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Energy utilities play an important role in transitioning to a sustainable energy industry. Data on 8967 transactions by 19 European energy utilities from 1990 to 2019 illustrate when and how utilities invest in sustainable resources and divest traditional resources such as fossil-fuel plants. Utilities transitioning to sustainable energy have greater financial resources and experience with sustainability, are publicly owned, and access sustainable resources of international and inter-industry partners. Utilities adopt a diversified strategy of balancing sustainable and traditional resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a firm‐level perspective on sustainability transitions by analysing how government can use transition policy mixes to entice industry incumbents to adapt their business model to integrate sustainable technologies. It examines firm‐level barriers to policy implementation, why these exist, and how government can use transition policy mixes to overcome them. The empirical analysis provides an in‐depth case study of the UK Zero Carbon Homes (ZCH) as a transition policy mix and considers the point of view of policymakers and incumbent housebuilders. The paper sheds light on the question of how transition policy mix designs can support incumbents' business model adaptation to bring about transformational change for sustainability. The results show that the interaction between various policy shortcomings and business model adaptation barriers led to a failure of government to move the housebuilding sector towards a stronger integration of sustainable technologies. The paper concludes by arguing that decarbonising housing in the UK was a system failure, rather than a market or policy failure, as the government failed to address the underlying reasons of incumbents' resistance to changing their business model. The findings suggest that taking incumbents' business models into consideration while designing policies for sustainability transitions is necessary to entice established firms to actively take part in the process of transitions and adapt to new sustainable norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically analyzes factors related to companies' profits from trading emission allowances in the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for the period from 2005 to 2017 by combining information on trading activities with company characteristics of more than 6,000 companies. The factors considered include net position (i.e., free allocation of allowances minus emissions), strategic skills (i.e., banking of allowances, timing of trading, transaction frequency, use of intermediaries), skill-related structural factors (i.e., number of installations, sector affiliation), market pressure, year, and region effects. The results from estimating a Panel Heckman Selection Model suggest that companies' profits from buying and selling emission allowances are related to a company's net position, banking of allowances, timing of trading, and the number of installations. The findings further indicate that companies choose the number of banked allowances efficiently, that is, they take into account the opportunity costs of selling these allowances on the market. JEL Classification: Q48, Q54, Q58 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops the argument that the interplay between emotions and cognitive biases influences corporate decision-making on climate change adaptation. Our theoretical analysis examines how emotions can change the effect of cognitive biases on adaptation decisions by influencing how firms select, access, and process complex and uncertain climatic information. We draw on research on climate adaptation, social psychology, and managerial cognition and focus on three forms of bias: availability heuristic, framing, and anchoring. We explain how each bias shapes the decision-making process on adaptation and theorize how emotions of different valence and arousal affect this process. We shed light on the underlying mechanisms that explain how emotions influence the effect of cognitive biases as a source of inaction on adaptation in firms. Our analysis provides a new perspective on how firms approach the strategic decision to adapt to climate change by considering both cognitive and emotional aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In paradoxical situations, organizational actors face various demands that are contradictory and interdependent at the same time. While the current literature focuses on how organizational actors respond to these paradoxical demands, it does so in a depersonalized manner with little attention to the stakeholders behind these demands. Therefore, it fails to explain how organizational actors legitimize their responses to paradox to those stakeholders who bring up the paradoxical demands. Using a narrative sensemaking approach, we study how social entrepreneurs legitimize their efforts to respond to paradoxical stakeholder demands for both delivering and measuring social impact. We find that social entrepreneurs legitimize their responses to this paradoxical situation through a narrative mechanism of folding. Through folding, narrators construct legitimizing accounts by narratively producing temporary alignments with some stakeholder interests, while opposing others. Through the recurring and consistently inconsistent use of the narrative practices of embodying and positioning, narrators produce a legitimizing account that overall portrays their responses to paradox as balanced and non-biased. As our main contribution, we offer a model of folding as a narrative, interest-based mechanism that explains how organizational actors legitimize their efforts to navigate paradoxical situations by portraying themselves as attending to paradoxical demands through a temporary and fluid shift between momentary alignments and oppositions of stakeholder interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply-chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are of unparalleled magnitude because of a confluence of circumstances: a sudden rise in demand for some products, unforeseen shifts in demand points, supply shortages, a logistical crisis, and an unprecedentedly quick recovery in major economies. This article maps the changes that will occur in supply-chain planning and management in a post-COVID-19 world. It also reflects on the articles included in this special issue and draws key conclusions about how configurations of global supply chains might change. Automation and digitalization are likely to play a key role in these transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most investigated research topics in the corporate sustainability literature is "the" business case. Long lionized for linking the profit motive to corporate environmental initiatives, the business case for sustainability is now vehemently criticized. These critics generally argue for a return to the state and stronger regulatory frameworks. Others counter that because the private sector's capabilities are uniquely suited to realizing effective sustainability innovations and outcomes, we must not abandon but further develop our business case understanding. In this view, firms' voluntary efforts are key for innovative solutions to sustainability problems. This article overviews and unites these seemingly disparate positions. We move the field forward by placing in context criticisms and also opportunities for more meaningful positive impacts from corporate sustainability. Specifically, we argue that an effective business case orientation requires shifting to a broader "all stakeholders win" approach. This entails impact orientation, collaborative approaches, and economic restraint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition pathways for net zero encompass seemingly insurmountable innovation challenges for the scaling of less mature technological solutions such as hydrogen, materials substitution, and electrification as well as societal challenges to increase the market acceptability of these solutions. In this article, we present a conceptual framework which provides a firm-level perspective on net-zero innovation which has four unique characteristics, i.e. it is complex, systemic, urgent, and directional. The framework shows that the input, process, and output constraints that incumbent firms face in the net-zero transition can be tackled through four firm-level innovation levers – i.e. recombinative, collaborative, integrative, and socio-cognitive capabilities – which, in concert, act as enablers for firms to address these net-zero constraints. We conclude the article by outlining the framework's main insights for firms' innovation strategies for net zero and the policy implications. We also propose avenues for future research on net-zero innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complexity and uncertainty of climate change pose unique challenges to the development of corporate adaptation strategies. Climate adaptation requires organizations to rely on sensemaking to understand climate events, implications for their operations, and develop a response. Organizational heuristics can support sensemaking by simplifying decisions and reducing cognitive effort but also hinder it by creating bias and errors that lead to inefficient decisions. This paper analyzes how firms use organizational heuristics when making decisions on climate change by empirically investigating the adaptation responses of key infrastructure providers in the United Kingdom. Looking at selection, prioritization, procedural, and temporal heuristics, we examine how firms make sense of climate events and develop their responses accordingly. The analysis shows that while these rules‐of‐thumb are sensible in some instances, they can create biases, too, that may deflect responsibility or create a false sense of security leading to inefficient adaptation decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]