Sanjay Sharma

The resource-market level of competition has replaced end-product market level of competition in global integrated production systems where micro and small enterprises (MSEs) often perform activities that are of a low strategic value while large organizations focus on their core competencies. Resource-markets are markets at the level of resources or stages of production which, when aggregated, make up the value-chain of a production process. This article describes this current change in level of competition for MSEs and suggests a framework to help them strategically gain a superior competitive advantage in resource markets. The objective of this framework is to improve the terms of trade for MSEs integrated into larger production networks.

The paper presents the results of an empirical study in two parts: (a) Comparative case studies of seven organizations in the Canadian oil industry undertaken to develop a model of environmental responsiveness that centers on the impact of issue interpretations on strategic responses and identifies influential antecedent strategic leadership and organization design elements; (b) A questionnaire-based mail survey in the Canadian and U.S. oil industries that tests and confirms some elements of the framework generated in the first phase.

Environmental response in 7 Canadian oil and gas firms is discussed, based on an exploratory study from the grounded perspective. Environmental response of individual firms appeared to be determined by (a) the strategic vision of the executive leadership on environmental protection (b) managerial interpretations of environmental issues, impacted upon by managerial perceptions of corporate image and identity, stakeholders considered strategically important, and the significance accorded to relationship-building and managers' personal values, (c) structural variables such as the degree of flexibility in the strategic planning and budgeting process that allows for managerial discretion and learning on environmental issues, and commensurate performance evaluation systems. Environmental response in the oil and gas firms followed the following dominant patterns - (a) reactive, mediated by the size of the firm - regulatory compliance for smaller firms, risk and liability reduction for larger firms, and a case of transitional response through public relations, (b) proactive : strategic integration aimed at maintaining or enhancmg competitiveness.

On the one hand, the environmental management literature argues that firms will not adopt minimum environmental standards unless they are subject to stringent command-and-control regulations and that stringent regulations stimulate innovation. On the other hand, it is argued that command-and-control regulations stifle innovation and that flexible regulations encourage proactive environmental strategies that lead to competitive benefits for organizations. This study comparing the environmental strategies and competitiveness of the oil and gas firms in two different regulatory contexts- the command-and-control based U.S. environmental context and the flexible collaborative Canadian context- found no significant differences in the degree to which firms in the two countries were more or less proactive in their environmental strategies and the competitive impact of these strategies.

Organizational sustainability requires the balancing of economic performance with impacts on ecosystem health and social equity. Knowledge required for integrating these seemingly conflicting objectives transcends organizational boundaries and is embedded in networks of stakeholders. As this knowledge is constantly evolving, only firms with a capability of stakeholder integration can harness sustainability knowledge from a variety of internal and extemal stakeholders. Stakeholder integration is a dynamic capability consisting of three sub-capabilities of boundary-spanning, higher-order learning and sustainability commitment. It leads to the development of organizational social capital that enables further stakeholder linkages and sustainability leaming. Via sustainability knowledge generation, this capability leads to improved sustainability performance, short-term benefits and long-term competitive imagination for creative destruction.

Representations of urban youth and its cultures of display have become an increasing focus of attention for contemporary cinema. The film La Haine (1995) received critical acclaim for its raw depiction of `ghetto life' for alienated `minority' youth in France. In this article, we use this text as a way of exploring the cultural politics of such filmic practices. La Haine's aesthetic strategies of an affective `hyper-realism' and postmodern authenticity are scrutinized for their racialized politics of representation. The discussion focuses on the film's reflexive presentation of racialized youth and their musical cultures. We argue that while the film lucidly captures the intensity of an urban existence, its aesthetic strategies and self-reflexivity belie a deeper unacknowledged ethico-political relation to racialized Otherness.

Globally, family firms are the dominant organizational form. Family involvement in business and unique family dynamics impacts organizational strategy and performance. However, family control of business has rarely been adopted as a discriminating variable in the organizations and the natural environment (ONE) research field. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior we develop a conceptual framework of the drivers of proactive environmental strategy (PES) in family firms. We argue that family involvement in business influences the attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control of a firm’s dominant coalition. Together these factors determine the extent of the dominant coalition’s intentions to undertake PES. Further, family firms with lower levels of relationship conflict within the controlling family will be more successful in translating the dominant coalition’s intentions to allocate resources for the pursuit of PES. Research implications of the theory are discussed.

The engagement of firms in environmental collaborations has become a ubiquitous phenomenon in today’s business landscape. Yet much of the research to date is fragmented across multiple disciplines and lacks a clear framework to support future study. The authors consolidate and synthesize existing contributions into a conceptual map comprised of antecedents, consequences, and contingencies to better understand environmental collaborations. This map offers a perspective on how firms develop strategies, structures, and capabilities to manage and balance environmental and economic performance and increasing demands for environmental sustainability from multiple stakeholders and society. The authors then highlight existing gaps in the extant literature and outline a future research agenda, including key questions and issues needing additional study.

Over the last two decades, corporate sustainability has been established as a legitimate research topic among management and organization scholars. This introductory article explores potential avenues for advances in research on corporate sustainability by readdressing some of the fundamental aspects of the sustainability debate and approaching some novel perspectives and insights from outside the corporate sustainability field. This essay also sketches out how each of the six articles of this special issue contribute to the literature by going back to some of the conceptual roots of sustainability and/or by offering novel perspectives for research on corporate sustainability. As these six articles and the outlook on future research opportunities show, broadening the inquiry of corporate sustainability in terms of topics, theories, and methodologies holds considerable potential to improve our understanding of how decision makers and organizations respond to sustainability.

Family ownership and/or involvement in the business have rarely been adopted as a discriminating variable in organizations and the natural environment or sustainability research. Family firms introduce a dynamic that is different from professionally run firms. This paper develops a theoretical framework to show that family firms whose dominant family coalition shares a vision of sustainability will be more likely to develop and deploy their organizational capabilities for a sustainability strategy. In family firms with a shared vision of sustainability, familiness, localness, long-term orientation, and family identity will have a positive mediating effect on the deployment of organizational capabilities for a proactive sustainability strategy.

Balancing the often conflicting objectives of promoting social equity, ecological integrity and economic growth creates complexity in strategic decision-makingbecause of the number and diversity of stakeholders impacted. Therefore, sustainability solutions transcend organizational boundaries and an effective understanding requires an integration of perspectives from a wide range of stakeholders. Integrating diverse stakeholder perspectives can influence organizational innovation at two levels: by altering organizational knowledge structure and by transforming managerial interpretations of sustainability issues from threats to be averted into opportunities to be sought. Openness to external stakeholder influences may lead to continuous learning and innovation via insights of multiple thought worlds or interpretive schemas of communities who think differently.

The influence of externally focused organizational capabilities on the generation of proactive environmental strategies was examined under contingenteffects of uncertainty in the general business environment in 134 North American and European ski resorts. Capabilities of strategic proactivity and continuous innovation were found to be associated with proactive environmental strategies. Managerial perceptions of uncertainty in the general business environment were found to moderate the deployment of the capability of continuous innovation at all levels of uncertainty and stakeholder engagement at low and average levels of uncertainty. The study contributes to the resource-based view by illuminating an important contingency under which these capabilities are likely to be deployed to generate such a strategy.