Business Commons^™

Is The Red Dragon Green? An Examination Of The Antecedents And Consequences Of Environmental Proactivity In China, Kent Walker Dr., Na Ni Dr., Weidong Huo

Odette School of Business Publications

China is the world’s second largest economy and the largest emitter of carbon dioxide, yet we know little about environmental proactivity in the most populated country in the world. We address this gap through a survey of 161 Chinese companies with two respondents per firm (N = 322) where we seek to identify the antecedents and consequences of environmental proactivity. We identify two categorizations of environmental proactivity: Environmental operational improvements and environmental reporting. We find that ecological motivations and regulatory stakeholder pressure are positively related to both types of environmental proactivity, and external stakeholder pressure is negatively related to environmental …

Shortcomings Of Investior-Based Ratings Of Corporate Reputation: An Exploratory Empirical Study That Shows A Variety Of Stakeholder Groups Place Greater Emphasis On Corporate Ethics Than Profits., Kent Walker Dr., Bruno Dyck Dr.

Odette School of Business Publications

We examine three assumptions commonly held in the corporate reputation literature: i) reputation ratings of owners and investors are generally representative of all stakeholders; ii) stakeholders will generally provide a higher reputation rating to firms that emphasize corporate social responsibility versus firms that do not; and iii) profitability is the primary criterion of importance to all stakeholders when rating a firm’s reputation. Using an exploratory in-class exercise our findings suggest that: i) there are significant differences among stakeholder groups in their reputation ratings; ii) firms that emphasize corporate social responsibility are not rated more highly across all stakeholder groups, and …

Empirical Archetypes For Strong Corporate Environmental Performance, Kent Walker Dr., Na Ni, Bruno Dyck Dr.

Odette School of Business Publications

We examine 45 existing case studies of firms with strong corporate environmental performance (CEP) to empirically identify four organizational configurations for successful sustainability. These four configurations represent different combinations of variables describing a firm’s external environment, organizational structure, and its strategy-related activities. More specifically, these configurations vary in having a benign or challenging external environment, a mechanistic or organic structure, a low-cost or differentiation strategy, hands-on or hands-off participation by the top-management-team, high or low consideration given to stakeholders, and a short or long-term time orientation. Taken together the four organizational configurations introduce an understanding of equifinality for achieving CEP. …

Sustainability Fellowships: The Potential For Collective Stakeholder Influence, Kent Walker Dr., Andre Laplume

Odette School of Business Publications

Purpose –Given the current ecological state of the planet organizations now need to develop their sustainability to a significantly greater extent and at a faster pace. This paper proposes stakeholder collectives as a means for rapid and comprehensive sustainability, while also examining the moderating influence of firm size and change potential.

Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical analysis leads to the development of multiple propositions. The work concentrates on one research question: How can we bring about rapid and comprehensive organizational sustainability?

Findings – Arguments for the inability of individual stakeholders to drive the level of sustainability now required are presented. Propositions …