Examining Interdisciplinary Sustainability Institutes at Major Research Universities: Innovations in Cross-Campus + Cross-Disciplinary Models

This is a study of the distinctive characteristics, activities, challenges and opportunities of a specific type of sustainability institute, one that spans the many disciplines of the university and, to do so, reports to upper administration (provost or vice president of research). Among research universities within the Association of American Universities (AAU), 19 were identified, and 18 agreed to participate in this study. Directors are sent a 71-question survey in January 2017 that covered issues of Governance, Research, Education, Engagement, Campus Operations and Best Practices

A History of Research on Business and the Natural Environment: Conversations from the Field

Every field of inquiry goes through a life cycle; a new idea emerges, it develops into a growing body of literature and either continues to grow or enters a decline. A sure sign of the successful growth of a field is an effort to institutionalize its history, categorize its accomplishments and project its future directions. The field of Business and the Natural Environment (B&NE) has now reached that stage. After expanding in the early 1990s as a distinct field of empirical inquiry, it has grown to include contributions from the full gamut of business disciplines. This introductory chapter is an analytical synopsis of that work, and an introductory chapter to a Routledge Handbook that collects the major works of the field.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90852/1/1174_Hoffman.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90852/4/1174_Hoffman.pd

Management as a Calling: A Blueprint for Management Education in the 21st Century

Business’s capacity to transform society is only as great as the schools that train its future leaders. This demands that business schools reform their vision to promote values of business serving society in order for students to see business as a true calling rather than simply a career. Here is a blueprint for management education in the 21st century that teaches students that they will possess awesome power as business leaders, and with that power comes great responsibility and an obligation to create benefit for all of society.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145491/1/1387_Hoffman.pd

Hybrid Organizations: The Next Chapter in Sustainable Business

In this article, we describe how hybrid organizations are developing business models that are competitive and create positive social and environmental change. We discuss the distinctive characteristics of the hybrid business model, both conceptually and in practice. We also discuss ways in which hybrids are driving towards the alteration of long-held business norms and conceptions of the role of the firm in society, and are advancing a new meaning of corporate sustainability. Finally, we discuss the challenges that hybrid organizations face in accomplishing their social changhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136173/1/1347_Hoffman.pd

The New Heretics: Hybrid Organizations and the Challenges They Present to Corporate Sustainability

Corporate sustainability has gone “mainstream”; reaching into all areas of business management. Yet, despite this progress, large-scale social and ecological issues continue to worsen. In this paper, we examine how corporate sustainability has been operationalized as a concept that supports the dominant beliefs of strategic management rather than challenging them to shift business beyond the unsustainable status quo. Against this backdrop, we consider how hybrid organizations (organizations at the interface between for-profit and non-profit sectors that address social and ecological issues) are operating at odds with beliefs embedded in strategic management and corporate sustainability literatures. We offer six propositions that further define hybrid organizations based on challenges they present to the assumptions embedded in these literatures, and position them as new heretics of mainstream strategic management and corporate sustainability orthodoxy. We conclude with the implications of this heretical force for theory and practice.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136169/1/1344_Hoffman.pd

Exceptional Boards: Environmental Experience and Positive Deviance from Institutional Norms

This paper explores the phenomenon of positive organizational deviance from institutional norms by establishing practices that protect or enhance the natural environment. Seeking to explain why some organizations practice positive environmental deviance while others do not, we locate our inquiry on the board of directors - the organizational body that interprets external issues and guides organizational response. We find a strong correlation between positive deviance and the past environmental experience of board directors and the centrality of the organization within field-level networks. Organizations located on the periphery of the network and whose board possess a high level of environmental experience are more likely to deviate in positive ways. Our conclusions contribute to multiple literatures in behavioral and environmental governance, the role of filtering and enaction in the process of institutional conformity and change, and the mechanisms behind proactive environmental protection strategies within business.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136181/1/1348_Hoffman.pd

Not All Events are Attended Equally: Toward a Middle-Range Theory of Industry Attention to External Events

This paper builds on prior theory and research on attention and identity to examine whether and how industries publicly attend to external events. Events are critical triggers of institutional transformation and industry evolution. Yet, they must first become the focus of public attention to have this effect. We draw on a paired case comparison of media coverage of eight non-routine events affecting the natural environment and the U.S. chemical industry. We employ both deductive and inductive analysis to develop a model and hypotheses to explain two research questions. First, what determines the initial public attention to an event? Second, when and why do certain events attain high and sustained levels of industry attention? A key inference is that whether an event receives industry level attention depends on either outsiders holding the industry accountable for the event, or insiders’ internal concerns with the industry image. We further infer that an event can be transformed into a critical issue for an industry, warranting sustained attention, if there is contestation with outsiders over the accountability for the event and its enactment and internal contradictions and challenges to the industry’s identity.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136204/1/1355_Hoffman.pd

Sources of Environmentally Destructive Behavior: Individual, Organizational and Institutional Perspectives

Our specific focus is a multi-level analysis of the destructiveness of taken-for-granted belief and behavior. First, we consider how individuals are guided in their perception of environmental problems through cognitive biases. Second, we consider how individuals are influenced in these perceptions and biases by the organizations of which they are a part. Finally, we consider the institutions that persist and guide our awareness of our connections and impact on the environment. Only by identifying these core, taken-for-granted beliefs (or myths) that lie on these three levels can we understand the persistence of environmentally destructive behavior and move beyond our predisposition toward actions that lead us to destroy the environment.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136183/1/1350_Hoffman.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136183/4/1350_Hoffman.pdfDescription of 1350_Hoffman.pdf : fixed cover pag

Overcoming the Social and Psychological Barriers to Green Building

The green building movement has made tremendous achievements in the past decade. Technological advances in building systems and materials have made revolutionary possibilities in reducing the environmental impact of buildings. Economic achievements in price reductions have made these advances more feasible. And yet, adoption of green buildings within the construction and design fields remains low. The strongest barriers to a more rapid deployment of green buildings are now psychological and social. This paper surveys the form of these barriers, discussing them on three levels – individual, organizational, and institutional. The paper concludes with two categories of strategies for overcoming them: as entrepreneurial opportunities and a challenge for change. In this latter category, seven specific strategies are elaborated: issue framing, targeting the right demographic, education, structural and incentive change, indemnifing the risk, green building standard improvements, and tax reform.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/58609/1/1106-Hoffman.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/58609/4/1106r_Hoffman.pd

The Culture and Discourse of Climate Skepticism

Working paper abstract (100-250 words): While the scientific, technical and policy components of the climate change issue are of critical importance, climate change is also a cultural issue. More importantly, it is a highly contested cultural issue in which competing movements engage in discursive debates – or framing battles - over the interpretation of the problem and the necessity of solutions. This dimension of the issue is overlooked because social scientists who can identify and analyze it have been notably absent from the public debate. Even more surprising, they have largely neglected to attend to the issue even within their own academic realms. In fact, our social science discipline either takes a relatively dismissive attitude toward those who challenge the scientific view that climate change is real – dubbed “climate skeptics” – or subscribes to them sinister motives and neglects their beliefs altogether. In this essay, I argue that this neglect is a problem and highlight how researchers can advance their scholarship and social relevance by studying the ongoing debate over climate change.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78312/1/1152_Hoffman.pd