Managerial Perceptions of Firms’ Corporate Sustainability Strategies: Insights from Croatia

Richard Nyuur, Ružica Brečić () and Patrick Murphy
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Richard Nyuur: Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK
Patrick Murphy: Department of Marketing, Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556-5646, USA

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained increasing academic attention, we lack a solid understanding of how managerial perceptions underpin firms’ sustainability practices. This study interprets and sheds light on managers’ perceptions of sustainability activities under various stakeholder domains in Croatia through a multi-theoretical approach. Using 21 semi-structured interviews with managers, the study reveals that sustainability activities in the research context tend to focus more on environmental issues and customer service, as well as employees and supplier domains. The study further establishes three distinct levels of sustainability commitments by firms. These stages include sustainability as a minimal response, corporate culture-driven, and committed response. These findings, as a whole, are insightful and enable us to advance research on sustainability by elucidating how managerial perceptions underpin firms’ strategic sustainability activities. The contributions to theory and practice are also discussed.

Keywords: sustainability; corporate responsibility; managerial perceptions; Eastern Europe; Croatia; stakeholder domains (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2019:i:1:p:251-:d:302715

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