Strategic Corporate Sustainability in a Post-Acquisition Context

Zsuzsanna Vincze,Daniel Örtqvist,Linda Hällerstrand,Lena Rist

doi:10.3390/su13116017

Abstract

To reach the global sustainability goals, multinationals, regardless of origin, play a significant role. Given their market power and globally distributed operations, they have the position to either accelerate or inhibit sustainability changes. Knowledge about how corporate sustainability (CS) develops within internationalization strategies such as post-acquisition integration is, however, sparse. The purpose of this paper was to analyze and evaluate the development of CS strategies of originally distant companies within an international post-acquisition context. The paper drew on the resource-based view (RBV) to provide a holistically integrated framework for the systematic evaluation of CS strategies and applied the framework to a longitudinal in-depth case study. Findings indicated that long-term perspective, partnering approach and, emphases on learning positively influenced the integration process and the maturity level of the common corporate sustainability strategies. In contributing with an in-depth understanding of strategic CS integration within a post-acquisition case, the study generated implications for proactive management in similar post-acquisition contexts. While the focus of this paper was neither on the differences in legislations and regulations as influencing factors nor on the national and organizational culture and their impact on the integration of strategic CS, these are relevant areas of interest, and future research could consider incorporating those into the new evaluation framework.

Highlights

When analyzing the empirical data related to the foundation and strategic reason for committing to corporate sustainability (CS), both companies clearly acknowledged the global sustainability challenges as the foundation of the business-specific CS
The findings showed that both the emergent multinational enterprises (EMNEs) and the advanced multinational enterprise (AMNE) included a normative foundation early on, this foundation was leveraged by the coordination and the managerial engagement at the group level at the EMNE
The EMNEs sustainability strategy emphasized the necessity to prepare the business proactively for future challenges. This preparation was supported by the creation of complementary and superior capabilities based on the additional resources both companies can access through the acquisition

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The increasing awareness of global ecological degradation as a man-made process driven by industrialization increases the importance of changing unsustainable business practices towards sustainable ones [1,2,3,4]. The sustainability strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs), regardless of their origin, essentially influence the realization of the global sustainability goals [5]. MNEs, given their market power, globally distributed operations, and political influence, are either accelerators or inhibitors of sustainable change [6]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion