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Which Corporate Sustainability Activities are Associated with Greater Financial Payoffs?

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  • Brent Kurapatskie
  • Nicole Darnall

Abstract

While many company managers and academic researchers have argued that businesses that develop a sustainability focus also may improve their financial performance, little information is known about whether firms' different types of sustainability activities are related to varying degrees of financial gain. This paper assesses the economic relationship between two types of sustainability activities – lower‐ and higher‐order – derived from the sustainability value framework of Hart and Milstein (2003). Our analysis reveals that both types of sustainability activities are similarly associated with firms' financial performance in terms of direction and trend. However, the average level of financial benefits related to firms' higher‐order sustainability activities (which develop new products and processes) is greater than the average level of financial benefits related to firms' lower‐order sustainability activities (which modify existing products and processes). These findings offer initial evidence that companies that reach further by developing higher‐order sustainability activities may reap greater financial benefits, while improving the natural environment to a greater degree. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

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  • Brent Kurapatskie & Nicole Darnall, 2013. "Which Corporate Sustainability Activities are Associated with Greater Financial Payoffs?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 49-61, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:22:y:2013:i:1:p:49-61
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.1735
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    13. Renáta Myšková & Petr Hájek, 2018. "Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility in the Text of Annual Reports—The Case of the IT Services Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-18, November.
    14. Daniel Reimsbach & Rüdiger Hahn, 2015. "The Effects of Negative Incidents in Sustainability Reporting on Investors’ Judgments–an Experimental Study of Third‐party Versus Self‐disclosure in the Realm of Sustainable Development," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 217-235, May.
    15. Sylvia Grewatsch & Ingo Kleindienst, 2017. "When Does It Pay to be Good? Moderators and Mediators in the Corporate Sustainability–Corporate Financial Performance Relationship: A Critical Review," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 383-416, October.
    16. Ramírez-Orellana, Alicia & Martínez-Victoria, MCarmen & García-Amate, Antonio & Rojo-Ramírez, Alfonso A., 2023. "Is the corporate financial strategy in the oil and gas sector affected by ESG dimensions?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    17. Woon Leong Lin & Jo Ann Ho & Murali Sambasivan, 2018. "Impact of Corporate Political Activity on the Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance: A Dynamic Panel Data Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-22, December.
    18. Maria J. Charlo & Ismael Moya & Ana M. Muñoz, 2015. "Sustainable Development and Corporate Financial Performance: A Study Based on the FTSE4Good IBEX Index," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 277-288, May.
    19. Jean D. Kabongo, 2019. "Sustainable development and research and development intensity in U.S. manufacturing firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 556-566, May.
    20. Philip R. Walsh & Rachel Dodds, 2017. "Measuring the Choice of Environmental Sustainability Strategies in Creating a Competitive Advantage," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 672-687, July.
    21. Marco Bertoni, 2017. "Introducing Sustainability in Value Models to Support Design Decision Making: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-31, June.
    22. Nora Mustonen & Heikki Karjaluoto & Chanaka Jayawardhena, 2016. "Customer Environmental Values and Their Contribution to Loyalty in Industrial Markets," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(7), pages 512-528, November.
    23. Jennifer DeBoer & Rajat Panwar & Jorge Rivera, 2017. "Toward A Place‐Based Understanding of Business Sustainability: The Role of Green Competitors and Green Locales in Firms' Voluntary Environmental Engagement," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(7), pages 940-955, November.
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