Understanding the scaling-up of community energy niches through Strategic Niche Management Theory: insights from Finland

The growing phenomenon of civil society involvement in renewable energy generation has attracted researchers’ interest. However, rather little is known of how a diverse and relatively small sector such as community energy could scale up and promote a change in energy production. We examine this issue through the lens of Strategic Niche Management (SNM) and conceptualize community energy as a socio-technical niche that holds the potential to promote a transition to renewable energy. Drawing on interview data with members of community energy projects and experts in Finland, we identify different types of community energy projects and the factors that may prevent them from scaling up. The study contributes a typology of community energy projects by showing which initiatives could be more inclined to be part of a strategy aiming at scaling up the sector. It also shows the tensions of SNM in the context of non-market-driven innovation, highlighting how exogenous factors such as cultural aspects, the specific context in which community energy develops and the characteristics of community groups are also relevant in the scaling-up process

Vastuullisuusarvot suomalaisten tekstiiliyritysten tarinoissa

Textile industry causes significant negative environmental and social impacts. Sustainability in the industry has lately yielded more and more research interest, however, sustainability communication is underresearched area. In this paper, we will focus on sustainability communications in the Finnish textile industry through the stories of companies in their webpages. Storytelling has traditionally been a mode of transmitting, producing and reproducing the culture. Stories produce a structure in the reality, explain phenomena and concretize abstract concepts. In this research, we approach the stories as rhetorical devises, which address, attract and connect the reader to the company behind the story. We analysed 172 companies’ webpages by focusing on the common themes addressing sustainability. Our analysis revealed six themes: durability, opposing fast-fashion, conscious consuming, transparent processes, Finnish and local production, and (Finnish) nature. Corporate sustainability stories use various rhetorical means to convey the image of sustainability. The story structures include ideas of change, solving problems and building a better world. However, it is vital to remember that sustainability communications also define what sustainability is. Corporate sustainability stories invite the reader to accept the corporate view on sustainability.</p

Bold ambition, blunted agency? Examining top management perspectives on a circular economy transition in Finland

The circular economy is proposed as a company-driven means to further sustainability transitions. Top managers have a critical role in fostering the circular economy as they are responsible for shaping and implementing a company's sustainability strategy and performance. In this paper, we adopt a microfoundations perspective to enhance our understanding of the influence of top managers as agents of the sustainability transition to the circular economy. In a qualitative research study, we interviewed 34 top managers of Finnish companies that are actively pursuing the circular economy. The main implication of our study is in exploring the role of top managers, as they engage in actively structuring a new, circular regime. To this end, our paper provides salient insights into the prevailing debate on the structure-agency question in the sustainability transitions literature. We find that power is a key characteristic of how top managers exercise their agency. Our findings imply that while top managers are perceived as the most powerful members of a company, their agency is often limited by structural constraints on multiple levels within their companies, in the industry, and in the broader regime. Furthermore, we find that top managers' power and agency towards the transition is heavily dependent on their abilities to secure business profitability. </p

Multiple forms of stakeholder interaction in environmental management: business arguments regarding differences in stakeholder relationships

This study describes and interprets differences in stakeholder interaction as rhetorically constructed in environmental reports and in interviews with environmental managers. It also interprets the role of the natural environment among stakeholders, and discusses how that role is justified or not justified. The study focuses in a business perspective on stakeholder interaction in environmental management. Characteristically, stakeholder studies of environmental management have concentrated on stakeholder influence or the creation of stakeholder management models. In contrast to those, the present study identifies different types of stakeholder relationships: power-based, collaborative, conflicting, and one-sided. Through descriptions of those relationships, business actors participate in the power to define responsibility, share responsibility among actors, question environmental interest, and justify environmental impacts. The results of the study demonstrate that, when regarding environmental issues in business, instead of analysing single stakeholder attributes or a single stakeholder relationship, business professionals should be able to manage differences in stakeholder relationships. No universal stakeholder management tools can be created for this purpose, rather stakeholder interaction in environmental management requires analysis of the actors involved, the attributes of relationships, and the attributes of stakeholder interests and identification of differences in those. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.peerReviewe

Environmental rhetoric in Finnish business : environmental values and stakeholder relations in the corporate argumentation of acceptable environmental management

Technical and strategic orientations have dominated the field of environmental management research as well as corporate practices. Understanding of the power of language, cultural words and human interaction has been missing in environmental management research.This study focuses on understanding rhetoric construction of acceptable environmental management. The research task here is to describe and interpret the rhetoric forms that are used to produce acceptable environmental action in Finnish business, with a special interest on environmental values and stakeholder relations produced in the studied data. I adhere to the school of new rhetoric that suggests that difference between rhetoric and reality cannot be made but rhetoric is a part of socially constructed reality.The study focuses on two different types of data, both of them produced partly by Finnish business professionals: how acceptable environmental management is argued for in the corporate environmental statements and in the interviews with environmental managers. In my rhetoric analysis I identified three different types of rhetoric forms being used in environmental statements: rhetoric of autonomy, rhetoric of subordination and rhetoric of joint action and equality. Different types of power relations between the corporation and its stakeholders are represented in them. In my rhetoric analysis on interviews with environmental managers I identified also three different types of rhetoric forms being used: rhetoric of complementary values, rhetoric of conflicting values and rhetoric of intrinsic value of the environment. Different types of relationships between environmental and economic values in business are represented in them.Based on this study Finnish business professionals construct acceptability of environmental management by appealing on conflicting and competing arguments. They especially construct conflicting and competing arguments about power relations between different actors and the relationships between environmental and economic values in business. The results of the study reflect yet ambiguous position of environmental responsibility in Finnish business.Tiina Onkila tutki väitöskirjassaan ympäristötoiminnan hyväksyttävyyden retorista rakentumista suomalaisessa liiketoiminnassa.Onkila tarkasteli tutkimuksessaan argumentteja, joita suomalaiset liiketoiminnan ammattilaiset käyttävät kuvatessaan yrityksensä ympäristötoimintaa. Hän tunnisti ristiriitaisia argumentoinnin tapoja, joita liiketoiminnassa käytetään perusteltaessa ympäristötoimenpiteiden hyväksyttävyyttä. Vaikka argumentit voivat olla keskenään kilpailevia, kaikki niistä ovat perusteltavissa. Tulokset heijastavat ympäristövastuullisuuden vielä epävakaata ja ristiriitaista asemaa suomalaisessa liiketoiminnassa.Onkila korostaa, että tämä ei kerro tutkittujen yritysten ympäristönsuojelun tasosta vaan heijastaa pikemmin eri toimijoiden tekemien tulkintojen ja asettamien vaateiden ristiriitaa.- Kaikkien sidosryhmien näkökulmasta hyväksyttävää ympäristönsuojelun tapaa tai tasoa ei pystytä objektiivisesti määrittämään, eikä sitä voida yksiselitteisin mittarein ja indikaattorein osoittaa, Onkila huomauttaa. Ympäristötoimenpiteet rakentuvat pikemminkin eri toimijoiden esittämien argumenttien ja tulkintojen kautta siitä, mikä on hyväksyttävä ympäristönsuojelun taso.Suurin haaste ympäristöjohtamisen toteuttamiselle näyttäisikin olevan eri toimijoiden ympäristövaateiden yhteensovittaminen. Tutkitusta aineistosta onkin tunnistettavissa argumentteja, jotka on kohdistettu vakuuttamaan sekä niitä toimijoita, joiden mielestä ympäristöasiat ovat luonteva osa liiketoimintaa, että niitä toimijoita, jotka pitävät ympäristöasioita liiketoimintaan kuulumattomina.Tutkimuksen aineistoja olivat 25 suomalaisen yrityksen julkaisemat ympäristö-tai yhteiskuntavastuuraportit sekä 10 ympäristöjohtajan haastattelut. Yritykset oli valittu sellaisten yritysten joukosta, jotka ovat saaneet tunnustusta ympäristösuoriutumisestaan. Onkila tunnisti eroja näissä aineistoissa käytetyissä argumenteissa, ja luokitteli argumentit näiden erojen perusteella.Ympäristöraporteista tehty argumenttien luokittelu perustui erilaisiin valtasuhteiseen toimijoiden välillä. Yritys kuvattiin sekä valtaa pitävänä että vallan alaisena toimijana. Haastatteluissa argumentointi nojaa erityisesti ristiriitaisiin näkemyksiin ympäristö- ja talousarvojen suhteesta. Ympäristö- ja talousarvoja kuvattiin sekä toisiaan täydentävinä, että keskenään ristiriitaisina.Haastatteluissa nousi esiin erityisesti kyseenalaistava argumentoinnin tapa, jossa vedotaan siihen, että tulkinnat ympäristön kannalta parhaista ratkaisuista vaihtelevat. Puhuessaan päätöksenteosta ympäristöasioihin liittyen, eräs ympäristöjohtajista totesi ”Se on oikeestaan, mä miellän, et se ympäristö ja turvallisuus on molemmat semmosia asioita ja sit ollaan joskus aina rajapinnoilla, josta ei voi sanoo, onko oikeeta näkemystä kellään.” Yritystoimijat eivät näe kaikkia sidosryhmien esittämiä intressejä ympäristöparannusten kannalta parhaina. On huomattava, että yritykset ovat vain yksi ympäristövastuullisten toimijoiden joukko, joiden toimintojen mahdollistajina tai estäjinä muut toimijat voivat vaikuttaa

Pride or Embarrassment? Employees' Emotions and Corporate Social Responsibility

This study explores how the employees of a financial firm use emotional arguments to construct different views of their employer's corporate social responsibility (CSR). It is theoretically based on the recent literature regarding employee perspectives of CSR, and especially on the role of emotions in CSR. Furthermore, the study utilizes rhetorical theory as a framework for data analysis. A qualitative study, based on face-to-face interviews, was conducted among 27 employees in a Finnish financial firm. The study identifies six categories of emotional arguments the employees used to construct views of where their employing organization's CSR is derived from. These categories relate positive emotions to satisfaction with the employing organization's CSR and negative emotions to dissatisfaction. The results show that employees also experience external pressures for CSR, but only implicitly, because they do not wish be embarrassed by their employer.peerReviewe

"Switch the lights off” : Employee argumentation on acceptance or rejection of corporate environmentalism in a financial corporation

This study explores the rhetorical strategies used by employees in a financial corporation to reject or accept corporate environmentalism among corporate responsibilities. The study is theoretically based on rhetoric and on prior research on acceptance or rejection of corporate environmentalism among other corporate responsibilities in an organization. A qualitative study, based on face-to-face interviews was conducted among 30 employees in a Finnish financial corporation. The study shows that employees reject corporate environmentalism based on value priorities and perception of little or no environmental impacts. They accept corporate environmentalism among other responsibilities based on the need for change due to multiplicity of environmental impacts and value congruence between environmental and other organizational values. The study contributes prior research by showing that the perception of little environmental impacts in a business branch can still act as a powerful blinder of environmental responsibility.peerReviewe

Employee Rhetoric in the Acceptance or Rejection of Corporate Environmentalism

This study explores how employees in a Finnish financial company use rhetorical strategies to accept or reject corporate environmentalism. It is based on a qualitative study in which face-to-face interviews were conducted among 30 employees. The study shows how employees rejected corporate environmentalism by dissociating their employer from polluters or by dissociating environmental values from other values in the financial business. It also shows how they accepted corporate environmentalism by associating it with other business virtues and by associating the employer with polluters. The study identifies rhetorical strategies as a means for employees to construct an understanding of corporate environmentalism, and of whether or not it is a part of their organization’s responsibilities. The results highlight a need to manage corporate environmentalism processes so that the focus is on finding diverse meanings instead of on promoting a single, organization-wide meaning for corporate environmentalism in a top-down manner.peerReviewe