IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v24y2015i6p565-582.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Through Thick and Thin? How Self‐determination Drives the Corporate Sustainability Initiatives of Multinational Subsidiaries

Author

Listed:
  • Kalim U. Shah
  • Surendra Arjoon

Abstract

Multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries implement corporate sustainability initiatives (CSIs) if they are self‐determined to do so (based on intrinsic motivation) or when urged on by circumstances and pressures (based on extrinsic motivation). Such differences in self‐determination are derived from underlying corporate psychological needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness, and are manifested in the governance choices of making, allying or buying CSIs. In this study of oil and gas MNC subsidiaries in the developing country context of Trinidad and Tobago, four distinct types of firm are identified based on their levels of self‐determination and corporate governance tendencies. These groups are identified as trail blazers, marching soldiers, sharp shooters and fire fighters, and their distinctive characteristics are described. These findings are useful to corporate sustainability strategists seeking to select, design and implement CSIs that satisfy MNC headquarter directives but balance subsidiary objectives of maintaining good relations and access to operate in developing countries. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Suggested Citation

  • Kalim U. Shah & Surendra Arjoon, 2015. "Through Thick and Thin? How Self‐determination Drives the Corporate Sustainability Initiatives of Multinational Subsidiaries," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(6), pages 565-582, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:24:y:2015:i:6:p:565-582
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.1838
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.1838
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.1838?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manuel Branco & Lúcia Rodrigues, 2006. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Resource-Based Perspectives," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 69(2), pages 111-132, December.
    2. Kolk, Ans & van Tulder, Rob, 2006. "Poverty alleviation as business strategy? Evaluating commitments of frontrunner Multinational Corporations," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 789-801, May.
    3. Kalim Shah & Jorge Rivera, 2013. "Do industry associations influence corporate environmentalism in developing countries? Evidence from Trinidad and Tobago," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 46(1), pages 39-62, March.
    4. Magali Delmas & Michael W. Toffel, 2004. "Stakeholders and environmental management practices: an institutional framework," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 209-222, July.
    5. Nitin Nohria & Sumantra Ghoshal, 1994. "Differentiated fit and shared values: Alternatives for managing headquarters‐subsidiary relations," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(6), pages 491-502, July.
    6. Duane Windsor, 2006. "Corporate Social Responsibility: Three Key Approaches," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 93-114, January.
    7. Pratima Bansal, 2005. "Evolving sustainably: a longitudinal study of corporate sustainable development," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 197-218, March.
    8. F. Maon & A. Lindgreen & V. Swaen, 2010. "Organizational Stages and Cultural Phases: A Critical Review and a Consolidative Model of Corporate Social Responsibility Development," Post-Print halshs-00585660, HAL.
    9. Ricky Y. K. Chan, 2005. "Does the Natural‐Resource‐Based View of the Firm Apply in an Emerging Economy? A Survey of Foreign Invested Enterprises in China," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 625-672, May.
    10. Bryan W. Husted & José De Jesus Salazar, 2006. "Taking Friedman Seriously: Maximizing Profits and Social Performance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 75-91, January.
    11. Kalim Shah & Jorge Rivera, 2008. "Export processing zones and corporate environmental performance in emerging economies: The case of the oil, gas, and chemical sectors of Trinidad and Tobago," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 41(2), pages 181-182, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anastasiia Moldavska & Torgeir Welo, 2018. "Testing and Verification of a New Corporate Sustainability Assessment Method for Manufacturing: A Multiple Case Research Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-40, November.
    2. Mejía-Dugand, Santiago & Hjelm, Olof & Baas, Leo, 2017. "Public utility companies in liberalized markets – The impact of management models on local and regional sustainability," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 137-144.
    3. Mingzhe Qiao & Shiwei Xu & Guangdong Wu, 2018. "Corporate Social Responsibility and the Long-Term Performance of Mergers and Acquisitions: Do Regions and Related-Party Transactions Matter?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-15, July.
    4. Roger Leonard Burritt & Katherine Leanne Christ & Hussain Gulzar Rammal & Stefan Schaltegger, 2020. "Multinational Enterprise Strategies for Addressing Sustainability: the Need for Consolidation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(2), pages 389-410, June.
    5. Poul Houman Andersen & Lars Esbjerg, 2020. "Weaving a strategy for a base‐of‐the‐pyramid market: The case of Grundfos LIFELINK," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3687-3701, December.
    6. Sven Horak & Bindu Arya & Kiran M Ismail, 2018. "Organizational Sustainability Determinants in Different Cultural Settings: A Conceptual Framework," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 528-546, May.
    7. Carlos F. A. Arranz, 2024. "A system dynamics approach to modelling eco‐innovation drivers in companies: Understanding complex interactions using machine learning," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 4456-4479, July.
    8. Fu Jia & Yan Jiang, 2018. "Sustainable Global Sourcing: A Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-26, February.
    9. Qiaowen Zhang & Annalien de Vries, 2022. "Seeking Moral Legitimacy through Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Multinationals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-21, April.
    10. Sarah Birrell Ivory & Simon Bentley Brooks, 2018. "Managing Corporate Sustainability with a Paradoxical Lens: Lessons from Strategic Agility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 347-361, March.
    11. Kalim U. Shah & Sashwat Roy & Wei-Ming Chen & Keron Niles & Dinesh Surroop, 2020. "Application of an Institutional Assessment and Design (IAD)-Enhanced Integrated Regional Energy Policy and Planning (IREPP) Framework to Island States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-20, April.
    12. Masayoshi Ike & Jerome Denis Donovan & Cheree Topple & Eryadi Kordi Masli, 2024. "Pollution Havens in South-East Asia: Examining Japanese Multinational Enterprises in the Philippines," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-14, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yanica P. Dimitrova, 2020. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Innovation – the Meaningful Connection," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 4, pages 89-108.
    2. Pasi Heikkurinen & Tarja Ketola, 2012. "Corporate Responsibility and Identity: from a Stakeholder to an Awareness Approach," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(5), pages 326-337, July.
    3. Antony Paulraj, 2009. "Environmental motivations: a classification scheme and its impact on environmental strategies and practices," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(7), pages 453-468, November.
    4. Silvia Ayuso & Francisco Ernesto Navarrete‐Báez, 2018. "How Does Entrepreneurial and International Orientation Influence SMEs' Commitment to Sustainable Development? Empirical Evidence from Spain and Mexico," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(1), pages 80-94, January.
    5. Edilson Bacinello & Gérson Tontini & Anete Alberton, 2021. "Influence of corporate social responsibility on sustainable practices of small and medium‐sized enterprises: Implications on business performance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 776-785, March.
    6. Jonathan Luffarelli & Amrou Awaysheh, 2018. "The Impact of Indirect Corporate Social Performance Signals on Firm Value: Evidence from an Event Study," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(3), pages 295-310, May.
    7. Edilson Bacinello & Gérson Tontini & Anete Alberton, 2020. "Influence of maturity on corporate social responsibility and sustainable innovation in business performance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 749-759, March.
    8. Giorgos Papagiannakis & Irini Voudouris & Spyros Lioukas, 2014. "The Road to Sustainability: Exploring the Process of Corporate Environmental Strategy Over Time," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 254-271, May.
    9. Dirk Boehe & Luciano Barin Cruz, 2010. "Corporate Social Responsibility, Product Differentiation Strategy and Export Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 91(2), pages 325-346, February.
    10. Bárbara Galleli & Elder Semprebon & Joyce Aparecida Ramos dos Santos & Noah Emanuel Brito Teles & Mateus Santos de Freitas-Martins & Raquel Teodoro da Silva Onevetch, 2021. "Institutional Pressures, Sustainable Development Goals and COVID-19: How Are Organisations Engaging?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, November.
    11. Ourvashi Bissoon, 2018. "Corporate social responsibility in Mauritius: an analysis of annual reports of multinational hotel groups," Asian Journal of Sustainability and Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 1-19, December.
    12. Francesco Gangi & Antonio Meles & Eugenio D'Angelo & Lucia Michela Daniele, 2019. "Sustainable development and corporate governance in the financial system: Are environmentally friendly banks less risky?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(3), pages 529-547, May.
    13. Zhiqiang Liu & Ji Li & Hong Zhu & Zhenyao Cai & Luning Wang, 2014. "Chinese firms’ sustainable development—The role of future orientation, environmental commitment, and employee training," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 195-213, March.
    14. Christopher Groening & Vamsi K. Kanuri, 2018. "Investor Reactions to Concurrent Positive and Negative Stakeholder News," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(4), pages 833-856, June.
    15. Jill Brown & William Forster, 2013. "CSR and Stakeholder Theory: A Tale of Adam Smith," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 301-312, January.
    16. Nagib Salem Bayoud & Marie Kavanagh & Geoff Slaughter, 2012. "An Empirical Study Of The Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure And Organizational Performance: Evidence From Libya," International Journal of Management and Marketing Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 5(3), pages 69-82.
    17. Khurshid Djalilov & Christopher A. Hartwell, 2023. "The spirit is willing, but the institutions are weak: disclosure of corporate social responsibility and the financial sector in transition," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(2), pages 385-427, June.
    18. Tobias Hahn & Frank Figge & Jonatan Pinkse & Lutz Preuss, 2010. "Trade‐offs in corporate sustainability: you can't have your cake and eat it," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(4), pages 217-229, May.
    19. James Hine & Lutz Preuss, 2009. "“Society is Out There, Organisation is in Here”: On the Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility Held by Different Managerial Groups," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(2), pages 381-393, August.
    20. Anne Bergmann, 2016. "The Link between Corporate Environmental and Corporate Financial Performance—Viewpoints from Practice and Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-15, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:24:y:2015:i:6:p:565-582. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.