As Associate Professor of Strategy and Sustainability in the Strategy & International Business group at WBS, my research and teaching activities are driven by a focus on understanding how companies respond to and integrate global sustainability challenges into their business strategies and management practices.
Purpose-driven businesses have a stated objective to contribute to the welfare of society and the... more Purpose-driven businesses have a stated objective to contribute to the welfare of society and the planet alongside generating shareholder value. As interest in purpose-driven businesses grows, an emerging “purpose ecosystem” of advisers, investors, and enablers offers different types of support for businesses wanting to transition to sustainability. This paper examines how the transition towards purpose-driven business in Australia and the United Kingdom requires addressing challenges facing this support ecosystem at three levels. First, at the individual level where support providers need to build the capabilities of managers who are experiencing tensions around integrating societal and environmental purpose while facing pressure for maximizing shareholder value. Second, the support providers working within the purpose ecosystem offering professional advice and finance face their own tensions between environmental or social objectives and commercial pressures. Third, there are challenges facing actors in the ecosystems aiming to change the wider policy and institutional environment but facing lobbying from those wanting to keep “business as usual.” We identify practical implications for those parts of the purpose-driven business ecosystem providing support. This includes building capabilities to combine social, environmental, and commercial purpose; coordination among support providers; and creating an institutional environment to avoid “purpose wash.”
Purpose-driven businesses have a stated objective to contribute to the welfare of society and the... more Purpose-driven businesses have a stated objective to contribute to the welfare of society and the planet alongside generating shareholder value. As interest in purpose-driven businesses grows, an emerging “purpose ecosystem” of advisers, investors, and enablers offers different types of support for businesses wanting to transition to sustainability. This paper examines how the transition towards purpose-driven business in Australia and the United Kingdom requires addressing challenges facing this support ecosystem at three levels. First, at the individual level where support providers need to build the capabilities of managers who are experiencing tensions around integrating societal and environmental purpose while facing pressure for maximizing shareholder value. Second, the support providers working within the purpose ecosystem offering professional advice and finance face their own tensions between environmental or social objectives and commercial pressures. Third, there are challenges facing actors in the ecosystems aiming to change the wider policy and institutional environment but facing lobbying from those wanting to keep “business as usual.” We identify practical implications for those parts of the purpose-driven business ecosystem providing support. This includes building capabilities to combine social, environmental, and commercial purpose; coordination among support providers; and creating an institutional environment to avoid “purpose wash.”
Complex and urgent challenges including climate change and the significant decline in biodiversit... more Complex and urgent challenges including climate change and the significant decline in biodiversity provide a broad agenda for interdisciplinary scholars interested in the implications facing businesses, humanity, and other species. Within this context of sustainability, persistent conflicts between key paradigms create substantial barriers against-but also opportunities fordeveloping new conceptual approaches and theoretical models to understand and respond to these critical issues. Here, I revisit paradigmatic tensions to assess their impact on research and debate on sustainability, ethics, and business. Drawing on relational ontology and values of nature that recognise humanity's tight embeddedness within the planetary ecosystem, I examine how conceptualising sustainability as the pursuit of life might generate new insights for research and practice into the wider transformation needed to sustain and restore socioecological systems. The aim here, however, is not to reconcile these paradigmatic tensions but instead use them as a fruitful lens for examining the implications for sustainability, while acknowledging the inherent ethical dilemmas for individuals, organisations, and society.
Today's sustainability challenges require significant transformative shifts in the privat... more Today's sustainability challenges require significant transformative shifts in the private sector, particularly driven by new, potentially also more informal, forms of governance. A variety of sustainability-oriented intermediary organisations encourage and support businesses to become purpose-driven to address social and environmental sustainability issues beyond maximising profit. We conduct interviews with these intermediaries to theorise how and why the broad concept of purpose might be used as an informal means to steer and transform business-society relations. We find that by invoking notions of systemic goal alignment and individual goal alignment, the simultaneous use of two contrasting but complementary frames allows intermediaries to appeal to and potentially engage a variety of audiences in their efforts to changing businesses and the economic system. Our research contributes to literatures on how the framing of purpose in business is used as an informal governance approach for driving a sustainability transformation.
The aim of this research project was to explore the role and agency of the ‘purpose ecosystem’ in... more The aim of this research project was to explore the role and agency of the ‘purpose ecosystem’ in contributing to Earth System Governance. Specifically, we examined if, and how, this emerging purpose ecosystem could represent an innovative form of private governance to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Based on in-depth interviews with 12 Australian organisations and 6 based in the UK we explored open-ended questions on: the definition of purpose; organisations’ respective theory of change; interactions among the purpose ecosystem intermediaries; barriers and challenges towards achieving progress; and, how the organisations address or contribute to the UN SDGs. Key findings from both the Australian and the UK organisations include: • Organisations employ a variety of definitions for purpose which all relate to supporting the achievement of business outcomes beyond profit. • Organisations also use a variety of different engagement methods that often target key decision makers through theories of change based on awareness raising, education and individual support as well as new financial and organisational tools. • Interactions among actors in the purpose ecosystem are characterised by mutual respect and recognition, but also a growing realisation that there is a significant degree of inefficiency and a need for some form of consolidation. • Lack of funding and other resources are key barriers towards achieving greater progress and impact. Other challenges include persistent norms and habits among businesses as well as a need for greater coordination among the organisations in the purpose ecosystem. • All organisations share an explicit awareness of the UN SDGs as a clear, comprehensive and useful framework within which to locate their efforts. While actors pursue different strategies and theories of change, their work directly supports the achievement of the UN SDGs through partnership with business.
In response to a myriad of stakeholder pressures most organisations nowadays employ some sort of ... more In response to a myriad of stakeholder pressures most organisations nowadays employ some sort of environmental manager. This relatively new business function is undergoing increased professionalization – a process commonly associated with institutional work efforts and improved outcomes for the role’s beneficiaries. Much less, however, is known about how this process of professionalization is shaped by and personally affects the professional individual, the perceptions of their role and of their wider contributions to the organisation. Drawing on a longitudinal interview study conducted with environmental managers in the UK, in this paper we examine how institutional work shapes professionalization and, in turn, explore how this process of professionalization impacts on the profession’s target audience or remit. The findings suggest that, despite severe internal and external challenges, many environmental managers are creating and maintaining role designs aligned with legislative compliance and commercial...
In this paper, we investigate the role that managerial incentives play in improving corporate env... more In this paper, we investigate the role that managerial incentives play in improving corporate environmental performance. Drawing on a large dataset of multinational enterprises we study the extent to which incentives help companies with reducing their corporate carbon footprints, an area of environmental performance coming under increasing pressure from a range of stakeholders. Specifically, we test whether incentives at different organizational levels are either complementary or incompatible in terms of their effects on promoting organizational outcomes. Furthermore, we examine the role that firm size plays in moderating these relationships between incentives and organizational performance.
This article advances research on voluntary environmental practices and environmental performance... more This article advances research on voluntary environmental practices and environmental performance by evaluating the motivations that underpin firms’ decision to implement and certify environmental ...
Purpose-driven businesses have a stated objective to contribute to the welfare of society and the... more Purpose-driven businesses have a stated objective to contribute to the welfare of society and the planet alongside generating shareholder value. As interest in purpose-driven businesses grows, an emerging “purpose ecosystem” of advisers, investors, and enablers offers different types of support for businesses wanting to transition to sustainability. This paper examines how the transition towards purpose-driven business in Australia and the United Kingdom requires addressing challenges facing this support ecosystem at three levels. First, at the individual level where support providers need to build the capabilities of managers who are experiencing tensions around integrating societal and environmental purpose while facing pressure for maximizing shareholder value. Second, the support providers working within the purpose ecosystem offering professional advice and finance face their own tensions between environmental or social objectives and commercial pressures. Third, there are challenges facing actors in the ecosystems aiming to change the wider policy and institutional environment but facing lobbying from those wanting to keep “business as usual.” We identify practical implications for those parts of the purpose-driven business ecosystem providing support. This includes building capabilities to combine social, environmental, and commercial purpose; coordination among support providers; and creating an institutional environment to avoid “purpose wash.”
Purpose-driven businesses have a stated objective to contribute to the welfare of society and the... more Purpose-driven businesses have a stated objective to contribute to the welfare of society and the planet alongside generating shareholder value. As interest in purpose-driven businesses grows, an emerging “purpose ecosystem” of advisers, investors, and enablers offers different types of support for businesses wanting to transition to sustainability. This paper examines how the transition towards purpose-driven business in Australia and the United Kingdom requires addressing challenges facing this support ecosystem at three levels. First, at the individual level where support providers need to build the capabilities of managers who are experiencing tensions around integrating societal and environmental purpose while facing pressure for maximizing shareholder value. Second, the support providers working within the purpose ecosystem offering professional advice and finance face their own tensions between environmental or social objectives and commercial pressures. Third, there are challenges facing actors in the ecosystems aiming to change the wider policy and institutional environment but facing lobbying from those wanting to keep “business as usual.” We identify practical implications for those parts of the purpose-driven business ecosystem providing support. This includes building capabilities to combine social, environmental, and commercial purpose; coordination among support providers; and creating an institutional environment to avoid “purpose wash.”
Complex and urgent challenges including climate change and the significant decline in biodiversit... more Complex and urgent challenges including climate change and the significant decline in biodiversity provide a broad agenda for interdisciplinary scholars interested in the implications facing businesses, humanity, and other species. Within this context of sustainability, persistent conflicts between key paradigms create substantial barriers against-but also opportunities fordeveloping new conceptual approaches and theoretical models to understand and respond to these critical issues. Here, I revisit paradigmatic tensions to assess their impact on research and debate on sustainability, ethics, and business. Drawing on relational ontology and values of nature that recognise humanity's tight embeddedness within the planetary ecosystem, I examine how conceptualising sustainability as the pursuit of life might generate new insights for research and practice into the wider transformation needed to sustain and restore socioecological systems. The aim here, however, is not to reconcile these paradigmatic tensions but instead use them as a fruitful lens for examining the implications for sustainability, while acknowledging the inherent ethical dilemmas for individuals, organisations, and society.
Today's sustainability challenges require significant transformative shifts in the privat... more Today's sustainability challenges require significant transformative shifts in the private sector, particularly driven by new, potentially also more informal, forms of governance. A variety of sustainability-oriented intermediary organisations encourage and support businesses to become purpose-driven to address social and environmental sustainability issues beyond maximising profit. We conduct interviews with these intermediaries to theorise how and why the broad concept of purpose might be used as an informal means to steer and transform business-society relations. We find that by invoking notions of systemic goal alignment and individual goal alignment, the simultaneous use of two contrasting but complementary frames allows intermediaries to appeal to and potentially engage a variety of audiences in their efforts to changing businesses and the economic system. Our research contributes to literatures on how the framing of purpose in business is used as an informal governance approach for driving a sustainability transformation.
The aim of this research project was to explore the role and agency of the ‘purpose ecosystem’ in... more The aim of this research project was to explore the role and agency of the ‘purpose ecosystem’ in contributing to Earth System Governance. Specifically, we examined if, and how, this emerging purpose ecosystem could represent an innovative form of private governance to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Based on in-depth interviews with 12 Australian organisations and 6 based in the UK we explored open-ended questions on: the definition of purpose; organisations’ respective theory of change; interactions among the purpose ecosystem intermediaries; barriers and challenges towards achieving progress; and, how the organisations address or contribute to the UN SDGs. Key findings from both the Australian and the UK organisations include: • Organisations employ a variety of definitions for purpose which all relate to supporting the achievement of business outcomes beyond profit. • Organisations also use a variety of different engagement methods that often target key decision makers through theories of change based on awareness raising, education and individual support as well as new financial and organisational tools. • Interactions among actors in the purpose ecosystem are characterised by mutual respect and recognition, but also a growing realisation that there is a significant degree of inefficiency and a need for some form of consolidation. • Lack of funding and other resources are key barriers towards achieving greater progress and impact. Other challenges include persistent norms and habits among businesses as well as a need for greater coordination among the organisations in the purpose ecosystem. • All organisations share an explicit awareness of the UN SDGs as a clear, comprehensive and useful framework within which to locate their efforts. While actors pursue different strategies and theories of change, their work directly supports the achievement of the UN SDGs through partnership with business.
In response to a myriad of stakeholder pressures most organisations nowadays employ some sort of ... more In response to a myriad of stakeholder pressures most organisations nowadays employ some sort of environmental manager. This relatively new business function is undergoing increased professionalization – a process commonly associated with institutional work efforts and improved outcomes for the role’s beneficiaries. Much less, however, is known about how this process of professionalization is shaped by and personally affects the professional individual, the perceptions of their role and of their wider contributions to the organisation. Drawing on a longitudinal interview study conducted with environmental managers in the UK, in this paper we examine how institutional work shapes professionalization and, in turn, explore how this process of professionalization impacts on the profession’s target audience or remit. The findings suggest that, despite severe internal and external challenges, many environmental managers are creating and maintaining role designs aligned with legislative compliance and commercial...
In this paper, we investigate the role that managerial incentives play in improving corporate env... more In this paper, we investigate the role that managerial incentives play in improving corporate environmental performance. Drawing on a large dataset of multinational enterprises we study the extent to which incentives help companies with reducing their corporate carbon footprints, an area of environmental performance coming under increasing pressure from a range of stakeholders. Specifically, we test whether incentives at different organizational levels are either complementary or incompatible in terms of their effects on promoting organizational outcomes. Furthermore, we examine the role that firm size plays in moderating these relationships between incentives and organizational performance.
This article advances research on voluntary environmental practices and environmental performance... more This article advances research on voluntary environmental practices and environmental performance by evaluating the motivations that underpin firms’ decision to implement and certify environmental ...
While for some the recent COVID19 pandemic already seems but a distant memory, for Beate Sjåfjell... more While for some the recent COVID19 pandemic already seems but a distant memory, for Beate Sjåfjell, Carol Liao and Aikaterini Argyrou it marked a significant turning point in their reflections on the role of business in responding to and addressing the wide range of socio-ecological sustainability issues of the 21st century. Emerging from the discussions of an international network of female business scholars, this book summarises often deeply personal and emotional perspectives and assessments of 15 almost all female contributors on the significant shifts in regulation and governance needed to transform business for sustainability.
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Papers by Frederik Dahlmann