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International audience Sabaf, a world leading manufacturer of components for domestic gas cooking appliances, went through a transformation process between 1993 and 2005 to develop a strategic approach to corporate responsibility. This case describes the learning and change process within the company that set the ground for today's success.This teaching case builds on data gathered through sites primary and secondary data. The case research protocol explored the notion that the company was learning how to interact and respond to its changing context while its responses were creating the ground for internal organisational change that in turn would impact the relationship between the company and its context.Sabaf's case is not only a move from an implicit to explicit approach to corporate responsibility, but more profoundly it portrays a company that was engaged in developing a more 'humanistic' approach to management that permeated the whole organization. The term 'corporate responsibility' was used to describe much older concepts that valued people and the natural environment alongside economics. The case also shows the process of organizational leadership for learning, management innovation and change that supported the processes through which this approach was developed and integrated into the company.This case provides unique insights into the approach Sabaf adopted in its pioneering transformation to become a leading corporate responsibility company and a world leader in its sector. This case can be used as a benchmark for other companies that might embark on a similar process affecting the business as a whole.

PurposeThe literature on corporate responsibility (CR) increasingly recognizes the importance of leadership in support of organizational change. This is particularly the case when CR provides the basis for the business contribution to sustainable development, which is understood to involve organizational and social innovation leading to change. The paper draws on theoretical and empirical studies to examine leadership for CR as a particular example of management innovation.Design/methodology/approachThe paper develops a model of leadership for CR as the business contribution to sustainable development by confronting and integrating the literatures on management innovation and leadership for CR. The proposed model is consistent with the direction, alignment, commitment (DAC) framework that fosters a culture of organizational leadership relevant to the specific case of business and sustainable development.FindingsThe process model described in the paper connects leadership in organizational change with literature on management innovation. The paper draws on theoretical and empirically grounded literature on management, corporate responsibility and organizational psychology. It puts forward a sequence of mechanisms that contribute to successful change and discusses how they are linked. This sequence provides a process model of leadership practices for CR as the business contribution to sustainable development viewed as a particular form of management innovation, which involves the advancement of leadership practices for CR as organizational and social change.Research limitations/implicationsThe model is useful as a reference to practice and as a basis for leadership development. In terms of theory the model needs to be more thoroughly tested in empirical settings to understand better the interdependencies between leadership practices for CR and management innovation.Originality/valueThis process model is the first attempt to develop a comprehensive understanding of CR in a management innovation framework. In doing this it moves beyond the recent focus on leadership skills and competences of individuals.

This special issue and the editorial article focus on the issues of context and consequences of corporate responsibility (CR), to which CR research has not given the attention these issues would warrant. Although norms, practices and outcomes of CR depend on socio- political, cultural, national and other contextual factors, the phenomenon has primarily been studied with theories and concepts originating from the USA. We will show that this has lead to a lack of attention to many local aspects and varieties of CR, particularly those of the emerging economies and developing countries. The latter part of the article discusses the outcomes and consequences of CR, including those that are unintended. We point out that many positive expectations and trust is placed on CR as an ideology and as an instrument for contributing to the resolution of many global and environmental ills although little is known about the social consequences and impacts of CR on society. In connection to both discussions, we review the related papers in this special issue. The editorial ends with propositions for future research.

PurposeThis paper seeks to present a longitudinal case study of Ontario Hydro – an industrial organization that used sustainable development as the basis for a strategy of social and organizational transformation.Design/methodology/approachThe paper describes the complex factors that influenced the formulation and implementation of this strategy.FindingsThe findings indicate the advanced ambition and authenticity of Ontario Hydro's strategy, even though it was formulated some ten years ago. The study suggests that the strategy was abandoned for reasons that include the gap between the processes identified in the strategy and the processes followed in practice, the absence of platforms to discuss and agree the meaning and practice of sustainable development within the company and its wider system, and the scarcity of skills to facilitate sustainable development as a process of multi‐actor innovation. Consequently, the concept of sustainable development was not translated into practices that had shared meaning for the many actors involved in the energy system of Ontario. While based on a case study of one organization, the findings appear to speak to more general issues of sustainable development as the management of organizational and contextual change.Practical implicationsThe paper indicates much about the process of organizational change to effect more sustainable practices within a company and its social context.Originality/valueNo other organization has pursued a strategy for sustainable development with the same claim to authenticity as that of Ontario Hydro, where the strategy was cross‐referenced to Agenda 21 and developed with input from some of the main architects of Agenda 21. Moreover, few studies of sustainable development in the literature span a period as long as this case.