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Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Why Sustainability Reporting Based on the Triple Bottom Line Can Be Misleading

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  • Larissa Shnayder
  • Frank J van Rijnsoever
  • Marko P Hekkert

Abstract

In the packaged food industry, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an informal requirement for which firms account through sustainability reporting. CSR behaviors are often reported and analyzed using the Triple Bottom Line (3BL) framework, which categorizes them as affecting people, planet, or profit. 3BL is useful in determining which of these categories is most elaborated upon by the firm, but has a limited scope and many documented criticisms. This paper aims to address the aforementioned insufficiencies by augmenting the 3BL framework with two important attributes of CSR practices: (1) the presence of change in core firm behavior of the firm itself or of others in the supply chain, and (2) whether the behavior qualifies as being outside of the firm’s normal business practice or is something that they might have done anyway. We qualitatively analyze CSR behaviors described in sustainability reports and interviews from major players in the packaged food industry and categorize them using these attributes as a supplement to 3BL. This enables us to separate the behaviors from their framing and analyze them more critically. Our results demonstrate how the visible CSR efforts of a firm can be misleading at first glance. Using only 3BL, we find that the CSR focus of firms in this industry is people. We then discover that the codes focusing on people (as opposed to planet or profit) require the least amount of real structural change from a firm or its supply chain partners, and thus arguably, the least amount of effort. We also find that behaviors that focus on planet require the most effort within the firm itself, but for behaviors involving supply chain partners, effort is required for behaviors in all three categories. Finally, we find that CSR behavior that is related to planet tends to go beyond normal business practice.

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  • Larissa Shnayder & Frank J van Rijnsoever & Marko P Hekkert, 2015. "Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Why Sustainability Reporting Based on the Triple Bottom Line Can Be Misleading," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-23, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0119036
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0119036
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Eastmure, Elizabeth & Cummins, Steven & Sparks, Leigh, 2020. "Non-market strategy as a framework for exploring commercial involvement in health policy: A primer," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    3. Tonino Pencarelli & Viktória Ali Taha & Veronika Škerháková & Tomáš Valentiny & Richard Fedorko, 2019. "Luxury Products and Sustainability Issues from the Perspective of Young Italian Consumers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-25, December.
    4. Larissa Shnayder & Frank J. Van Rijnsoever, 2018. "How expected outcomes, stakeholders, and institutions influence corporate social responsibility at different levels of large basic needs firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1689-1707, December.
    5. Caroline Tahon & Peter J. Batt, 2021. "An Exploratory Study of the Sustainable Practices Used at Each Level of the Bordeaux Wine Value Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-25, August.
    6. Deniz Tunçalp & Nihan Yıldırım, 2022. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Mapping the Business Landscape for the Last 20 Years," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-21, March.
    7. Thang Quyet Nguyen & Nguyen Thanh Long & Thanh-Lam Nguyen, 2019. "Impacts of corporate social responsibility on the competitiveness of tourist enterprises: An empirical case of Ben Tre, Vietnam," Tourism Economics, , vol. 25(4), pages 539-568, June.
    8. Rebekka Küchler & Birte Maja Nicolai & Christian Herzig, 2023. "Towards a sustainability management tool for food manufacturing small and medium‐sized enterprises—Insights from a Delphi study," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 589-604, March.
    9. Bos, Colin & van der Lans, Ivo A. & van Kleef, Ellen & van Trijp, Hans C.M., 2018. "Promoting healthy choices from vending machines: Effectiveness and consumer evaluations of four types of interventions," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 247-255.
    10. Manveer Mann & Sang-Eun Byun & Whitney Ginder, 2021. "B Corps’ Social Media Communications during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Through the Lens of the Triple Bottom Line," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-21, August.
    11. Sarah Tiba & Frank J. van Rijnsoever & Marko P. Hekkert, 2019. "Firms with benefits: A systematic review of responsible entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility literature," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(2), pages 265-284, March.
    12. Yanhong Tang & Rui Yang & Yingwen Chen & Mengjin Du & Yichen Yang & Xin Miao, 2020. "Greenwashing of Local Government: The Human-Caused Risks in the Process of Environmental Information Disclosure in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-14, August.

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