The dark side of sustainability orientation for SME performance
(2020) In Journal of Business Venturing Insights 14.- Abstract
This article examines how a firm's willingness to make trade-offs that favour sustainability over commercial goals attenuates the relationship between firm-level sustainability orientation and subsequent performance. The hypothesis development draws on stakeholder theory and the literature on mission and revenue drifts, while the empirical analysis is based on two waves of original survey data on Finnish manufacturing SMEs. We find that sustainability orientation is positively associated with performance only when the willingness to make sustainability trade-offs is low, whereas the relationship becomes negative when the willingness to make such trade-offs is high. Our findings thus suggest that the popular adage of doing well by doing... (More)
This article examines how a firm's willingness to make trade-offs that favour sustainability over commercial goals attenuates the relationship between firm-level sustainability orientation and subsequent performance. The hypothesis development draws on stakeholder theory and the literature on mission and revenue drifts, while the empirical analysis is based on two waves of original survey data on Finnish manufacturing SMEs. We find that sustainability orientation is positively associated with performance only when the willingness to make sustainability trade-offs is low, whereas the relationship becomes negative when the willingness to make such trade-offs is high. Our findings thus suggest that the popular adage of doing well by doing good might only hold if doing good does not conflict with business interests. The results add to stakeholder theory by showing how conforming to stakeholder expectations can be good for business – but only if doing so does not seriously compromise the pursuit of profits.
(Less)
- author
- Kautonen, Teemu ; Schillebeeckx, Simon J.D. ; Gartner, Johannes LU ; Hakala, Henri ; Salmela-Aro, Katariina and Snellman, Kirsi
- publishing date
- 2020-11
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Performance, SME, Sustainability orientation, Sustainability trade-offs, Sustainable entrepreneurship
- in
- Journal of Business Venturing Insights
- volume
- 14
- article number
- e00198
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85091085385
- ISSN
- 2352-6734
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jbvi.2020.e00198
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- additional info
- Funding Information: This research is part of the project Reasons and Emotions funded by the Academy of Finland within its Biofutures 2025 framework programme (grant numbers 307596 , 307597 , and 320241 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Authors Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
- id
- 1896213f-99a7-4865-808b-3869631e43d5
- date added to LUP
- 2021-04-06 09:50:26
- date last changed
- 2022-04-27 01:14:57
@article{1896213f-99a7-4865-808b-3869631e43d5,
abstract = {{<p>This article examines how a firm's willingness to make trade-offs that favour sustainability over commercial goals attenuates the relationship between firm-level sustainability orientation and subsequent performance. The hypothesis development draws on stakeholder theory and the literature on mission and revenue drifts, while the empirical analysis is based on two waves of original survey data on Finnish manufacturing SMEs. We find that sustainability orientation is positively associated with performance only when the willingness to make sustainability trade-offs is low, whereas the relationship becomes negative when the willingness to make such trade-offs is high. Our findings thus suggest that the popular adage of doing well by doing good might only hold if doing good does not conflict with business interests. The results add to stakeholder theory by showing how conforming to stakeholder expectations can be good for business – but only if doing so does not seriously compromise the pursuit of profits.</p>}},
author = {{Kautonen, Teemu and Schillebeeckx, Simon J.D. and Gartner, Johannes and Hakala, Henri and Salmela-Aro, Katariina and Snellman, Kirsi}},
issn = {{2352-6734}},
keywords = {{Performance; SME; Sustainability orientation; Sustainability trade-offs; Sustainable entrepreneurship}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Journal of Business Venturing Insights}},
title = {{The dark side of sustainability orientation for SME performance}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2020.e00198}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.jbvi.2020.e00198}},
volume = {{14}},
year = {{2020}},
}