The Sustainability Effect: Rethinking Corporate Reputation in the 21st Century

190 Pages·2005·18.387 MB·English

by  Arlo. Kristjan O. Brady (auth.)

The Sustainability Effect
The Sustainability Effect
Rethinking Corporate Reputation
in the 21st Century
Arlo. Krist jan O. Brady
* © Arlo. Krist jan O. Brady 2005
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-9171-3
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First published in 2005 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.
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ISBN 978-1-349-54314-4 ISBN 978-0-230-50848-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230508484
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brady, Arlo Krist jan 0., 1977-
The sustainability effect: rethinking corporate reputation in the 21st
century I by Arlo Krist jan O. Brady.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4039-9171-3 (cloth)
1. Corporate image. 2. Sustainable development. 3. Social responsibility
of business. I. Title.
HD59.2.B732005
658.4'083-dc22 2005046323
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05
Transferred to digital printing 2006
To my parents
Contents
List of Tables ix
List of Figures xi
List of Charts xii
List ofA bbreviations xiii
Acknowledgements xv
Preface xvi
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Layout 3
2 The Rise of Corporate Conscientiousness 4
2.1 Introduction 4
2.2 People, the planet and profits 4
2.3 Sustainable Development 6
2.4 The Tower of Babel: Corporate contributions 13
2.S Change drivers 2S
2.6 Demonstrating performance 36
2.7 Summary 42
3 Profiling Corporate Imagery: Seven
Competitive Elements 44
3.1 Introduction 44
3.2 Reputation and its alternate guises 4S
3.3 The process of image formation 47
3.4 The value of positive imagery S4
3.S Seven competitive elements 63
3.6 Summary 66
4 A Global CEO Survey 68
4.1 Survey purpose 68
4.2 The sample 68
4.3 Scenario approach 70
vii
viii Contents
4.4 Hypothesis list 74
4.5 Design 74
4.6 Timeline 82
4.7 Choice of statistical analysis 83
4.8 Response profile 84
5 Survey Results and Conclusions 89
5.1 Introduction 89
5.2 Headline results 89
5.3 Hypothesis 5.1 92
5.4 Hypothesis 5.2 94
5.5 Hypothesis 5.3 94
5.6 Hypothesis 5.4 96
5.7 Hypothesis 5.5 97
5.8 Hypothesis 5.6 98
5.9 Hypothesis 5.7 100
5.10 Hypothesis 5.8 100
5.11 Survey conclusions 102
5.12 The other elements 106
6 Strategic Implications 110
6.1 New rules for the new economy 110
6.2 Leadership for sustainability 121
6.3 Partnerships for sustainability 127
6.4 The SME perspective 130
6.5 Global variation 131
6.6 The role of the financial community 133
6.7 List of key propositions 134
6.8 The seven transitions 135
6.9 Implications for further research 139
Appendices 141
Appendix 1: The survey 142
Appendix 2: The year 2001 Global Fortune 500 144
Appendix 3: Survey confidentiality statement 157
Notes 158
References 164
Index 173
List of Tables
2.1 Key definitions of Sustainable Development 9
2.2 Phrase search on Google.com 13
2.3 Forum for the Future's 'five capitals' and
'twelve features', adapted from their website 17
3.1 Abridged Oxford Dictionary terminology 46
5.1 The seven elements of reputation in order of
their perceived future impact on the preservation
of a positive corporate reputation - all respondents,
shown by individual scenario 91
5.2 The seven elements of reputation in order of their
perceived future impact on the preservation of a
positive corporate reputation - regional breakdown 92
5.3 Table showing the regional variation in mean EC
and SC score 93
5.4 The results of a Mann-Whitney test - establishing
the statistical significance of the variation 93
5.5 Data table for Chart 5.2 95
5.6 The results of a Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test -
establishing the statistical significance of
the variation 95
5.7 The results of a Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test -
establishing the statistical significance of the variation 96
5.8 Average scores for EC and SC 97
5.9 Data table for Chart 5.4 97
5.10 The results of a Mann-Whitney test - establishing
the statistical significance of the variation 98
5.11 ANOVA regression results 100
5.12 Mean significance scores for FC across all
three scenarios 101
5.13 The results of a Wilcoxon Signed Ranks
test - establishing the statistical significance
of the variation 101
5.14 Data table showing variation in perceived significance
of SC and EC with two scenarios 101
ix
x List of Tables
5.15 The results of a Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test - establishing
the statistical significance of the variation 102
6.1 Potential risk profile for the three response strategies 113
List of Figures
2.1 The pyramidal interrelationship between
economy, society and the environment 6
2.2 'The triple bottom line', adapted from
figure on SustainAbility's website 14
2.3 The three-legged stool of Sustainability 15
2.4 Spheres of Sustainability, from Sd3 Ltd 15
2.5 Venn diagram showing Sustainable Development
as the point of convergence between three circles 16
2.6 'The natural step' funnel, adapted from
(Robert, 2002) 19
2.7 The de-construction of CSR - adapted from
(Watts and Holme, 1999) 21
2.8 The virtuous responsibility circle 25
3.1 A simplified example of the relationship
between identity, image and reputation 51
3.2 The process of individual image formation 51
4.1 Graphic showing the structure of the pre and
pilot surveys 76
4.2 Screenshot of the project website 80
4.3 Graphic showing the structure of the final survey 81
5.1 Diagram showing the relationship between
each of the 'five capitals' 105
5.2 Diagram showing the relationship between
each of the 'five capitals' and the 'seven
elements of reputation' 106
6.1 Three future intangible value strategies
forMNCs 111
6.2 Firm/stakeholder relationships in the future 118
6.3 Constructing a strong business case on two levels 136
xi