Summaries mandatory literature MOSI (2019-2020)
Porter & Kramer (2011). Creating Shared Value.
Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons.
Margolis, J. D., & Walsh, J. P. (2003). Misery loves companies: Rethinking social
initiatives by business.
Geissinger, A., Laurell, C., Öberg, C., & Sandström, C. (2019). How sustainable
is the sharing economy? On the sustainability connotations of sharing
economy platforms.
Etzion, D., Gehman, J., Ferraro, F., & Avidan, M. (2017). Unleashing
sustainability transformations through robust action.
Porter, A. J., Tuertscher, P., & Huysman, M. (2019). Saving Our Oceans: Scaling
the Impact of Robust Action Through Crowdsourcing.
Etzion, D., & Aragon-Correa, J. A. (2016). Big data, management, and
sustainability: Strategic opportunities ahead.
Tura, N., Hanski, J., Ahola, T., Ståhle, M., Piiparinen, S., & Valkokari, P. (2019).
Unlocking circular business: a framework of barriers and drivers.
Dean, T. J., & McMullen, J. S. (2007). Toward a theory of sustainable
entrepreneurship: Reducing environmental degradation through
entrepreneurial action.
Seelos, C., & Mair, J. (2005). Social entrepreneurship: Creating new business
models to serve the poor.
Zimmerling, E., Purtik, H., & Welpe, I.M. (2016). End-users as co-developers
for novel green products and services - an exploratory case study analysis of
the innovation process in incumbent firms.
Malhotra, A., & Majchrzak, A. (2014). Managing crowds in innovation
challenges.
, Creating Shared Value
Porter & Kramer (2011)
Shared value is not social responsibility or sustainability, but a new way to achieve economic success.
It is at the centre of what companies do. Shared value can be created by reconceiving the intersection
between society and corporate performance. The purpose of the corporation must be redefined as
creating shared value, not just profit per se. This will drive the next wave of innovation and productivity
growth in the global economy. It will also reshape capitalism and its relationship to society. Learning
how to create shared value is our best chance to legitimize business again.
Moving Beyond Trade-Offs
Externalities arise when firms create social costs that they do not have to bear, such as pollution. Thus,
society must impose taxes, regulations, and penalties so that firms “internalize” these externalities.
This perspective has shaped the strategies of firms themselves, which have largely excluded social and
environmental considerations from their economic thinking.
Shared value is not about personal values. It is also not about “sharing” the value already created by
firms. It is about expanding the total pool of economic and social value. The concept of shared value
recognizes that societal needs, not just conventional economic needs, define markets. It also
recognizes that societal harms or weaknesses frequently create internal costs for firms (wasted energy
or raw materials). Addressing societal harms and constraints does not necessarily raise costs for firms,
because they can innovate through using new technologies, operating methods and management
approaches, and as a result, increase their productivity and expand their markets.
Bad example: fair trade is mostly about redistribution rather than expanding the overall
amount of value created.
Good example: a shared value perspective focuses on improving growing techniques and
strengthening suppliers and other institutions to increase farmers’ efficiency, product quality
and sustainability. This leads to a bigger pie of revenue and profits that benefit both farmers
and the companies that buy from them.
The Roots of Shared Value
The competitiveness of a company and the health of the communities around it are closely
intertwined. A business needs a successful community to create demand for its products but and to
provide public assets and a supportive environment. A community needs successful businesses to
provide jobs and wealth creation opportunities for its citizens. It was not always this way. Companies
once took on a broad range of roles in meeting the needs of workers, communities and supporting
businesses. Conducting business as usual is a sufficient social benefit. A firm is a self-contained entity
and social or community issues fall outside its proper scope. As the vertically integrated firm gave way
to greater reliance on outside vendors, outsourcing and offshoring weakened the connection between
firms and their communities. As firms moved disparate activities to more and more locations, they
often lost touch with any location.
How Shared Value Is Created
The concept of shared value resets the boundaries of capitalism. By better connecting companies’
success with societal improvement, it opens up many ways to serve new needs, gain efficiency, create
differentiation and expand markets. There are three distinct ways in which companies can create
economic value by creating societal value:
Reconceiving products and markets;
Redefining productivity in the value chain;
Enabling local customer development.
, Reconceiving products and markets
When shared value is created, society’s gains are even greater, because businesses will often be more
effective in marketing than governments and non-profits. This motivates customers to embrace
products and services that create societal benefits. Equal or greater opportunities arise from serving
disadvantaged communities and developing countries. As capitalism begins to work in poorer
communities, new opportunities for economic development and social progress increase
exponentially. Meeting needs in these markets often requires new products or different distribution
methods. These requirements can trigger fundamental innovations that also have applications in
traditional markets.
Redefining productivity in the value chain
A company’s value chain inevitably affects, and is affected by, multiple societal issues. Opportunities
to create shared value arise because societal problems can create economic costs in the firm’s value
chain. Many externalities inflict internal costs even in the absence of regulation or resource taxes.
Major improvements in environmental performance can often be achieved with better technology and
can even save costs through enhanced resource utilization, process efficiency and quality. Some of the
most important ways in which shared value thinking is transforming the value chain:
Energy use and logistics: the use of energy throughout the value chain is being re-examined.
This resulted in improvements in energy utilization through better technology, recycling and
multiple other practices, all of which create shared value;
Resource use: higher environmental awareness and advances in technology lead to the
utilization of water, raw materials and packaging, as well as expanding recycling and reuse.
This better resource utilization will improve all parts of the value chain;
Procurement: by increasing access to inputs, sharing technology and providing financing,
companies can improve supplier quality and productivity while ensuring higher access. As
suppliers get stronger, their environmental impact often falls, which further improves their
efficiency. Therefore, shared value is created.
Distribution: companies are beginning to re-examine distribution practices from a shared
value perspective. Profitable new distribution models can dramatically reduce paper and
plastic usage (Kindle, iTunes, Google Scholar);
Employee productivity: many companies traditionally tried to minimize the cost of employees
by, for example, eliminating health care coverage. However, because of lost workdays and
diminished employee productivity, poor health costs them more than health benefits do;
Location: since logistics are inexpensive, information flows rapidly, and markets are global, it
was thought that the cheaper the location, the better. This oversimplified thinking is now being
challenged because of the increased recognition of the productivity cost of spread production
systems and the costs of distant procurement. Therefore, location matters.
Enabling Local Cluster Development
The success of every company is affected by its supporting companies and the infrastructure around
it. Productivity and innovation are strongly influenced by clusters. Clusters include businesses and
institutions such as academic programs and trade associations. They draw on public assets in the
surrounding community (schools, clean water, laws, quality standards and market transparency).
Clusters play a crucial role in driving productivity, innovation and competitiveness. Firms create shared
value by building clusters to improve company productivity while addressing gaps or failures in the
framework conditions surrounding the cluster. To support cluster development in the communities in
which they operate, companies need to identify gaps in areas such as logistics, suppliers, distribution
channels, training, market organization and educational institutions. Companies should focus on the
weaknesses that represent the greatest constraints to the company’s productivity and growth, and
distinguish those areas that the company can influence directly and those in which collaboration is
more cost-effective. Companies that can embrace this new thinking will create shared value.