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5 - Managerial Drivers of Environmental Sustainability Strategy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2019

Sanjay Sharma  and
Pramodita Sharma
Sanjay Sharma
Affiliation:
University of Vermont
Pramodita Sharma
Affiliation:
University of Vermont
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Summary

A firm’s managers have the most intimate understanding of the firm’s business, customers, processes, and capabilities. The managers’ decisions are influenced not only by institutional forces, stakeholders, and organizational governance and leadership but also by their personal values toward sustainability, attitudes toward their roles in solving environmental sustainability challenges, cognitive frames, and interpretations of environmental issues as threats or opportunities. Managers remain locked into everyday routines, patterns of thinking, and cognitive biases that may stifle creativity.Firms that develop successful PES strategies create the opportunities for employees to apply fresh ideas and strategic thinking to address sustainability challenges by enabling them to overcome their biases and everyday routines. Family firms have some unique features that influence strategic decision-making by managers (which includes the family members) differently as compared to non-family firms. Managers in family firms that aim for trans-generational continuity of their enterprise will make decisions differently when addressing environmental issues.

Keywords

Managerial valuesattitudes and interpretationsCognitive frames and biasesOpportunity framing of environmental issuesOrganizational context and designLegitimization in corporate identityDiscretionary slackInformation flowControl systemsChampioning Sustainable ideas and innovations
Type
Chapter
Information
Patient Capital
The Role of Family Firms in Sustainable Business
 , pp. 150 - 194
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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