Sustainability challenges typically occur across sectoral boundaries, calling the state, market, and civil society to action. Although consensus exists on the merits of cross-sector collaboration, our understanding of whether and how it can create value for various, collaborating stakeholders is still limited. This special issue focuses on how new combined knowledge on cross-sector collaboration and business models for sustainability can inform the academic and practitioner debates about sustainability challenges and solutions. We discuss how cross-sector collaboration can play an important role (...) for the transition to new and potentially sustainability-driven business models given that value creation, delivery, and capture of organizations are intimately related to the collaborative ties with their stakeholders. Sustainable alternatives to conventional business models tend to adopt a more holistic perspective of business by broadening the spectrum of solutions and stakeholders and, when aligned with cross-sector collaboration, can contribute new ways of addressing the wicked sustainability problems humanity faces. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for management scholars to address large-scale and complex societal problems and strive for greater practical and policy impact. A brief overview of the most-cited work on COVID-19 reveals that, compared with their counterparts in other disciplines, leading management journals and professional associations lagged in providing a platform for high-impact research on COVID-19. To help management research play a more active role in responding to similar global challenges in the future, we propose an integrative framework (...) that emphasizes a phenomenon’s impact, the conditions that the phenomenon creates at multiple levels, and the responses of actors to such conditions, as well as the dynamic relationships and interactions among these actors. By shifting attention to phenomena and their overall impact, this framework can help scholars better position their work to address large-scale and complex problems and also to assess research for its contribution to generate impact beyond academia. (shrink)

We explore the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on companies’ sustainability strategies and practices. Prior research has identified a number of factors that shape such effects, including crisis severity, resource slack, and prior investments, but their interactions have not been given much attention. We thus collected qualitative data on 25 companies in four African countries, which we analyzed inductively and iteratively through cross-case comparison and with fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. We identify two pathways associated with strengthening responses (“building on strengths” and (...) “governance gap-filling”) and three associated with restricting responses (“hard hit,” “low-road business-as-usual,” and “bunkering down”). Our findings enhance our understanding of organizational responses to crises by attending to configurational effects, by elaborating the role of prior sustainability investments, and by foregrounding the relevance of governance contexts. We describe implications for future research and managers, investors, and sustainability initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact. (shrink)

Pharmaceutical companies developed Covid-19 vaccines in record time. However, it soon became apparent that global access to the vaccines was inequitable. Through a qualitative inquiry as the pandemic unfolded (to mid-2021), we provide an in-depth analysis of why companies engaged with the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility (COVAX), identifying the internal (to the company) and external factors that facilitated or impeded engagement. While all producers of the World Health Organization (WHO)-approved vaccines engaged with COVAX, our analysis highlights the differential levels (...) of COVAX engagement and identifies contractual obligations, opportunities and company strategy, and reputational pressures as key explanatory factors. We discuss our empirical findings relative to the literature on political corporate social responsibility (PCSR). Accordingly, we question whether pharmaceutical companies lived up to their responsibilities as corporate citizens and conclude that they failed to fulfill the implied responsibility of combating inequitable vaccine distribution. We conclude with implications of our research for practice, in relation to the challenges of global access to Covid-19 vaccines and for access to medicines more generally. (shrink)

This study investigates how essential retailers responded to the COVID-19 pandemic through stakeholder communications. Based on a comprehensive text analysis of the corporate websites of the 20 largest U.S. essential retailers during the first 19 months of the crisis, we categorize the public health measures communicated by these retailers and assess how these retailers adapted their messaging to address the concerns of different stakeholders over time. This analysis allowed us to create a framework for understanding the flow of retailer/stakeholder communication (...) during a health crisis, highlighting the important role businesses can play in alleviating stakeholder concerns when public health is on the line. We discuss the implications of our findings for retailers and public policy, aiming to enhance preparedness and response for future health emergencies. (shrink)

The combined effect of technological innovations in the workplace and the lockdowns imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly increased the prominence of remote working, with an undeniable impact on both business and society. In light of this organizational and sociological change, this article analyzes how this renewed work environment can be the place where workers can develop several relevant virtues, specifically moderation, integrity, and mercy. This new environment may also present the opportunity to develop a number of opposing vices, (...) which are also explained and analyzed. The article concludes by suggesting some implications for managers who wish to promote virtuous behaviors in the new context of remote work. (shrink)

Getting consumers to adopt infection prevention measures is important for society to overcome the coronavirus pandemic. This research adopts a moral decoupling perspective to examine how consumers in Germany respond to perceived transgressions of COVID-19 infection prevention regulations. Focusing on two nonpharmaceutical measures (mask wearing, social distancing) as well as a pharmaceutical one (vaccination), two empirical studies indicate that transgression relevance influences intention to adopt the measure (in parallel) through judgment of performance and judgment of morality. Type of transgression moderates (...) the effect of transgression relevance on morality, but not on performance. In addition, effects weaken as a person’s fear of infection increases. Effects are robust, though, when controlling for moral decoupling and moral delegation (Study 1), and additionally for psychological reactance and political orientation (Study 2). Implications for research and practice evolve around new insights into how to get consumers to adopt infection prevention measures more effectively. (shrink)

Cybervetting has become common practice in personnel decision-making processes of organizations. While it represents a quick and inexpensive way of obtaining additional information on employees and applicants, it gives rise to a variety of legal and ethical concerns. To limit companies’ access to personal information, a _right to be forgotten_ has been introduced by the European jurisprudence. By discussing the notion of forgetting from the perspective of French hermeneutic philosopher Paul Ricoeur, the present article demonstrates that both, companies and employees, (...) would be harmed if access to online information on applicants and current employees would be denied. Consistent with a Humanistic Management approach that promotes human dignity and flourishing in the workplace, this article proposes guidance for the responsible handling of unpleasant online memories in personnel decision-making processes, thereby following Ricoeur’s notion of forgetting as “kept in reserve”. Enabling applicants and employees to take a qualified stand on their past is more beneficial to both sides than a right to be forgotten that is questionable in several respects. (shrink)

This Special Issue explores the vital connection between business and public health, highlighting their interdependence in addressing today’s global challenges. First, we demonstrate how firms are both contributors to and recipients of public health outcomes. Second, we examine the complexities business faces in defining its public health responsibilities, particularly when navigating diverse and often ambiguous stakeholders, such as communities. Third, we emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary research in addressing the multifaceted challenges at the intersection of business and public health, calling (...) for a holistic approach that integrates insights from public health, medical research, management, and policy. The contributions affirm that public health is everyone’s business — both a societal concern and a business imperative that demands attention from all sectors. We hope the insights from this Special Issue spark ongoing dialogue and inspire firms to take a more proactive role in shaping a healthier, more sustainable future for all. (shrink)