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Organization & Environment – June, 2015; 28 (2)

Table of Contents - http://oae.sagepub.com/content/current

Collaborative Guest Editorial

Practicing What We Teach (and Research): Paradoxes on the Paths to Advancing Sustainable Academic Careers and Lifestyles

Organization & Environment June 2015 28: 131-136

Mark Starik and Eva Collins

http://oae.sagepub.com/content/28/2/131.full.pdf+html

Articles

A Three-Dimensional Conceptual Framework of Corporate Water Responsibility

Organization & Environment June 2015 28: 137-159

Fabien Martinez

http://oae.sagepub.com/content/28/2/137.full.pdf+html

This article offers a conceptual framework that comprehensively describes essential aspects of corporate water responsibility. What heretofore has been essentially regarded as an issue to be tackled by governmental institutions, and therefore not perceived as an important component of the value that is created for the institutional and private owners of profit-driven companies, is explicitly treated here as a corporate responsibility. Bridging knowledge domains, I review major research works conducted by management, corporate sustainability, and (welfare) economics scholars and focusing on water management issues to unveil the conditions under which corporations are likely to manage, or to be challenged in managing, water in responsible/sustainable ways. Three types of "tensions" that confront academics and managers alike are discussed: voluntary actions versus coercion, free riding versus cooperation, and economic versus corporate water responsibility motives. I propose a three-dimensional framework of corporate water responsibility for thinking through the managerial response patterns contemplated to address these tensions

In Vino Veritas: Understanding Sustainability With Environmental Certified Management Standards

Organization & Environment June 2015 28: 160-180

Brooke Lahneman

http://oae.sagepub.com/content/28/2/160.full.pdf+html

This article explores differences in the degrees of agreement regarding sustainability among adopters and nonadopters of environmental certified management standards (ECMS). Utilizing a mixed methodological approach called cultural consensus modeling, I investigate whether and how the adoption of ECMS is associated with how organizations understand the broad and imprecise concept of sustainability. I find that organizations with an ECMS have higher average cultural competencies regarding shared meanings of sustainability. Furthermore, the highest average cultural competencies surrounding meanings of sustainability are held by those organizations that have adopted an ECMS program that provides a high level of detail in practice descriptions, sets demanding objectives to achieve, and tailors practices specifically for the wine industry. Adoption of such ECMS programs is associated with nuanced patterns in organizations' understandings of sustainability, aligning meanings and practices surrounding the otherwise imprecise issue of sustainability.

Being Green Against the Wind? The Moderating Effect of Munificence on Acquiring Environmental Competitive Advantages

Organization & Environment June 2015 28: 181-203

Javier Martinez-del-Rio, Raquel Antolin-Lopez, and Jose J. Cespedes-Lorente

http://oae.sagepub.com/content/28/2/181.full.pdf+html

We analyze the effect of munificence on the development of a proactive environmental strategy (PES) and firm performance. In addition, we examine the moderating role of perceived munificence on the association between innovation capabilities and PES and between PES and firm performance. These relationships are tested in a sample consisting in 263 Spanish agricultural firms operating in three different geographical clusters. Our results broadly support our hypotheses and suggest that although perceived munificence favors the development of a PES, it is in hostile environments where PES generates competitive advantages.

Being Good When Not Doing Well: Examining the Effect of the Economic Downturn on Small Manufacturing Firms' Ongoing Sustainability-Oriented Initiatives

Organization & Environment June 2015 28: 204-222

Rajat Panwar, Erlend Nybakk, Jonatan Pinkse, and Eric Hansen

http://oae.sagepub.com/content/28/2/181.full.pdf+html

How firms behave under conditions of decline and resource constraints has not been considered in the corporate sustainability literature. This leaves unanswered the question how much we should rely on firms' sustainability-oriented voluntary initiatives at a time when the global economy continues to be weak and firms face persistent threats of decline. In addressing this question, we first argue that the effect of a decline would be different for peripheral and core initiatives. Using data gathered from 478 small firms representing multiple manufacturing sectors in the United States through a survey, we empirically demonstrate that a decline in a firm's financial performance is associated with a higher decline of peripheral initiatives than of core initiatives. We further found that a decline in peripheral initiatives was even greater when a firm operated in a relatively dynamic context. Contextual dynamism, however, did not affect decline in core initiatives.

The Means and End of Greenwash

Organization & Environment June 2015 28: 223-249

Thomas P. Lyon and A. Wren Montgomery