Flexible couplings: combining business goals and environmental concern

Lars Strannegård

Business Strategy and the Environment, 2000, vol. 9, issue 3, 163-174

Abstract: This article discusses how the natural environment became a business concern in a Swedish multinational manufacturing company. Ideas that were initially external to the organization were internalized and formulated, i.e. translated into guiding principles for environmental change efforts within the organization. External influences (environmental organizations, customers, media) and internal influences (CEO commitment, similar successful projects) were fitted with management tools that the organization already has experience from. Thus, the environmental strategy emerged as a result of a translation process: phenomena in the institutional environment become internalized and matched with existing tools and solutions. The empirical findings presented in the paper show how the translation process results in a business‐driven environmental strategy. The environmental strategy is however not static, but the degree of business–environment integration fluctuates over time. The process by which an organization tries to integrate environmental strategies into business strategies is in the paper shown to be a matter of de‐coupling and coupling business efficiency and environmental responsibility. The task of management becomes to keep a flexible, not loose, coupling between business efficiency and environmental orientation. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Date: 2000
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