Critical Studies on Corporate Responsibility, Governance and Sustainability, Vol. 3Business and Sustainability: Concepts Strategies and Changes

Citation

Russell, D. (2013), "Critical Studies on Corporate Responsibility, Governance and Sustainability, Vol. 3Business and Sustainability: Concepts Strategies and Changes", International Journal of Law and Management, Vol. 55 No. 1, pp. 74-76. https://doi.org/10.1108/17542431311303831

This is a thought provoking book that provides a rich and diverse view of business sustainability, not least for the discourse concerning the conceptual matters with regard to addressing environmental sustainability. The book considers business engagement with regard to sustainability from a number of perspectives; political, environmental crisis, business opportunity and stakeholder. It also provides useful context in examining business activity with regard to sustainability and includes valuable case studies of organisations highlighting tensions and issues for sustainable business strategies.

The book provides an opportunity to read some carefully selected articles from authors, thoughtfully arranged into three parts; Part I: Conceptualising Business Engagement with Sustainability, Part II: Business Sustainability: Opportunities and Strategies, Part III: Stakeholder Management and Facilitating Change for Sustainability. The sequencing and arrangement of the material by the editors in this way, provides the reader with a better understanding of the debate surrounding business and sustainability.

The book relies in part, but not exclusively on papers presented to The Sustainability Debate – The Way Forward Conference, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand (2009). It is supplemented with other commissioned contributions, notably European, to give the book a balanced perspective. The theoretical conjecture in each of the conference contribution chapters is of a high standard and as consequence the opportunity for generalisability beyond a New Zealand context, in most cases presents little problem.

Part I: Conceptualising Business Engagement with Sustainability contains four chapters addressing the business opportunity, responses for organising and managing, human factors and beyond competition. Chapter 1 considers the business case for sustainability to address significant matters with respect to the global financial crisis and possible further contagion, alongside climate issues of significance. The trajectory of change and the journey to sustainability are appropriate for an opening chapter alongside the perfect storm of change to place the environment at the heart of the debate. Chapter 2 undertakes a review of practices of social responsibility, emphasising corporate social responsibility in an organisational and leadership context. Understanding responsiveness is key to the material in this chapter alongside the relationship between responsiveness and responsibility. Chapter 3 introduces human behavior as the cause of unsustainability, emphasising the need to feedback to individuals if this is to be addressed and makes the case that effective CSR approaches require a systems approach. Chapter 4 questions the concept of competitive advantage examining the ethics of aesthetics “through a localized lens”. The unique context of this chapter will require careful interpretation if it is to be discussed in broader context.

Part II: Business Sustainability: Opportunities and Strategies, contains Chapters 5‐9, each of which emphasise opportunities in a different manner and consequentially potential strategies in this way also. There is a good mix of chapters here, ranging from purely theoretical to case study and more empirical findings. And whilst there is some divergence of content, each chapter provides the reader with a useful perspective for business sustainability. Chapter 5 examines the development of environmental organisations, from start up to 20 years later, with some interesting case study material on company histories, which highlights the M&A trends. Chapter 6 discusses the relationship between environmental performance and profitability of a company, with no consistent evidence of a causal link between the two, which appears to contradict some of the theory in this area. The explanations and discussions around this prove intriguing. Chapter 7 engages in the sustainability debate, examining managers' sustainability perceptions and practices from empirical research. The survey responses provide valuable insight into the perceptions of managers with respect to sustainability. Reputational capital is addressed in Chapter 8, with an examination of the influence of crisis communication alongside corporate credibility. The three cases considered are all energy company based. Here, the way organisations are seen to respond can raise questions as to the legitimacy of the company itself. Chapter 9 considers the sustainability debate and accounting, questioning whether accounting is fit for purpose, as it disregards much of the environmental cost of corporate activity. This raises viability questions for so‐called profitable businesses.

Part III: Stakeholder Management and Facilitating Change for Sustainability comprise the final four chapters, recognising the importance of stakeholders to the concept of sustainability. The relationship between stakeholder management and corporate sustainability is discussed in Chapter 10. It is argued that the stakeholder view of the firm is paramount here to adopt more sustainable practices. Stakeholder analysis is considered alongside stakeholder engagement and stakeholder management. The history of sustainability and environment education are considered in Chapter 11, coupled with the key determinants of behavioral change to explore the efficacy of “golden rules” associated with behavioral change campaigns. The relative positioning of French retailers according to their commitment to sustainable development is examined in Chapter 12. The study suggests little relationship between sustainable development policy and positioning or customer commitment. Finally in Chapter 13, a project approach is considered to assist students develop and critique sustainable business practices to equip students with a range of soft skills which could contribute to organisational sustainability.

On the whole, the book is accessible and serves its stated purpose well. The book does require the reader to be prepared to engage with the theories underpinned by the literature within the papers. And be receptive to the wider debates initiated by the authors. Material drawn from academic papers and specially commissioned contributions, will inevitably address the subject matter from a critical perspective. Accordingly, some prior knowledge, as a prerequisite would serve the reader well.

The book is particularly suitable for postgraduate and doctoral students, along with researchers who have a genuine interest in addressing these complex problems and challenges. Moreover, the variation of contributors results in different perspectives, writing styles together with contrasting approaches for research; this may be considered a strength or a weakness.

Overall the book captures the essence of sustainability well and provides an engaging read, with good theoretical underpinning, supplemented with context and cases. As a set of readings, it may be studied in its entirety or may be used more selectively according to the reader's interests.