Paradoxes in corporate sustainability : examining managerial responses through cognitive framing and sensemaking perspectives

Organizational leaders constantly face paradoxical tensions in navigating their firms’ corporate sustainability. Yet, they often differ in their interpretations and responses to these tensions. In an attempt to explain the variance in managerial responses, Hahn, Preuss, Pinkse, and Figge (2014) exam...

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Main Author: Ng, Eunice Shi Qi
Other Authors: Kang Soon Lee, Eugene
Format: Thesis-Doctor of Philosophy
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138118
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1381182024-01-12T10:08:34Z Paradoxes in corporate sustainability : examining managerial responses through cognitive framing and sensemaking perspectives Ng, Eunice Shi Qi Kang Soon Lee, Eugene Nanyang Business School Judith L. Walls ASLKang@ntu.edu.sg Business::Management::Decision making Business::Management::Social responsibility Organizational leaders constantly face paradoxical tensions in navigating their firms’ corporate sustainability. Yet, they often differ in their interpretations and responses to these tensions. In an attempt to explain the variance in managerial responses, Hahn, Preuss, Pinkse, and Figge (2014) examined how two ideal-type frames – a business case frame and a paradoxical frame – affect managerial sensemaking on corporate sustainability. Nevertheless, our understanding on (1) how these cognitive frames drive actual firm behaviors in response to paradoxical tensions in corporate sustainability, (2) if and when these cognitive frames result in superior corporate sustainability performance, and (3) the role of social learning in managerial sensemaking of paradoxical tensions in corporate sustainability remain limited. I attempt to address these knowledge gaps in a series of three papers within my thesis. In my first essay, I apply a cognitive frames perspective to examine how a business case frame and a paradoxical frame drive varying firm behaviors across four types of paradoxical tensions in corporate sustainability, namely performing (goals), learning (knowledge), belonging (identity), and organizing (processes). I leverage on the literature on behavioral theory of the firm (goals), organizational learning (knowledge), organizational identity (identity), and embedded/peripheral corporate sustainability (processes) to predict how firms with different managerial cognitive frames will respond differently. My second essay builds on the first essay by quantitatively testing if and when chief executive officers’ (CEOs) paradoxical frame can lead to superior corporate sustainability performance (CSP). Adopting a cognitive-linguistic approach to measure CEOs’ paradoxical frame, I found that CEOs’ paradoxical frame generally did not have significant effects on CSP in the subsequent year. In addition, I found that stakeholder recognition of CEOs’ environmental and social efforts strengthened the relationship between CEOs’ paradoxical frame and CSP. My third essay adopts an inductive approach to examine the interactions between decision makers and their firms’ stakeholders on corporate sustainability issues. Grounding my insights in conference observations and interviews, I observed that decision makers engaged in a two-way coactive vicarious learning with their peers and stakeholders on corporate sustainability issues. This two-way mechanism of learning while educating their peers and stakeholders in turn provided new knowledge that influenced how decision makers made sense of the coopetition paradox in corporate sustainability. I draw attention to the use of discursive texts by decision makers and stakeholders as a means of coordinating and controlling joint action among firms and stakeholders on corporate sustainability. As a whole, my thesis offers a more nuanced understanding of the role of decision makers’ cognitive frames and stakeholder interactions in determining how firms vary in their corporate sustainability actions and performance outcomes. Doctor of Philosophy 2020-04-24T08:20:30Z 2020-04-24T08:20:30Z 2020 Thesis-Doctor of Philosophy Ng, E. S. Q. (2020). Paradoxes in corporate sustainability : examining managerial responses through cognitive framing and sensemaking perspectives. Doctoral thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138118 10.32657/10356/138118 en This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Business::Management::Decision making
Business::Management::Social responsibility
spellingShingle Business::Management::Decision making
Business::Management::Social responsibility
Ng, Eunice Shi Qi
Paradoxes in corporate sustainability : examining managerial responses through cognitive framing and sensemaking perspectives
description Organizational leaders constantly face paradoxical tensions in navigating their firms’ corporate sustainability. Yet, they often differ in their interpretations and responses to these tensions. In an attempt to explain the variance in managerial responses, Hahn, Preuss, Pinkse, and Figge (2014) examined how two ideal-type frames – a business case frame and a paradoxical frame – affect managerial sensemaking on corporate sustainability. Nevertheless, our understanding on (1) how these cognitive frames drive actual firm behaviors in response to paradoxical tensions in corporate sustainability, (2) if and when these cognitive frames result in superior corporate sustainability performance, and (3) the role of social learning in managerial sensemaking of paradoxical tensions in corporate sustainability remain limited. I attempt to address these knowledge gaps in a series of three papers within my thesis. In my first essay, I apply a cognitive frames perspective to examine how a business case frame and a paradoxical frame drive varying firm behaviors across four types of paradoxical tensions in corporate sustainability, namely performing (goals), learning (knowledge), belonging (identity), and organizing (processes). I leverage on the literature on behavioral theory of the firm (goals), organizational learning (knowledge), organizational identity (identity), and embedded/peripheral corporate sustainability (processes) to predict how firms with different managerial cognitive frames will respond differently. My second essay builds on the first essay by quantitatively testing if and when chief executive officers’ (CEOs) paradoxical frame can lead to superior corporate sustainability performance (CSP). Adopting a cognitive-linguistic approach to measure CEOs’ paradoxical frame, I found that CEOs’ paradoxical frame generally did not have significant effects on CSP in the subsequent year. In addition, I found that stakeholder recognition of CEOs’ environmental and social efforts strengthened the relationship between CEOs’ paradoxical frame and CSP. My third essay adopts an inductive approach to examine the interactions between decision makers and their firms’ stakeholders on corporate sustainability issues. Grounding my insights in conference observations and interviews, I observed that decision makers engaged in a two-way coactive vicarious learning with their peers and stakeholders on corporate sustainability issues. This two-way mechanism of learning while educating their peers and stakeholders in turn provided new knowledge that influenced how decision makers made sense of the coopetition paradox in corporate sustainability. I draw attention to the use of discursive texts by decision makers and stakeholders as a means of coordinating and controlling joint action among firms and stakeholders on corporate sustainability. As a whole, my thesis offers a more nuanced understanding of the role of decision makers’ cognitive frames and stakeholder interactions in determining how firms vary in their corporate sustainability actions and performance outcomes.
author2 Kang Soon Lee, Eugene
author_facet Kang Soon Lee, Eugene
Ng, Eunice Shi Qi
format Thesis-Doctor of Philosophy
author Ng, Eunice Shi Qi
author_sort Ng, Eunice Shi Qi
title Paradoxes in corporate sustainability : examining managerial responses through cognitive framing and sensemaking perspectives
title_short Paradoxes in corporate sustainability : examining managerial responses through cognitive framing and sensemaking perspectives
title_full Paradoxes in corporate sustainability : examining managerial responses through cognitive framing and sensemaking perspectives
title_fullStr Paradoxes in corporate sustainability : examining managerial responses through cognitive framing and sensemaking perspectives
title_full_unstemmed Paradoxes in corporate sustainability : examining managerial responses through cognitive framing and sensemaking perspectives
title_sort paradoxes in corporate sustainability : examining managerial responses through cognitive framing and sensemaking perspectives
publisher Nanyang Technological University
publishDate 2020
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138118
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