Challenging the mainstream

Citation

Holt, D., Barkemeyer, R. and Figge, F. (2010), "Challenging the mainstream", Management Research Review, Vol. 33 No. 11. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr.2010.02133kaa.001

Challenging the mainstream

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Management Research News, Volume 33, Issue 11.

About the Guest Editors

Diane HoltJoined Queen's University Management School in May 2007 as a Lecturer in Management and Sustainability as part of the university's major initiative in sustainability. Her current research interests include green supply chain management, sustainable development in the developing world, environmental marketing, and communications.

Ralf BarkemeyerLecturer in Management and Sustainability at Queen's University Management School, Belfast. He mainly focuses on the interface of business, environment and society. In particular, his main research interests are contemporary CSR-related policies and practices, the relationship of CSR and international development, and value-oriented approaches to measuring and managing corporate sustainability.

Frank FiggeHolds the Chair of Management and Sustainability at Queen's University Management School. His main research interests are corporate social responsibility, sustainable business, sustainable finance and valuation, social and environmental accounting, stakeholder management, and the economics and management of diversity.

This special edition presents a selection of papers from the Corporate Responsibility Research Conference held 7-9 September 2008 at Queen's University Belfast. Over 60 papers were presented by researchers and practitioners from across the world. The conference was organised and hosted by Queen's University Management School in association with Leeds University and ERP Environment.

The theme of the conference was “Challenging the mainstream”. The conference recognised that research into corporate responsibility and sustainability has “mainstreamed”, accelerating rapidly over the last two decades. Arguably in some sectors or regions businesses routinely consider operational practices in terms of their environmental responsibilities and many now consider wider corporate responsibility topics with ethical and social implications. Many researchers consider this mainstreaming as an opportunity but some are concerned that such mainstreaming leads to the hijacking of environmentalism (see Welford, 1997) or the sustainability agenda (Hahn et al., 2010).

In this conference we argue that mainstreaming corporate responsibility and sustainability is a precondition for research to be effective; that sustainability can only be delivered if the tools and techniques, the concepts and models, the theories and doctrines are rolled out across the largest possible spread of companies, organisations and regions. However, it might be argued that mainstreaming endangers the effectiveness of corporate sustainability with a focus on incremental change finding more widespread acceptance by the market, in comparison with more radical change from an ecological and social point of view. Thus the conference challenged participants to consider how their findings might become effective despite, or through, the mainstream. On one hand there can be great value in research that adopts mainstream views and techniques, ensuring transferability across many sectors, regions, and stakeholder groups. Yet research that challenges mainstream orthodoxies and breaks new ground ensures that corporate responsibility and sustainability is more than mere green window dressing.

This special edition presents five papers from the conference that represents a range of different views. The edition begins with the paper by Alexander Leitner, Walter Wehrmeyer, and Chris France who consider the relationship between eco-innovation and environmental regulation as a way to incentivise businesses to operate more sustainably. They propose a four-level technology and policy diffusion model that may facilitate the design of smarter environmental regulations to incentivise companies to comply with regulation.

Kimberly S. Goetz also considers the role of incentives by taking a practitioner view of the role of incentives in promoting sustainable business practices. Based on her experiences within Washington State (USA) Department of Ecology she explores, and challenges, the mainstream perspective on incentives and disincentives in promoting more sustainable business practices.

Maintaining investor confidence is another incentive for environmentally responsible performance that is often cited by the proponents of the win-win paradigm of green business. In contrast, mainstream finance literature may challenge this and suggest that green initiatives are a cost that reduces wealth. Susan R. Hume and Liam Gallagher explore this argument in terms of service industries and found evidence that investors value more environmentally responsible firms.

Next Christian Herzig and Jasmin Godemann explore the role that the internet plays in sustainability reporting. The mainstreaming of environmental issues within society owes much to the dramatic increase in the use of online information by the public and increasing world-wide internet connectivity. Information is now only a “click-away” and plays a key role in disseminating information of environmental and social performance.

The edition concludes with the paper by Ian Sealy, Walter Wehrmeyer, Chris France and Matt Leach who challenge readers to consider the need for a new sustainable management systems model for global business organisations. Their work recognises the limitations of many of the context-specific management models that have been developed, alongside international environmental/quality management standards, quality models, principles, and guidelines. They propose an innovative multi-dimensional model that seeks to conceptualise and integrate many of these diverse management perspectives.

The editorial team would like to thank all our reviewers who contributed to this special edition and the conference. In addition our thanks go to Dr Joe Sarkis, the editor of this journal, for allowing us the opportunity to present some of the work from this conference.

Diane Holt, Ralf Barkemeyer and Frank FiggeGuest Editors