Exploring the integration of corporate sustainability into strategic management: a literature review

• Published in: Journal of cleaner production 2016, Vol.112, p.2833-2850
• Main Authors: Engert, Sabrina, Rauter, Romana, Baumgartner, Rupert J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Corporate sustainability; Corporate sustainability integration; Literature review; Strategic management
• ISSN: 0959-6526; 1879-1786
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.08.031

The commitment of companies to corporate sustainability has been frequently discussed in theory and practice. Such a commitment to corporate sustainability demands a strategic approach to ensure that corporate sustainability is an integrated part of the business strategy and processes. Therefore, this article is aimed at exploring the integration of corporate sustainability into strategic management, providing a framework of interrelated issues based on the existing literature in this research field. A literature review of 114 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles, including a content analysis, was conducted. The literature review revealed that: (1) the number of related publications on the topic has been growing throughout the last few years; (2) the explored research field has been mainly grounded on traditional strategic management research, but has also been enriched by interdisciplinary know-how from a corporate sustainability perspective; and (3) there is a need to foster empirical research in this research field. While the concept of corporate sustainability arises in several areas of research, a common or unifying basis, as well as the identification of issues that influence the integration into strategic management, has failed. The review outlined the issues most commonly addressed and helped to develop a framework, derived from organizational influences, internal and external drivers, and those factors supporting or hindering the integration of corporate sustainability into strategic management. The literature review provides a summary of the most important issues that emerged in this field, and provides new opportunities and challenges that need to be addressed by further research. [Display omitted] •Research in the field of sustainable strategic management is evaluated.•A rise of scientific publications over the last years is examined.•The most important barriers and challenges are outlined and discussed.•A summary of potential studies for future research is given.•The main authors and scientific journal articles are listed.