SUB seminar series

Wednesday 26.2, 12.30-13.30
Aalto Business School (Ekonominaukio 1), room U213

Simone Carmine, University of Padua
Being the Turtle: A Paradox Approach to Foster Sustainability

Nowadays many companies are implementing sustainability strategies, driven by stakeholder pressure, regulations or intrinsic motivations. However, in doing so, they may face challenges in balancing environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability (e.g. environmental and social performance VS economic performance) and this can weaken their sustainability performance. Usually, in addressing sustainability tensions organizations adopt a business case perspective, which emphasizes the economic element over the other two. However, in recent years a new perspective is emerging in the literature: a paradox perspective on corporate sustainability. Scholars are investigating how individuals and companies are able to live with these tensions and purse competing sustainability goals simultaneously. So, first, the project aims to understand how scholars are adopting this perspective to study sustainability tensions. Through a systematic review of existing literature, we have highlighted three main uses of paradox perspective: a detective approach, a sensemaking approach and a managerial one. Secondly, as we know from the literature, approaching tensions in a paradoxically way can lead to creative and innovative solutions. For these reasons we have investigated empirically how a paradox perspective can help companies to cope with tensions in sustainability, achieving sustainability innovative outcomes and better sustainability performance. A quantitative analysis has been performed on original survey data - from Italian companies in textile, chemicals and basic metals sectors - on paradox perspective, innovation and performance in sustainability. Our analysis revels a positive effect of the paradoxical approach to sustainability tensions on sustainability performance. Finally, through a qualitative study we want to deepen these results and investigate how companies with a high paradox perspective are able to achieve better innovative solutions to sustainability tensions.

Friday 11.10, 12.00-13.00
Aalto Business School (Ekonominaukio 1), room U213

Tulin Cengiz, Alliance Mancester Business School.
Organizational Value Frames and Sustainable Alliance Portfolios

The literature on sustainable alliances and partnerships mostly focused on dyadic relationships between firms and non-profits, NGOs, social enterprises, research institutes, governments, communities or other firms (Lin and Darnall 2010, Lin and Darnall 2014, Wassmer, Paquin et al. 2014). While helpful, research on a single issue or a single alliance can only provide us with a limited view of a firm’s engagements about sustainability issues (Wassmer, Paquin et al. 2014). Recently, to provide a more vibrant picture of a firm’s sustainable alliances and partnerships, scholars have adopted a network or portfolio approach (Schmutzler, Gutiérrez et al. 2013, Gutiérrez, Márquez et al. 2015, Ashraf, Pinkse et al. 2019). Alliance portfolios are commonly studied in the broader strategic or inter-firm alliance literature, even though the scholarly attention is rather new in the sustainability context (Wassmer 2008). This paper brings this portfolio approach forward. It does so by building a bridge between organisational value frames and sustainable alliance portfolios. It offers paths for future research for scholars that study sustainable alliances and partnerships with a lens of organisational value frames.

Friday 4.10, 12.00-15.00
Aalto Business School (Ekonominaukio 1), room V001

The doctoral dissertation of Inês Peixoto, MSc, “Organizing for Sustainability in Transnational Market Reforms: Studies of the EU biofuels market” will be publicly examined. 

Opponent: Professor Frank den Hond (Hanken Svenska Handelshögskola and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Custos (Chairperson): Professor Liisa Välikangas (Aalto University School of Business)

For more information: https://www.aalto.fi/en/events/defense-of-dissertation-in-organization-and-management-ines-peixoto-msc

Friday 6.9, 9.30-11.00
Aalto Business School (Ekonominaukio 1), room TBC

Ioannis Ioannou, Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, London Business School. Corporate Sustainability: A Strategy?

Co-hosted by the Department of Management's Organizations and Management unit.

Friday 15.2, 12.00-13.30
Väre (Otaniementie 14), F101

Professor Jeremy Hall, Centre for Social Innovation Management, Surrey Business School. From the ‘Eroom’ Effect (Moore’s Law Backwards) to Borlaug’s Paradox:
Emerging Challenges and Unintended Consequences of Sustainable Development Innovation.

Co-hosted by the Aalto Sustainability Hub.

Monday 18.2., 10.00-12.00
Väre (Otaniementie 14), L208

Dr. Stelvia Matos. Surrey Business School. Crafting papers for publication in the field of sustainable development innovation.

Friday 1.3. 12.00-13.00
Ekonominaukio, room T003

Prof. Myrto Chliova. Moving from small to big wins: Tensions in the evolution of participatory organizing within the context of a displacement crisis.

Friday 5.4. 12.30-13.30
Väre (Otaniementie 14), M102

Cecilia Bayas, Autonomous University of Madrid. Sustainable development in the Spanish universities campuses from a stakeholder approach.

Friday 7.9. 12.00-13.00

Frederick Ahen. The wicked side of sustainable food innovations: Genetically modified food ‘politricks’ and scientific fascism vs rational contrarians.

Friday 28.9. 12.00-13.00

Marja Svanberg. Racism and anti-business sentiments: A bad apple does not spoil the bunch.

Friday 02.11. 11.30-12.30

Lunch with Mia Raynard. Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Thursday 22.11. 12.00-13.30

Myrto Chliova. Moving from small to big wins: Tensions in the evolution of participatory organizing within the context of a displacement crisis.

Friday 30.11. 12.00-13.00

Lunch with Björn Mitzinneck. University of Groningen.

Friday 9.2. 12.00-13.00

Laura Salmivaara and Leena Lankoski. Promoting sustainable consumer behaviour through the activation of injunctive social norms: A field experiment in 19 workplace restaurants.

Thursday 12.04. 12.00-13.00

Patrick Shulist. With a little help from (where I see) my friends: The microspatial dynamics of learning amongst Ghanaian self-employed.

Friday 27.4. 12.00-13.00

Marleen Wierenga, Jarkko Levänen, Sara Lindeman. Entrepreneurial innovation processes: Adding a spatial dimension to Effectuation Theory. 

Wednesday 09.5. 12.00-13.00

Nancy Bocken (University of Lund). Circular business model design and experimentation:  lessons learned and future research. 

Wednesday 4.10., 12.00-13.00

Itziar Castello. Vicious and Virtuous Circles of Aspirational Talk.

Friday 13.10. 11.00-12.00

Juntunen, Halme, Korsunova, Rajala. Leveraging the sustainability of innovations with deviant stakeholders.

Thursday 23.11. 13.00-14.00

Louna Ansari. On Discursive Reconciliation of Sustainability Logics.

Monday 27.11. 12.00-13.00

Samuli Patala, Laura Albareda, Minna Halme. Understanding the principles of polycentric governance in circular economy practices.

Monday 04.12. 12.00-13.00

Aurélie Toivonen. Accept, reject, or negotiate? Understanding responses to the removal of institutional voids.

Friday 03.02. 12.00-13.00

Sofia Villo, Saint-Petersburg State University. Stakeholder concern as managerial issue.

Friday 10.02. 12.00-13.00

Dalia D’Amato, University of Helsinki. Circular, green and bio economy as sustainability narratives.

Friday 17.02. 12.00-13.30

Juliane Reinecke, Warwick University. Doing research at the intersection of organisation studies and sustainability.

Friday 31.03. 11.30-13.30

Reading circle with Mikko Jalas at 11.30.-12.30, BYO lunch
Article: Zehavi & Brezvits. 2017. Distribution sensitive innovation policies: Conceptualization and empirical examples, Research Policy. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2016.11.007
Updates from Minna Halme at 12.30 -13.30, BYO dessert
Topic is cross-disciplinary sustainability organizing development at Aalto level

Friday 05.05. 12.00-13.00

Reading circle with Minna Halme on the article Bansal & Song. 2015. Similar but not the Same: Differentiating Corporate Responsibility from Sustainability, AOM Annals. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2015.0095

Friday 19.05. 12.00-13.00

Itziar Castello. Emotional regulation in framing processes, or how Californians got to live a plastic-free life.

Friday 21.10. 11.15-12.15

Tatu Lyytinen & Jarkko Levänen. Incorporating circularity into business models: a comparative case study of institutional implications on recycling companies.

Friday 11.11. 11.30.12.30

Jennifer Goodman & Jukka Mäkinen. Corporate Social Responsibility and Irresponsibility: A Political Perspective.

Friday 18.11. 11.15-12.15

Jennifer Goodman co-authoring with Daniel Arenas, and Laura Albareda. Understanding Internal Conflict in Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives.

Friday 09.12. 11.45-12.45

Ines Peixoto. Paper on the biofuels market.

Friday 16.12. 9.00-10.00

Samuli Patala. Organizing open sustainability: the role of intermediaries in circular economy practices.