Building strategies: integrating social, environmental and ethical issues into core business processes

Amin, Viresh (2020) Building strategies: integrating social, environmental and ethical issues into core business processes. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.

Abstract

Global sustainability challenges and the 2008 financial crisis have increased pressures on banks to respond to social and environmental issues. Whilst the academic literature on CSR has identified the need for the strategic integration of firms’ socially and environmentally responsible actions with their core business strategy, few studies have examined how a major commercial bank’s core business processes build such integrated strategies. Using a case study methodology, documentary data, qualitative content analysis, and a discourse analytic framework, this research indicates that integrated strategies are aimed at creating competitive advantage by focussing on the bank’s clients as well as voluntarily complying with the international environmental standards for lending practices in the financial industry. Thus, contrary to the generally held assumption of the existence of a single business strategy devised by senior management, the findings suggest that there are different routes to achieving social-environmental integration shaped by the core business processes of the bank. The study illustrates how the integrated strategies are shaped by process innovations, as well as the combined inhouse and collaborative integration structures of the bank’s core business processes. They are also formed by the linkages that exist between the bank’s internal risk management processes and the risks posed by the clients’ environmental credentials. Significantly, the participation of the clients in the bank’s decision-making processes are shown to create relational interdependencies which enable the managers to anticipate the trust-building mechanisms for building effective stakeholder relationships. The study also explores the legitimation-seeking strategy indicating the bank’s strategic intent for organizational renewal with commitments to the integration of social, environmental and ethical issues into its practices. Considering the centrality of stakeholder participation in the decision-making processes for building integrated strategies, a typology for understanding different approaches to social and business integration strategies is also proposed.

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