Suchergebnisse

AbstractThe voluntary implementation of environmental management systems (EMS) according to Eco‐Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is a proactive and comprehensive management initiative aiming to improve corporate environmental performance. EMS implementation and connected communication activities are seen as a possibility to strengthen stakeholder relationships. However, EMS development and implementation consumes significant time and financial resources. Therefore, in this empirical study with hospital managers, it is questioned if and to what extent hospital managers perceive stakeholders valuing the implementation of an EMS according to EMAS. The results show that only internal stakeholder pressure from owners and the management board exists. Other stakeholders know little and care less about EMAS, suggesting that they have other priorities and do not see a necessity for hospitals to engage in environmental management efforts. This low stakeholder interest reduces the value of EMAS registration for hospitals and limits future environmental management efforts. This could hinder sustainable development within the healthcare sector.

Purpose
As social institutions, higher education institutions (HEIs) play a key role in the distribution of knowledge and skills for sustainable development and societal structures. To fulfill this task, the institutionalization of sustainability within the organization's structures is essential. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the status quo of environmental management performance (EMP) in HEIs and conclusions for the application of management control systems.


Design/methodology/approach
Within a systematic literature review, 56 international publications were analyzed along a qualitative thematic content analysis. The coding followed the dimensions of EMP by Trumpp et al.


Findings
Structuring environmental sustainability efforts along the concept of EMP reveals a major weakness in environmental sustainability management of HEIs. Therefore, the study proposes a model for a processual integration of steering mechanisms for management bodies to systemize appropriate efforts to gain excellence in operations.


Originality/value
By applying the concept of EMP by Trumpp et al., this systematic review provides an overview of the status quo of environmental management performance at HEIs and proposes a model for the implementation of advanced top-down steering striving a whole institution approach.

AbstractHospitals are major actors in the health care sector, and their duty is the safe treatment of patients. Thus, hospitals make an important contribution to the achievement of sustainability goals. However, they also have negative environmental impacts. Hospitals have difficulties responding to increasing environmental demands. The aim of this paper is to systematically delineate measures for hospitals' environmental management.We research EMAS‐registered hospitals as pioneers in environmental management that have credibility through external validation. Based on 31 publicly available environmental statements, we analyze measures from the environmental programs. These measures are classified into general management approaches and measures that are related to input (energy, materials, and water) and output (waste, wastewater, and emissions).The paper makes a practical contribution by summarizing environmental measures to improve environmental performance. This provides a brief overview that can serve as a benchmark and best‐practice sharing for other hospitals and organizations interested in environmental protection.

Purpose
Higher education institutions, as influential social institutions, play an important role in promoting social responsibility and sustainable practices. However, approaches to implementing sustainable development (SD) in higher education institutions (HEIs) themselves remain fuzzy. One way to achieve holistic embedding can lie in organizational culture. This study aims to examine ways by which internal sustainability governance can promote sustainability culture by using empirical data from German HEIs.


Design/methodology/approach
This study uses factor analysis to identify relevant governance indicators. With a regression analysis, this study assesses the indicators' effects on organizational sustainability culture in HEIs. A moderator analysis tests potential determinants derived from literature and their influence on sustainability governance and sustainability culture.


Findings
Operationalizing formalized sustainability governance for holistic implementation reveals a gap in sustainability management at HEIs. This study proposes a model for operationalizing sustainability governance and shows an effect on sustainability culture at the formal organizational level.


Originality/value
Based on the operationalization of sustainability governance, this empirical study provides evidence for the development of a holistic approach along a sustainability culture in organizations. This paper proposes a model for operationalization, analyzes multiorganizational data and shows the effects of sustainability governance on formalized organizational sustainability culture. This paper provides a transorganizational perspective for implementing SD following a top-down approach.

AbstractInternational technology transfer (ITT) is commonly seen as an essential way to bridge the gap between highly advanced industrialised nations and developing countries. This gap is particularly pronounced with a view of African states. These generally have a limited capacity to cope with the effects of climate change. Therefore, foreign innovations must be successfully adopted to realities on the continent to mitigate the effects. This has sparked a growing academic interest in this topic in recent years, leading to many aspects being covered in the literature. This paper takes stock of the current state of the art, thereby asking the question: What do we know about the problems regarding international technology transfer to Africa? Employing a reproducible, transparent and clear systematic review, 73 relevant texts are identified. The barriers to more (successful) international technology transfer that these publications identify are discussed. As this review clarifies, many aspects are known, but specifics around governance aspects and institutional set‐ups are primarily bypassed in the discussion.

AbstractUsing the example of VW's handling of "Diesel-Gate" in its corporate communications (suspected manipulation of vehicle emission test results discovered in 2015), we examine the effects of a disruptive event on corporate risk reporting. To this end, an evaluation in the form of a case study of external corporate communications in VW's annual reports covering the years 2012–2017 was carried out. Changes can be seen in VW's communication with shareholders following "Diesel-Gate", especially with regard to what topics were covered and the emotionality of the language. Among the strategies used for restoring the company's image, the company took pains to highlight corrective measures designed to avoid similar incidents in the future. The methodology presented in the paper can be applied to the analysis of similar events.

Managers play an important role in creating organizational resilience. In highly volatile and uncertain times they must employ long-term visioning, think in alternatives, and deal with complexity in order to promote organizational resilience capabilities. However, strategic management education has been criticized for not providing significant learning experiences that equip them with those capabilities adequately. It still teaches outdated frameworks that do not meet the needs of today's complex environment and that are not truly considering real problems of strategy. One way to confront these limitations could be a learning intervention that combines a future-oriented strategy framework with a subsequent experiential learning experience. We use a qualitative research design with an experimental character to contrast student groups that were part of a combined learning intervention (a lecture on scenario planning and a case study work) with student groups that only took part in the case study work. Our video-based analysis shows that the first are consistently superior in terms of the strategy process (structure and outcome), performance outcomes (accuracy, plausibility, creativity, and transferability), and learning outcomes. The analysis further shows a positive influence on resilience capabilities such as anticipation and sensemaking.

Although stakeholder theory is widely accepted in environmental disclosure research, empirical evidence about the role of stakeholders in firms' disclosure is still scarce. The authors address this issue for a setting of carbon disclosure. Our international sample comprises the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Global 500, S&P 500, and FTSE 350 reports from 2008 to 2011, resulting in a total of 1,120 firms with 3,631 firm-year observations. The authors apply Tobit regressions to analyze the relationship between carbon disclosure and the relevance of the following stakeholder groups: government, general public, media, employees, and customers. Our results confirm that in addition to carbon performance, all stakeholders are associated with carbon disclosure. Only one stakeholder group (government) acts as a moderator for the relationship between carbon performance and carbon disclosure. Furthermore, the authors find that carbon performance but not the affiliation to a carbon-intensive industry acts as a moderator between stakeholder relevance and carbon disclosure.