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Past, Present, or Future? Managers' Temporal Orientations and Corporate Climate Action in the Swedish Electricity Sector

Sarasini, Steven and Jacob, Merle LU (2014) In Organization & Environment 27(3). p.242-262
Abstract
Existing research shows that corporate climate actions are the result of public policies and a limited range of other factors that can influence business strategy. Managers are depicted as lacking agency in that they passively adhere to "drivers" of climate actions, with little room for autonomy. This study takes issue with such a view by examining agency vis-a-vis managers' temporal orientations. In particular, we seek to examine why managers adopt certain temporal orientations and not others in the context of the climate issue and Swedish electricity production. We find that whilst managers are predominantly focused on future policy developments, they also deliberate over, reconstruct, and in some cases actively refute other pressures... (More)
Existing research shows that corporate climate actions are the result of public policies and a limited range of other factors that can influence business strategy. Managers are depicted as lacking agency in that they passively adhere to "drivers" of climate actions, with little room for autonomy. This study takes issue with such a view by examining agency vis-a-vis managers' temporal orientations. In particular, we seek to examine why managers adopt certain temporal orientations and not others in the context of the climate issue and Swedish electricity production. We find that whilst managers are predominantly focused on future policy developments, they also deliberate over, reconstruct, and in some cases actively refute other pressures for climate action that were borne in the past, feature in the present, and which relate to alternative future projections. We further examine reasons for such behaviour. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
climate change, temporal orientations, electricity
in
Organization & Environment
volume
27
issue
3
pages
242 - 262
publisher
SAGE Publications
external identifiers
  • wos:000342930700004
  • scopus:84910595425
ISSN
1552-7417
DOI
10.1177/1086026614544964
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
eb3dd67e-e3b5-43df-961a-c1a725986d32 (old id 4800349)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:37:53
date last changed
2022-02-10 03:57:57
@article{eb3dd67e-e3b5-43df-961a-c1a725986d32,
  abstract     = {{Existing research shows that corporate climate actions are the result of public policies and a limited range of other factors that can influence business strategy. Managers are depicted as lacking agency in that they passively adhere to "drivers" of climate actions, with little room for autonomy. This study takes issue with such a view by examining agency vis-a-vis managers' temporal orientations. In particular, we seek to examine why managers adopt certain temporal orientations and not others in the context of the climate issue and Swedish electricity production. We find that whilst managers are predominantly focused on future policy developments, they also deliberate over, reconstruct, and in some cases actively refute other pressures for climate action that were borne in the past, feature in the present, and which relate to alternative future projections. We further examine reasons for such behaviour.}},
  author       = {{Sarasini, Steven and Jacob, Merle}},
  issn         = {{1552-7417}},
  keywords     = {{climate change; temporal orientations; electricity}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{242--262}},
  publisher    = {{SAGE Publications}},
  series       = {{Organization & Environment}},
  title        = {{Past, Present, or Future? Managers' Temporal Orientations and Corporate Climate Action in the Swedish Electricity Sector}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1086026614544964}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/1086026614544964}},
  volume       = {{27}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}