“Sustainability Comes First”: An Institutional Entrepreneur Enacting Its Principles to Challenge a Dominant Norm

Tina Sendlhofer and Arno Kourula

Business Strategy and the Environment, 2025, vol. 34, issue 8, 9743-9760

Abstract: Institutional entrepreneurs abound in sustainability. Although the hybridity and balance of economic, social, and environmental goals have received scholarly attention, we still know little about how these institutional entrepreneurs approach the new norm where business organizations favor social and environmental sustainability over economic sustainability. We examine an established resource‐constrained institutional entrepreneur and how this organization enacts a new norm in its attempt to challenge the dominant one. Drawing on data from a qualitative case study about an outdoor apparel retailer, we examine how the business enacts the norm “sustainability comes first.” This norm is based on two principles: (1) challenge, which alludes to being different, and (2) candor, which alludes to being open. We deliver novel insights about how a business organization can prioritize social and environmental sustainability.

Date: 2025
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