Organizational positioning and planning of sustainability initiatives. Logic and differentiators

• Pages: 755-774
• Published date: 08 October 2018
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-05-2017-0142
• Date: 08 October 2018
• Author: Rocio Rodriguez,Göran Svensson,David Eriksson
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management

Organizational positioning and

planning of sustainability

initiatives

Logic and differentiators

Rocio Rodriguez and Göran Svensson

Kristiania University College, Oslo, Norway, and

David Eriksson

Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the logic and differentiators of organizational positioning

and planning of sustainability initiatives between private and public organizations in the healthcare industry.

Sustainability initiatives refer to organizations’economic, social and environmental actions.

Design/methodology/approach –This study is based on an inductive approach judgmental sampling and

in-depth interviews of executives at private and public hospitals in Spain have been used. Data were collected

from the directors of communication at private hospitals, and from the executive in charge of corporate social

responsibility in public hospitals. An empirical discourse analysis is used.

Findings –The positioning and planning of sustainability initiatives differs between private and public

hospitals. The former consider sustainability as an option that is required mainly for social reasons, a

bottom-up positioning and planning. It emerges merely spontaneously within the organization, while the

sustainability initiatives in public hospitals are compulsory. They are imposed by the healthcare system

within which the public hospital, operates and constitutes a top-down positioning and planning that is

structured to accomplish set sustainability goals.

Research limitations/implications –A limitation of this study is that it is undertaken exclusively in

Spanish organizations from one industry. This study differs from previous ones in terms of exploring the

positioning and planning of the sustainability initiatives, which focus on the organizational logic of such

sustainability initiatives. There are both common denominators and differentiators between private and

public hospitals.

Practical implications –The logic of determining the positioning and planning of the sustainability

initiatives is mainly about satisfying organizational needs and societal demands. Nowadays, organizations

tend to engage in sustainability initiatives, so it is essential to understand the logic of how organizations

position and plan such efforts.

Originality/value –This study investigates the path that follows sustainability initiatives in public and

private organizations. It reports mainly differentiators between private and public organizations. It also

contributes to explaining the organizational reasoning as to why companies make decisions about

sustainability initiatives, an issue which has not been addressed sufficiently in existing theory studies.

Keywords Hospitals, Planning, Triple bottom line, Corporate social responsibility, Sustainability, Positioning

Paper type Case study

1. Introduction

A strategy is the ability not only to decide what to do, but also what not to do (Porter, 1996).

By choosing some activities and not others, an organization can position and differentiate

itself from its competition (Leonard and Rayport, 1997). Historically, these ideas have

helped both academics and practitioners in areas such as marketing and supply

chain, to understand value creation and competitiveness (e.g. Hilletofth et al., 2012).

In this study, a similar approach is applied to enhance our understanding of organizational

sustainability initiatives.

Sustainability refers to the ability to maintain something at a certain level. As such, the

Brundtlandreport defined sustainabledevelopment as that: “[…] which meets the needs of the

present withoutcompromising the ability of future generations to meet theirown needs […]”

International Journal of Public

Sector Management

Vol. 31 No. 7, 2018

pp. 755-774

© Emerald PublishingLimited

0951-3558

DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-05-2017-0142

Received 21 July 2017

Revised 8 December 2017

19 January 2018

Accepted 23 January 2018

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/0951-3558.htm

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Organizational

positioning

(WCED, 1987, p. 3). Sustainability is commonly considered in relation to three aspects,

namely economic, environmental and social (Carter and Rogers, 2008). It has been noted that

it is difficult to improve aspects that have not been considered from an early stage (Eriksson

and Svensson, 2016a). For example, it is difficult to make a fair trade supply chain cost

efficient, as fair trade is a social aspect that was probably not considered when the supply

chain was originally designed (Karjalainen and Moxham, 2013).

There is some research available on how sustainability should be implemented in an

organization. Notably, Figge et al. (2002) draw from research on balanced scorecards

(Kaplan and Norton, 1997). They argue that it needstobeclearwhether environmental or

social aspects have an impact on the success of specific business units, and whether the

environmental or social aspects are important for strategy. Klettner et al. (2014) instead

take a governance position on sustainability in corporations, proposing a cyclical process,

including (and starting with) commitment, leadership, implementation and communication.

Notable in both of these examples is that sustainability is (and should be) implemented

in a strategic manner with management support. While valuable in themselves, both

examples lack a narrative on how organizations position themselves with regard to

sustainability initiatives.

Sustainability initiatives, in this study, refer to those which address the different aspects

of sustainability, but foremost, the environmental and social ones. The aspects of

sustainability are also included in the triple bottom line (TBL; Elkington, 1997) and

corporate social responsibility (CSR; Aguinis and Glavas, 2012). It is expected that the

positioning and planning will differ between organizations, depending on their specific

operations in the marketplace and society. Positioning refers to a means of achieving a

competitive advantage (Flint and Golicic, 2009), while planning refers to a means of

improving efficiency and success in an organization’s initiatives ( Johnson et al., 2004).

The importance of sustainability positioning has been studied in previous literature and

is becoming particularly relevant for governments and societies (Roper, 2012), and by

extension, for organizations striving to achieve competitive advantages in various different

industries, such as residential property marketing (Kriese and Scholz, 2011). Furthermore, in

some industries, sustainability has been studied in greater depth, taking into account

company of supply chain processes (Flint and Golicic, 2009). Years ago, most research on

sustainability planning was related to the importance of public policies for the environment

(Partidário, 1996; Van den Berg et al., 2007). Nevertheless, more recent work, such as

Johnson et al. (2004), has considered sustainability planning as essential for efficiency and

organizational success, providing a sustainability planning model focused on sustainable

innovation. This study concentrates on the differences between private and public

organizations in the same sector, the healthcare industry.

The research objective is to examine the logic and differentiators of organizational

positioning and sustainability planning initiatives between private and public organizations

in the healthcare industry. This objective is achieved by means of an industry case study

approach. This study differs from previous ones in its focus on the organizational

positioning and planning of sustainability initiatives, and by virtue of extending across

public and private sectors.

Previous studies on the logic and differentiators of sustainability initiatives through time

and across contexts is rare. Høgevold and Svensson (2016a) frame the development and

directions of sustainability efforts through time, while this study frames the logic

and differentiators across contexts between organizational sectors in the marketplace

and society.

There is no consensus as to the distinction between public and private organizations,

which leaves room for several hybrid models (Christensen et al., 2004; Rainley et al., 1976)

though the difference is crucial (Allison, 1980). Murray (1975) emphasized the similarities

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