Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Business Strong Sustainability Performance: Evidence from Food Sector

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Quantification of Sustainability Indicators in the Food Sector

  • 490 Accesses

Abstract

A composite sustainability index is suggested to evaluate strong sustainability of businesses by utilizing the triple-bottom-line approach and principles of strong sustainability. On the one side, the proposed index is classified into three classical aspects of sustainability to measure financial performance, environment protection, and social justice. On the other side, it focuses on some basic concepts of environmental science in relation to carrying capacity, safe minimum standards, and critical capital mainly to design certain thresholds for indexes which businesses should attain. An application of the proposed methodology has been made to the food industry in order to draw some implications useful to overcome some of the shortcomings of previous studies. The findings show that the idea of integrating economic, social, and environmental thresholds into corporate indicators might be a good basis to evaluate the strong corporate sustainability performance and offer a comprehend signal to stakeholders.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aguilera, R. V., Rupp, D. E., Williams, C. A., & Ganapathi, J. (2007). Putting the S back in corporate social responsibility: A multilevel theory of social change in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 32(3), 836–863.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aras, G., & Crowther, D. (2008). Governance and sustainability: An investigation into the relationship between corporate governance and corporate sustainability. Management Decision, 46(3), 433–448.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, G. (2000). Measuring corporate sustainability. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 43(2), 235–252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Azapagic, A. (2003). Systems approach to corporate sustainability: A general management framework. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 81(5), 303–316.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Azapagic, A. (2004). Developing a framework for sustainable development indicators for the mining and minerals industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 12(6), 639–662.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bai, C., Sarkis, J., Wei, X., & Koh, L. (2012). Evaluating ecological sustainable performance measures for supply chain management. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 17(1), 78–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bansal, P. (2005). Evolving sustainably: A longitudinal study of corporate sustainable development. Strategic Management Journal, 26(3), 197–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumgartner, R. J., & Ebner, D. (2010). Corporate sustainability strategies: sustainability profiles and maturity levels. Sustainable Development, 18(2), 76–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bebbington, J., & Gray, R. (1997). Sustainable development and accounting: incentives and disincentives for the adoption of sustainability by transnational corporations. In C. Hibbitt & H. Blokdjik (Eds.), Environmental accounting and sustainable development: The final report. Amsterdam: Limperg Instituut.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brattebø, H. (2005). Toward a methods framework for eco-efficiency analysis? Journal of Industrial Ecology, 9(4), 9–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burritt, R. L., & Saka, C. (2006). Environmental management accounting applications and eco-efficiency: Case studies from Japan. Journal of Cleaner Production, 14(14), 1262–1275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, A. B. (1991). The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral management of organizational stakeholders. Business Horizons, 34(4), 39–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delai, I., & Takahashi, S. (2011). Sustainability measurement system: A reference model proposal. Social Responsibility Journal, 7(3), 438–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dočekalová, M. P., & Kocmanová, A. (2016). Composite indicator for measuring corporate sustainability. Ecological Indicators, 61, 612–623.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dyllick, T., & Hockerts, K. (2002). Beyond business case for corporate sustainability. Business Strategy and the Environment, 11, 130–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elkington, J. (1998). Partnerships from cannibals with forks: The triple bottom line of 21st-century business. Environmental Quality Management, 8(1), 37–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Epstein, M. J., & Roy, M. J. (2001). Sustainability in action: Identifying and measuring the key performance drivers. Long Range Planning, 34(5), 585–604.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faucheux, S., & O’Connor, M. (1998). Weak and strong sustainability. In S. Faucheux & M. O’Connor (Eds.), Valuation for sustainable development: Methods and policy indicators. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Figge, F., & Hahn, T. (2004). Sustainable value added—Measuring corporate contributions to sustainability beyond eco-efficiency. Ecological Economics, 48(2), 173–187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Figge, F., & Hahn, T. (2005). The cost of sustainability capital and the creation of sustainable value by companies. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 9(4), 47–58.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Figge, F., Hahn, T., Schaltegger, S., & Wagner, M. (2002). The sustainability balanced scorecard–linking sustainability management to business strategy. Business Strategy and the Environment, 11(5), 269–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Godfrey, P. C., Merrill, C. B., & Hansen, J. M. (2009). The relationship between corporate social responsibility and shareholder value: An empirical test of the risk management hypothesis. Strategic Management Journal, 30(4), 425–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goyal, P., Rahman, Z., & Kazmi, A. A. (2013). Corporate sustainability performance and firm performance research: Literature review and future research agenda. Management Decision, 51(2), 361–379.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, T., Figge, F., Pinkse, J., & Preuss, L. (2010). Trade-offs in corporate sustainability: You can’t have your cake and eat it. Business Strategy and the Environment, 19(4), 217–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hart, S. L. (1995). A natural-resource-based view of the firm. Academy of Management Review, 20(4), 986–1014.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hediger, W. (2010). Welfare and capital-theoretic foundations of corporate social responsibility and corporate sustainability. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 39(4), 518–526.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hubbard, G. (2009). Measuring organizational performance: beyond the triple bottom line. Business Strategy and the Environment, 18(3), 177–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hutchins, M. J., & Sutherland, J. W. (2008). An exploration of measures of social sustainability and their application to supply chain decisions. Journal of Cleaner Production, 16(15), 1688–1698.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ilinitch, A., Soderstrom, N., & Thomas, T. (1998). Measuring corporate environmental performance. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 17, 383–408.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isaksson, R., & Steimle, U. (2009). What does GRI-reporting tell us about corporate sustainability? The TQM Journal, 21(2), 168–181.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joyner, B. E., & Payne, D. (2002). Evolution and implementation: A study of values, business ethics and corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 41(4), 297–311.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Labuschagne, C., & Brent, A. C. (2005). Sustainable Project Life Cycle Management: the need to integrate life cycles in the manufacturing sector. International Journal of Project Management, 23, 159–168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lozano, R., Carpenter, A., & Huisingh, D. (2015). A review of ‘theories of the firm’ and their contributions to corporate sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production, 106, 430–442.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Málovics, G., Csigéné, N. N., & Kraus, S. (2008). The role of corporate social responsibility in strong sustainability. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 37(3), 907–918.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Montiel, I. (2008). Corporate social responsibility and corporate sustainability: Separate pasts, common futures. Organization & Environment, 21(3), 245–269.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nikolaou I. E. (2017). A framework to explicate the relationship between CSER and financial performance: An intellectual capital-based approach and knowledge-based view of firm. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, in press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nikolaou, I., & Evangelinos, K. (2012). Financial and non-financial environmental information: significant factors for corporate environmental performance measuring. International Journal of Managerial and Financial Accounting, 4(1), 61–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nikolaou, I. E., Evangelinos, K. I., & Allan, S. (2013). A reverse logistics social responsibility evaluation framework based on the triple bottom line approach. Journal of Cleaner Production, 56, 173–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nikolaou, I. E., & Kazantzidis, L. (2016). A sustainable consumption index/label to reduce information asymmetry among consumers and producers. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 6, 51–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nikolaou, I. E., & Matrakoukas, S. I. (2016). A framework to measure eco-efficiency performance of firms through EMAS reports. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 8, 32–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olsthoorn, X., Tyteca, D., Wehrmeyer, W., & Wagner, M. (2001). Environmental indicators for business: A review of the literature and standardisation methods. Journal of Cleaner Production, 9(5), 453–463.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rahdari, A. H., & Rostamy, A. A. A. (2015). Designing a general set of sustainability indicators at the corporate level. Journal of Cleaner Production, 108, 757–771.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salvati, L., & Zitti, C. (2009). Substitutability and weighting of ecological and economic indicators: Exploring the importance of various components of a syn-thetic index. Ecological Economics, 68, 1093–1099.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salzmann, O., Ionescu-Somers, A., & Steger, U. (2005). The business case for corporate sustainability: literature review and research options. European Management Journal, 23(1), 27–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schaltegger, S., Lüdeke-Freund, F., & Hansen, E. G. (2012). Business cases for sustainability: the role of business model innovation for corporate sustainability. International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, 6(2), 95–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, I., Meurer, M., Saling, P., Kicherer, A., Reuter, W., & Gensch, C. O. (2004). Managing sustainability of products and processes with the socio-eco-efficiency analysis by BASF. Greener Management International, 45, 79–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Searcy, C. (2009). Setting a course in corporate sustainability performance measurement. Measuring Business Excellence, 13(3), 49–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Searcy, C. (2011). Updating corporate sustainability performance measurement systems. Measuring Business Excellence, 15(2), 44–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Searcy, C. (2012). Corporate sustainability performance measurement systems: A review and research agenda. Journal of Business Ethics, 107(3), 239–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shwartz, M., Burgess, J. F., & Berlowitz, D. (2009). Benefit-of-the-doubt approaches for calculating a composite measure of quality. Health Services and Outcomes Research Methodology, 9, 234–251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, R. K., Murty, H. R., Gupta, S. K., & Dikshit, A. K. (2007). Development of composite sustainability performance index for steel industry. Ecological Indicators, 7(3), 565–588.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, R. K., Murty, H. R., Gupta, S. K., & Dikshit, A. K. (2009). An overview of sustainability assessment methodologies. Ecological Indicators, 9(2), 189–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sridhar, K., & Jones, G. (2013). The three fundamental criticisms of the triple bottom line approach: An empirical study to link sustainability reports in companies based in the Asia-Pacific region and TBL shortcomings. Asian Journal of Business Ethics, 2(1), 91–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stead, J. G., & Stead, E. (2000). Eco-enterprise strategy: standing for sustainability. Journal of Business Ethics, 24(4), 313–329.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steurer, R., Langer, M. E., Konrad, A., & Martinuzzi, A. (2005). Corporations, stakeholders and sustainable development I: A theoretical exploration of business–society relations. Journal of Business Ethics, 61(3), 263–281.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stubbs, W., & Cocklin, C. (2008). Conceptualizing a “sustainability business model”. Organization & Environment, 21(2), 103–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Székely, F., & Knirsch, M. (2005). Responsible leadership and corporate social responsibility: Metrics for sustainable performance. European Management Journal, 23(6), 628–647.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tyteca, D., Carlens, J., Berkhout, F., Hertin, J., Wehrmeyer, W., & Wagner, M. (2002). Corporate environmental performance evaluation: Evidence from the MEPI project. Business Strategy and the Environment, 11(1), 1–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Marrewijk, M. (2003). Concepts and definitions of CSR and corporate sustainability: Between agency and communion. Journal of Business Ethics, 44(2), 95–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Passel, S., Nevens, F., Mathijs, E., & Van Huylenbroeck, G. (2007). Measuring farm sustainability and explaining differences in sustainable efficiency. Ecological Economics, 62(1), 149–161.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Weenen, J. C. (1995). Towards sustainable product development. Journal of Cleaner Production, 3, 95–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Veleva, V., Hart, M., Greiner, T., & Crumbley, C. (2003). Indicators for measuring environmental sustainability: A case study of the pharmaceutical industry. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 10(2), 107–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wallner, H. P. (1999). Towards sustainable development of industry: Networking, complexity and eco-clusters. Journal of Cleaner Production, 7, 49–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wartick, S. L., & Cochran, P. L. (1985). The evolution of the corporate social performance model. Academy of Management Review, 10, 758–769.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. (2008). The business case for corporate social responsibility: A company-level measurement approach for CSR. European Management Journal, 26, 247–261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wheeler, D., Colbert, B., & Freeman, R. E. (2003). Focusing on value: Reconciling corporate social responsibility, sustainability and a stakeholder approach in a network world. Journal of General Management, 28(3), 1–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece

    Ioannis E. Nikolaou & Thomas Tsalis

Authors
  1. Ioannis E. Nikolaou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Thomas Tsalis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ioannis E. Nikolaou .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. SgT Group and API, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Nikolaou, I.E., Tsalis, T. (2019). Business Strong Sustainability Performance: Evidence from Food Sector. In: Muthu, S. (eds) Quantification of Sustainability Indicators in the Food Sector. Environmental Footprints and Eco-design of Products and Processes. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2408-6_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation