Sustainability performance in businesses: How to approach an overlooked area of research

Abstract:
There has been tremendous academic interest in explaining the sustainability performance of businesses. Only recently researchers started to inquire into sustainability performance in businesses, meaning how performance on sustainability objectives actually occurs inside business organizations. This presentation lays out two perspectives on the state of knowledge: one about the extent to which sustainability performance in businesses represents an overlooked area of research, and a second about how studies rely, so far, on implicit assumptions of contingency if aiming to explain sustainability performance in businesses. Together, these perspectives provide extant opportunities and need for research. The seminar provides opportunity to discuss the relevance of the perspective for diverse topic areas in business sustainability studies.
 
Presenter:

Dr Jean-Pierre Imbrogiano, Department of Economics and Management, University of Helsinki

Seminar Chair:

Ivan Russo, Department of Business Administration, University of Verona

Place: Santa Marta Bulding II Floor

Short bio:
Jean-Pierre Imbrogiano received his PhD in 2020 from the University of Queensland, Australia, is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, and designated postdoctoral DAAD PRIME fellow at Leuphana University, Germany, and Laval University, Canada. His research interests lie in the sustainability performance in businesses, the governance of business sustainability (particularly the practices of sustainability standard setters and sustainable supply chain managers), and in social-cultural foundations of (un-)sustainable development. Before pursuing his research interests, Jean-Pierre worked for Intertek in Germany and for the German development cooperation (GIZ) in Mongolia.