India Studies in Business and Economics The Indian economy is considered to be one of the fastest growing economies of the world with India amongst the most important G-20 economies Ever since the Indian economy made its presence felt on the global platform, the research community is now even more interested in studying and analyzing what India has to offer This series aims to bring forth the latest studies and research about India from the areas of economics, business, and management science The titles featured in this series will present rigorous empirical research, often accompanied by policy recommendations, evoke and evaluate various aspects of the economy and the business and management landscape in India, with a special focus on India’s relationship with the world in terms of business and trade More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11234 Editors Runa Sarkar and Annapurna Shaw Essays on Sustainability and Management Emerging Perspectives Editors Runa Sarkar Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, India Annapurna Shaw Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, India ISSN 2198-0012 e-ISSN 2198-0020 India Studies in Business and Economics ISBN 978-981-10-3122-9 e-ISBN 978-981-10-3123-6 DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3123-6 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016956631 © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd 2017 This work is subject to copyright All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #22-06/08 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore Acknowledgements This edited volume was undertaken under IIM Calcutta’s Centre for Environment and Development Policy (CDEP) initiative and financial support We express our thanks to CDEP and to the then CDEP Coordinator, Anup K Sinha for his encouragement and backing We also thank all the contributors to the volume who despite their existing workload enthusiastically responded to our call for papers on sustainability and cooperated with us to bring out this volume Finally, we thank both our families for their whole hearted support and belief in the success of this endeavour Introduction Runa Sarkar Annapurna Shaw In the second decade of the twenty-first century, with more and more empirical evidence being compiled, doubts regarding the system-changing impacts of human activities on the earth’s resources and climate are fast diminishing Increasingly, it is accepted that over the last three centuries in particular, with increasing industrialisation and urbanisation of the planet and a growing population, the sustainability of the earth as a congenial living habitat is under threat It is also acknowledged by a dominant mainstream of experts and thinkers that these negative impacts can be minimised if sustainability issues are brought centre stage in decision-making and planning about the use of the earth’s limited resources Thus sustainability has become a buzzword in policy-making and business strategies though the roots of sustainability are older and come from many disciplines—economics, engineering, biology and ecology, geography, philosophy, literature and social anthropology Most religious texts too, reflecting ancient wisdom, have had something to say about humans and their relationship with Nature, exemplified recently by the Papal Letter on climate change Clearly, sustainability is central to the earth’s future and survival But what constitutes sustainability, and how can it be achieved? Since the 1980s these questions have been debated at various global forums They are important for emanating from the concept of sustainability are the steps that determine the practices constituting ‘sustainability’ The concept continues to require focused attention and scrutiny because it is used today by different people in widely varying contexts, and can mean distinct things We come across categories starting from a sustainable business organisation, a sustainable city, sustainable livelihoods, sustainable technologies, sustainable consumption and a sustainable development strategy for an entire community, to even sustainable finance In the context of developing economies, often sustainability initiatives aimed at the future are at loggerheads with development needs of the present making the concept even more contentious For the purpose of this book, we have defined sustainability as meeting the economic, social and environmental needs of the present population keeping in mind the fact that future generations too will require adequate resources to survive Sustainable development embodies living within ecological means while meeting basic social and material needs Social needs subsume the notion of cultural sustainability which implies that what is culturally valuable ought to be preserved over time Hence the human species can maintain or even improve its quality of social life In some policy documents, we also have ‘financial’ needs put in place of ‘economic’ or material needs Sustainability is obviously trans-disciplinary, and, has to perforce integrate and synthesise many different disciplinary perspectives to understand the relationship between ecological and socioeconomic systems, and to find ways to improve it (Endter-Wada et al 1998; Bäckstrand 2003) To ensure sustainability we may have to re-impose long run constraints by developing institutions to bring the global, long-term, multi-species, multi-scale, whole-systems perspective to bear on shorter term sociocultural evolution (Pahl-Wostl et al 2008) This entails innovative studies, with research into science and technology informing the policy and management processes The narrow confines of a discipline, no matter how rigorous, cannot adequately deal with the growing uncertainties, increasing rates of change, different stakeholder perspectives, and growing interdependence that are characteristics of sustainability The problems of sustainability are not amenable to solutions based either on knowledge of small parts of the whole or on assumptions of constancy and stability of fundamental ecological economic or social relationships The nonlinear nature of changes in resource systems coupled with the deep inter-linkage between social and natural systems necessitate a synthesis of conceptual frameworks from disparate literatures for a comprehensive understanding Management science is very well suited for such cross-disciplinary work Social responses to ecological challenges may trigger learning and innovative designs towards sustainability Thus at the heart of sustainable development is the renewal and release of opportunity, both social and ecological, at relevant temporal and spatial scales This underlines a vital role for business, in addition to government, which are the key drivers of development and change Almost all business decisions involve social and environmental issues All decisions, whether they are about how much to pay executives, what technologies to install in a new manufacturing facility, and how and when to retire old plants, affect the firm’s stakeholders and the natural environment In fact, most organisations now discuss the wide-ranging impacts of social and environmental issues on their Web sites and in their annual reports Most firms also have a supplementary sustainability report Extant scholarship in the areas of sustainability and management started with a focus on describing and explaining how organisations interact with the natural environment, through various levels of empirical and theoretical analysis This was followed by attempts to weave in the social dimension to understand sustainable organisational forms and their impacts on ecosystems and social welfare Perspectives that emerged from these analyses underlined the need for developing deep stakeholder networks and cross-cultural collaborations within and across firms, markets, governments, civil society organisations and finally communities This in turn would foster the creation of innovative business models, change consumer behaviour patterns and reorient business assumptions to recognise the limitations of the ecosystem, challenging the business-as-usual mode The literature showcases several initiatives taken by transnational corporations, as well as small and medium enterprises, towards meeting sustainability objectives (Sharma and Rudd 2003) A key objective of this volume of essays is to help in clarifying the meaning of sustainability and the continuing debates surrounding the concept and its ramifications for ground level practice in managing organisations, and for public policy in the Indian context It brings together sustainability enthusiasts, practitioners from disparate fields and academics working at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, who have engaged with each other to determine the direction of future research and make recommendations on policy The volume presents a kaleidoscope of different views of sustainability depending on the point of view and academic training of the researcher Further, it demonstrates that all these views can indeed come together to form a multilayered and complex construction of sustainability Grounded in the Indian socio-political environment, the chapters contain reflections and intellectual contributions on the deep interrelationships of sustainability with society, and its changing needs; business organisations are one set of institutions that constantly evolve to address those emerging needs With the world’s second largest population and a rising middle class of consumers, India’s position on global warming and climate change, is increasingly being seen as critical to the global achievement of sustainability Ideas of sustainability, in the Indian context, can be regarded as the building blocks upon which larger policies pertaining to the environment will be shaped What are these ideas and what they suggest in regard to the way business should be conducted in India? Can religion and ethics enable a greater green consciousness and sense of environmental justice? Along with a “Make in India” must there also be in place a plan to “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle in India”? What will be the role of business organisations and the corporate sector? What will be the role of new technologies and innovations in different sectors? Showcasing the wide variety of sustainability research being conducted within IIM Calcutta, this volume touches upon some of these issues, as is briefly discussed below The contributions have been divided into the following five themes: (1) sustainability as a normative concept; (2) sustainability concept at the global level, (3) sustainability practices in Indian organisations and consumer behaviour; (4) sustainability, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility and (5) sustainability: a critique of organisational practice and government regulation The themes reflect both new and continuing issues confronting management in the country today The book began as an initiative of IIM Calcutta’s Centre for Development and Environment Policy to bring together researchers across the institute to initiate a dialogue among them This was followed by an authors’ workshop, conducted in the winter of 2014, to share ideas and ensure a coherent flow of articles in the volume While the chapters overlap to some extent in their coverage of certain basic themes, the multiple perspectives will, one hopes, enrich the readers’ understanding of the pluralistic nature of the subject What follows is a brief overview of the contents of this volume In the first theme, there are larger questions that are discussed in relation to sustainability Modern management theory is limited by a fractured epistemology, which separates humanity from nature, and truth from morality Reintegration is necessary if organisational science is to support ecologically and socially sustainable development The volume opens with Sinha providing in Chap a thought-provoking discussion of what notions of the ‘good life’ would mean under sustainable development with its restraint on resource use and a concern for the future The “good life” as conventionally understood is closely tied to material consumption of the present, or owning and using an ever-growing collection of goods and services in one’s lifetime Moving away from the concept of a good life based on purely material consumption to one based on well-being could provide a way to reconcile the requirements of sustainability, both of the present and the future, with those of individual and societal fulfilment The time dimension in sustainability that Sinha’s essay highlighted with respect to the future and its needs resurfaces in the next essay as well Bhuyan, in Chap , argues that unless global social justice is ensured under a fair institutional arrangement based on the Rawlsian principles of justice, the relationship between development and sustainability would remain contentious The crux of the argument revolves around the primarily intragenerational focus of social justice as compared to the intergenerational focus of sustainability While highlighting the critical importance of meeting the basic needs of the present generation, organisations and institutions must explore the common ground between justice and sustainability The sustainability of planet earth and its life forms will depend not only on human material well-being and technological progress but also on the ability of human beings to live in peace and harmony with each other In Chap , experiential insights from Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam and Christianity are presented by Bhatta to illustrate inclusive communication in the Indian religious and philosophical tradition, which could serve as suitable conflict prevention and resolution strategies The essay brings forward, from the religious literature, examples of noteworthy and replicable proactive actions to promote both social and environmental sustainability From the broad, overarching questions raised by the essays in theme one, we move on to the actual use of the concept of sustainability in global and multi-lateral institutions In Chap , Rajesh Babu attempts to make sense of the inter-linkages and conflicts in the legal foundations of sustainable development as part of the architecture of the WTO The chapter concludes that given the focus of the WTO on trade governance and the substantive reluctance of developing countries with respect to any sort of sustainability related obligations, there is a legitimacy deficit for sustainability, as an implementable concept, in the WTO discourse In the third thematic section of the volume, we turn to actual sustainability practices among Indian organisations, linking them to type of firm and consumer behaviour In Chap , Datta and Mitra, using an in-depth exploratory case study of an MNC auto manufacturer in India, illustrate how managing a sustainable supply chain can be viewed as a dynamic capability for a firm They conclude that the “Mere adoption of environmental, ethical or quality standards or lean and green practices is not sustainable unless MNCs share objectives clearly, work closely with partners to implement the practices …” This is followed, in Chap , by an article by Sista, to understand the state of research in the domain of green marketing and then to focus on the situation in India It is an exploratory essay, providing directions for research to further the understanding of the issue in India In Chap , Mishra, Jain and Motiani delve into the attitudes of the Indian consumer on green packaging with an empirical study Using the theory of reasoned action, they conclude that awareness and knowledge of green packaging leads to positive beliefs about it, and as an outcome consumers are willing to pay a premium for it The fourth thematic section focuses on sustainability practices in the context of corporate sustainability, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility These are fields with highly permeable boundaries and there are a number of research traditions that feed into these areas, as is evident from the chapters in this section, The first chapter comes from a finance specialisation while the second from marketing Ghosh in Chap uncovers the overlaps and causality between corporate governance and corporate social responsibility and discusses their implications In Chap , Singh and Agarwal visit the concept of sustainability as a dilemma for business to conclude that organisations have taken the sustainability route to explore market-based opportunities at the bottom of the pyramid, which proves to be a win-win situation for both business and society Despite the positive benefits of corporate sustainability, organisations have a long way to go before they can be termed as truly sustainable The last section of this volume attempts to highlight these concerns by critiquing organisational practice and government regulation in the context of sustainability In Chap 10 , Goel using ITC as an example illustrates that for an organisation to be committed to sustainability there have to be strong internal systems in place and sustainability has to be a core value embedded in the organisational culture This is followed by Chap 11 where Jammulamadaka traces the history of corporate social responsibility regulations in India from 2000 till the notification of the complete set of rules in February 2014 She emphasises the drastic change that has emerged in the shared understanding within the government on the ambit of corporate social responsibility, with sustainability and social issues being largely left out in the final rules What impact it will have on actions on the ground remains a topic for future research Thus we come to the end of the volume on a mixed note of both greater involvements of different sectors of business in green concerns as well as the challenges that lie ahead The eleven essays of the volume reflect both a concern with the larger ethical and moral issues around global sustainability as well as the more local issues of the sustainability practices of Indian firms and the behaviour of the Indian consumer The larger questions about sustainability and its relation to societal values provide an important window to understanding the necessary conditions for sustainability to become a part of the quotidian practices of people, organisations and government While there has been fairly widespread acceptance of sustainability as a concept within larger firms in the country, what exactly they are doing about it and whether it results in positive benefits for the local area needs more careful study For the government, there continues to be a critical role through regulation and monitoring as well as by example Passing on welfare expenses onto the corporate sector via the % mandated expenditure on CSR need not necessarily lead to more sustainable outcomes as some corporations seek to enhance their bottom line rather than actually promote sustainability for its own sake When sustainability practices become a part of the core values of the firm as in the Dutta and Mitra or Goel (Chaps and 10 ), long-term gains for the environment are more likely To conclude, a heterogeneity of perspectives is provided by the essays in this volume which will ensure that the reader is left with a grasp of the current state of how sustainability relates to society and business in India, and in which direction this understanding might go in the future However, two areas that remain unexplored in these essays are first, the sustainability practices of small businesses and entrepreneurs and secondly, that of government organisations or PSU’s These can be the subject of a separate volume in the future What is evident at the end, moreover, is that a number of exciting challenges lie ahead for researchers and management practitioners alike and, above all, the importance of these challenges for the health and survival of planet earth References Bäckstrand, K (2003) Civic science for sustainability: Reframing the role of experts, policy-makers and citizens in environmental governance Global Environmental Politics, (4), 24–41 doi: 10. 1162/152638003322757916 Endter-Wada, J., Blahna, D., Krannich, R., & Brunson, M (1998) A framework for understanding social science contributions to ecosystem management Ecological Applications, , 891–904 doi: 10.1890/1051-0761 Pahl-Wostl, C., Mostert, E., & Tàbara, D (2008) The growing importance of social learning in water resources management and sustainability science Ecology and Society 13 (1), 24 http://www. ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss1/art24/ Sharma, S., & Ruud, A (2003) Editorial on the path to sustainability: integrating social dimensions into the research and practice of environmental management Business Strategy and the Environment, 12 , 205–214 doi: 10.1002/bse366 ... professional ethics and so on She has published in national and international peer-reviewed journals and conducted national and international workshops and participated in national and international... governance and corporate social responsibility and (5) sustainability: a critique of organisational practice and government regulation The themes reflect both new and continuing issues confronting management. .. reflections and intellectual contributions on the deep interrelationships of sustainability with society, and its changing needs; business organisations are one set of institutions that constantly