Sara Walton

Creating Adventures in Wonderland: The Journey Metaphor and Environmental Sustainability

This paper provides a critical exploration of the journey metaphor promoted in much business discourse on sustainability—in corporate reports and advertisements, and in commentaries by business and professional associations. The portrayal of ‘sustainability as a journey’ evokes images of organizational adaptation, learning, progress, and a movement away from business-as-usual practices. The journey metaphor, however, masks the issue of towards what it is that businesses are actually, or even supposedly, moving. It is argued that in constructing ‘sustainability as a journey’, business commentators and other purveyors of corporate rhetoric can avoid becoming embroiled in debates about future desirable and sustainable states of affairs—states of affairs, perhaps, which would question the very raison d’être for some organizations and their outputs. ‘Sustainability as a journey’ invokes a subtle and powerful use of language that appears to seriously engage with elements of the discourse around sustainable development and sustainability, but yet at the same time, paradoxically, may serve to further reinforce business-as-usual.

What motivates ecopreneurs to start businesses

Purpose – Ecopreneurs are those entrepreneurs who start for‐profit businesses with strong underlying green values and who sell green products or services. This is an emerging field where research is still in its infancy. Research has been called for to understand the factors that motivate these ecopreneurs to start businesses – and that is the focus of this study. The aim of this paper is to compare the findings with results of extant literature on entrepreneurial motivations.Design/methodology/approach – This study comprises 14 in‐depth case studies of ecopreneurial companies in New Zealand in 2008. Participants were interviewed in a face‐to‐face, semi‐structured format. In total, 88 secondary sources such as media reports, industry statistics, and information from company web sites were also collected.Findings – Ecopreneurs were motivated by five factors: their green values; earning a living; passion; being their own boss; and seeing a gap in the market. Ecopreneurs appear to have quite similar motivati...

Redefining the Boundaries? Making Sense of Career in Contemporary New Zealand

This paper outlines the results from an exploratory research project into individual perceptions of career in the changing world of work. The aim was to understand how individuals were making sense of and enacting their career. Three organisations, which had all undergone significant change, were used to identify participants whose stories were generated either through qualitative surveys and interviews. From data analysis using the NUD•ist software program, six themes were generated illustrating patterns of ideas running through the data. These themes were then used to address the research aims of investigating current interpretations of career in New Zealand. Overall, it was found that contemporary workplace changes have impacted on career meaning and subjective interpretations of career have been externalised. These conclusions have practical implications for career practitioners, human resources managers and individuals in their own career planning.

Career and learning: the ins and the outs of it

Purpose – Seeks to explore how individuals talk about learning when asked about career.Design/methodology/approach – Brings together three qualitative research studies, based in the UK and New Zealand on how individuals make sense of career; one focused on people in organizational employment and two on “portfolio” workers operating as freelance workers on a variety of contracts with organizations. The debate on the changing nature of careers and the imperative to life‐long learning resonates in the studies and the extent of change that has occurred is questioned.Findings – The findings of the studies suggest that there is less learning activity (in terms of education, training or self‐development activities) being undertaken by these participants than may be expected. While participants generally believe that they should take charge of their own learning and career development, they are less sure what actions to take. Signals from the organization are still an important prompt for learning for those in em...

Encouraging sustainable entrepreneurship in climate-threatened communities: a Samoan case study

South Pacific island states are at the forefront of climatic changes that have precipitated severe environmental events. These small countries also face economic and social challenges that require entrepreneurial solutions. We develop a model of how external factors and chance events impact on sustainable opportunity recognition and exploitation in this context. We assess the efficacy of this model in an in-depth study of Women in Business Development Incorporated, a non-governmental organization that helps women and families in Samoa to establish sustainable enterprises. Our findings make a significant contribution to the emerging literature on entrepreneurship, sustainability and resilience in at-risk communities by showing how key organizational capabilities are necessary for coping with exogenous shocks in this context. The findings have important implications for research, policy and practice.

Site the Mine in Our Backyard! Discursive Strategies of Community Stakeholders in an Environmental Conflict in New Zealand:

This article is centered around a decision to site a mining operation in a conservation area near a small community on the South Island of New Zealand. Two key groups emerged in the dispute over the decision: One was in favor of the mining operation and one was opposed. This intense conflict provided the opportunity to examine the notion of community as stakeholder—a stakeholder group not often considered by researchers. Through interviews and a media analysis, the discursive strategies employed by the various parties to actively support or oppose the decision are identified. In constituting these positions, both groups engage with broader discourses of place and identity and with classic rhetorical themes in business-environmental conflict. However, the identification of an activist community group willing and eager to have the mining operation sited in their local environment is the most unexpected finding in the research.

How green is green? Ecopreneurs balancing environmental concerns and business goals

This articles main research objective is to understand more about ecopreneurs with respect to the way they manage their businesses whilst maintaining their commitment to the environment. We conducted a mail survey in 2011, where 350 questionnaires were sent out to ecopreneurs in New Zealand. This article reports on the results of the 84 survey responses that were received (a 24 per cent response rate). This study outlines the motivations for starting the business, the key green aspects of the product or service that the ecopreneurs produce or sell, as well as the degree of greening of their organisations. We also focus on decision-making practices and growth aspirations of the ecopreneurs. Ecopreneurs prioritise the environment over profits whenever practical, and are conscious of doing the best they can to lessen their impact on the environment. Ecopreneurs may offer a win-win scenario for the economy and the environment, as well as enabling the ecopreneurs themselves to fulfil their own personal goals. Ecopreneurs are therefore able to incrementally improve the environment within their own companies, and with their products and services they have the ability to educate a wide audience on the benefits of protecting our environment.

Tempered radicals! Ecopreneurs as change agents for sustainability – an exploratory study

Ecopreneurs (as a subset of social entrepreneurs) are often posited as change agents – champions for sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to study the role of ecopreneurs or environmental entrepreneurs as green change agents. Specifically, this paper examines how they bring about change through running their businesses. A qualitative, interpretative approach was adopted and interviews conducted with 17 ecopreneurs in 14 companies in New Zealand. Two key aspects of practice emerged; commitment to the environment and the redefining of growth. We discuss each of these and suggest that ecopreneurs act as ‘tempered radicals’. They have values congruent with radical change for sustainability but they enact a tempered path – they operate a viable business based on current business realities (BAU). Nonetheless they have potential to be key players moving towards low carbon and green economies.

Environmental entrepreneurs facilitating change toward sustainability: a case study of the wine industry in New Zealand

This research explores the roles and strategies of environmental entrepreneurs in fostering wider change within their sociotechnical system, employing a qualitative case study in the context of the New Zealand wine industry to provide illustrative depth. A combination of strategic niche management and evolutionary theory of organizational change is used to explain the findings, focusing on the three key aspects of learning, networking, and articulation taking place at niche level. The research proposes that while environmental entrepreneurs facilitate processes of change through their actions, they are strongly influenced by broader business environment factors such as financial pressures and acceptance of their philosophies among the wider population; as a consequence, their actions indicate role shifts between being proactive, influential actors and reactive, self-centered players.

Engaging with a Laclau & Mouffe informed discourse analysis: a proposed framework

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an analytical method through which a political analysis of intra and inter-organizational conflicts may be conducted. Design/methodology/approach – The iterative method of data analysis the paper presents is based on a consolidation of work using Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory across both management and organization and social science disciplinary domains. Findings – While the politically orientated discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe has begun to be used by management and organization researchers, little guidance is available for how to actually conduct the analysis of data using this discourse approach. The method the paper proposes involves making explicit an analytical process for reading available textual data. Originality/value – The value of this paper is primarily for management and organization researchers who are attracted to discourse theory but feel intimidated or confused about how to operationalize this theory into data analytic practice.