Sustainability management and social license to operate in the extractive industry: The cross‐cultural gap with Indigenous communities

Abstract

AbstractThis study aims to analyze the role of cross‐cultural differences between Indigenous communities and extractive organizations with regard to the sustainability measures these organizations employ. Although Indigenous communities are important stakeholders, especially in remote areas where extractive organizations are mainly located, these organizations' relationships with Indigenous communities have been overlooked in the literature on sustainability management. Drawing on a qualitative study based on 25 semi‐structured interviews with Canadian respondents, the findings show how cross‐cultural issues tend to create misunderstandings that can seriously undermine organizations' social license to operate and their initiatives for sustainability. Those issues—which include cultural differences in terms of connectedness with nature, spiritual and historical attachment to a specific territory, reliance on written documents, and conception of time—are analyzed through the lenses of practitioners with significant experience in the relationships between extractive organizations and Indigenous communities. This paper proposes measures to better manage this cross‐cultural gap. The study contributes to the literature on corporate sustainability by going back to the roots of this concept and by shedding more light on the importance of a specific category of stakeholders that tends to be overlooked in the managerial literature.