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PurposeThis article examines how responsibility and strategy can and should be connected in a business organization.Design/methodology/approachThe article offers a review of the field by mapping previous studies according to their strategy and responsibility orientations and, consequently, identifies the classic perspective, as well as the major deficiencies and prevailing research gaps in the literature.FindingsThe article contributes to the field of strategic corporate responsibility by reframing the field with a contender perspective that challenges the classic view of strategy and responsibility amalgamation. Together, the classic and the contender perspectives are synthesized to form an integrative perspective that is more holistic than those currently available.Originality/valueThe article ends by calling for a reimagining of the relationship between corporate responsibility and strategy to find promising future research avenues and effective business practices suitable to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.

AbstractThis paper analyzes strategic implications of corporate responsibility (CR) and in particular how a firm can differentiate with an environmentally responsible image. A single case study was conducted in the Nordic hospitality industry with semi‐structured interviews as the main data collection method.By adopting an environmentally responsible identity through shared values with the firm's key stakeholders, the firm can reflect an environmentally responsible image. This image can enhance the firm's strategic position through internal and external differentiators from competitors – as the firm becomes a more preferred employer, partner and supplier, it results in enhanced employee motivation, cost savings, better reputation, and greater guest loyalty. The amount of CR depends on the micro/meso/macro/global‐level drivers, and competitive aims of the firm. The emphasis on stakeholder communication becomes greater as the firm increases its CR‐aggressiveness. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Current debates on sustainability are building on a problematic assumption that technological advancement is a desired phenomenon, creating positive change in human organisations. This transdisciplinary book develops a new way to conceptualise and examine technology, and outlines feasible alternatives for sustainability beyond technology.

Modernin tekniikan eli teknologian aikakauden voidaan nähdä alkaneen teollistumisesta. Sitä määrittää eri työvälineiden ja kulttuuristen suhteiden yhteen kietoutuneisuus, tuotantoprosessien monimutkaistuminen ja resurssi-intensiivisyys. Laajentuva teknosfääri – teknologisen järjestelmän kokonaisuus – on laadultaan olio, jossa "tekniikka" ja "logiikka" ovat sekoittuneet laskelmoiduksi, ulkoistetuksi ja automatisoiduksi "teknologiikaksi", jota pitää liikkeessä ulkoiset resurssipanokset. Teknologiaan ja teknosfääriin liittyy kosolti sosiaalisia ja ekologisia ongelmia. Näiden ongelmien perkaamisen ohella päähuomiomme tässä kirjoituksessa on kokoavan teknologiakäsityksen luonnostelemisessa vaihtoehdoksi vallitseville teknologiaymmärryksille. Hahmottelemme tätä otetta etenkin Marxin ja Heideggerin ajatusten viitoittamana. Tavoitteemme on edistää kokonaisvaltaisemman ja refleksiivisemmän teknologiakeskustelun syntyä, jossa otetaan huomioon teknologian keskeiset ongelmat, säilyttäen kuitenkin avoimuus sille, että teknologia ja sen kehittäminen voivat tuoda mukanaan muutakin kuin massasukupuuttoja ja eriarvoisuutta.

This article develops an integrative perspective on corporate responsibility by synthesising competing perspectives on the responsibility of the corporation at the organisational and societal levels of analysis. We review three major corporate responsibility perspectives, which we refer to as economic, critical, and politico-ethical. We analyse the major potential uses and pitfalls of the perspectives, and integrate the debate on these two levels. Our synthesis concludes that when a society has a robust division of moral labour in place, the responsibility of a corporation may be economic (as suggested under the economic perspective) without jeopardising democracy and sustainability (as reported under the critical perspective). Moreover, the economic role of corporations neither signifies the absence of deliberative democratic mechanisms nor business practices extending beyond compliance (as called for under the politico-ethical perspective). The study underscores the value of integrating different perspectives and multiple levels of analysis to present comprehensive descriptions and prescriptions of the responsibility phenomenon. ; Peer reviewed

PurposeIn search of new perspectives on sustainable food production, this paper focuses on three fields of literature, namely corporate responsibility (CR), supply chain management (SCM) and strategy. The purpose of this paper is to identify the recent theoretical developments and then integrate them in a framework for studying and managing corporations.Design/methodology/approachConceiving socio‐cultural and economic systems within the ecosystem, this paper call for research in the food sector that takes the planetary boundaries into consideration and places the essential needs of the world's poor onto the research agenda of CR, SCM and strategy.FindingsFirst, a new perspective on CR could be "holistic and beyond responsive", as it emphasizes the focal actor's role. Second, SCM could be strengthened at its interface with sustainability by the "bottom of the pyramid" view, as it looks for new ways to make business models and operations beneficial for poor communities. And third, in examining the strategies for these two, the strategy‐as‐practice perspective might prove useful, as it is not only limited to organizational practice but also includes the concepts of organizational praxis and practitioners.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper argues that these new perspectives are promising avenues for managing and studying business in the food sector, and thus have implications for both academia and industry.Originality/valueThe framework provided in the paper combines three important areas of business research for sustainable development, namely CR, SCM and strategy.

The call for strong sustainability / Karl Johan Bonnedahl and Pasi Heikkurinen -- The long history of unsustainability : inter-species relations since the 1850s / Tarja Ketola, Tuomas Räsänen and Taina Syrjämaa -- Rethinking economic ontologies : from scarcity and market subjects to strong sustainability / Teppo Eskelinen and Kristoffer Wilén -- Rights of nature as a prerequisite for sustainability / Pella Larsdotter Thiel and Henrik Hallgren -- The energy ethic and strong sustainability : outlining key principles for a moral compass / Giovanni Frigo -- Ecosystem infrastructure for sustainability : revaluating nature through community-based water and land policies in Brazil / Mohammad Al-Saidi and Renata Buriti -- Urban ecosystem services and stakeholders : towards a sustainable capability approach / Anna Heikkinen, Hannela Mäkelä, Johanna Kujala, Jere Nieminen, Ari Jokinen and Hanna Rekola -- Meat consumption and the environmental unsustainability of economic growth : the case of China / Jennifer Rivers Cole and Suzanne K. McCoskey -- Business models based on strongly sustainable entrepreneurship : insights from a systemic literature review / Herman Stål -- Biodiversity as integral to strongly sustainable supply chains : review and exemplars in the natural resources sectors / Anne Quarshie, Asta Salmi, Joanna Scott-Kennel and Anni-Kaisa Kähkönen -- Sustainable investment and degrowth / Tommi Lehtonen -- Strongly sustainable consumption and a case of mistaken identity : a qualitative study on environmentally concerned individuals / Kristoffer Wilén and Tiina Taipale -- Being matters : a holistic conception of wellbeing in the shift towards strongly sustainable societies / Tuula Helne -- Relearning with permaculture : exploring knowledges of innovation for strong sustainability / Maxim Vlasov and Zsuzsanna Vincze -- Redesigning community as an ecovillage : lessons from Earthaven / Todd Levasseur and Lee Warren -- Dead ends and living futures : a framework for sustainable change / Pasi Heikkurinen and Karl Johan Bonnedahl.

The response of the international community to the pressing socio-ecological problems has been framed around the concept of 'sustainable development'. The ecological pressure, however, has continued to rise and mainstream sustainability discourse has proven to be problematic. It contains an instrumental view of the world, a strong focus on technological solutions, and the premise that natural and human-made 'capitals' are substitutable. This trajectory, which is referred to as 'weak sustainability', reproduces inequalities, denies intrinsic values in nature, and jeopardises the wellbeing of humans as well as other beings. Based on the assumptions of strong sustainability, this edited book presents practical and theoretical alternatives to today's unsustainable societies. It investigates and advances pathways for humanity that are ecologically realistic, ethically inclusive, and receptive to the task's magnitude and urgency. The book challenges the traditional anthropocentric ethos and ontology, economic growth-dogma, and programmes of ecological modernisation. It discusses options with examples on different levels of analysis, from the individual to the global, addressing the economic system, key sectors of society, alternative lifestyles, and experiences of local communities. Examining key topics including human-nature relations and wealth and justice, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental and development studies, ecological economics, environmental governance and policy, sustainable business, and sustainability science.

ABSTRACTThis paper explores how food chain responsibility can be connected to strategy. The aim is to identify how strategic corporate responsibility (CR) intentions are in the Finnish food chain and analyse how competitiveness could be enhanced and sustained with strategic CR. The theoretical framework is built on a contextual definition from a resource‐based view. A multiple case study method was deployed and the data were collected through 20 semi‐structured interviews. It was found that the case companies aim at increasing their chain's competitiveness with CR. The food chain responsibility can be connected to strategy with varying depth and breadth. This results in four types of strategic CR combinations, namely: beyond‐responsive & holistic; beyond‐responsive & arrowhead; responsive & holistic; and responsive & arrowhead. The strategic CR combination that is rare, inimitable, and for which competitors cannot find substitutes, can yield a sustained competitive advantage and above‐normal economic performance. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment.

In this article, we study politics as domination. From our point of view, domination, especially in the Anthropocene, has had two vital components-power and supremacy. In order to dominate, one has to have power over others. In addition, the politics of domination, such as colonial oppression of Latin America, has required reasoning, justification, and legitimation, often connected to superiority (because of religion, society, or civilization) from the oppressor's end. Past and present political ideologies and programs, such as colonialism, imperialism, but also welfare state capitalism, neoliberalism and increasingly popular Green New Deal are examples of what we call "anthropolitics", an anthropocentric approach to politics based on domination, power, and supremacist exploitation. In contrast to the prevailing anthropolitics, this article discusses post-Anthropocene politics, characterized by localization and decentralization, as well as a steep reduction of matter-energy throughput by introducing a theoretical frame called ecological realism. ; Peer reviewed

Hannah Arendt's three-fold conceptualization of human activity offers a useful base for understanding the necessity of degrowth and the kinds of activities required to achieve it. The article argues that the different roles of labour, work, and action should be acknowledged and scrutinized in detail to appreciate the underpinnings of contemporary over-production and over-consumption, as well as to prompt the organization of an alternative society. While following the Arendtian analysis on the origins of meaningful political change, which emphasizes the utmost importance of 'action', the article also underscores the importance of a different conception of 'labour' through physical activity, such as community supported agriculture, and 'work' through social activity such as building off-grid energy systems. The study aligns itself with Arendt's key insight that the origin of most contemporary problems relates to the disappearance of 'action', which for her is political, but also argues that the distinction between 'paid' and 'non-paid' activity has to be carefully considered in the context of degrowth. The article concludes that non-paid activities, particularly in the form of Arendtian 'action', have great potential to contribute to the degrowth movement. Demonetized activities are important for degrowth, as monetary transactions in capitalist societies based on interest and debt tend to contribute to economic growth, which is deemed ecologically unsustainable. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ; Peer reviewed

Sustainable development has been an important policy goal for the international community for over three decades. Still, the state of the planet continues to worsen. This conceptual article considers the failure largely a result of structural obstacles and the so-called weak sustainability discourse, popularized by the Brundtland report and manifested today in The 2030 Agenda. The article adopts a strong sustainability perspective for examining structural distances between actors and the consequences of their acts. We argue that these impede responsible action and that policy should aim to reduce or eliminate distances in the four dimensions of space, time, functions and relations. The article concludes by suggesting Strongly Sustainable Development Goals, which could help transitioning humanity towards sustainability, lower the anthropogenic environmental impact on the planet, and enable the continuity of diverse life on Earth. ; Peer reviewed

Sustainable development has been an important policy goal for the international community for over threedecades. Still, the state of the planet continues to worsen. This conceptual article considers the failure largely aresult of structural obstacles and the so-called weak sustainability discourse, popularized by the Brundtlandreport and manifested today in The 2030 Agenda. The article adopts a strong sustainability perspective forexamining structural distances between actors and the consequences of their acts. We argue that these impederesponsible action and that policy should aim to reduce or eliminate distances in the four dimensions of space,time, functions and relations. The article concludes by suggesting Strongly Sustainable Development Goals,which could help transitioning humanity towards sustainability, lower the anthropogenic environmental impacton the planet, and enable the continuity of diverse life on Earth.