José Guilherme Ferraz de Campos

Social Learning for Anticipatory Adaptation to Climate Change: Evidence From a Community of Practice:

The literature discussing social learning for Anticipatory Adaptation to Climate Change (AACC) has largely been developed at the societal level of analysis. However, how private companies build resilience and reduce damage to their private goods remains underexplored. Since climate change involves high levels of uncertainty and complexity, companies seeking to proactively adapt to climate change are required to search for specific and nontraditional knowledge. In order to contribute to this discussion, we investigated how a community of practice promotes social learning for AACC. We access the social learning emerging from the community of practice by developing a framework that can also be applied to other complex problems faced by companies. We found evidence of the centrality of social learning for the development of strategies and practices addressing grand corporate challenges, such as AACC. The results contribute to both the literature of social learning and the practice of sustainability management.

Organizational adaptation to climate change: learning to anticipate energy disruptions

Purpose n n n n nThis paper aims to investigate how organizational learning (OL) affects the development of anticipatory adaptation to climate change in companies. Because the need to learn increases in circumstances of greater uncertainty such as the case of climate change, one of the processes that can explain different levels of anticipatory adaptation to climate change (AACC) by companies is OL. n n n n nDesign/methodology/approach n n n n nThe research uses a case study design. Following the procedures of qualitative sampling, an exemplary case of organizational adaptation to climate change in a sector that is extremely affected by the impacts of weather events was chosen. Empirical data collection includes semi-structured interviews and the collection of private and public documents. Such data were analyzed through thematic analysis. n n n n nFindings n n n n nThe process of OL for anticipatory adaptation to climate change presents substantial differences from the traditional OL process presented by the specialized literature. In particular, the concepts of single- and double-loop learning were challenging to fit into the learning processes required for AACC. n n n n nOriginality/value n n n n nOrganizations have historically been working towards the adaption to external unforeseen events, but anticipatory adaptation to climate change presents new challenges and requires new forms of learning. Previous research has examined the interplay between learning and climate change adaptation, especially at the inter-organizational level. By developing research at the organizational level, this paper addresses a gap in the literature and shows that the required learning to adapt to climate change differs from the traditional learning, described in the management literature.