IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/penwps/032022.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Profit as a means or an end? A conceptual framework for an ecological economics approach to sustainable business

Author

Listed:
  • Hinton, Jennifer B.
  • Cornell, Sarah E.

Abstract

This paper examines the implications of the argument that sustainable businesses should see profit as a means, not an end. It develops a heuristic conceptual framework that identifies two main ways in which a business can treat profit as an end: first, through voluntary objectives; and secondly, through private financial rights. To illustrate the usefulness of this framework, these indicators are applied to examine a range of theoretical approaches, incorporation structures, and third-party certifications that have been developed with the aim of making business sustainable. The application of the framework reveals inconsistencies, ambiguities, and shortfalls of these approaches in their treatment of profit, and outlines ways to advance the theory and practice of sustainable business.

Suggested Citation

  • Hinton, Jennifer B. & Cornell, Sarah E., 2022. "Profit as a means or an end? A conceptual framework for an ecological economics approach to sustainable business," Working Paper Series 03/2022, Post-Growth Economics Network (PEN).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:penwps:032022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/264904/1/PEN-WP2022-03.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Libecap, Gary D., 1986. "Property rights in economic history: Implications for research," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 227-252, July.
    2. Ozgur Isil & Michael T. Hernke, 2017. "The Triple Bottom Line: A Critical Review from a Transdisciplinary Perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(8), pages 1235-1251, December.
    3. Kirsten Foss & Nicolai Foss, 2001. "Assets, Attributes and Ownership," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 19-37.
    4. Carlo Borzaga & Simone Poledrini & Giulia Galera, 2017. "Social Enterprise in Italy: Typology, Diffusion and Characteristics," Euricse Working Papers 1796, Euricse (European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises).
    5. Grossman, Sanford J & Hart, Oliver D, 1986. "The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 691-719, August.
    6. Pencavel, John & Craig, Ben, 1994. "The Empirical Performance of Orthodox Models of the Firm: Conventional Firms and Worker Cooperatives," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(4), pages 718-744, August.
    7. Orts, Eric W., 2013. "Business Persons: A Legal Theory of the Firm," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199670918.
    8. Gall, Roslynne G. & Schroder, Bill, 2006. "Agricultural Producer Cooperatives as Strategic Alliances," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 9(4), pages 1-19.
    9. Fabio R. Chaddad & Michael L. Cook, 2004. "Understanding New Cooperative Models: An Ownership–Control Rights Typology," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 26(3), pages 348-360.
    10. Fabio R. Chaddad & Michael L. Cook, 2004. "Understanding New Cooperative Models: An Ownership–Control Rights Typology," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 26(3), pages 348-360.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Hendrikse, G., 2006. "Challenges facing Agricultural Cooperatives: Heterogeneity and Consolidation," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 41, March.
    2. Jos Bijman & Markus Hanisch & Ger Sangen, 2014. "Shifting Control? The Change of Internal Governance in Agricultural Cooperatives in the EU," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 85(4), pages 641-661, December.
    3. Yildiz, Özgür & Radtke, Jörg, 2015. "Energy cooperatives as a form of workplace democracy? A theoretical assessment," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 16(3), pages 17-24.
    4. López-Bayón, Susana & González-Díaz, Manuel & Solís-Rodríguez, Vanesa & Fernández-Barcala, Marta, 2018. "Governance decisions in the supply chain and quality performance: The synergistic effect of geographical indications and ownership structure," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 1-12.
    5. Claude Ménard, 2018. "Organization and governance in the agrifood sector: How can we capture their variety?," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(1), pages 142-160, December.
    6. Elliott, Matthew & James, Harvey Jr., 2013. "Nature Of The Farm: Revisited," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150726, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Salazar Idana & Galve Górriz Carmen, 2011. "Determinants of the Differences in the Downstream Vertical Integration and Efficiency Implications in Agricultural Cooperatives," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-26, February.
    8. Navarra Cecilia & Tortia Ermanno, 2011. "Employer’s moral hazard and the emergence of worker cooperatives," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201103, University of Turin.
    9. Damien Rousselière, 2019. "A Flexible Approach to Age Dependence in Organizational Mortality: Comparing the Life Duration for Cooperative and Non-Cooperative Enterprises Using a Bayesian Generalized Additive Discrete Time Survi," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 17(4), pages 829-855, December.
    10. Hueth, Brent & Marcoul, Philippe, 2007. "The Cooperative Firm as Monitored Credit," Staff Paper Series 508, University of Wisconsin, Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    11. Berends, Jared & Rich, Karl M. & Kaitibie, Simeon & Lyne, Michael C., 2021. "Ex-ante evaluation of interventions to upgrade pork value chains in Southern Myanmar," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    12. Chong-En Bai & Chenggang Xu, 2001. "Ownership, Incentives and Monitoring," STICERD - Theoretical Economics Paper Series 413, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    13. Leung, Henry & Furfaro, Frank, 2020. "Comovement of dairy product futures and firm value: returns and volatility," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 64(3), July.
    14. Maryline Filippi, 2014. "Using the Regional Advantage: French Agricultural Cooperatives' Economic and Governance Tool," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 85(4), pages 597-615, December.
    15. Achilleas Kontogeorgos & Panagiota Sergaki & Anastasia Kosma & Vassiliki Semou, 2018. "Organizational Models for Agricultural Cooperatives: Empirical Evidence for their Performance," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 9(4), pages 1123-1137, December.
    16. Karin Hakelius & Jerker Nilsson, 2020. "The Logic behind the Internal Governance of Sweden’s Largest Agricultural Cooperatives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-19, October.
    17. Jasper Grashuis, 2018. "An Exploratory Study of Cooperative Survival: Strategic Adaptation to External Developments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-15, February.
    18. Jasper GRASHUIS & Ye SU, 2019. "A Review Of The Empirical Literature On Farmer Cooperatives: Performance, Ownership And Governance, Finance, And Member Attitude," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 90(1), pages 77-102, March.
    19. Nazik Beishenaly & Frédéric Dufays, 2023. "Entrepreneurial ecosystem for cooperatives: The case of Kyrgyz agricultural cooperatives," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(4), pages 1173-1198, December.
    20. Salil Bhattarai & Michael C. Lyne & Sandra K. Martin, 2015. "Analysing the robustness of spice chains in Nepal from a smallholder perspective," Asian Journal of Agriculture and rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 5(4), pages 88-102, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sustainable business; Social enterprise; Sustainable economy; Ecological economics; Degrowth;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:zbw:penwps:032022. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.postgrowtheconomics.org/ .

    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.