Tesi etd-12092022-165215
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Tipo di tesi
Dottorato
Autore
DI IORIO, VINICIO
URN
etd-12092022-165215
Titolo
Perspectives on sustainable mindsets: from individual choice to the organization’s strategic posture
Settore scientifico disciplinare
SECS-P/08
Corso di studi
Istituto di Management - PHD IN MANAGEMENT - INNOVATION, SUSTAINABILITY AND HEALTHCARE
Commissione
relatore Prof. IRALDO, FABIO
Membro PICCI, ELISABETTA
Presidente Prof. PICCALUGA, ANDREA MARIO CUORE
Membro Prof.ssa BAGLIERI, DANIELA
Membro PICCI, ELISABETTA
Presidente Prof. PICCALUGA, ANDREA MARIO CUORE
Membro Prof.ssa BAGLIERI, DANIELA
Parole chiave
- circular consumption
- corporate sustainability
- paradox theory
- resilience
Data inizio appello
26/12/2022;
Disponibilità
parziale
Riassunto analitico
On November 10, 2022, leaders worldwide were engaged in negotiations at the COP27 Climate Summit in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. They gathered amid compounding crises of pollution, climate change, and war: mounting issues caused by human activity that are casting a long shadow on our future. At this rate, sustainable development becomes elusive. Years of unrestrained, unscrupulous - yet not necessarily with malicious intent - growth, have come with high stakes. Like an empty bottle bobbing in the surf, the fallout of such deceitful mismanagement has not waited long to surface. As long as we continue to overlook that we, as part of the ecosystem, are all intertwined, there is little we can do. Waste production and pollution, therefore, have become hot topics in sustainable management.
Specifically, plastic pollution often stands accused as an anathema for ecosystem perpetuation. Plastics are extremely useful, but their mismanagement has affected the environment and our health. Rethinking the development and use of plastics is central to the circular economy paradigm, to provide less harmful options for the environment. Thus, more types of plastic packaging are available, but each reflects diverse circular economy strategies (we refer to these as potentially circular packaging - PCP). We aim to explore consumers’ awareness of these strategies and its effect during the purchasing moment. This study consists of a between-subject experiment, where five types of PCP (i.e., bottled juice packaged in different plastics) were tested on a representative panel of the Italian population (1,236 individuals) through stratified random sampling. We designed a 2×2 factors experiment (recycled plastics vs. compostable plastics × third-party certification vs. no certification) with a control group (recyclable plastic). Data were processed through Bayesian Generalized Linear Modeling. We found that despite the assumptions about sustainable plastic packaging consumption in the food sector, all of our options can be considered as valuable alternatives. Consumers may be confused and unable to establish the consequences in the circular economy in terms of each type of PCP. Regardless of whether third-party certifications are provided, consumers’ purchasing intentions are mainly affected by the attractiveness, perceived quality, and eco-friendliness of the packaging. Concerns about pollution, affluent behavior, and openness to change are also found to be relevant in PCP choices. Our findings provide various theoretical and managerial implications.
These aforementioned alternatives represent the by-product of a broader, deeper change in the way of doing business. While the take-make-dispose paradigm has ruled business models worldwide so far, there is a beacon of hope. The up-and-coming concept of interpreting consumerism glimmers at the horizon of the ‘10s of this Century: the circular economy. The advent of the circular economy has repurposed traditional consumption habits. It is expanding opportunities for consumers to preserve the ecosystem throughout the whole product lifecycle. Drawing from extant rational and moral theories in behavior change, this research extends the understanding of consumer involvement in the circular economy by investigating whether being exposed to “green” clues can trigger additional information seeking and be empowering to people to contribute to the circular economy. In contrast to some prior research that suggests that information can overload consumers, this research finds that these “green” clues can stimulate greater information seeking, which can make the consumer feel more capable of effecting change through circular economy consumption. This study draws a conceptual model for behavioral change, tested on a representative sample of 4,161 individuals across the five largest European countries. Results show that external “green” clues prompt consumers’ information search on product lifecycle, and ultimately make them feel empowered to contribute to the circular economy. Overall the research suggests that sustainability information can stimulate heightened curiosity and encourage consumers to become willing and active participants in this burgeoning circular economy.
At the dawn of 2020 though, a virus started spreading from China to all over the globe. It turned out quickly a pandemic. On the onset of the pandemic tide, suddenly puzzling themes like limits to growth, short-termism and organizational speed, global and local interdependencies, and social inequalities flooded into and revitalized management debates broadly – and sustainability research specifically. The common wisdom prompting for efficiency and seeking business opportunities in sustainability insofar revealed to be inadequate (at best), and counterproductive (at worst). Maybe redundant when markets are steady and inflated, fostering resilience can let some businesses absorb and adapt to shocks while others cannot help but shut down. That may sound “seemingly illogical” (Lewis, 2000), yet the looming of a new, paradox mindset on corporate sustainability turned out to be – paradoxically – the catalyst needed to make businesses thrive during the pandemic. The paradox perspective on corporate sustainability is a flourishing domain of theories and practices where organizations find a balance between economic growth, social prosperity, and environmental preservation goals. Yet when it comes to disruptive events, like global crises, such equilibrium cannot be sustained anymore. Although scholars are largely theorizing paradox perspectives to be bolstering corporate sustainability, the usefulness of such perspective to eschew global crisis fallouts have yet to be looked into by academics so far. Therefore, this research aims to understand how a paradox perspective on corporate sustainability can help firms foster resilience, a vital characteristic to navigate global crises. Through a longitudinal-multiple case study, this research unearthed the firms' mindset of a sample of eleven sustainability-involved firms, and studied how they approached and reacted to the epidemiological global crises, over a 4-year timespan (2018-2021). Findings revealed that firms showing a paradox mindset -compared to other mindsets- on corporate sustainability revealed a higher, startling level of resilience, which we called: transformational. This is the best-case scenario out of three identified pathways through which firms reacted to a global crisis. Final theoretical insights linger on why resilience capabilities are better handled by a paradox perspective on corporate sustainability, and why that lets organizations outperform themselves, especially via exogenous shocks.
Specifically, plastic pollution often stands accused as an anathema for ecosystem perpetuation. Plastics are extremely useful, but their mismanagement has affected the environment and our health. Rethinking the development and use of plastics is central to the circular economy paradigm, to provide less harmful options for the environment. Thus, more types of plastic packaging are available, but each reflects diverse circular economy strategies (we refer to these as potentially circular packaging - PCP). We aim to explore consumers’ awareness of these strategies and its effect during the purchasing moment. This study consists of a between-subject experiment, where five types of PCP (i.e., bottled juice packaged in different plastics) were tested on a representative panel of the Italian population (1,236 individuals) through stratified random sampling. We designed a 2×2 factors experiment (recycled plastics vs. compostable plastics × third-party certification vs. no certification) with a control group (recyclable plastic). Data were processed through Bayesian Generalized Linear Modeling. We found that despite the assumptions about sustainable plastic packaging consumption in the food sector, all of our options can be considered as valuable alternatives. Consumers may be confused and unable to establish the consequences in the circular economy in terms of each type of PCP. Regardless of whether third-party certifications are provided, consumers’ purchasing intentions are mainly affected by the attractiveness, perceived quality, and eco-friendliness of the packaging. Concerns about pollution, affluent behavior, and openness to change are also found to be relevant in PCP choices. Our findings provide various theoretical and managerial implications.
These aforementioned alternatives represent the by-product of a broader, deeper change in the way of doing business. While the take-make-dispose paradigm has ruled business models worldwide so far, there is a beacon of hope. The up-and-coming concept of interpreting consumerism glimmers at the horizon of the ‘10s of this Century: the circular economy. The advent of the circular economy has repurposed traditional consumption habits. It is expanding opportunities for consumers to preserve the ecosystem throughout the whole product lifecycle. Drawing from extant rational and moral theories in behavior change, this research extends the understanding of consumer involvement in the circular economy by investigating whether being exposed to “green” clues can trigger additional information seeking and be empowering to people to contribute to the circular economy. In contrast to some prior research that suggests that information can overload consumers, this research finds that these “green” clues can stimulate greater information seeking, which can make the consumer feel more capable of effecting change through circular economy consumption. This study draws a conceptual model for behavioral change, tested on a representative sample of 4,161 individuals across the five largest European countries. Results show that external “green” clues prompt consumers’ information search on product lifecycle, and ultimately make them feel empowered to contribute to the circular economy. Overall the research suggests that sustainability information can stimulate heightened curiosity and encourage consumers to become willing and active participants in this burgeoning circular economy.
At the dawn of 2020 though, a virus started spreading from China to all over the globe. It turned out quickly a pandemic. On the onset of the pandemic tide, suddenly puzzling themes like limits to growth, short-termism and organizational speed, global and local interdependencies, and social inequalities flooded into and revitalized management debates broadly – and sustainability research specifically. The common wisdom prompting for efficiency and seeking business opportunities in sustainability insofar revealed to be inadequate (at best), and counterproductive (at worst). Maybe redundant when markets are steady and inflated, fostering resilience can let some businesses absorb and adapt to shocks while others cannot help but shut down. That may sound “seemingly illogical” (Lewis, 2000), yet the looming of a new, paradox mindset on corporate sustainability turned out to be – paradoxically – the catalyst needed to make businesses thrive during the pandemic. The paradox perspective on corporate sustainability is a flourishing domain of theories and practices where organizations find a balance between economic growth, social prosperity, and environmental preservation goals. Yet when it comes to disruptive events, like global crises, such equilibrium cannot be sustained anymore. Although scholars are largely theorizing paradox perspectives to be bolstering corporate sustainability, the usefulness of such perspective to eschew global crisis fallouts have yet to be looked into by academics so far. Therefore, this research aims to understand how a paradox perspective on corporate sustainability can help firms foster resilience, a vital characteristic to navigate global crises. Through a longitudinal-multiple case study, this research unearthed the firms' mindset of a sample of eleven sustainability-involved firms, and studied how they approached and reacted to the epidemiological global crises, over a 4-year timespan (2018-2021). Findings revealed that firms showing a paradox mindset -compared to other mindsets- on corporate sustainability revealed a higher, startling level of resilience, which we called: transformational. This is the best-case scenario out of three identified pathways through which firms reacted to a global crisis. Final theoretical insights linger on why resilience capabilities are better handled by a paradox perspective on corporate sustainability, and why that lets organizations outperform themselves, especially via exogenous shocks.
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