Johanne Grosvold

Squaring the circle: Management, measurement and performance of sustainability in supply chains

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationships between management, measurement and performance of sustainability in supply chains. The authors develop a framework which explores these links through decoupling as articulated by the institutional theory. They draw on a conceptual continuum of reactive-proactive sustainable supply chain practices and identify clusters of companies along these dimensions and evaluate the theoretical and managerial implications of this for sustainability performance. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses primary and secondary datasets from 12 inductive, multiple case studies across different industries. This method ensures that we are better able to encapsulate a broader and more diverse set of practices and settings which in turn adds robustness to the theory we induced from our findings. Findings – The authors find varying degrees of alignment between management practices and measurement systems of sustainable supply chains. Some firms better al...

National institutional systems as antecedents of female board representation : an empirical study

Manuscript Type: Empirical. Research Question/Issue: How are national institutional systems related to the proportion of women found on corporate boards of directors of companies listed in particular countries? Which particular types of national institutions play the most important role? We explore cross-country variation in the pattern of female representation on corporate boards and evaluate the extent to which it is associated with the nature of national institutional systems as captured in five frameworks each of which emphasizes the importance of a distinct type of national institutions. Our analysis includes 38 countries and covers the years 2001-07. Research Findings/Insights: Our findings show that as much as half of the variation in the presence of women on corporate boards across countries is attributable to national institutional systems and that culturally and legally-oriented institutional systems appear to play the most significant role in shaping board diversity. Theoretical/Academic Implications: Our study suggests that country-level institutions, previously neglected in studies of board diversity, play an important role in shaping the prevalence of women on corporate boards and that these need to be more fully incorporated in future research on board diversity. Practitioner/Policy Implications: The importance of national institutional systems for board diversity suggests that policy levers of a regulatory nature and national cultural characteristics are important elements in driving corporate board diversity and offer distinct opportunities for tailoring a mix of corporate governance interventions that suit the particular institutional nature of a given country.

Reputational risks and sustainable supply chain management: Decision making under bounded rationality

Purpose – This paper aims to apply the logic of bounded rationality to corporate reputation management and explores how constraints posed by bounded rationality impact on firms’ implementation of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). Design/methodology/approach – This study draws on primary and secondary data from 12 UK-based companies. The authors conducted 17 semi-structured interviews and analysed the data through an inductive methodology. Findings – Reputational risk exposure is a central driver in a companys decision to implement SSCM practices. However, managers face bounded rationality, in particular: conflicting priorities; capabilities and resources; commitment; and contextual setting, which in turn, means that companies do what they can to safeguard their reputation, but balance the extent to which they implement SSCM and the cost of doing so against the likelihood of exposure. Practical implications – By engaging in collaborative relationships with their supply chain partners, focal firm...

Board Diversity in the United Kingdom and Norway: An Exploratory Analysis

This paper examines the evolving pattern of gender diversity of the boards of directors of leading Norwegian and British companies on a longitudinal basis. The period covered by the study covers the run up to proposed affirmative action legislation in Norway and, as such, affords an insight into corporate actions in this emerging institutional context. The findings demonstrate that, while board diversity has grown substantially in both countries in recent years, it has done so considerably more rapidly in Norway than in the United Kingdom. The analysis highlights the sectoral variation between the countries in the pattern and growth of board diversity and suggests that the vast majority of the overall growth in board diversity is the result of changing firm behaviour rather than sectoral shift in the United Kingdom or Norwegian economies. It is also shown that as diversity has increased there has been no fall in how experienced female directors are; neither is there evidence of a rise in the number of boards that female directors sit on. This suggests that the rapid growth in board diversity has been achieved without any fall in the quality of female directors.

Socially responsible supply chains:Power asymmetries and joint dependence

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to analyse the role of relational power/dependent asymmetries and symmetries in shaping socially responsible supply chain management, whilst also examining how these issues are moderated by geographical distance between buyer and supplier.Design/methodology/approach – The study draws on data from 339 buyer‐supplier relationships, and the authors use a set of regression models to test their hypotheses.Findings – Joint dependency positively influences socially responsible supply chain management, whilst supplier power constrains it. Both joint dependency and buyer power become increasingly important determinants of socially responsible supply chain management as geographic distance increases.Research limitations/implications – Further work is needed to examine the conditions under which organisations will exercise their power advantage or their joint dependence position to improve socially responsible processes in the supply chain, as there may be situations where the ...

Where Are All the Women? Institutional Context and the Prevalence of Women on the Corporate Board of Directors

This dissertation abstract and the reflection commentary present the work of Dr. Johanne Grosvold. The dissertation addresses the influence of institutional context on the prevalence of women on corporate boards of directors. The dissertation abstract explains the research questions, setting, and methods.The reflection commentary discusses the author’s views of research process as a junior scholar.

Women on corporate boards:a comparative institutional analysis

How do a country’s basic institutions enable or hinder women’s rise to the boards of public companies? The study evaluates this question with reference to the five basic institutions that research suggests are common across all countries: family, education, economy, government, and religion. The study draws on a sample, which consists of 23 countries, and the study is framed in neo-institutional theory. In analyzing the role of these institutions, the article seeks to understand better the relationships between specific institutions and the share of board seats held by women. The results suggest that four of the five basic institutions are related to the share of board seats women hold. Family, education, economy, and government influence women’s rise to the board; however, religion does not influence women’s rise to the corporate board of directors.

Management Models and Priorities in Member Associations Is Credit Unions’ Community Involvement Crowded-Out?

Credit unions are membership-based cooperative financial services organizations that are run by and for their members. Historically, credit unions provided financial services for their members and encouraged community development through philanthropy and volunteering. The World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), the sector’s global trade association and development agency, encourages the adoption of a management model, coined “new model,” which encourages for-profit financial management practices. The “new model” approach is challenged by some practitioners and academics concerned that it will diminish the community involvement of credit unions. We explore the following research question: “Does the implementation of a management model that promotes for-profit-style financial management crowd out the community impact of credit unions?” We use a dataset extracted from 2,275 annual returns for 188 credit unions spanning 1996-2008, and find no evidence that community impact diminishes as a result of “new model” operating practices, suggesting a crowding-out effect is absent.

Drivers of sustainability talk-action inconsistency: organizational hypocrisy at business schools (WITHDRAWN)

This paper develops a multi-level view of an unplanned kind of organizational hypocrisy, which is an emergent rather than deliberate strategy. By studying MBA programmes at UK business schools which have ‘talk’ that indicates a commitment to sustainability and which have taken strategic ‘decisions’ to implement, this study finds examples of both inconsistent and consistent ‘action’ and empirical support to confirm organizational hypocrisy as an outcome in the sector, despite intentions to be consistent. Using fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) this paper identifies multiple factors across multiple levels that combine to explain this kind of organizational hypocrisy, where factors at the lowest level of analysis are key and always play a part in our explanations of causality. A further finding that prestigious business schools are linked with hypocrisy regarding sustainability, and yet continue to prosper, allows us to develop the notion of organizational hypocrisy as something which is var...

Unintended Decoupling:The Role of Internal Conditions in Explaining Policy-Practice Misalignment

Since intentional decoupling as a deliberate strategic decision has become a less palatable choice for managers, given the wider disapproval it may attract if exposed, what is increasingly relevant is unintended decoupling. However, unintended decoupling has not been a focus of previous scholarly work. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the role of internal organizational conditions in explaining unintended decoupling. We interviewed MBA programme directors at 23 UK business schools intending to implement their explicit organizational commitments to sustainability in practice, to determine the internal conditions associated with tight coupling or unintended decoupling. Analysis of this primary data with fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) enabled us to identify the most important internal conditions and combinations of conditions that explain unintended decoupling. Agency in the form of capability and structure in the form of a strong unit identity together provide a strong organiza...