequently been mentioned in the literature as a potential mediating factor in consumers’ use of country of origin as a product information cue. However, there is little agreement on the appropriate definition and measurement of consumer knowledge in this context, nor on the likely direction of its impact. Reports of empirical findings concerning the issue are even scarcer. Looks at various dimensions of consumer knowledge and how they impact on consumers’ use of the country of origin cue in evaluations of alcoholic beverages. Finds that neither brand familiarity nor objective or subjective product knowledge has a general main effect on consumers’ use of the country of origin cue but there are significant interaction effects. Shows that objective product class knowledge can, under certain circumstances, increase consumers’ reliance on country of origin when evaluating products with unfamiliar brand names but not with familiar brand names.

Contrasting Institutional and Performance Accounts of Environmental Management Systems: Three Case Studies in the UK Water & Sewerage Industry

This paper presents results from a longitudinal, qualitative study into the adoption of environmental management systems (EMS) in three companies in the UK water & sewerage industry. Based on institutional theory and the literature on EMS, four factors related to the adoption of EMS are identified: external and internal institutional forces, environmental performance issues, and economic performance issues. While previous literature has often assumed a balance of performance and institutional factors or a preponderance of performance factors, the results of this study indicate that institutional forces are the predominant drivers. The results further indicate that environmental performance issues become less important over time, whereas institutional drivers and economic performance rationales increase in importance over time. While conforming to institutional pressures can result in improved economic performance of a company, adoption of environmental management systems mostly on the basis of institutional and economic factors has wider repercussions for the state of corporate environmental management and progress towards greater ecological sustainability of business.

Stage models of corporate 'greening': a critical evaluation

Corporate ‘greening’, i.e. the process by which companies can become more environmentally responsible in their operations, has attracted considerable interest lately. Largely born out of hands-on consultancy experience, various models have been proposed which describe a series of ‘stages’ by which companies become progressively more environmentally conscious and reduce their impact on the natural environment. The present article critically analyses some of these ‘stage’ models of corporate ‘greening’ from both an empirical and a management theoretical point of view. The empirical analysis is based on four case studies of the ‘greening’ efforts of companies in the UK water and electricity industries. Environmental strategy and management in these companies is found to fit poorly into the stage models of corporate ‘greening’. The article concludes that more comprehensive and interpretative explanations of organizational ‘greening’ are needed, including contextual and process oriented analysis.

Framing the Good Citizen

This article interrogates the norms of good citizenship invoked in and across different social domains, using the example of citizenship education in the UK as one field in which good citizenship is constituted. It is possible to make visible the political struggle inherent in the mechanisms of framing the good citizen by unpacking the differences between citizenship as acts, status and virtues. This is a necessary step in assessing good citizenship claims in the absence of moral and political absolutes. We deploy a two-tiered account of Butlers theory of performativity to examine how ordinary citizenship acts are preceded by elite rhetorical framing. We conclude that citizenship, like democracy, is always enacted in particular contexts in which positioning, method and motives play an important part.

Environmental knowledge and the adoption of ready-made environmental management solutions

In this article we study organizational learning with respect to environmental management or corporate greening in six UK water and electricity utilities, concentrating on information acquisition and dissemination. We find that companies make use of a variety of information acquisition strategies, including learning from experience, e.g. environmental incidents leading to prosecution; learning by observing other organizations (bench-marking); by importing environmental knowledge through outside experts and management systems and by building up an information searching and collecting system. Environmental managers play a heavy role in acquiring and disseminating information. We feel that, while organizations try to rationalize environmental learning and make it as efficient as possible, a lack of redundancy of information, heavy reliance on a limited number of outside sources of expertise and the use of environmental management systems may also bring with it the danger of institutionalizing environmental management and closing environmental questions prematurely.

Introduction to Social and Sustainable Enterprise: Changing the Nature of Business

Around the world, people are confronted by a variety of complex and pervasive environmental, social and economic challenges. In many cases, including anthropogenic climate change, resource depletion, financial system disruption and poverty, there has been an increasing recognition that ‘wicked problems’ require entirely new ways of thinking, and that the solutions are unlikely to be found by governments, businesses or civil society actors operating in isolation. In parallel with these developments, many observers have commented on a growing interest in various forms of social entrepreneurship and in new models of enterprise that seek alternative ways of delivering products and services, while also securing the ‘triple bottom line’ of social, environmental and economic sustainability. This volume draws together a selection of contemporary entrepreneurship research studies that explore different aspects of this phenomenon. Our original call for papers was based around the themes addressed in one of ISBEs longstanding annual conference tracks. It attracted some strong submissions from within and beyond the ISBE research community. The editors reviewed papers relating to social and sustainable entrepreneurship, the environmental impacts of enterprise, and ethics and social responsibility in enterprise.

Understanding value conflict to engage SME managers with business greening

The objective of this chapter is to contribute to the understanding of why SME managers engage with business greening. Ethical tensions are understood through use of the Schwartz Value System. The starting assumption is that the business framing of the environment, to save money and save the planet (win-win), is not value free but instead draws on conflicting values of power and universalism. The empirical research for this chapter engaged 31 SME managers in semi-structured interviews from a variety of business sectors within the East of England. The results showed that ‘power’ values are not the only way of filtering and constructing business greening. Managers were found to be drawing on the full range of values with marker values linked with ‘achievement’, particularly clear. It is concluded that manager values, especially within SMEs, are key to understanding the interplay of motivations for engaging with business greening. The ‘win-win’ concept needs to evolve to take managers beyond quick financial savings. It is argued that one way to do that may be to reframe environmental issues for business to stimulate values other than power. Practitioner work, in partnership with Bedfordshire Green Business Network (GBN), reports the usefulness of such approaches.

Understanding the drivers of sustainable entrepreneurial practices in Pakistan’s leather industry: A multi-level approach

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the drivers of sustainable entrepreneurial practices in SMEs operating in a developing economy. The secondary objectives are to explore the relationship between these drivers and to draw out the implications for policy and practice. Design/methodology/approach The paper is informed by the literature on sustainable entrepreneurship, and on the drivers of pro-environmental practices in SMEs. It reports on the results of an intensive multi-level empirical study, which investigates the environmental practices of SMEs in Pakistan’s leatherworking industry using a multiple case study design and grounded analysis, which draws on relevant institutional theory. Findings The study identifies that coercive, normative and mimetic isomorphic pressures simultaneously drive sustainable entrepreneurial activity in the majority of sample SMEs. These pressures are exerted by specific micro-, meso- and macro-level factors, ranging from international customers’ requirements to individual-level values of owners and managers. It also reveals the catalytic effect of the educational and awareness-raising activities of intermediary organisations, in tandem with the attraction of competitiveness gains, (international) environmental regulations, industrial dynamism and reputational factors. Practical implications The evidence suggests that, in countries where formal institutional mechanisms have less of an impact, intermediary organisations can perform a proto-institutional role that helps to overcome pre-existing barriers to environmental improvement by sparking sustainable entrepreneurial activity in SME populations. Originality/value The findings imply that the drivers of sustainable entrepreneurial activity do not operate in a “piecemeal” fashion, but that particular factors mediate the emergence and development of other sustainability drivers. This paper provides new insights into sustainable entrepreneurship and motivations for environmental practices in an under-researched developing economy context.

Making ‘greener’ connections: An introduction to the Special Issue

This Special Issue of the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (‘Green innovation’ – connecting governance, practices and outcomes) brings together a set of papers that focus on social and technological innovations designed to address the environmental sustainability challenges that we face today. Several contributions were first presented as part of the Economic and Social Research Council seminar series, ‘Green Innovation: Making it Work’, which took place between 2015 and 2017.1 Co-organized by Nottingham Trent University and The Open University, the series examined many types of pro-environmental innovation, with a particular focus on the factors that constrain and enable their practical implementation. The choice of the broad and populist term ‘green innovation’ (Schiederig et al., 2012), rather than more specific terms like ‘eco-innovation’ or ‘environmental innovation’, was quite deliberate and intended to signal the intention to create a forum for the interchange of ideas and research findings between academics with sustainability-related research interests, and sustainability practitioners drawn from the private, public and voluntary sectors. Practitioner engagement and participation was a prominent feature of the series, reflecting a desire to maximize the impact of the seminars outside academia. We were fortunate not merely to have practitioners attend the seminars, but to include papers from a number of them during the course of the series. Among the practitioners who gave papers during the course of the series were a Principal Administrator from the Energy Directorate of the European Commission, a transport consultant, a local authority transport planner, a property developer and a representative of a leading European train manufacturer. The Special Issue includes an article based on one of these practitioner-led presentations, while other seminar contributions have informed its overall shape and focus.