Ecological responsiveness and business performance: Four scenarios of compatibility and a multi‐faceted strategies framework

Fabien Martinez

Business Strategy and the Environment, 2021, vol. 30, issue 8, 3606-3625

Abstract: This paper investigates the link between business actors' perceptions of the compatibility between ecological responsiveness and business performance and the level of corporate commitment to address ecological issues. The dichotomy between peripheral (or symbolic) actions and embedded (or substantive) actions traditionally assumed in business research arguably reflects a limited conceptualisation of the link between ecological responsiveness and business performance. It fails to exhaustively explain how companies create, maintain, or disrupt practices that affect the natural environment. Combining insights from a conceptual framework that encompasses four scenarios of compatibility (trade‐off, ambidexterity, synergy, and symbiosis) and 50 interviews with 25 management consultants, the results show that perceptions of compatibility are associated with a valence of business responses towards either maturation strategies (accommodative, philanthropic, progressive, and consolidative) or minimalistic strategies (lackadaisical, compliance, opportunistic, and cosmetic). The findings bring greater nuance to key forms of corporate ecological responsiveness, and how business agents' interpretations play a key role in shaping a firm's activities in this domain.

Date: 2021
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