Building sustainable organizations in China

Abstract

As China shifts its development model from focusing on economic growth at all costs to a model in which economic growth is balanced with solving pressing societal and environmental problems, there is an increasing need for management research on building sustainable organizations in China. This collection of papers focuses attention on the role of business in promoting sustainable economic development, highlighting a number of key processes including: the factors that foster transparency and CSR reporting, how stakeholders can influence corporations to abandon their CSR commitments, the benefits of environmental branding and labeling, and the antecedents and performance consequences of proactive environmental strategies. In this introductory essay we reflect on recent trends in sustainability research in China, and to encourage this important movement, provide recommendations for future research directions.