Business Commons^™

Feeling The Heat: Climate Change Is Becoming A Big Factor In Business Decision-Making, Risk Assessment, Candace Beeke, Sahan Dissanayake, Jennifer Price, Moss Adams

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Portland Business Journal Publisher and President Candace Beeke spoke recently with PSU’s Sahan Dissanayake and Jennifer Price, with Moss Adams, about the direct and indirect effects of climate change on business, along with the physical impacts and economic hazards. Here are their insights.

A Solution For Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Compostable Consumption Across Industries, Prithvi Chauhan

University Honors Theses

This thesis paper addresses the potentials of a business model for promoting compostable alternatives to single-use plastic products. This thesis paper also proposes a survey to collect data from businesses in Portland, OR to forecast the potential impacts of integrating such a business model. Impacts of this business model for compostable products are hypothesized as best-case, mid-case, and worst-case scenarios of integration within Portland’s total market potential. Impacts will also be assessed along the triple bottom line. The triple bottom line is an accounting framework used in sustainable entrepreneurship to measure impact along environmental, social, and economic standards. First, in …

Emerging Discourse Incubator: The Roles Of Institutional Complexity And Hybridity In Social Impact Supply Chain Management, Madeleine E. Pullman, Annachiara Longoni, Davide Luzzini

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Supply chain research and practice has moved beyond green or environmental issues to include social issues. But much of the focus still remains on attempts of large companies to reduce social harm along their supply chains rather than creating social good. At the same time, research investigating the role of NGOs in supply chains or humanitarian logistics often emphasizes temporary initiatives and overlooks long term viability. This conceptual paper seeks to expand the playing field by looking at how social enterprises manage their supply chains to generate social benefit while maintaining or improving their financial viability in the long term. …

Green Index: Integration Of Environmental Performance, Green Innovativeness And Financial Performance, Ilknur Mary Joy Nirmala Tekin

Dissertations and Theses

The integration of sustainability performance of companies is becoming increasingly important. The recent global requirements (i.e. the Kyoto Protocol) for significant reduction of the negative impact of companies on the environment over the next 6 years have been putting pressure on the companies, requiring them to lower the negative environmental impact of market performance. This requirement challenges the profitable growth of the companies' business functions, given the change needed for business operations to improve on their environmental impact.

In this dissertation a new corporate sustainability performance index, called: The Green Index, for measuring and assessing the integrated sustainability performance of …

Ethics-In-Action: An Application Of Structuration Theory In Professional Service Firms, Jesse F. Dillard, Kristi Jane Yuthas

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

A theoretical base for studying ethics in action is developed. In previous work, we propose a responsibility ethic, normative stakeholder theory, and discourse ethics as components of ethical decision making within organizational contexts. Here, we argue that structuration theory provides theoretical depth and conceptual integration to the ideas presented in our earlier work. The previous work is briefly discussed and structuration theory is reviewed. Ethically informed action is formulated within the context of structuration theory as a consideration and instantiation of structural features. Ethical action is predicated on the agent’s accountability within the context of an ongoing community. Accountability requires …

Governance, Media And The Quality Of Environmental Disclosure, Kathleen Rupley, Darrell Brown, Scott Marshall

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Given the rising emphasis on environmental disclosures and the expressed importance of 'good' governance in determining the extent of information disclosure in general, we examine the relation between specific aspects of governance and media coverage and the quality of voluntary environmental disclosure (VED). Using a sample of 127 firms over a six-year period (2000 to 2005), we empirically test characteristics of governance and media in relation to VED. Our results suggest that VED quality is positively associated with environmental media coverage, negative environmental media and board attributes of independence, diversity, and expertise. Results from supplemental analysis suggest that institutional investors …

Green Brewing: Part One, Madeleine E. Pullman

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Similar to their fellow Northwest residents, most brewers would consider environmental sustainability a personal value. From purchasing ingredients to packaging and storing the finished product, brewers and brewery owners are faced with numerous decisions that significantly affect the environment. The vast majority of breweries reduce their environmental impact by doing things like recycling their spent grains to local farmers for animal feed rather than dumping them in a land fill, or by utilizing solar panels to help generate electricity. Brewery owners and operators are continuously scrutinizing their operations to see what additional steps can be taken to lessen their environmental …

'Negotiated' Transparency? Corporate Citizenship Engagement And Environmental Disclosure, Scott Marshall, Darrell Brown, Marlene Plumlee

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Corporate stakeholder relations are historically typified by power imbalances and mistrust, but in recent times, they are increasingly characterized by 'dialogue' based on mutual understanding and creative action. In this paper we consider corporate engagements with two external stakeholder groups, citizenship-focused non-governmental organizations (NGO) and institutional investors, and examine the potential association between these engagements and corporate disclosure of environmental information. Based on a sample of 183 firms over a three-year time period, we analyze the relationships between NGO engagement, investor activism and the quality of corporate voluntary environmental disclosure. Our findings suggest that engagement with skills-focused NGOs and the …

Triple Bottom Line: A Business Metaphor For A Social Construct, Darrell Brown, Jesse F. Dillard, Scott Marshall

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

The triple bottom line is emerging as a popular conceptualization and reporting vehicle for articulating corporate social, environmental, and economic performance and is receiving significant attention in connection with its efficacy and sufficiency as a means for reporting the extent to which an organization meets its societal responsibilities. By preparing and disseminating triple bottom line statements, an organization conveys an image of concern and sensitivity to the three dimensions of societal responsibility: economic, environmental, and social. However, as currently conceived and operationalized, we question whether the triple bottom line reports actually provide information relevant to accessing corporate responsibility and enforcing …

An Environmentally Enlightened Accounting, Jesse Dillard, Darrell Brown, Scott Marshall

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Environmental stewardship must become a primary concern if management is to adequately fulfill its societal responsibilities. Management and accounting information systems must aggressively respond to these emerging requirements in order to support adequately the associated information needs as well as to design organizational systems that motivate and facilitate desired behavior. Our purpose here is to consider a framework useful for developing environmentally enlightening management and accounting information systems that take into account alternative environmental perspectives. The framework can be used to develop prototypes representing different levels of environmental enlightenment and, as such, can provide general guidance for moving collectives and …

The Strategy Of Sustainability: A Systems Perspective On Environmental Initiatives, Scott Marshall, Darrell Brown

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article presents a systems perspective on environmental initiatives as they relate to the efforts of firms looking to become environmentally sustainable. To achieve environmental sustainability, firms need to implement principles, policies, and practices (such as budgeting systems, job design, recruitment and selection, and organizational structures) from the standpoint of long-term ecosystem viability. Because this process requires firms to establish challenging goals, managers are often confronted with significant conflicts between the financial and the environmental and social considerations when introducing socially or environmentally oriented decision making. The author recommends the adoption of a commonly shared corporate vision to allow for …