Towards a more sustainable society: proposing a framework that determines how firms can contribute to this development
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2020-06-29
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en
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Sustainable development is an increasingly important concern for business managers, as planet earth will lose its ability to provide the necessary resources and conditions to meet current and future generations. Firms play a vital role in the transition towards a more sustainable society, as firms use a significant part of the necessary resources within their business activities. The aim of this research is to examine the link between firm performance indicators and the development towards a more sustainable society. This research adopted a mixed method approach using quantitative data to examine the aforementioned link and qualitative data to validate the quantitative results with practice. Data on firm performance indicators were obtained through the ASSET4 dataset and data on the sustainability of a society were obtained through the SSI dataset. Multiple regression analyses were performed for the years 2006, 2011 and 2016 on data of resp. 579, 783 and 971 listed firms in Europe. The findings show that firm performance indicators contribute very little to the development towards a more sustainable society. These findings indicate that concepts like corporate sustainability (CS) and resource-based view (RBV) are not in line with the development towards a sustainable society. Therefore, a new framework of shared value creation of socially responsible firms for the development of a sustainable society is proposed. The development towards a sustainable society is not focused on achieving a particular end results or output, but rather a stepwise development process towards a sustainable society which creates impact. This process requires extensive coordination and collaboration between firms and sectors in which knowledge creation and innovation are stimulated. In this way, firms can create shared value and restore the balance in which planet earth is able to provide the necessary resources and conditions to meet the needs of current and future generations.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen