Social Stewardship Research Articles

Toward sustainable automobility: Insights from a stewardship literature review of the industry

AbstractThe automotive industry is actively pursuing a course of sustainable development; however, to date, progress has been limited. This is because a truly sustainable future requires a substantial and transformative approach to automobility. Some scholars argue that this transformative approach might be found by exploring an industry transition based on stewardship rather than the current status quo of incremental change. Hence, as a way of offering new insights to stimulate action for sustainability, this study presents the first comprehensive review of stewardship in the automotive sector. From an analysis of 161 peer‐reviewed articles published between 1990 and 2022, we identified two underconceptualized forms of stewardship—environmental and social—both of which have an interconnected relationship. Environmental stewardship involves actions that address ecological challenges, while social stewardship pertains to broader, positive impacts on communities. We argue that understanding the interplay between these different forms of stewardship is crucial for achieving comprehensive sustainability outcomes. Additionally, this research identifies gaps in the literature and outlines areas for future research to help both managers and society navigate the complex sustainability issues facing the automotive industry.

Business Management and Strategic Forecasting Lens: Navigating the Future of Indonesia's Nickel Industry

Indonesia emerges as a critical force in the global nickel market, poised at the threshold of transformative shifts within its nickel industry. This review meticulously amalgamates academic research and industry insights to delineate the future trajectory, opportunities, and challenges of this pivotal sector. It critically examines the strategic implications of evolving market demands, particularly the burgeoning electric vehicle (EV) market, against a backdrop of environmental, technological, infrastructural, and socio-political considerations. Highlighting the sector?s vital role in both national economic growth and the global nickel supply chain, the analysis underscores the interplay between substantial opportunities and formidable challenges. These include navigating environmental sustainability, addressing societal needs, and spearheading innovations in technology and infrastructure. The variegated landscape of market demands, policy frameworks, and technological advancements signals the necessity for a synergistic approach among stakeholders, namely, government entities, industry participants, and communities to foster a trajectory of sustainable and equitable growth. In embarking on strategic forecasting for business management, this review posits that the Indonesian nickel industry?s future is not devoid of complexities. It necessitates a strategic focus on environmental conservation, socio-economic integration, and relentless innovation. Such an approach is imperative for realizing the sector's expansive potential, especially in catering to the heightened global demands from the EV sector, while promising extensive economic benefits. In essence, steering the future of Indonesia's nickel industry represents a confluence of economic, environmental, and social stewardship, pushing towards a significant contribution to a sustainable and just global future., situation handling, professionalism, expertise and devotion respectively. JEL Codes: L72, Q32, O13, G38

Twofold Base IoT-Based Intelligent Power Quality Monitoring System by Considering Social Stewardship

The integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) in smart homes has led to significant advancements in power quality monitoring. This involves the use of sensors and internet connectivity to measure power and power quality in each and every home connected to a particular electrical system feeder. The data collected by these sensors is analysed and transmitted to a cloud-based server for further analysis. Through a mobile app or web interface, homeowners can access real-time updates on the power quality parameters and receive alerts if there are any issues. The advantages of implementing an IoT-based online smart home power quality monitoring system are numerous, including reduced energy costs, improved safety by detecting potential electrical hazards, and providing homeowners with a better understanding of their home's electrical system. This information enables prompt action and optimization of energy usage. Overall, the integration of IoT technology in smart home power quality monitoring is an innovative approach that enhances the quality of life for homeowners.

How to Create an Optopia? – Kim Stanley Robinson's “Ministry for the Future” and the Politics of Hope

Kim Stanley Robinson—award-winning science fiction writer—has warned us that our current history is a choice between utopia or catastrophe. In this interview and in the following reflections, we explore the implications of this existential choice for the social science disciplines; in particular, economics, finance, accounting, and management. Our goals are to build a provocation and develop some propositions about the direction of capitalism and the purpose of management research in an age of climate crisis. Against the backdrop of dread and greed and the specter of plutocratic capitalism, we offer a politics of hope. We envision a green capitalism in which corporations are held accountable for environmental and social stewardship. Rather than falling back on government or the corporation as an “either/or” choice, we urge a “both/and” approach and call for the active inclusion of communities and citizens in climate response through democratic, polycentric governance structures. Within this agenda, we envision a new role for the academy as “Ministry”; namely, giving voice to future generations and the silent (or silenced) victims of the present and, by embracing pragmatic realism, inspiring a liveable future—an optopia—that we can still forge from where we are.

The new cooperativism, the commons, and the post-capitalist imaginary

This article explores the intersection of the commons and co-operatives resonating with the concept and practices of today’s new cooperativism. We argue that the commons, understood as a transformative vision for the social stewardship of vital dimensions of social and economic life, is a key animator of the co-operative difference and that the new cooperativism re-establishes co-operatives within their radical commons heritage. We begin the article with a brief review of the history of co-operatives and their relationship to capitalism and crises. We then explore the issue of the commons as a unifying force of post-capitalistic thought and practice and connect it to the new cooperativism. To illustrate the possibilities inherent to the co-operative form for a more radical, post-capitalist vision, we then turn our attention to an illustrative case of new cooperativism today — Argentina’s worker-recuperated enterprises. This case demonstrates the potential vibrancy of commons-based co-operatives for a post-capitalist alternative, offering tantalising details of the new cooperativism in practice. The final section provides a discussion of new cooperativism’s possibilities for organising the commons and catalysing post-capitalist imaginaries.

Exploring the Psychological Dimensions of Stewardship in Recreational Fisheries

AbstractThe sustainability of recreational fisheries is in part dependent on anglers acting as stewards of the resource. However, the psychological attributes that underpin anglers' adoption of voluntarily stewardship behaviors remain largely unknown. In this study, we tested a model of the factors that influence stewardship in the recreational fisheries sector. Specifically, we drew on identity theory to explore the role of one's identification as an angler in shaping moral norms and stewardship behaviors among anglers in Texas. Stewardship behavior was conceptualized along three dimensions related to private‐sphere, public‐sphere, and social stewardship activities. Data were taken from a statewide, mixed‐mode survey of Texas licensed anglers' attitudes, behaviors, and management preferences (n = 948). We hypothesized that one's identity as an angler and moral beliefs about acting as a steward of fisheries resources would predict three dimensions of stewardship behavior. Results indicated that one's identity as an angler is associated with normative beliefs and that these two factors have differential effects on engagement in multiple dimensions of stewardship behaviors.

Protecting “First world” markets and “Third world” nature: The politics of illegal logging in Australia, the European Union and the United States

Abstract Global forest governance has recently seen the emergence of a timber legality regime. In an aim to regulate global timber trade flows, the US, the EU and Australia adopted laws prohibiting illegally harvested timber from entering their markets. While some view this as a milestone for environmental and social stewardship in the global forest sector, the effects of the regime remain contested. In order to better understand likely effects of the regime, we apply the Discursive Agency Approach to analyze discursive dynamics of policy making among the stakeholders involved in the creation of each law and their effects on governance design and implementation. Based on 120 interviews in the US, Australia, the EU and with global organizations/institutions, as well as 19 informal conversations, 300 documents, and participant observation data, our results show that legality is a powerful concept in forest governance. Drawing attention away from sustainability, it enables discursive divides between the global North and South as well as between wood producers and importers. These divides were crucial for the emergence of the legality regime. While some forest industry groups perceived the new laws as an opportunity, others saw them as a threat. In all three regions this led to coalitions between supportive industry factions and environmental groups. These coalitions were based on a complementarity of goals; environmentalists aimed to protect “Third World” forests while industry groups aimed to protect “First World” markets against growing competition from these former regions. Yet each coalition was composed differently and employed distinct – albeit related – discursive strategies in policy making. This affected the design of each law and its implementation. The shift from sustainability towards legality re-surfaces prominently in implementation. Stakeholder discussions range from coercive “threatening” to more learning-oriented “educating” approaches. We conclude by discussing the effects these discursive struggles in Australia, the EU and the US have on the global timber legality regime.

Energy Conservation Via Greywater Reuse for Power Plant Cooling and Wastes Minimization

Sustainable engineering brings about multidisciplinary solutions to environmental, sociocultural, and economic needs. Sustainable methods and technologies ensure the effectiveness of products, designs, and infrastructure, and minimize waste. Managing waste is critical in the successful practice of sustainable engineering. Success in the implementation of a waste management program must consider a very important strategy, namely, waste reduction which is highly dependent on social stewardship, education, and waste conversion. A sustainable program mix must include public policy, health management, and engineering. This paper presents a number of proven sources and techniques for wastes minimization and conversion and a discussion about the development of effective decision-making tools to implement the most feasible and cost-effective applications. Specifically, the conversion of waste as a resource is presented including the use of wastewater (greywater) for condenser cooling in a power plant; conversion of restaurant grease into biodiesel; the use of phosphate mine tailings as a road surface material; recycling and reuse of glass, metal, and plastics; reuse of rare metals from discarded computers; and the use of cattle waste as building materials. In all of these, the conservation of energy is realized practically. More emphasis has been focused on the use of greywater because it has direct impact on the energy–water nexus.

Divide and conquer—Discursive agency in the politics of illegal logging in the United States

In 2008 the US amended the century-old US Lacey Act to prohibit the import of illegally harvested or traded timber. Together with similar policies in the EU and Australia, this initialized a paradigm shift in global forest governance towards a legality (verification) regime that could substantially contribute to environmental and social stewardship in the forest sector. The analysis of the formation and implementation of these new policies in the US, Europe and Australia is, however, only just beginning.Based on 31 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, 19 informal conversations, more than 100 documents, and participant observation data, we analyze the policy making and implementation of the 2008 US Lacey Act amendment. Our results suggest two essential drivers for this policy change: (1) the deployment of discursive divide-and-conquer strategies and (2) a shift away from sustainability to legality, on both the international level and in the US. Based on the Discursive Agency Approach, we illustrate how carefully deployed discursive and governance strategies were crucial for building a coalition between environmentalists and parts of the wood (products) industry. This coalition was able to create a powerful storyline that muted the opposition and presented a politically attractive amendment proposal. We further show how these strategies have significant effects on the perception of the amended Lacey Act and its implementation. During implementation, coalitions as well as discursive and governance strategies shifted substantially but were still determined by the pre-amendment policy discourse. We conclude by exploring the importance of our findings for what we might expect from the concept of legality in global forest and environmental governance.

Sustainable Value creation of nine countries of the Baltic region. Value, changes and drivers

The Baltic region comprises countries of great diversity. They have in common that they all face the challenge to combine a sound economic development with the stewardship for their environmental, social and economic resources. Using the Sustainable Value approach we first analyze their overall sustainability performance. We then further develop the value drivers of Sustainable Value to enhance the explanatory power of our analysis. We find that there are significant differences between countries. We show both conceptually and using our examples that there is no unambiguous link between economic growth, environmental and social stewardship and the efficient use of resources.

Moving beyond commitments: creating durable change through the implementation of Asia Pulp and Paper's forest conservation policy

Campaigns by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) pressuring companies to adopt sustainability standards have caught academic interest in recent years. Critics of this approach toward increasing biodiversity protection and social justice argue that campaign successes are often short-lived while proponents emphasize the potential of NGO campaigns to achieve positive environmental and social change in the absence of governmental legislation. Focusing on the recent forest conservation policy of Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), a leading pulp and paper company operating in Southeast Asia, we analyze the challenges companies face in implementing sustainability commitments made as a result of NGO and market pressure. Drawing from research on policy implementation and corporate greening we identify key activities to help entrench APP's commitments in the company's operations. Furthermore, we suggest that a range of actions by different stakeholder groups can achieve broader effects of APP's commitments toward better environmental and social stewardship in the region's pulp and paper sector.

Tackling the Sustainability Dilemma: A Holistic Approach to Preparing Students for the Professional Organization

Increased knowledge of business sustainability as the basis of a holistic approach to value creation has inspired many managers to integrate ecological and social stewardship into their strategic business innovation plans. However, the coverage of sustainability issues in business courses remains small at many universities. This article illustrates how business communication students can become cognitively, behaviorally, and emotionally involved in the analysis and evaluation of the complex sustainability paradigm via an assignment focusing on sustainability. The approach integrates several levels of learning, stretching students’ cognitive skills and enhancing the emotional competencies and behavioral skills needed to enter high-level business jobs.

Paradigms for Sustainable Development: Implications of Management Theory

ABSTRACTWe provide a framework for examining the trade‐offs between socio‐environmental, organizational, and managerial goals. Using this framework we examine management choices under agency and stewardship theories. We advance a theory of social stewardship to explain behavior inconsistent with both agency and stewardship. We illustrate that social stewardship behavior by managers and principals, while best from a societal perspective, is not a viable management approach under current business and regulatory conditions. This conclusion is vital to public policymakers who seek to foster socially desirable behavior by publicly traded companies. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Policy guidance for identifying and effectively managing perpetual environmental impacts from new hardrock mines

Perpetual environmental management at operating and proposed hardrock mines is a rapidly expanding global dilemma. While economies of scale have encouraged larger mines, improved models routinely predict long-term water quality degradation at sulfide metal mines. Technical causes include oxidation of sulfide minerals and seepage from waste rock, tailings, and pit wall rock. Perpetual treatment is usually less expensive than permanent stabilization, even using 2% “risk-free” investment return rate; but this option greatly increases the social and financial complexity. A few regulations address perpetual management, but specific requirements range from formal acceptance to complete prohibition. With vague regulations, predictions of long-term impacts often delay permitting as operators and regulators grapple with model uncertainty and regulatory ambiguity. Risk management tools (e.g., insurance, inflation-protected investments, etc.) can reduce but cannot eliminate risk, and their continued availability is uncertain. What regulators and mine operators need – but do not have – is a clear framework to guide them in developing perpetual management plans that balance risks (e.g., uncertainty in predictions, cost, finance, and governance) and ensure responsible environmental and social stewardship. This paper responds with a review of perpetual mine management issues, including technical causes, policy examples, investment tools, case studies, technical remedies, and principles for successful long-term management.

Reassessing Energy Security and the Trans-ASEAN Natural Gas Pipeline Network in Southeast Asia

Regulators within Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have heavily promoted investment in natural gas infrastructure to meet burgeoning demand for energy. By 2030, some analysts expect Southeast Asia to become the Persian Gulf of Gas and responsible for one-quarter of world's gas production and use. Perhaps no single project is more emblematic of region's view of energy security and policy than Trans-ASEAN natural gas pipeline (TAGP) system, a proposed network of natural gas pipelines to connect gas reserves in Gulf of Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar and Philippines to rest of region. Advocates of TAGP expect it to promote economic development, earn foreign exchange, mitigate risks of climate change, and enhance regional energy security. Drawing from field research and research interviews, however, this article takes a critical look at region's drive towards TAGP and ASEAN's approach to energy security as a whole. The article argues that plans for TAGP rest on too simple a notion of energy security: secure access to fuel. This conception of energy security ignores important additional dimensions related to availability, affordability, efficiency and environmental and social stewardship. In contrast, paper concludes that TAGP is insufficient, expensive, inefficient, and environmentally and socially destructive.

‘What's so special about family business?’ An exploratory study of UK and Irish consumer experiences of family businesses

AbstractWhile family‐owned businesses are considered to have specific advantages in customer relationships, limited research has been conducted into how these abilities are developed or understood by the public. Consumers may indeed perceive family businesses differently from non‐family businesses, but this aspect has received scant attention within the literature. This paper sets out exploratory work designed to gain an understanding of Irish and UK consumer perceptions of family‐owned businesses, within both urban and rural communities. The study provides insight into the meaning of ‘familiness’ in consumers' minds when linked to family businesses, and explores the relationships and experiences that respondents have of family firms. Emerging issues include family business heritage, community bonds and social stewardship, consumer loyalty and generational transfer, distinction, choice and retail heterogeneity. The findings of this exploratory study suggest that researchers should be paying more attention to the positive aspects of family businesses within communities, and concludes with suggestions for future research to further extend this area of study.

Review of Agri-Environment Indexes and Stewardship Payments

Agri-environment programs aim to secure environmental and social stewardship services through payments to farmers. A critical component of many agri-environment programs is an agri-environment index (AEI) used to quantify benefits and target investments. An AEI will typically comprise multiple indicators, which are weighted and combined using a utility function, to measure the benefit of investment options (e.g., projects, farms, regions). This article presents a review of AEIs with 11 case studies from agri-environment programs in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. We identify a generic procedure used to define AEIs and explore the implications of alternative methodological approaches. We conclude that AEIs have become an extremely important policy instrument and make suggestions for their improvement.

Going Beyond Green: The “Why and How” of Integrating Sustainability Into the Marketing Curriculum

Teaching sustainable marketing practices requires that curricula advocate a “triple bottom line” approach to personal and marketing decision making, emphasizing requirements for a sustainable lifestyle, company, economy, and society. These requirements include environmental/ecological stewardship (maintenance and renewal of “natural capital”), social stewardship (equitable distribution of resources, human, and community well-being), and economic stewardship (valuing financial continuity over profit). In this article, the authors suggest how marketing educators might incorporate these sustainability principles into marketing pedagogy. Toward that end, the authors (a) offer a formal definition of the term sustainability , (b) examine the current role of sustainability in marketing strategy at the firm level, (c) present a brief history of academic literature relevant to this topic and review current initiatives at academic institutions, (d) offer resources for integrating sustainability into marketing curricula, and (e) propose and describe the implementation of an MBA-level marketing elective dedicated to the topic of sustainability.

Offshore Aquaculture Legislation

![Figure][1] Fish farming is flourishing along coastlines in many countries. But the United States is turning instead to the open ocean for aquaculture expansion. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a unit within the U.S. Department of Commerce, justifies this move on several grounds: America's seafood appetite continues to grow, ocean waters are overfished, and marine fish farming near the shore is limited by state regulations. As a result, the United States faces a large and growing seafood deficit, now around $8 billion annually. With technology such as submersible cages with robotic surveillance becoming available for open-ocean farming, why not move aquaculture into the high seas? After all, the United States has the largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the world, amounting to roughly 1.5 times the landmass of the lower 48 states. Facilitating aquaculture development in federal waters of the EEZ (3 to 200 miles offshore) could result in substantial commercial benefits. But at what cost to sustainable fisheries, wild fish populations, and marine ecosystems remain sticky questions for legislation. On 8 June 2005, Commerce Committee Co-Chairmen Senators Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Daniel Inouye (D-HI) introduced the National Offshore Aquaculture Act of 2005 (S. 1195). This bill, crafted by NOAA, establishes a permitting process for offshore aquaculture development within the federal waters of the EEZ and encourages private investment in aquaculture operations, demonstrations, and research. It gives the Secretary of Commerce the authority and broad discretion to promote offshore aquaculture—in consultation with other relevant federal agencies, but without firm environmental requirements apart from existing laws. Just how much NOAA should be promoting versus overseeing aquaculture development is debatable, particularly because many of the needed environmental safeguards are missing. Without a clear legal standard for environmental and resource protection within the bill, marine fisheries and ecosystems are vulnerable to further decline. Ample evidence from near-shore systems indicates major environmental risks from fish farming: The escape of farmed fish from ocean cages can have detrimental effects on wild fish populations through competition and interbreeding, parasites and diseases can spread from farmed to wild fish, there is damaging nutrient and chemical effluent discharge from farms, and the use of wild pelagic fish for feed can deplete the low end of the marine food web in certain locations. Species targeted for offshore systems, such as halibut and cod, are also caught in the wild, so commercial fishing interests worry about the economic as well as ecological consequences. Most existing open-ocean systems are experimental. They experience predator attacks, escapes, and high use of wild fish for feed, and the full ecological impact of commercial-scale offshore aquaculture remains unknown. ![Figure][1] CREDIT: MICHAEL POLE/CORBIS Since the introduction of S. 1195, environmental and fishing groups have worked hard to stop the legislation. The bill was roundly criticized before a Senate committee in June 2006 and has yet to reach the House. In the likely event that S. 1195 resurfaces in the next legislative session, stakeholders and the public should be attentive to three points. First, states have an important role to play. For example, California's recent Sustainable Oceans Act (SB 201) sets high environmental standards for marine finfish production in state waters and could help shape national legislation. An amendment to S. 1195 also permits states to opt out of aquaculture development in federal waters off their shores. Second, industry leaders whose business strategy strongly incorporates environmental and social stewardship should contribute to the bill's revision. Positive participation by the industry would help move the legislative process forward. Finally, the revised legislation must permit firms operating in U.S. federal waters to be internationally competitive. This will only happen if the bill is crafted in an international context, with sound environmental standards adopted in all countries with marine aquaculture, whether near shore or offshore. Commerce is eyeing the global picture. So too should the global environmental community. [1]: pending:yes

Policy Formulation and the Administrative Process

It is no mere coincidence that greater reliance on government for social stewardship in a decade of economic stress has been accompanied by a reconsideration of public personnel problems. Foremost in the new orientation of thought is a deeper appreciation of administrative leadership within the civil service. As a result, considerable emphasis is being placed upon the demand for “upward extension” of the merit principle. In reality, the term “extension” appears to be a misnomer. If the leading staff positions in the administrative hierarchy are to be filled on a basis of competency and permanency, far-reaching questions of recruitment, promotion, and general grouping present themselves which can be answered only in relation to a revised conception of the entire service.