The triple bottom line (TBL) is still commonly explored in research without joint consideration of economic, social and environmental elements of business sustainability (BS). The purpose of this paper is to re-test and validate a BS framework based on the TBL approach.This study is based on a questionnaire survey consisting of the largestfirms in corporate Sweden. A total of 107 usable questionnaires were ultimately received, for a response rate of 36.5 percent. The findings validate and extend a framework of a TBL-dominant logic for BS. A total of 19 dimensions indicating satisfactory validity and reliability of the BS framework were identified. The BS framework offers relevant insights to monitor and assess a TBL-dominant logic for BS. It also provides opportunities for further research. Managers can use the BS framework as a tool to map firm priorities in connection with BS. Each dimension of the BS framework offers insights into how to monitor and assess firms’ efforts in the TBL.This study contributes to validate and extend the TBL-dominant logic for BS. The BS framework also offers a timely and relevant contribution to both scholars and practitioners engaging in business sustainability. © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare and validate firms’ internal and external stakeholder considerations in sustainable business practices across business settings. It aims to assess the validity and reliability of a stakeholder framework appearing in previous studies.

Design/methodology/approach: The study uses a questionnaire survey and a cross-industry sample consisting of the largest firms in corporate Sweden. Multivariate analysis tests the stakeholder framework. Each of the 294 key informants was initially identified and contacted by telephone, generating a response rate of 36.5 per cent.

Findings: The tested stakeholder framework appears valid and reliable across countries to assess the internal stakeholders of focal firms, as well as their up- and downstream, market and societal stakeholders. This study provides additional empirical support to categorize firms’ stakeholder considerations in sustainable business practices.

Research limitations/implications: This study validates previous findings in terms of Swedish firms’ considerations of internal and external stakeholders in sustainable business practices in relation to one similar country (Norway) and one different country (Spain). The study also shows how the three countries perceive the focal company and societal stakeholders differently. Practical implications: The tested framework sheds light on focal firms’ stakeholder considerations in sustainable business practices and elucidates the extent to which firms’ account for their internal and external stakeholders in sustainable business practices.

Originality/value: This study contributes to the development of valid and reliable stakeholder theory across contexts and through time. In particular, it contributes to the development of a valid and reliable framework to categorize firms’ stakeholder considerations in sustainable business practices. © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose: Codes of ethics have become the mainstay of the ethics programs of corporations. Many studies have explored their contents, but few have examined what makes them effective. This international study aims to identify the measures viewed as being important by top executives in determining the worth to their organizations of corporate codes of ethics. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected by questionnaires sent to the top 500 companies ranked by revenue operating in the private sectors in Australia, Canada and Sweden. By analyzing the survey results from the top corporate executives in these countries, the research team was able to test for a number of determinants of effectiveness for codes of ethics. Findings: In a statistically significant model, it was found that four factors related to the internal management of the corporation are positively correlated to executives’ perceptions of the value of their corporate codes of ethics. Research limitations/implications: Future research may seek to address features of this study that limit its generalizability, as it was conducted on the largest of companies in each country and thus this sample may not reflect the way that business ethics are managed in smaller organizations in those countries. Originality/value: If executives see particular items as important to their business ethics success, one could postulate that this has arisen from a perception that implementing these measures has been effective for their organizations. This provides guidance to other organizations on what items could enhance the effectiveness of their codes of ethics. © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study is to test the importance of activity-oriented precursors in a relationship model. This study supports the theoretical view that firms create trust and knowledge through activities and these activities make a commitment decision less risky (Johanson & Vahlne, 2009). The secondary purpose of this study is to collect and examine data from interorganizational relationships in both Sweden and the United States. By including data from two countries, results will be more generalizable. Results can also lead to several managerial implications.

Methodology/approach: This study focuses on a sample of distributors from both the United States and Sweden. One hundred sixty-one usable surveys were returned from the U.S. survey, for a response rate of 27%. One hundred twenty-four usable surveys were returned from the Swedish survey, for a response rate of 21%. The PLS-SEM method was used to examine the model’s constructs.

Findings: Similar to past research results show that trust and commitment have a direct positive influence on satisfaction, and that trust also has a direct positive influence on commitment. However, this study uniquely supports four out of six newly tested hypotheses. Both cooperation and relationship assets have a direct positive influence on commitment. Cooperation has a direct positive influence on trust and commitment. Relationship assets have a direct negative influence on trust but a direct positive influence on commitment. Surprisingly, two hypotheses were not supported: Coordination did not have a significant relationship with either trust or commitment.

Research implications: Managers who want to achieve a satisfactory relationship based on trust and commitment need to prioritize their attention toward cooperation. They should also be aware that participation in joint activities (i.e., coordination and relationship investments) does not guarantee higher levels of trust or commitment in the relationship. It is the quality of the joint activities and the how dependent firms are on each other and not just participation in joint activities that are likely to create higher levels of trust or commitment. The quality of coordination and manageable levels of dependence may counteract the higher costs associated with joint activities compared to the costs associated with cooperation. Managers may  be wise to not make major commitments to other firms unless high quality joint activities have created knowledge and trust between firms.

Originality/value/contribution: The model adds the joint activity-oriented antecedents associated with collaboration which is essential to a successful relationship. Because of the high failure rate of collaboration may be due to cooperation and coordination failures and because these two constructs are underspecified in interorganizational research, this study is unique in examining activity-oriented antecedents in a trust/commitment model of relationship satisfaction in a crosscultural context (i.e., with U.S. and Swedish samples). © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to test a Triple Bottom Line (TBL)-construct as well as to describe the TBL-reasons for implementing sustainable business practices in companies and their business networks. This study explores how linking these seemingly disparate pillars of sustainability may be facilitated through a TBL construct. The notion of sustainable business practices has been evolving and is increasingly understood to encompass considerations of economic viability, as well as environmental sustainability and social responsibility.

Design/methodology/approach – The research is quantitative in nature, exploring and analysing how companies in different Norwegian industries implement and manage sustainable business practices based on TBL. The survey results are reported here.

Findings – The relevance of TBL to different aspects of sustainable business practices is outlined. The study generally supports the view that a heightened propensity for sustainable business practices ensures that organisations are better equipped for meeting the challenge of integrating TBL in companies and their business networks.

Research limitations/implications – The study tested a construct of TBL in the context of sustainable business practices. It may be incorporated in further research in relation to other constructs. Suggestions for further research are proposed.

Practical implications – Useful for practitioners to get insights into TBL-reasons for implementing business-sustainable practices in companies and their business networks. It may also be valuable to assess the general status of business-sustainable practices in a company and their business networks.

Originality/value – Linking two traditionally separate and encapsulated areas of research, namely, the area of business sustainable practices and the area of TBL. The current study has contributed to a TBL-construct in relation to other constructs in measurement and structural models. It has also contributed to provide insights of priority into the main reasons to implement the elements of TBL within companies and their business networks. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

This research was conducted in the Australian and Swedish private sectors. The objective of the study was to describe the use of codes of ethics in the marketplace by the top companies operating in Australia and Sweden. The outcome of this research shows that large organisations in both Australia and Sweden indicate a substantial interest in using codes of ethics in the marketplace in conjunction with current business activities. There are also differences in the ways that the companies in each country implement their codes of ethics in the marketplace. © 2015, Academy of Marketing Science.

This study tests whether satisfaction plays an important role as mediator between trust and commitment, and coordination, cooperation and continuity expectance in manufacturer-supplier relationships in Norway. Management in a sample of the 500 largest manufacturer companies was approached by phone to identify key informants and surveys mailed to them. 193 usable questionnaires were received corresponding to a response rate of 38.6%. The results were analysed by structural equation modelling, using SPSS/AMOS 17.0 software. The findings support fairly well the conceptual model tested; trust relates positively to commitment and satisfaction; satisfaction, in turn, relates positively to coordination, cooperation and continuity expectance. However, commitment fails to show any significant relationship with satisfaction. This study makes an important contribution to management and future research about balancing the nomological network of quality constructs in manufacturer-supplier relationships. Results support the major impact trust may have on satisfactory relationships and the importance of satisfaction when establishing well-working governance mechanisms towards gaining enduring relationships.

This paper presents the results of a study conducted in 2002 in the Swedish private sector. The aim of the study was to examine the commitment to business ethics of the top 100 companies operating in Sweden. Primary data was obtained via a self-administered mail questionnaire distributed to a census of the top 100 Swedish companies. This paper examines the means by which organisations attempt to communicate the ethos of their codes to employees. The study identified a range of methods used by organisations to integrate the ethos of codes into corporate culture. These methods were classified into nine key actions: (1) display and communication of the code, (2) company induction of new staff, (3) consequences for a breach of the code, (4) ethical performance as a criterion for employee appraisal, (5) the use of an ethics ombudsman, (6) formal guidelines for the support of whistleblowers, (7) a standing ethics committee, (8) ethics education, and (9) ethics education committee. Whilst many companies have instituted ethical behaviour initiatives, activities specifically targeted at exposure, education and support for staff to perform ethically were found to be underdeveloped. © 2015, Academy of Marketing Science.

Service is an important issue to be taken into consideration into companies’ strategic, tactic, and operative business activities, although the actual performance of services is done on an operative level. Generally, the topic of this research is service quality. In particular, the research is dedicated to the construct of interactive service quality in service encounters. It is a complex and challenging approach that goes beyond the current exploration of the service quality construct. Interactive service quality in service encounters requires the simultaneous consideration of the service provider’s perspective and the service receiver’s perspective. The study was performed in the Swedish automotive industry and focused on the issues of interactive service quality between a vehicle manufacturer (VM) and a selection of its most important suppliers. The major contributions of the research provide an on-the-spot-account of interactive service quality between a VM and its suppliers © 2015, Academy of Marketing Science.

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the importance of selected antecedents (i.e., cooperation, coordination, and relationship investments) in a commitment-trust vendor relationship model. Collaboration in organizations often is not effective in relationships between purchasers and vendors because cooperation, coordination and relationship investment are lacking. Research on these constructs is very limited in interorganizational research, so this study is unique, therefore, in examining antecedents in a trust-commitment relationship model. Following examination of both first and second order modeling approaches, findings show the influence of these antecedents on trust and commitment, and ultimately vendor relationship satisfaction. All three antecedents are positively related to the higher order management factors construct, and in turn to both trust and commitment, with the stronger relationship being to commitment. Commitment and trust are both positively related to relationship satisfaction. The direct relationship from trust to satisfaction is strongest, but there is evidence of partial mediation through the indirect relationship from trust to commitment and then to satisfaction.