Culture Development for Sustainable SMEs: Toward a Behavioral Theory

Nuttasorn Ketprapakorn,Sooksan Kantabutra

doi:10.3390/su11092629

Nuttasorn Ketprapakorn, Sooksan Kantabutra

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su11092629

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Abstract

The present study derives culture development practices among “sustainable” small and medium enterprises (SMEs)that adopt the Thai philosophy of the sufficiency economy. It adopts multiple data collection methods including non-participant observations made during visits to five “sustainable” enterprises, and references internal and published documents among other information about the case enterprises, including annual reports, previous studies about the companies and news reports. In-depth interview sessions were held with top management team members and employees, including CEOs or MDs, and division/functional heads. The “grounded theory” is adopted as an approach to analyze the data. The analysis reveals six emerging organizational culture development practices: identifying virtues, social and environmental responsibility and innovation as core values; leaders acting as models according to these values; growing their own managers to continue their corporate cultures; designing communication channels to emphasize the core values among employees; using the core values as criteria to recruit new employees; avoiding employee layoff to preserve the core values even in times of financial crisis. Limitations and future research directions to develop a behavioral theory of sustainability culture in organizational settings, as well as managerial implications are discussed.

Highlights

Sustainable development has been of great interest among corporate leaders since the 1980s due to the rapidly changing business environment that has had a profound impact on the corporate world [1]
This process is iterative over a year to derive emerging themes as the sufficiency economy culture development practices, which demands supportive rationales and significance [33]
According to the sustainability culture development framework (Figure 2), small and medium enterprises (SMEs) owners should identify a variety of virtues, social and environmental responsibility and innovation as the corporate core values

Summary

Introduction

Sustainable development has been of great interest among corporate leaders since the 1980s due to the rapidly changing business environment that has had a profound impact on the corporate world [1]. The prevailing management approach of short-term maximization of profitability has not arguably lead to the wellbeing and happiness that societies hope to have as it often takes advantage of employees and society by, for example, cost-cutting in training and investment for protecting the environment. Such a practice often leads to an organizational inability to sustain itself. Research into 65 business enterprises from a range of industries indicates that the top 25% on an engagement index yielded a larger return on assets (ROA) and profitability [3]. Methodology, findings, implications for corporate leaders, and future directions for researchers, those hoping to develop a practical theory of sustainability culture in organizational settings, are discussed below

Literature

Discussion of the Findings

Managerial Implications

Limitations and Future

Conclusions