Peter S. Hofman

Partnerships: a path to sustainability

The Seventh International Conference of the Greening of Industry Network (GIN), Partnership and Leadership: Building Alliances for a Sustainable Future, was held in Rome on 15-18 November 1998. This special issue of Business Strategy and the Environment reviews the conferences contributions and discussions by presenting three edited papers1 and this introductory essay. The three papers provide provocative perspectives and research findings on the central meta-themes emerging from the conference concerning collaboration and collaborative leadership for sustainability. This essay summarizes some of the significant issues raised by these and other conference papers as they relate to on-going debates and broader perspectives on sustainability and partnerships emerging in GIN and in the literature. Copyright

The impact of perceived corporate social responsibility on organizational commitment and the moderating role of collectivism and masculinity: evidence from China

This study examines the relationship between employee perceptions of corporate social responsibility practices and their organizational commitment. Hierarchical regression analysis was utilized to analyze survey data on 280 employees from five export-oriented manufacturing firms in China. Employee perceptions of corporate social responsibility practices towards internal stakeholders were found to relate positively to their organizational commitment. In contrast, employee perceptions of corporate social responsibility practices to external stakeholders had a nonsignificant or marginally significant impact on organizational commitment. In addition, the collectivism and masculinity orientations of employees were found to moderate this relationship. These findings provide an insight into how corporate social responsibility practices may be utilized to motivate diverse groups of employees within China-based organizations.

Sociotechnical scenarios as a new policy tool to explore system innovations: Co-evolution of technology and society in the Netherland's electricity domain

Summary System innovations are long-term transitions from one sociotechnical system to another. They involve not only changes in technology, but also changes in user practices, regulation, industrial networks, infrastructure, and culture. Current scenario methods are not entirely suited to explore possible system innovations. They lack attention to the co-evolution of technology and society, and to insights from innovation studies and sociology of technology. Hence, we propose a new tool: sociotechnical scenarios. We illustrate the tool with two scenarios in the electricity domain, sketching transition paths to more sustainable systems. We also derive strategic policy recommendations from the two scenarios.

Pollution prevention and industrial transformation; Evoking structural changes within companies

Pollution prevention has developed as an attractive method for improving the environmental performance of companies. Often the concept is promoted in a project format, for instance in a regional perspective or for a specific sector of industry. This article analyzes the contribution of pollution prevention projects to the transformation of industry. Different formats that have been carried out in the Netherlands during the last 8 years are evaluated in terms of direct results (implemented measures and their effects) and long-term effects. The main issue in this article is what contribution pollution prevention has in evoking structural changes towards more sustainable behavior in companies. The general conclusion is that pollution prevention is at least potentially a powerful and interesting concept. The current formats used to promote pollution prevention show some serious deficits, especially in failing to elicit a learning process within participating companies. The trend towards the use of quickscans as a prevention method is worrying in this respect. Some recommendations are given to improve future projects.

Exploring system innovation in the electricity system through sociotechnical scenarios

There is a need for scenario methods specifically designed to explore the complex nature of systems innovation, especially since systems innovations are needed to solve the climate change problem and to deal with the finity of fossil fuels. This paper develops sociotechnical scenarios as a method that can complement existing scenario methods in exploring system innovation. Sociotechnical scenarios are not predictions of the future but can help to design more robust transition oriented policies. They can give insight in the various complex processes at work in systems change, in driving forces and promising combinations of technological, societal and institutional change. The paper illustrates the method by developing three transition pathways and draws policy recommendations for transitions towards low carbon futures based upon these.

Corporate Social Responsibility Under Authoritarian Capitalism Dynamics and Prospects of State-Led and Society-Driven CSR

This article introduces the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the seemingly oxymoronic context of Chinese “authoritarian capitalism.” Following an introduction to the emergence of authoritarian capitalism, the article considers the emergence of CSR in China using Matten and Moon’s framework of explaining CSR development in terms both of a business system’s historic institutions and of the impacts of new institutionalism on corporations arising from societal pressures in their global and national environments. We find two forms of CSR in China, reflecting the “multiplexity” of its business system: one in the mainly family-owned small and medium-sized enterprise sector reflecting concern with local reputation, and another in the corporate, mainly state-owned enterprise (SOE) sector, reflecting global and national societal expectations. We investigate the dynamics of CSR in China through the interplay of the global and national societal pressures and mediating and even leading roles played by the State and the Party. We consider the conceptual integrity and practical prospects for “state-led society-driven” CSR and future research opportunities, including those opened up by the three contributing articles to this special issue.

Environmental collaboration: Potential and limits

Collaborative processes toward sustainability have been receiving increased interest among scholars, policy makers, business practitioners, and other environmental constituents (Hartman et al., 1999). Despite the emergence and acceptance of collaboration within and across a variety of sectors, including government, industry, and the environmental community, little critical research has contributed to our understanding of how effective and appropriate collaboration is as an alternative to traditional ‘command and control,’ protest, or confrontational approaches to environmental protection and sustainability (Harrison, 1999). In a review of collaborative partnerships amongst environmental non-government organisations (NGOs), businesses, and other entities, Murphy and Bendell (1997) claimed: “In most of the partnerships described ... almost no attempt was made to develop systems to evaluate the partnership’s direct contributions to the achievement of environmental goals” (p. 229). In practice, some of the shortcomings resulting from collaboration to address environmental problems have generated harsh criticisms (Currah, 2000).

The Emergence of Sustainable Innovations: Key Factors and Regional Support Structures

This chapter analyses the emergence of sustainable innovations in a selected number of firms and addresses key explanatory factors that contribute to emergence and diffusion of the innovations. The focus is particularly on regional support structures that facilitated the innovation processes, and on gaps between the needs identified within firms’ innovation processes and functions provided by support structures. Ten sustainable innovation processes are analysed to gain insight in the relationship between the nature of the innovation process, the type of needs for firms, and the type of functions provided in regional innovation systems. It is concluded that especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) demand articulation remains a major barrier as users are often only involved when the innovation is ready to enter the market, while regional support functions in this respect are deficient. Moreover, SMEs have major difficulty interpreting and anticipating sustainability policies and regulations at local and national levels, leading to innovations that face major regulatory barriers or are unable to cope with policy changes.

Participation in Southeast Asian Pollution Control Policies

Although public awareness of environmental issues in Southeast Asian countries has increased dramatically during the nineties, there has not been a corresponding rise in the level of participation in environmental decision-making. Public participation often takes places at the end of a decision-making process when citizens can only accept final decisions or protest against them. For environmental policies to be successful, this ‘outsider participation’ will have to be accompanied by more ‘insider participation’ in which citizens can participate throughout the decision-making process. Conditions for insider participation are improving in Southeast Asian countries: there are more legal provisions for participation, and cases of citizen and community involvement in pollution control are emerging. This chapter reviews some of the experiences with participation in environmental issues in Southeast Asia, and a number of cases of participation in pollution control are discussed. The results suggest that participation can improve the performance of pollution control policies. This is promising because traditional pollution control strategies in Southeast Asia are not very effective. However, too much reliance on participation can also encourage highly polluting firms to concentrate in areas where the participatory skills of individuals and communities are less developed.

Governance for Green Electrity: Formation of Rules Between Market and Hierarchy

The introduction and rapid spread of green electricity as a specific product has triggered a sequence of changes in Dutch electricity supply and green electricity trade and even has impacted European energy policy. Triggered by fundamental changes in the electricity sector it led to new governance arrangement for the product green electricity. As initial rules were weakened, in particular the additionality principle, the sustainability impact of the new concept was significantly reduced. Nevertheless, green electricity certificate systems and international trade were enabled by its emergence. The article analyses the process of rule formation around green electricity and explains how the nature of green electricity altered as part of that process.