Abstract
Public organizations are increasingly adding environmental and social aspects in their strategic agendas. This paper focuses on the actors and factors that influence the speed of implementation of sustainability initiatives. Four healthcare organizations in The Netherlands were studied. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with top management, budget owners and procurement professionals. Although top management assigned strategic importance to sustainability initiatives, budget owners had the final say in implementation. Procurement professionals had very little influence on the implementation process of sustainability.
Highlights
Public organizations are increasingly adding environmental and social aspects in their strategic agendas
This paper focuses on the actors and factors that influence the speed of implementation of sustainability initiatives
We looked at public sector organizations that were both successful and not so successful in implementing sustainability initiatives
Summary
Public organizations are increasingly adding environmental and social aspects in their strategic agendas. This paper focuses on the actors and factors that influence the speed of implementation of sustainability initiatives. Many studies have focused on the drivers for and barriers to the implementation of sustainability initiatives. Research has been on leading public sector organizations and successful implementations of sustainability, limiting the generalizability of the findings (Walker et al, 2008; Gelderman et al, 2015). More research could usefully be conducted on the public sector organizations that lag behind in developing sustainability initiatives. A study into the development of sustainability in the public sector should include an investigation of factors (drivers and barriers) and actors (multiple stakeholders). This paper answers the following research question: ‘What actors and factors influence the speed of implementation of sustainability in the public sector?’
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