Cognitive frames in corporate sustainability: managerial sensemaking with paradoxical and business case frames

Corporate sustainability confronts managers with tensions between complex economic, environmental, and social issues. Drawing on the literature on managerial cognition, corporate sustainability, and strategic paradoxes, we develop a cognitive framing perspective on corporate sustainability. We propose two cognitive frames—a business case frame and a paradoxical frame—and explore how differences between them in cognitive content and structure influence the three stages of the sensemaking process—that is, managerial scanning, interpreting, and responding with regard to sustainability issues. We explain how the two frames lead to differences in the breadth and depth of scanning, differences in issue interpretations in terms of sense of control and issue valence, and different types of responses that managers consider with regard to sustainability issues. By considering alternative cognitive frames, our argument contributes to a better understanding of managerial decision making regarding ambiguous sustainability issues, and it develops the underlying cognitive determinants of the stance that managers adopt on sustainability issues. This argument offers a cognitive explanation for why managers rarely push for radical change when faced with complex and ambiguous issues, such as sustainability, that are characterized by conflicting yet interrelated aspects

CSR Disclosure Practices in the Zambia Mining Industry

The main objective of this chapter is to examine the corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure practices and the related motivation for (or lack thereof) CSR disclosures in the Zambian mining industry. Key CSR disclosures are examined to identify the trends in disclosure. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with the mining managers to explore the underlying motives for such disclosures (non-disclosures) and the prospects that exist for future development. We find that there is very limited CSR disclosure by mining companies in Zambia, while CSR reporting is directed mainly towards ‘public image building’ and motivated by project financing purposes for those companies with a ‘western’ parent company. We argue that the lack of demand for such reporting from the Zambian citizenry has partly contributed to the low disclosures. Some international voluntary reporting guidelines have been adopted by ‘western’ parent mining companies, while reputation risk management remains a key concern for these companies. The study contributes to understanding the underlying motives for CSR disclosures in a developing country context