Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Managing for integration
T2 - a longitudinal analysis of management control for sustainability
AU - Battaglia, Massimo
AU - Passetti, Emilio
AU - Bianchi, Lara
AU - Frey, Marco
PY - 2016/11/10
Y1 - 2016/11/10
N2 - Based on a longitudinal eight-year study (2006–2014) in a large Italian food co-operative, this paper analyses whether and how the development and the use of sustainability control systems have been able to promote the integration of sustainability within organisational strategy. The co-operative has implemented three main instruments (sustainability report, sustainability annual plan and participatory social plan), which have been able to promote sustainability integration by inducing technical integration and reinforcing the cognitive enablers. However, strong cognitive (and organisational) barriers have gradually stifled the cognitive enablers and have not enabled sustainability to be fully integrated into the organisational strategy. As such, the integration process was marginalised, also due to the negative economic performance of the co-operative. The paper shows that sustainability integration remains a fragile concept even in a co-operative, despite the similarities between co-operative values and the principles of corporate social responsibility. Theoretically, the paper offers empirical evidences concerning management control literature for sustainability.
AB - Based on a longitudinal eight-year study (2006–2014) in a large Italian food co-operative, this paper analyses whether and how the development and the use of sustainability control systems have been able to promote the integration of sustainability within organisational strategy. The co-operative has implemented three main instruments (sustainability report, sustainability annual plan and participatory social plan), which have been able to promote sustainability integration by inducing technical integration and reinforcing the cognitive enablers. However, strong cognitive (and organisational) barriers have gradually stifled the cognitive enablers and have not enabled sustainability to be fully integrated into the organisational strategy. As such, the integration process was marginalised, also due to the negative economic performance of the co-operative. The paper shows that sustainability integration remains a fragile concept even in a co-operative, despite the similarities between co-operative values and the principles of corporate social responsibility. Theoretically, the paper offers empirical evidences concerning management control literature for sustainability.
KW - Organisational strategy
KW - Co-operative enterprise
KW - Management control system
KW - Sustainability control system
KW - Social and environmental accounting
U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.01.108
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.01.108
M3 - Journal article
VL - 136
SP - 213
EP - 225
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
SN - 0959-6526
IS - Part A
ER -