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Journal of Business Ethics

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19-04-2016

Managerial Views of Corporate Impacts and Dependencies on Ecosystem Services: A Case of International and Domestic Forestry Companies in China

Authors: D. D’Amato, M. Wan, N. Li, M. Rekola, A. Toppinen

Published in: Journal of Business Ethics | Issue 4/2018

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Abstract

A line of research is emerging investigating the private sector impacts and dependencies on critical biodiversity and ecosystem services, and related business risks and opportunities. While the ecosystem services narrative is being forwarded globally as a key paradigm for promoting business sustainability, there is scarce knowledge of how these issues are considered at managerial level. This study thus investigates managerial views of corporate sustainability after the ecosystem services concept. We analyse interviews conducted with 20 managers from domestic and international forestry companies operating with a plantation-based business model in China. Content analysis was employed to analyse the data, with a focus on four key areas: (1) interviewee familiarity with the ecosystem services concept; (2) their views of corporate dependencies and impacts on ecosystem services; (3) related business risks and opportunities; and (4) viability of existing instruments and practices that can be employed in detecting and addressing business impacts and dependencies on ecosystem services. Through an inductive approach to the empirical findings, we refined a framework that holds operational value for developing company response strategies to ecosystem services impact/dependence assessment, ensuring that all issues are addressed comprehensively, and that related risks and opportunities are properly acknowledged.

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We define CS as awareness of and pro-activeness towards social and environmental issues, in reference to the Brundtland’s concept of sustainable development. Sustainability issues include addressing stakeholders’ expectations, as well as ecological limits. In our paper, the term CS is also used in reference to the literature on corporate social (CSR) responsibility, as these concepts are closely connected.

The ecosystem services concept is a short-term tool for advocating environmental conservation in dominant, efficiency-based decision-making. This concept adopts a human-centric perspective and a reductionist approach, where single benefits from nature are extrapolated for examination from the holistic system of thinking adopted in natural sciences. Critical literature argues that such a utilitarian framing of nature can “induce logics of individualism”, commodification and privatisation, and undermine “the moral sentiment for conservation” (Gómez-Baggethun et al. 2010, p. 1216).

In particular, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) have issued several reports on the topic. Such publications also related to guidelines, training material, tutorials and software that support companies in ecosystem services assessment, accounting and risk management.

Ecosystems are neither benevolent nor malevolent: while they provide ecosystem services, they may also cause disservices, conflicting with human well-being and productivity. Human activities, however, can cause or exacerbate ecosystem disservices (Zhang et al. 2007). For example, pesticide use can induce genetic resistance in pests and pathogens, triggering outbreaks. The loss of natural habitat and landscape complexity moreover reduces ecosystem capacity to mitigate these phenomena. There is, evidently, a feedback between human actions and nature’s reactions.

It would be naive to postulate that true sustainability always results in win–win situations, especially in the short term (Banerjee 2001). Sustainability can lead to decreased, constant or increased costs for businesses, and can be synergic, neutral or conflicting with economic goals (Baumgartner and Ebner 2010), depending on the context and observed time scale. While short-term profit is unfit with the spirit of sustainability, companies must ensure their viability by meeting the needs of both current and future stakeholders (Dyllick and Hockerts 2002). The temporal dimensions of CS represents a source of potential trade-offs at individual, organisational, industry and societal level (Hahn et al. 2010).

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Title: Managerial Views of Corporate Impacts and Dependencies on Ecosystem Services: A Case of International and Domestic Forestry Companies in China
Authors: D. D’Amato
M. Wan
N. Li
M. Rekola
A. Toppinen
Publication date: 19-04-2016
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: Journal of Business Ethics / Issue 4/2018
Print ISSN: 0167-4544
Electronic ISSN: 1573-0697
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3169-8

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