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Towards sustainable development: Evolution of corporate sustainability in multinational firms
Author(s) -
Derqui Belén
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
corporate social responsibility and environmental management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.519
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1535-3966
pISSN - 1535-3958
DOI - 10.1002/csr.1995
Subject(s) - sustainability , business , corporate sustainability , multinational corporation , transparency (behavior) , sustainability organizations , corporate social responsibility , sustainability science , revenue , sustainable development , marketing , strategic management , industrial organization , process management , accounting , public relations , finance , political science , ecology , law , biology
Scholars have often found a lack of strategy in Corporate Sustainability management and literature lacks longitudinal studies that could shed light on the transformations needed to push it forward. In this longitudinal study (2013–2019), we show how Corporate Sustainability has evolved to be now truly embedded in Corporate Strategy. A paradigm shift is taking hold: sustainability is not an altruistic option for managers anymore, it is now considered a source of revenue. A key contribution of this paper is that it lists the most relevant transformations through which the case study organisations went during the period of study, including bottom‐up leadership, purpose‐driven brand management, enhanced long term partnerships, increased transparency and renewed goals and priorities. Results offer implications for theory and practice. Managers willing to improve the sustainability performance of their companies can use the proposed framework to take advantage of the multiple opportunities that arise from the sustainability megatrend.