We are pleased to announce the availability of the December 2015 issue of _Organization & Environment_, the associated titles, authors, abstracts, and website addresses to which are below. In addition, SAGE, Inc. is currently seeking applications for one or more Editor positions for this journal (to begin during the second half of 2016), the Call for which can be found at
http://oae.sagepub.com/site/includefiles/CallforEditor.pdf Happy 2016 to all _O&E_ readers, authors, reviewers, and associate and guest editors! - J. Alberto Aragon-Correa and Mark Starik, _O&E_ Co-Editors-in-Chief
Organization & Environment December, 2015 Volume 28 Number 4 Pages 351-477
http://oae.sagepub.com/content/current
Editorial
The Downside of (and Antidotes to) Unhelpful Stealth Sustainability
Mark Starik 351-354
http://oae.sagepub.com/content/28/4/351.full.pdf+html
Articles
Managing the Poverty–CO2 Reductions Paradox: The Case of China and EU
Denis Collins and Chunfang Zheng 355-373
http://oae.sagepub.com/content/28/4/355.full.pdf+html
This article examines the “Poverty–CO2 (carbon dioxide) Reductions Paradox,” wherein
reducing poverty through economic growth simultaneously increases CO2 emissions from
increased production and consumption, at a time in history when CO2 emissions must be
reduced to avoid climate change catastrophes. Paradox theory and integrative social contracts
theory are applied to help understand the evolving behaviors of China, the world’s largest CO2
emitter, and the European Union, a CO2 reduction leader, from 1990 to 2015 at the national
and international levels. The environmental results of these activities have become species threatening. The principle of fairness/justice is offered in order to guide efforts to resolve the paradox in a way that avoids irreversible climate changes projected to begin around 2050. Prominent stakeholder injustice claims are highlighted for future scholarship and policymaking considerations.
Dynamics of Environmental and Financial Performance: The Case of
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Magali A. Delmas, Nicholas Nairn-Birch, and Jinghui Lim 374-393
http://oae.sagepub.com/content/28/4/374.full.pdf+html
While corporate sustainability has been defined as an approach that creates long-term value
with minimum environmental damage, there is still little understanding of the time horizon
over which improved environmental performance leads to improved financial performance.
We investigate the relationship between environmental and financial performance under
increasing likelihood of environmental regulation. We leverage longitudinal data for 1,095 U.S.
corporations from 2004 to 2008, a period of increasing activity for climate change legislation,
in order to estimate the effect of greenhouse gas emissions on short- and long-term measures
of financial performance. We find that during this period, improving corporate environmental
performance causes a decline in an indicator of short-term financial performance, return on
assets. Nonetheless, investors see the potential long-term value of improved environmental
performance, manifested by an increase in Tobin’s q. These results suggest that limited uptake
of proactive strategies may in part be attributable to short-term financial performance targets
that guide managerial decision making.
Social, Environmental and Sustainable Entrepreneurship Research: What Is Needed
for Sustainability-as-Flourishing?
Katrin Schaefer, Patricia Doyle Corner, and Kate Kearins 394-413
http://oae.sagepub.com/content/28/4/394.full.pdf+html
What process of socioeconomic transformation might move humanity towards sustainability as-
flourishing, an ideal view of sustainability where life flourishes indefinitely on Earth? We
suggest entrepreneurship as one such process and review the literature on three types of
entrepreneurship said to transform society by creating value beyond profit: social, environmental
and sustainable entrepreneurship. From environmental and social scientific literature, we distil a
set of requisites for sustainability-as-flourishing, a topic of growing interest. We then review the
literature on social, environmental and sustainable entrepreneurship relative to these requisites.
Findings show contributions and also limitations towards sustainability-as-flourishing reflected
in research on each type of entrepreneurship. We propose a research agenda to address the
most glaring limitations including a failure to study critical reflection processes that can shape
entrepreneurs’ actions and a lack of emphasis on the Earth’s physical carrying capacity. Future
research could also zero in more on complex systems thinking and consider root causes.
The Emergence of New Markets for Environmental Services: The Role of U.S.
Shellfish Industry Associations
Bogdan Prokopovych 414-435
http://oae.sagepub.com/content/28/4/414.full.pdf+html
Does membership in industry associations affect whether firms extend beyond their traditional
markets? I use a data set from a survey of U.S. shellfishermen and empirically examine the
relationship between membership in associations and participation in new markets. Traditionally,
shellfishermen have been growing and harvesting shellfish for human consumption. However,
some shellfishermen also engage in alternative revenue-generating environmental projects such
as coastal restoration, clean-up, and research. Drawing on the organizational literature on
associations and economic sociology literature, I test hypotheses about whether associations
contribute to generating value and promoting cooperation among their members thus fulfilling
requirements for a new market to emerge. I find that shellfishermen who are members of
industry associations are more likely to participate in alternative revenue-generating activities
and derive revenues from environmental projects. I argue that industry associations play an
important role in firms’ decisions to pursue new markets by contributing to creating value and
promoting cooperation.
Invisible Compromises: Global Business, Local Ecosystems, and the Commercial
Bumble Bee Trade
Carol Reade, Robbin Thorp, Koichi Goka, Marius Wasbauer, and Mark McKenna 436-457
http://oae.sagepub.com/content/28/4/436.full.pdf+html
The purpose of this article is to challenge organizational scholars, management educators,
and business leaders to consider more deeply the impact of global business activities on local
ecosystems. Drawing on the management, sustainability, and entomology literature, we illustrate
the complex relationship between global business and biodiversity loss through the lens of the
commercial bumble bee trade. Global firms in this trade rear and supply bees for greenhouse
crop pollination. We build on a well-known global strategy framework used in management
education by adding a sustainability dimension, and offering propositions for the relationship
between global business strategy and the strength of environmental sustainability. We conclude
that a locally responsive, place-sensitive business strategy supports the strongest degree of
environmental sustainability, and addresses the invisible compromises to ecosystem health that
may result from the efforts of global firms to provide otherwise beneficial products and services.
Organising for Ecological Repair: Reconstructing Land Management Practice
Robert Perey and Suzanne Benn 458-477
http://oae.sagepub.com/content/28/4/458.full.pdf+html
In this article, we explore organising narratives that underpin the generation of effective
ecological solutions. We examine the processes of meaning construction in relation to the
development of sustainable land management practices in the Landcare organisation in
Australia. Meaning construction is situated in a variety of contexts that are themselves strongly
influenced by a meta-narrative, which Taylor has labelled the “modern social imaginary”: A
shared system of meanings that captures the imaginations of individuals and shapes their social
groupings and society. The shift in meaning construction is reflected in the emergence of a
narrative of “ecological repair” that involved a process of learning and knowledge development
we have labelled protracted sense-making. Our research findings have led us to conclude that
the development of successful ecological solutions require an active rewriting of the social
imaginary.
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