The last decade has witnessed the emergence of a paradox perspective on corporate sustainability. By explicitly acknowledging tensions between different desirable, yet interdependent and conflicting ...sustainability objectives, a paradox perspective enables decision makers to achieve competing sustainability objectives simultaneously and creates leeway for superior business contributions to sustainable development. In stark contrast to the business case logic, a paradox perspective does not establish emphasize business considerations over concerns for environmental protection and social well-being at the societal level. In order to contribute to the consolidation of this emergent field of research, we offer a definition of the paradox perspective on corporate sustainability and a framework to delineate its descriptive, instrumental, and normative aspects. This framework clarifies the paradox perspective's contents and its implications for research and practice. We use the framework to map the contributions to this thematic symposium on paradoxes in sustainability and to propose questions for future research.
This paper proposes a systematic framework for the analysis of tensions in corporate sustainability. The framework is based on the emerging integrative view on corporate sustainability, which ...stresses the need for a simultaneous integration of economic, environmental and social dimensions without, a priori, emphasising one over any other. The integrative view presupposes that firms need to accept tensions in corporate sustainability and pursue different sustainability aspects simultaneously even if they seem to contradict each other. The framework proposed in this paper goes beyond the traditional triad of economic, environmental and social dimensions and argues that tensions in corporate sustainability occur between different levels, in change processes and within a temporal and spatial context. The framework provides vital groundwork for managing tensions in corporate sustainability based on paradox strategies. The paper then applies the framework to identify and characterise four selected tensions and illustrates how key approaches from the literature on strategic contradictions, tensions and paradoxes—i.e., acceptance and resolution strategies—can be used to manage these tensions. Thereby, it refines the emerging literature on the integrative view for the management of tensions in corporate sustainability. The framework also provides managers with a better understanding of tensions in corporate sustainability and enables them to embrace these tensions in their decision making.
The literature on corporate social performance advocates that firms address social issues based on instrumental as well as moral rationales. While both rationales trigger initiatives to increase ...corporate social performance, these rest on fundamentally different and contradicting foundations. Building on the literature on organizational ambidexterity and paradox in management, we propose in this conceptual article that ambidexterity represents an important determinant of corporate social performance. We explain how firms achieve higher levels of corporate social performance through the ambidextrous ability to simultaneously pursue instrumentally and morally driven social initiatives. We distinguish between a balance dimension and a combined dimension of ambidexterity, which both enhance corporate social performance through distinct mechanisms. With the balance dimension, instrumental and moral initiatives compensate for each other – which increases the scope of corporate social performance. With the combined dimension, instrumental and moral initiatives supplement each other – which increases the scale of corporate social performance. The article identifies the most important determinants and moderators of the balance and the combined dimension to explain the conditions under which we expect firms to increase corporate social performance through ambidexterity. By focusing on the interplay and tensions between different types of social initiatives, an ambidextrous perspective contributes to a better understanding of corporate social performance. Regarding managerial practice, we highlight the role of structural and behavioral factors for achieving higher corporate social performance through the simultaneous pursuit of instrumental and moral initiatives.
•We disaggregate corporate eco-efficiency.•We identify the components and drivers of an efficient use of environmental resources.•We analyze in detail the capital and CO2-efficiency of major global ...car makers.•We clarify the relation between the efficient use of capital and environmental resources in firms.•We provide managers with a tool to manage eco-efficiency as an end in itself.
Eco-efficiency is oftentimes considered the gold standard for managerial decision making in an environmental context because it seemingly reconciles the efficient use of capital and the efficient use of environmental resources. We challenge this view by disaggregating eco-efficiency to provide an in-depth analysis of corporate eco-efficiency and to identify the drivers of an efficient use of environmental resources. By building on the value-based approach in financial management, we extend the rationale of economic value drivers to develop drivers for the efficient use of environmental resources. We apply this logic to analyze the carbon-efficiency of major car manufacturers worldwide. The analysis clarifies the conceptual relationship between the use of economic and environmental resources by firms. The analysis shows that the drivers of capital efficiency and eco-efficiency are not fully congruent. These findings underpin critical voices that question the supposedly unproblematic link between corporate eco-efficiency and economic value creation. We illustrate that the efficient use of environmental resources is complementary rather than instrumental to capital efficiency. Consequently, the challenge of managing eco-efficiency is to unshackle it from the current capital-oriented domination. The findings provide managerial guidance on the value-creating use of environmental and economic resources. Conceptually, our argument contributes to the debate between critical and managerial perspectives on environmental accounting and helps to address the current standoff between these two camps.
This paper proposes a new approach to measure corporate contributions to sustainability called Sustainable Value Added. Value is created whenever benefits exceed costs. Current approaches to measure ...corporate sustainable performance take into account external costs caused by environmental and social damage or focus on the ratio between value creation and resource consumption. As this paper will show it is more promising to develop sustainable measures based on opportunity costs. Sustainable Value Added is such a measure. It shows how much more value is created because a company is more efficient than a benchmark and because the resources are allocated to the company and not to benchmark companies. The concept of strong sustainability requires that each form of capital is kept constant. As Sustainable Value Added is inspired by strong sustainability, it measures whether a company creates extra value while ensuring that every environmental and social impact is in total constant. Therefore, it takes into account both, corporate eco- and social efficiency as well as the absolute level of environmental and social resource consumption (eco- and social effectiveness). As a result, Sustainable Value Added considers simultaneously economic, environmental and social aspects. The overall result can be expressed in any of the three dimensions of sustainability.
Research on organizational paradox has been burgeoning in recent decades. While consensus is growing on the definition of organizational paradox as persistent contradictions between interdependent ...elements, its ontology continues to be contested. The inherent and constitutive views of organizational paradox adopt competing ontological positions on organizational paradox as existing irrespective of, or only through, organizational members' discursive construction. In this paper, we develop a novel ontological approach that conceptualizes paradox as both inherent and socially constructed, thereby highlighting the paradoxical nature of the ontology of paradox. To develop our approach, we mobilize the ontological underpinnings of quantum mechanics and reconceptualize the ontology of paradox with regard to its latency, salience, and persistence. As per our quantum approach, paradox is coconstituted by latency-the inherent but indeterminate potential of paradox; salience-the concrete enactment of paradox in a sociomaterial context; and persistence-the repeated enactment of paradox in similar sociomaterial contexts. Thereby, we explain how inherent material factors and socially constructed meaning coconstitute paradox. Our quantum approach to the ontology of paradox transcends the standoff between the inherent and constitutive views and provides a theoretical account for the dual nature of paradox as being both inherent and socially constructed.
Sonic/ultrasonic devices are essential tools in today's endodontics. This prospective trial evaluated for the first time the impact of practitioners' proficiency levels and patient-related factors on ...complications associated with a high frequency polyamide sonic irrigant activation device.
In total 334 patients (females:158, males:176; age:18-95 years) received in the course of their endodontic therapy an intracanal irrigation, using a high frequency polyamide sonic irrigant activation device, by practitioners of different proficiency levels (undergraduate students, general practitioners or endodontists). Intracanal bleeding (yes/no), postoperative pain (0-10 scale), emphysema (yes/no) and polyamide tip fractures (yes/no) were recorded and related to proficiency levels, age, gender, tooth type, smoking-status, systemic conditions affecting healing ability, baseline pain, swelling, fistula, sensitivity to percussion and diagnosis.
Intracanal bleeding was associated with patients' age (p<0.05), baseline pain level (OR = 1.14, 95%CI = 0.91-1.22) and baseline swelling (OR = 2.73, 95%CI = 0.14-0.99; p<0.05) but not proficiency level, gender, tooth type, smoking, systemic conditions, baseline fistula or sensitivity to percussion (p>0.05). Postoperative pain development was related to proficiency level (p<0.05) and baseline pain level (p<0.001), with no influence of age, gender, tooth type, smoking, systemic conditions, baseline fistula, swelling or sensitivity to percussion (p>0.05). Emphysema and polyamide tip fractures were not reported.
Within the current study's limitations, younger patients with higher baseline pain and swelling, were associated with higher intracanal bleeding. Apart from higher postoperative pain observed with less experienced practitioners, proficiency level had no influence on bleeding, polyamide tip fracture or emphysema, endorsing the high frequency polyamide sonic irrigation device as a safe therapeutic device.
While it has been argued that field‐dependent geminate pair recombination (GR) is important, this process is often disregarded when analyzing the recombination kinetics in bulk heterojunction organic ...solar cells (OSCs). To differentiate between the contributions of GR and nongeminate recombination (NGR) the authors study bilayer OSCs using either a PCDTBT‐type polymer layer with a thickness from 14 to 66 nm or a 60 nm thick p‐DTS(FBTTh2)2 layer as donor material and C60 as acceptor. The authors measure JV‐characteristics as a function of intensity and charge‐extraction‐by‐linearly‐increasing‐voltage‐type hole mobilities. The experiments have been complemented by Monte Carlo simulations. The authors find that fill factor (FF) decreases with increasing donor layer thickness (Lp) even at the lowest light intensities where geminate recombination dominates. The authors interpret this in terms of thickness dependent back diffusion of holes toward their siblings at the donor–acceptor interface that are already beyond the Langevin capture sphere rather than to charge accumulation at the donor–acceptor interface. This effect is absent in the p‐DTS(FBTTh2)2 diode in which the hole mobility is by two orders of magnitude higher. At higher light intensities, NGR occurs as evidenced by the evolution of s‐shape of the JV‐curves and the concomitant additional decrease of the FF with increasing layer thickness.
Back diffusion of holes is identified to control the fill factor and thus the efficiency of bilayer organic solar cells. The competition between recombination at the donor–acceptor interface and extraction at the electrodes is studied by varying the donor layer thickness and light intensity such as to differentiate between monomolecular, i.e., geminate recombination and bimolecular, nongeminate recombination.
The diffusion of fullerenes such as C60 and PCBM in organic semiconductors is a key factor in controlling the efficiency of organic solar cells, though it is challenging to measure and to control. A ...simple optical method based on photoluminescence quenching is developed to assess the diffusion of a quencher molecule such as C60 through a semiconducting polymer film, in this case made with the polymer polyfluorene. When the mobility of the polymer chains is reduced by chemical crosslinking, the diffusion coefficient of C60 can be reduced by up to three orders of magnitude.
The diffusion of fullerenes such as C60 and PCBM in organic semiconductors can be measured using a novel simple optical method based on photoluminescence quenching. When the mobility of the polymer chains is reduced by chemical crosslinking, the diffusion coefficient of C60 can be reduced by up to three orders of magnitude.
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