Abstract
There are rising calls for the adoption of responsible management practices in virtually every economic sector of both developed and developing economies. Among others, efforts to promote responsible management have been championed by governments, international organisations, academic institutions, and industry regulators. In developing economies, such moves have spawned numerous success stories across diverse sectors such as energy, mining, manufacturing, and agriculture. Despite these glowing achievements, a plethora of challenges persist that threaten the sustainable development agenda. Against this backdrop, we address some crucial pathways for the sustainability logic and responsible management philosophy, as exemplified by contemporary practices across various sectors within the emerging markets context. We conceptualised responsible management as built on three pillars and examine the contribution of this triad of cognate concepts and practices: corporate social responsibility, green business, and sustainable management. We argue that social responsibility is pivotal to responsible management since it is imperative for corporations to consider the interests of multiple stakeholders, including employees, the society, the environment, future generations, and not only the interests of companies and investors. Akin to corporate social responsibility are sustainable management practices. We applaud current sustainability transitions concerning initiatives by businesses to drive meaningful and rewarding sustainability action. However, considering the upsurge of irresponsible and unsustainable business practices that harm the biosphere, needlessly kill wildlife, deplete natural resources, and destroy vegetation, the chapter explicates some specific ways in which businesses in emerging markets can drive green business initiatives from thought to finish, as expressed through green sourcing, green processing, green production, and green consumption practices. We also make recommendations regarding how governments, policymakers, and managers can support and embed the responsible management agenda in emerging markets. The chapter recommends that organisations must reimagine present-day sustainability actions by adopting innovative and sustainable initiatives such as reducing consumption, recycling, remanufacturing, reusing resources, and employing cutting-edge technology to monitor business processes across the entire value-chain from manufacturing to the end-user. At the micro level, we advocate that firm managers, entrepreneurs, and individuals must propel efforts in adopting responsible management practices. Finally, this chapter introduces the multisectoral chapters contained in the pages of this book, outline contributions to theory, and discuss practical managerial and policy implications.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abuzeinab, A., Arif, M., & Qadri, M. A. (2017). Barriers to MNEs green business models in the UK construction sector: An ISM analysis. Journal of Cleaner Production, 160, 27–37.
Adae, E. K. (2020). Beyond corporate profits: Reminiscing about the future of CEO activism in Ghana. Doctoral dissertation, School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon. https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/25924
Adae, E. K. (2021). Brewed in the African Pot: Examining the influences of Caritas, Ubuntu, Africapitalism, and postmodern values on CEO activism in Ghana. In D. Pompper (Ed.), Public relations for social responsibility: Affirming DEI commitment with action. Emerald Publishing.
Adams, P. (2019, July 8). The year of ‘woke-washing’: How tone-deaf activism risks eroding brands. Retrieved January 15, 2020, from https://www.marketingdive.com/news/the-year-of-woke-washing-how-tone-deaf-activism-risks-eroding-brands/557606/
Adenugba, F., Misra, S., Maskeliūnas, R., Damaševičius, R., & Kazanavičius, E. (2019). Smart irrigation system for environmental sustainability in Africa: An Internet of Everything (IoE) approach. Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering, 16, 5490–5503.
Alam, M. J., Begum, I. A., Buysse, J., & Van Huylenbroeck, G. (2012). Energy consumption, carbon emissions and economic growth nexus in Bangladesh: Cointegration and dynamic causality analysis. Energy Policy, 45, 217–225.
Amoako, G. K., Dzogbenuku, R. K., Doe, J., & Adjaison, G. K. (2020). Green marketing and the SDGs: emerging market perspective. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.
Asongu, S. A., Agboola, M. O., Alola, A. A., & Bekun, F. V. (2020). The criticality of growth, urbanization, electricity and fossil fuel consumption to environment sustainability in Africa. Science of the Total Environment, 712, 136376.
Bachewe, F. N., Berhane, G., Minten, B., & Taffesse, A. S. (2018). Agricultural transformation in Africa? Assessing the evidence in Ethiopia. World Development, 105, 286–298.
Banihashemi, S., Hosseini, M. R., Golizadeh, H., & Sankaran, S. (2017). Critical success factors (CSFs) for integration of sustainability into construction project management practices in developing countries. International Journal of Project Management, 35(6), 1103–1119.
Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17(1), 99–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700108
Baz, E. L. J., & Laguir, I. (2017). Third-party logistics providers (TPLs) and environmental sustainability practices in developing countries. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 37(10), 1451–1474.
Benn, S., Edwards, M., & Williams, T. (2014). Organizational change for corporate sustainability. Routledge.
Business Roundtable. (2019, August 19). Business Roundtable redefines the purpose of a corporation to promote ‘An economy that serves all Americans.’ Retrieved September 17, 2019, from https://www.businessroundtable.org/business-roundtable-redefines-the-purpose-of-a-corporation-to-promote-an-economy-that-serves-all-americans
Carroll, A. B., Adler, N. J., Mintzberg, H., Cooren, F., Suddaby, R., Freeman, R. E., & Laasch, O. (2020). What ‘are’ responsible management? A conceptual potluck. In O. Laasch, R. Suddaby, R. E. Freeman, & D. Jamali (Eds.), The research handbook of responsible management. Edward Elgar.
Clarke, T., & Clegg, S. (2000). Changing paradigms: The transformation of management knowledge for the 21st century. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 59(3), 122–122.
Coombs, W. T., & Holladay, S. J. (2012). Managing corporate social responsibility: A communication approach. Wiley-Blackwell.
Dangelico, R. M., & Vocalelli, D. (2017). “Green Marketing”: An analysis of definitions, strategy steps, and tools through a systematic review of the literature. Journal of Cleaner Production, 165, 1263–1279.
De Novellis, M. (2016). MBA careers: How responsible management is changing the rules of the game. https://www.businessbecause.com/news/europe/4317/mba-careers-how-responsible-management-is-changing-the-rules-of-the-game
Deegan, C. (2017). Twenty-five years of social and environmental accounting research within Critical Perspectives of Accounting: Hits, misses and ways forward. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 43, 65–87.
Delmas, M. A., Lyon, T. P., & Maxwell, J. W. (2019). Understanding the role of the corporation in sustainability transitions. Organization & Environment, 32, 87–97.
Dikau, S., & Ryan-Collins, J. (2017). Green central banking in emerging market and developing country economies. New Economics Foundation.
Elkington, J. B. (1999). Cannibals with forks: The triple bottom line of the 21st century business. Capstone.
Elkington, J. B. (2018, June 25). 25 years ago I coined the phrase “Triple Bottom Line.” Here’s why it’s time to rethink it. https://hbr.org/2018/06/25-years-ago-i-coined-the-phrase-triple-bottom-line-heres-why-im-giving-up-on-it
Elmqvist, T., Andersson, E., Frantzeskaki, N., McPhearson, T., Olsson, P., Gaffney, O., & Folke, C. (2019). Sustainability and resilience for transformation in the urban century. Nature Sustainability, 2(4), 267–273.
Enoch, S. (2007). A greener Potemkin village? Corporate social responsibility and the limits of growth. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 18(2), 79–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/10455750701366485
Falck, O., & Heblich, S. (2007). Corporate social responsibility: Doing well by doing good. Business Horizons, 50(3), 247–254.
Foster, J. B. (2000). Marx’s ecology: Materialism and nature. New York University Press.
Friedman, M. (1970, September 13). The social responsibility of business is to make a profit. New York Times Magazine. https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/archives/a-friedman-doctrine-the-social-responsibility-of-business-is-to.html
Friedman, M. (2007). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. Springer.
Goffi, G., Cucculelli, M., & Masiero, L. (2019). Fostering tourism destination competitiveness in developing countries: The role of sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production, 209, 101–115.
GRI. (2016). GRI standards. Global reporting initiative. GRI. https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/
Guenola, N., & Kerul, K. (2016). Understanding responsible management. In G. Atinc (Ed.), Academy of management proceedings. Academy of Management. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2016.17729abstract
Hambrick, D. C., & Wowak, A. (2021). CEO sociopolitical activism: A stakeholder alignment model. Academy of Management Research, 46(1), 33–59. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2018.0084
Hammann, E. M., Habisch, A., & Pechlaner, H. (2009). Values that create value: Socially responsible business practices in SMEs – Empirical evidence from German companies. Business Ethics: A European Review, 18(1), 37–51.
Hanss, D., & Böhm, G. (2012). Sustainability seen from the perspective of consumers. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 36(6), 678–687.
Hartl, B., Sabitzer, T., Hofmann, E., & Penz, E. (2018). “Sustainability is a nice bonus” the role of sustainability in carsharing from a consumer perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production, 202, 88–100.
Holliday, C. O., Schmidheiny, S., & Watts, P. (2002). Walking the talk: The business case for sustainable development. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Jamel, L., & Derbali, A. (2016). Do energy consumption and economic growth lead to environmental degradation? Evidence from Asian economies. Cogent Economics & Finance, 4(1), 1170653.
Jenkins, H. (2006). Small business champions for corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 67(3), 241–256.
Kleiner, A. (1991). What does it mean to be green? Harvard Business School, (July–August 1991). https://hbr.org/1991/07/what-does-it-mean-to-be-green
Kumar, V., & Christodoulopoulou, A. (2014). Sustainability and branding: An integrated perspective. Industrial Marketing Management, 43(1), 6–15.
Labuschagne, C., Brent, A. C., & Van Erck, R. P. (2005). Assessing the sustainability performances of industries. Journal of Cleaner Production, 13(4), 373–385.
Mafini, C., & Muposhi, A. (2017). The impact of green supply chain management in small to medium enterprises: Cross-sectional evidence. Journal of Transport and Supply Chain Management, 11(1), 1–11.
Magnusson, P., Westjohn, S. A., & Zdravkovic, S. (2015). An examination of the interplay between corporate social responsibility, the brand’s home country, and consumer global identification. International Marketing Review, 32(6), 663–685.
Mani, V., Gunasekaran, A., Papadopoulos, T., Hazen, B., & Dubey, R. (2016). Supply chain social sustainability for developing nations: Evidence from India. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 111, 42–52.
McVeigh, K. (2012, February 15). Susan, G Komen’s “pinkwashing” problem a black mark on charity. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/15/komen-pinkwashing-problem-planned-parenthood
Meah, K., Ula, S., & Barrett, S. (2008). Solar photovoltaic water pumping – Opportunities and challenges. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 12(4), 1162–1175.
Mishra, P. (2017). Green human resource management: A framework for sustainable organizational development in an emerging economy. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 25(5), 762–788.
Modern Ghana. (2019, October 4). Voltic launches all-new environmentally friendly Voltic twist water. https://www.modernghana.com/news/959197/voltic-launches-all-new-environmentally-friendly.html
Moscato, D. (2018). Corporate social responsibility committing to social and environmental impact in the global economy. In A. V. Laskin (Ed.), The handbook of financial communication and investor relations. John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
Nalick, M., Josefy, M., Zardkoohi, A., & Bierman, L. (2016). Corporate socio-political involvement: A reflection of whose preferences? Academy of Management Perspectives, 30(4), 384–403.
Nathaniel, S. P., & Adeleye, N. (2021). Environmental preservation amidst carbon emissions, energy consumption, and urbanization in selected African countries: Implication for sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production, 285, 125409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125409
Ng, A. W. (2018). From sustainability accounting to a green financing system: Institutional legitimacy and market heterogeneity in a global financial centre. Journal of Cleaner Production, 195, 585–592.
Nonet, G., Kassel, K., & Meijs, L. (2016). Understanding responsible management: Emerging themes and variations from European business school programs. Journal of Business Ethics, 139(4), 717–736.
Nutsugah, F. F. (2019). Environmental performance and firm performance: The mediating roles of market-based assets and integrated marketing communication. Doctoral dissertation, University of Ghana.
Nutsugah, F.F., Anning-Dorson, T., Braimah, S.M. and Tweneboah-Koduah, E.Y. (2020), “Candle under a bushel: communicating environmental performance to improve firm performance”, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-12-2019-0578
Nzimande, Z., & Chauke, H. (2012). Sustainability through responsible environmental mining. Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, 112(2), 135–139.
Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business model generation: A handbook for visionaries. In Game changers, and challengers. Wiley.
Park, J., & Ha, S. (2014). Understanding consumer recycling behavior: Combining the theory of planned behavior and the norm activation model. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 42(3), 278–291.
Pava, M. L., & Krausz, J. (1995). Corporate responsibility and financial performance: The paradox of social cost. Quorum.
Perera, C., Auger, P., & Klein, J. (2018). Green consumption practices among young environmentalists: A practice theory perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 152(3), 843–864.
Pollard, S., & Du Toit, D. (2008). Integrated water resource management in complex systems: How the catchment management strategies seek to achieve sustainability and equity in water resources in South Africa. Water SA, 34(6), 671–679.
Pompper, D. (2015). Corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and public relations: Negotiating multiple complex challenges. Routledge.
Rao, P. H. (2019). Green supply chain management: A study based on SMEs in India. Journal of Supply Chain Management Systems, 8(1), 15.
Robert, K. W., Parris, T. M., & Leiserowitz, A. A. (2005). What is sustainable development? Goals, indicators, values, and practice. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 47(3), 8–21.
Sachs, J. D. (2012). From millennium development goals to sustainable development goals. The Lancet, 379(9832), 2206–2211.
Saeidi, S. P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S. P., & Saaeidi, S. A. (2015). How does corporate social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction. Journal of Business Research, 68(2), 341–350.
Sarkar, C. (2018, October 25). “Beyond the Triple Bottom Line” – An Interview with John Elkington. http://www.marketingjournal.org/beyond-the-triple-bottom-line-interview-with-john-elkington/
Savitz, A. W. (2013). Talent, transformation, and the triple bottom line: How companies can leverage human resources to achieve sustainable growth. Jossey-Bass Wiley.
Sheehan, K. (2019, August 9). Companies promoting causes can be accused of ‘wokewashing’ – Allying Themselves only for good PR. Retrieved January 15, 2020, from https://theconversation.com/companies-promoting-causes-can-be-accused-of-wokewashing-allying-themselves-only-for-good-pr-120962
Sheehan, K., & Atkinson, L. (2012). Special issue on green advertising: Revisiting green advertising and the reluctant consumer. Journal of Advertising, 41(4), 5–7. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2012.10672453
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). (n.d.). United Nations Foundation. Retrieved March 20, 2021, from https://rb.gy/hy1ker
Tiwari, S., Ahmed, W., & Sarkar, B. (2018). Multi-item sustainable green production system under trade-credit and partial backordering. Journal of Cleaner Production, 204, 82–95.
Trilles, S., Torres-Sospedra, J., Belmonte, Ó., Zarazaga-Soria, F. J., González-Pérez, A., & Huerta, J. (2020). Development of an open sensorized platform in a smart agriculture context: A vineyard support system for monitoring mildew disease. Sustainable Computing: Informatics and Systems, 28, 100309.
United Nations. (2017). Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017, Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (A/RES/71/313 Archived 28 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine).
Van Den Brink, S., Kleijn, R., Tukker, A., & Huisman, J. (2019). Approaches to responsible sourcing in mineral supply chains. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 145, 389–398.
Yusliza, M. Y., Othman, N. Z., & Jabbour, C. J. C. (2017). Deciphering the implementation of green human resource management in an emerging economy. Journal of Management Development, 36, 1230–1246.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Adae, E.K., Kosiba, J.P.B., Hinson, R.E., Twum, K.K., Newman, N., Nutsugah, F.F. (2021). An Introduction to Responsible Management: A Corporate Social Responsibility, Green Marketing, and Sustainability Management Perspective. In: Adae, E.K., Kosiba, J.P.B., Hinson, R.E., Twum, K.K., Newman, N., Nutsugah, F.F. (eds) Responsible Management in Emerging Markets. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76563-7_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76563-7_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-76562-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-76563-7
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)