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AMR 2014 Cognitive Frames Final.pdf (405.6 kB)

Cognitive frames in corporate sustainability: managerial sensemaking with paradoxical and business case frames

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 03:04 authored by Tobias Hahn, Jonatan Pinkse, Lutz Preuss, Frank Figge
Corporate sustainability confronts managers with tensions between complex economic, environmental, and social issues. Drawing on the literature on managerial cognition, corporate sustainability, and strategic paradoxes, we develop a cognitive framing perspective on corporate sustainability. We propose two cognitive frames—a business case frame and a paradoxical frame—and explore how differences between them in cognitive content and structure influence the three stages of the sensemaking process—that is, managerial scanning, interpreting, and responding with regard to sustainability issues. We explain how the two frames lead to differences in the breadth and depth of scanning, differences in issue interpretations in terms of sense of control and issue valence, and different types of responses that managers consider with regard to sustainability issues. By considering alternative cognitive frames, our argument contributes to a better understanding of managerial decision making regarding ambiguous sustainability issues, and it develops the underlying cognitive determinants of the stance that managers adopt on sustainability issues. This argument offers a cognitive explanation for why managers rarely push for radical change when faced with complex and ambiguous issues, such as sustainability, that are characterized by conflicting yet interrelated aspects.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Academy of Management Review (AMR)

ISSN

0363-7425

Publisher

Academy of Management

Issue

4

Volume

39

Page range

463-487

Department affiliated with

  • Business and Management Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-09-22

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2016-10-17

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-10-17

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