New Article Published in Business Strategy and the Environment
Together with two colleagues from the University of Hamburg, SusTec researcher Joern Hoppmann has published a new article that investigates the role of external change agents for corporate sustainability.
In the article, entitled "With a Little Help from a Stranger: The Impact of External Change Agents on Corporate Sustainability Investments", Joern Hoppmann, Alice Sakhel, and Marcel Richert draw on data on more than 5,300 energy efficiency investment decisions by 462 firms to examine the impact of external change agents, such as consultants, on sustainability investments in firms. The analysis shows that the use of external change agents positively affects corporate sustainability investments, specifically if the change agents are involved in the implementation of measures and broadly scan the firm for investment opportunities. Contrary to previous suggestions in the literature, external change agents are not more effective if the firm uses internal change agents in parallel. From a theoretical perspective, the article contributes to the literature on corporate sustainability and path dependencies. You can read the full-length article Download here.