Prelims

Adapting to Environmental Challenges

Emerald Studies in Global Strategic Responsiveness

Series Editor: Torben Juul Andersen

Recent Books in Series:

The Responsive Global Organization: New Insights from Global Strategy and International Business. Edited by Torben Juul Andersen

Strategic Responsiveness and Adaptive Organizations: New Research Frontiers in International Strategic Management. Edited by Torben Juul Andersen, Simon Torp and Stefan Linder

Adapting to Environmental Challenges: New Research in Strategy and International Business

Edited by

Torben Juul Andersen

Global Strategic Responsiveness Initiative Department of International Economics, Government and Business, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

Simon Sunn Torp

Department of Business Development and Technology

Aarhus University, Denmark

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2020

Copyright © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-83982-477-7 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83982-476-0 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83982-478-4 (Epub)

In Memoriam

Simon Sunn Torp

† February 22, 1971 – November 3, 2019 †

“Genuine, giving and a good friend – always accessible, helpful, reliable and a true contributor.

Thanks for everything – you are (and will be) missed.”

Torben Juul Andersen

The global business environment is as turbulent as ever and organizations must adapt to the changing conditions to survive and persevere. The way we conduct business and manage our societies leads to developments that are beyond our immediate control and create significant exposures with uncertain outcomes possibly in the form of extreme unpredictable events. The mounting complexity of the global business environment creates uncertain and unpredictable conditions with wicked problems to resolve. The conventional control-based management practices fall short in these disruptive contexts that call for more environmentally conscious management approaches to deal effectively with the consequences of current developments.

This collection of chapters outlines these contemporary challenges and suggests that business managers can make a (significant) difference by exercising discretionary choices within their specific industry contexts to circumvent the effects of environmental developments that are beyond their immediate control. It suggests that the adverse circumstances can be overcome through proper managerial actions. One way to induce such strategic responsiveness arguably is to engage middle and lower level managers in the organizational strategy-making processes to reduce adverse effects of environmental turbulence and exploit their upside potential by engaging their practical insights in the generation of responsive solutions. Adopting interactive control systems can be one effective mechanism to achieve this kind of interaction between practical local insights and coordinating efforts at the corporate center that generate an adaptive performance dynamic.

While this is easier said than done due to a variety of inhibiting factors, we note that some environments have institutionalized corruption in “immoral” non-market strategies that circumvent the aims for effective adaptation. We should obviously understand these mechanisms to enable proper countermeasures to their adverse impacts on business adaptation.

A predominant response to the mounting environmental challenges is the pursuit of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a way to engage businesses in more adaptive behaviors that can circumvent the potential adverse consequences of environmental degradation. The empirical evidence suggests that adherence to more formalized CSR approaches is a function of firm size. Yet, the disclosure of CSR information is found to have a positive effect on the market-valuation of firms indicating that the market ascribes positive value to the CSR practices. Furthermore, it is found that application of green technologies with a strategic commitment to environmental and social concerns can be associated with more sustainable performance outcomes.

Finally, we realize that organizations operating across a multiplicity of cultural contexts are challenged in their ability to manage responsible corporate behaviors that typically are interpreted differently in the local contexts as opposed to the headquarter context they derived from. This points to a need for a phenomenological perspective that can help multinational managers understand cultural differences and disentangle the managerial challenges in a changing global business environment. It also uncovers a global competitive dynamic where resource-poor (Chinese) firms were able to thrive by introducing advantageous value-to-price offers to the market and gradually build more knowledge-based strategic advantages partially induced by supportive cultural values.

We believe that these chapters provide new interesting perspectives and insights on organizational adaptation, corporate responsible behavior, and the need for cultural sensitivity when operating with agility across global markets aiming to form a resilient organization.

We hope you will enjoy reading them.

Torben Juul Andersen, Frederiksberg, October 15, 2019

Simon Sunn Torp, Herning, October 15, 2019