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Discursively Positioning Environmental Sustainability as Competitive Driver in Emerging Markets

Discursively Positioning Environmental Sustainability as Competitive Driver in Emerging Markets

Presented to the Organizational Communication Division at the International Communication Association 2015, at San Juan, PR.

Although “competitiveness” is a pervasive frame in global business discourse, with practitioners frequently urging “sustainable” value addition, the subjective meanings of these concepts in different contexts—especially emerging markets—remain underexplored. This paper adopts a communicative approach to the meaning-making surrounding competitiveness. It draws on in-depth interviews with 12 environmental sustainability practitioners from emerging markets, to trace: 1) how they discursively positioned their work as adding competitive value, and 2) the challenges perceived in realizing this competitive advantage. Competitiveness was positioned via four themes: emphasis on “mainstreaming” sustainability with regular operations, detailed reporting, adoption of established standards to legitimize the company, and operating in an environment with encouraging government policy. Ironically, participants’ understanding of the challenges also hinged on two of these themes—swimming upstream against short-term business interests to “mainstream” sustainability, and the hampering of over-zealous or nonexistent state policy. Implications for future research on competitiveness are also discussed.

Rahul Mitra

May 23, 2015
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  1. Discursively Positioning Environmental Sustainability as Competitive Driver in Emerging Markets*

    Rahul Mitra, Ph.D. Wayne State University *Forthcoming in B. Kedia (Ed.), Revisiting BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa): Are opportunities in emerging markets real? Edward Elgar
  2. Purpose • Deconstructing “competitiveness” as an intersubjective social construct, based

    on actual work experiences of practitioners in specific contexts (Aiginger, 2006b; Stonehouse & Snowdon, 2007) • Nuances of meaning-making about “competitiveness” • Socio-political contexts of emerging economies • Examining environmental sustainability as source of competitive advantage (Glover, 2007; Jain & Kedia, 2011) • Long-term “business case” (Henriques, 2011; York, 2008; Visser, 2008; Zadek & McGillivray, 2008) • Expanded scope and reach of sustainability vis-à-vis CSR (Markley & Davis,2006; Rodriquez et al., 2002)
  3. Discursively Positioning “Competitiveness” • Positioning theory: discursive participants “position“ themselves,

    and the broader social world, through conversation to understand their identities, roles and functions (Davies & Harré, 1990, 1999; Fyke & Buzzanell, 2013; Kuhn, 2009) • Positioning is ongoing and relational, rather than static. It is attuned to the tensions that may arise in meaning-making (Jorgenson, 2002) • Research Questions: • RQ1: What makes sustainability competitive for emerging market firms? • RQ2: What challenges do practitioners face in realizing sustainability’s competitive advantage?
  4. Method • Participants (12) from 5 different emerging countries (Hungary,

    Azerbaijan, China, India, Argentina); self-identified as “sustainability practitioners” (via LinkedinTM) (Papacharissi, 2009) • Organizations: general corporation (4), consultancy (5), & nonprofit (3) • Industry: oil & gas, auto, environmental strategy, CSR, air transportation, certification, infrastructure development • Analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews, lasting 30-60 minutes • Sample questions: everyday work experiences, duties, roles, challenges faced • Qualitative theme analysis, to generate first-order themes and second-order themes, on the basis of recurrence, repetition, and forcefulness (Owen, 1984)
  5. Findings RQ1: What makes sustainability competitive for emerging market firms,

    from the perspective of practitioners? • Integration, or “Mainstreaming” • Sustainability Reporting • Legitimization via Established Standards • (Encouraging) Government Policy
  6. RQ1: What makes sustainability competitive for emerging market firms? •

    Integration (1) : The “only” solution I think this [integration] is the only good solution. I told you, we don’t use the term “CSR” because when you say “CSR,” you think there’s something given back to the society from the profit we generate, it doesn’t matter in what way… But I think the solutions of the problems of the world, and also the business solution, which is applicable in the for-profit industry, is to change the way we think things, how we do the things. This is the only approach we can use, so there is no question whether this is good or not, whether it works or not! It’s working more and more, but it takes time. (Karoly, oil & gas, Hungary)
  7. RQ1: What makes sustainability competitive for emerging market firms? •

    Integration (2) : The “intrapreneur” I move up and down hierarchies, shift in and outside organizations, and it’s that type of approach we need from modern-day people inside businesses. The people who are doing Corporate Responsibility type work need to be able to do that. They need to be “intrapreneurs.” They need to be the person that actually can get on with everyone, can make connections across the organization, can be inspirational, but also be the person to actually do the detail as well. If you understand strategic development as helping an organization understand each operating environment, keeping a view on the future, then a Corporate Responsibility professional is actually one of the most important people to help that business anticipate and be sustainable. (Fred, CSR and sustainability training consultancy, India)
  8. RQ1: What makes sustainability competitive for emerging market firms? •

    Sustainability Reporting I do a lot of different things, but mainly [work on] the social media. We want to create a bigger number of followers, to be the number one in Asia. Our competitors do not have so strong [a presence] on social media, so that’s what we want to establish it, and just spread awareness about climate change. We’re not doing the selling; we have a “shop” on our facebook page, but we’re not really aiming at selling, but just spread the information, so we post articles about climate change and all these things to make people aware of it. (Louise, climate change consultancy, China)
  9. RQ1: What makes sustainability competitive for emerging market firms? •

    Legitimization via Established Standards My first task—most important task—was to introduce the ISO 14001 standard, an environmental management system standard, and I was responsible for this system in the company… Which means I’ll make regular internal audits in the production area on the shop floor with two other colleagues from Quality, because we have an integrated system between environmental protection and quality. The other tasks, where I have to [gather] a lot of conference materials, because, I’m responsible for the external communication of CSR and environmental protection, and I have to translate to the top management, and look from everywhere, like the conference material I’ll send them. (Roxanne, auto, Hungary)
  10. RQ1: What makes sustainability competitive for emerging market firms? •

    (Encouraging) Government Policy Well, the governments helping us now come from outside—from Netherlands or Germany or Switzerland. The local governments are recently starting, with small details, participating in some groups, or we signed some agreements with provincial governments. But it will take some time. We don’t have that kind of cooperation from the national government. In Brazil, it’s better in some cases. We have a little bit more cooperation. The Argentina government is still in the process of knowing our network. They are starting talking about sustainability, and they see Argentina as a potential food and feed producer for the world, and thinking in terms of sustainability. So far it’s more declaration than a real practice, but they are buying the idea. (Alejandro, soy certification nonprofit network, Argentina)
  11. Findings RQ2: What challenges do participants face in realizing sustainability’s

    competitive advantage? • Swimming Upstream vis-à-vis Short-Term Business Interests • (Restrictive & Vague) Government Policy
  12. RQ2: What challenges do participants face in realizing sustainability’s competitive

    advantage? • Swimming Upstream vis-à-vis Short-Term Business Interests Too much of what I do is like a regular consultancy: competing against other consultancies trying to promote sustainability, and then having to pitch the need for sustainability initiatives. I would like to see more collaboration between practitioners… As an individual I can only work with one person or one organization at a time, however, I want to create a tipping point that cascades across many [companies]—not sure how, yet, but I’m working on it. My organization’s mission is representing the membership in a way that makes them sustainable and competitive—the usual business-speak. (Bonnie, environmental nonprofit, China)
  13. RQ2: What challenges do participants face in realizing sustainability’s competitive

    advantage? • (Restrictive & Vague) Government Policy At the end of the day, CSR/sustainability requires a planned investment, and in today’s economic downturn, I’m not convinced that the governments in the developed world are prepared to invest [in it]. There are nice policies in the developed world, but action is still lacking, and leadership’s still lacking. When it comes to the developing world, both the private and public sector are behind the developed world. You can see a lot of weaknesses, but having said that, the government is taking bold moves. You can see big shifts, and the reason, probably, is the concept of globalization. Lots of international industries outsource, and they take international standards with them. (Irina, oil & gas, Azerbaijan)
  14. Discussion • Subjective focus, via qualitative methods • What does

    “competitiveness” mean from the perspective of those engaged in the actual labor or economic activity? • Opportunities and challenges of competitiveness through sustainability as closely connected, rather than discrete • Integration of sustainability as furthering competitiveness, but also risking long-term erosion of competitive “value addition”