Scholars increasingly recognise that business contributions to sustainable development are founded in new business models. However, most research in this field remains conceptual and offers a rather static view of a complex and dynamic reality. This article contributes to understanding how new business models for sustainability are fashioned through the interactions between individuals and groups inside and outside companies. Based on two case studies, our findings show that three elements contributed to the path of transformation toward business models for sustainability: building networks and collaborative practices for learning and action around a new vision, the deployment of new concepts drawn from outside the company, and elaborating an implementation structure within a reconfigured network. Our findings reveal the complexity of the process, which went through four subprocesses: identifying, translating, embedding, and sharing. Our results also highlight the importance of considering value destruction as well as new ways to create and capture value.

Journal of Industrial EcologyVolume 19, Issue 1 p. 169-171 BOOK REVIEW Flourishing: A Frank Conversation about Sustainability, by John R. Ehrenfeld and Andrew J. Hoffman. Redwood City, CA, USA: Stanford University Press, 2013, 168 pp., ISBN 9780804784153, paperback, $17.95. Nigel Roome, Nigel Roome Vlerick Business School, Playford, EnglandSearch for more papers by this author Nigel Roome, Nigel Roome Vlerick Business School, Playford, EnglandSearch for more papers by this author First published: 24 January 2015 https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12222Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume19, Issue1February 2015Pages 169-171 Translations 《产业生态学报》中文摘要 (JIE Chinese Abstracts) Resúmenes en Español de la Revista de Ecología Industrial (JIE Spanish Abstracts) RelatedInformation

Innovation is increasingly recognised as an alternative for poverty alleviation in developing countries. However, cases of innovation in small producers’ clusters in Vietnam imply negative externalities that conflict with today’s notions of sustainable and inclusive development. This article analyses how small producers innovate while taking environmental and social considerations into account through an interactive societal process towards a community network, conceptualised as responsible innovation. Existing multi-faceted theoretical insights do not provide sufficient basis to construct and test explanations. We apply a grounded theory involving Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to seek explanations as to why some small producers behave opportunistically while others acknowledge responsibility for the negative externalities. ANT enables us to see the critical details of the network creation process including the agenda of the key actors, push and pull factors, the type of innovation and the informal institutional context.

This paper develops the notion that sustainable development is a process based on a complex set of organizationa l and social projects that are based on continuous learning, action and negotiated change. Process of this kind are brought about through networks that span business organizations and other stakeholders in soc iety. The paper presents a case study of a Canadian company that is acknowledged as a leader in the field of environmental management. It outlines how the company responded to the agenda of environmental management and the demands for more sustainable practices. It describes how the company's strategic planning process identified and responded to these issues; how its approach has been defined and redefined; and the way that the organization's processes and

This case examines a case of ’targeted social activism’ aimed at a company with high brand value and a growing reputation for responsible business. It uses a revealing case linked to a role play that involves two rounds to illustrate the tactics, challenges and managerial choices that arise when a company is subject to ‘targeted social activism’ by an NGO. In the past social activism has been targeted on companies with low standards of social and environmental behaviour or performance, and on ‘green-wash’ on companies with inconsistencies between policies and practice. This case is rather different. It looks at a company targeted precisely because of its brand and growing reputation and position linked to responsibility, where this is used to leverage the targeted company’s power to bring about change in other organisations in a supply-chain and the field – the field is Indonesian palm oil industry. In round 1 the case deals with the multiple perspectives and complex managerial issues raised by this campaign for five organisations with commercial and other interests in the use of palm oil. The case places students in a situation where they have to understand the complex environmental, social and organisational issues. It provides opportunities for students to develop an appreciation for making decisions in complex settings, where economic analysis is subordinated to situations informed more by the interpretation on business principles. These outcomes provide a context to round 2 where students have to consider what the targeted company – Nestlé will do in response to the targeted campaign. The case provides a very real and challenging introduction to many contemporary aspects of corporate responsibility and sustainability in companies and management practice.

Social activism against companies has evolved in the 50 years since Rachel Carson first put the US chemical industry under pressure to halt the indiscriminate use of the chemical DDT. Many more companies have come under the spotlight of activist attention as the agenda social activists address has expanded, provoked in part by the internationalization of business. During the past fifteen years, companies have begun to formulate corporate responsibility (CR) policies and appointed management teams dedicated to CR, resulting in a change in the way companies interact with social activists. This paper presents findings from a longitudinal case study of managerial responses to social activism targeted at a company with relatively well-advanced CR practices and reputation. The case describes the unfolding of the internal processes over an 8-year period, including the role played by different managers and the tensions in the decision-making processes. The findings emphasize how values and beliefs in the company interact with economic arguments and how those are mediated through functions and relationships in the company and beyond. The paper shows how critical managers' understanding of the motivations of activists behind the campaign is in shaping their actions. It reveals the paradoxical outcomes that can result from social activism at the level of the firm, the industry, and the field.

Social innovation has attracted much recent attention from academics, policy makers and practitioners during the past 10 years, although examples of social innovation can be traced far back to the early nineteenth century, see for example the pioneering reformer Robert Owen at the New Lanark Woolen Mill (Owen http://www.robert-owen.com/ , 2012). The main argument about social innovation is that it has the potential to effect change in conventional sectors of the economy and society. These sectors include government and the public sector, not-for-profits, as well as the for-profit sector. Social innovation can also include more loosely organized actors within a community or engaged in a community venture. At the same time, by its very nature, social innovation does not conform to the neat boxes of sectors instead it often intersects and overlaps sectors. This chapter focuses on the link between sustainable development and social innovation. It takes the position that the call for sustainable development is the greatest challenge to humanity of our time.

Corporate responsibility (CR), as a business contribution to sustainable development, implies that the environment affects the organisation and the organisation reacts to its changing environment. In this way, CR can be understood as a cybernetic system operating across the interface between the organisation and its environment. This paper elaborates a cybernetic model of CR, and uses it to distinguish ways that managers sense change in their environment. Three ways to 'sense' change are compared: following trends, issues and events; picking up signals from stakeholders; and adjusting to sustainable development as a specific definition of 'progress'. The paper discusses the merits and limits of each approach. Conclusions are drawn in terms of implications for managing CR. Moreover, the cybernetic model is held to provide for a theory of CR that is more in line with the multi-disciplinary nature of practice than is found in ideas that derive from business ethics or stakeholder theory.

Few companies have successfully undertaken wholesale change to embed corporate responsibility for sustainable development into their organization and business model. Existing cases suggest this change involves companies in complex processes of organizational and social learning, innovation, and change that play out within a range of different networks of relationships. This chapter examines Rohner Textil, a company that embarked on strategic change toward a more sustainable approach. The organizational and social processes and steps the company went through are described. The case highlights the critical interaction between the company and other actors through three different networks: an industrial network and a knowledge network, which provided new concepts for inspiration, and an internal network of ideas and actions, which would help define and shape change. We argue that the success of the company was dependent on the ability of management to effect organizational leadership in and through these three types of networks. The case provides evidence of what that involved and points to the complexity of the tasks performed in these action-learning networks. It is argued that companies working for change toward sustainable development can be better understood through an action-learning network model of innovation and change.

The 2008 'credit crisis' brought to attention that business and finance operate in open-complex systems. In contrast, the period leading up to the crisis was dominated by narrower thinking developed from the idea that business was about economics and that management concerned agency. This paper revisits ideas first developed in the late 1990s that arose from the observation that business was confronting interacting 'systems.' The main systems were around (sustainable) development, the internationalization of business and a set of social and cultural concerns resulting from globalization.The paper anticipated the collapse of parts of the economic system as a result of hyper-competition. It points to the growing significance of 'identity' and its potential to create a 'clash of values.' It concludes by suggesting that as we enter this 'systems age' our models and assumptions around the boundaries of companies and the idea of companies and stakeholders would be severely challenged.

Sabaf, a world leading manufacturer of components for domestic gas cooking appliances, went through a transformation process between 1993 and 2005 to develop a strategic approach to corporate responsibility. This case describes the learning and change process within the company that set the ground for today’s success. This teaching case builds on data gathered through sites primary and secondary data. The case research protocol explored the notion that the company was learning how to interact and respond to its changing context while its responses were creating the ground for internal organisational change that in turn would impact the relationship between the company and its context. Sabaf’s case is not only a move from an implicit to explicit approach to corporate responsibility, but more profoundly it portrays a company that was engaged in developing a more ‘humanistic’ approach to management that permeated the whole organization. The term ‘corporate responsibility’ was used to describe much older concepts that valued people and the natural environment alongside economics. The case also shows the process of organizational leadership for learning, management innovation and change that supported the processes through which this approach was developed and integrated into the company. This case provides unique insights into the approach Sabaf adopted in its pioneering transformation to become a leading corporate responsibility company and a world leader in its sector. This case can be used as a benchmark for other companies that might embark on a similar process affecting the business as a whole.

This special issue and the editorial article focus on the issues of context and consequences of corporate responsibility (CR), to which CR research has not given the attention these issues would warrant. Although norms, practices and outcomes of CR depend on socio-political, cultural, national and other contextual factors, the phenomenon has primarily been studied with theories and concepts originating from the USA. We will show that this has lead to a lack of attention to many local aspects and varieties of CR, particularly those of the emerging economies and developing countries. The latter part of the article discusses the outcomes and consequences of CR, including those that are unintended. We point out that many positive expectations and trust is placed on CR as an ideology and as an instrument for contributing to the resolution of many global and environmental ills although little is known about the social consequences and impacts of CR on society. In connection to both discussions, we review the related papers in this special issue. The editorial ends with propositions for future research.