Sustainability agency at the top of the organization: microfoundations research on corporate sustainability

How and when does top management team regulatory focus influence firm environmental misconduct?

“…Most studies on the antecedents of FEM concentrate on institutional- or organizational-level factors rather than microfoundational level factors (Tang and Tang, 2016). Firms consist of individuals, and FEM is generally a reflection of key figures, such as top management members (Salaiz et al, 2020). Thus, an increasing number of scholars have recently suggested look ‘toward and downward’ to account for the microfoundational role of strategic leaders (e.g.…”

“…Thus, an increasing number of scholars have recently suggested look ‘toward and downward’ to account for the microfoundational role of strategic leaders (e.g. strategic leaders’ psychological traits) in firm environmental behaviors (Salaiz et al, 2020). Doing so would provide us with a way to bridge the macro–micro divide regarding theories of strategic leadership, which plays an important role in moving the management field forward (Gond and Moser, 2019; Shea and Hawn, 2019).…”

“…Some scholars have explored the antecedents of FEM from the perspective of external factors, such as government and media (Marquis and Bird, 2018; Tang and Tang, 2016). Other scholars have focused on internal factors, particularly top managers’ demographic and psychological characteristics, based on the perspective that ‘FEM is generally a reflection of top managers’ (Salaiz et al, 2020). Top managers often work in teams instead of working alone, and they make common goals for firms together.…”

“…Thus, upper echelons theory (Hambrick, 2007: 334) suggests that ‘the characteristics of the TMT will yield stronger explanations of organizational outcomes than will the customary focus on the individual top executive (CEO) alone’. Early studies have focused on how FEM can be predicted by TMT demographic traits (Salaiz et al, 2020). Nonetheless, demographic traits cannot fully explain actual psychological and social processes that drive FEM (Hambrick, 2007).…”

“…Nonetheless, demographic traits cannot fully explain actual psychological and social processes that drive FEM (Hambrick, 2007). Hence, scholars on strategic leadership have repeatedly called for incorporating top managers’ psychological traits into firm environmental research (Salaiz et al, 2020; Zhang et al, 2020a) because these traits help open the black box between demographic traits and firm behaviors (Hambrick, 2007). Particularly, motivation-based psychological traits are found to have the most direct and powerful effect on behaviors (Gamache et al, 2015), especially those related to misconduct (Gino and Margolis, 2011).…”