Goal-Based Private Sustainability Governance and Its Paradoxes in the Indonesian Palm Oil Sector

J. Grabs*, Rachael D. Garrett

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Indexed journal article Articlepeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In response to stakeholder pressure, companies increasingly make ambitious forward-looking sustainability commitments. They then draw on corporate policies with varying degrees of alignment to disseminate and enforce corresponding behavioral rules among their suppliers and business partners. This goal-based turn in private sustainability governance has important implications for its likely environmental and social outcomes. Drawing on paradox theory, this article uses a case study of zero-deforestation commitments in the Indonesian palm oil sector to argue that goal-based private sustainability governance’s characteristics set the stage for two types of paradoxes to emerge: performing paradoxes between environmental, social, and economic sustainability goals, and organizing paradoxes between cooperation and competition approaches. Companies’ responses to these paradoxes, in turn, can explain the lack of full goal attainment and differential rates of progress between actors. These results draw our attention to the complexities hidden behind governance through goal setting in the corporate space, and raise important questions about the viability of similar strategies such as science-based targets and net-zero goals.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)467-507
Number of pages41
JournalJournal of Business Ethics
Volume188
Issue number3
Early online dateMar 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2023

Keywords

  • Governance through goals
  • Paradoxical tensions
  • Private sustainability governance

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