Hitting the sustainability sweet spot: having it all

Purpose – Corporations and their leaders are coming under increasing pressure to achieve “sustainability.” Sustainable enterprises minimize harmful environmental impacts, are socially responsible, and create shareholder value.Design/methodology/approach – Using secondary data, we compared the financial performance of recognized sustainability leaders to that of a carefully selected matched set of competitors.Findings – The authors find that, on average, sustainability leaders outperform their competitors. However, this is true and only two out of three cases.Research limitations/implications – While the authors utilized a relatively small sample with data that covers only a three‐year period, the use of secondary data from two different databases reduces concerns about common method bias. The clear implication of this analysis is that a commitment to sustainability does not harm financial performance and may, in fact, enhance performance.Practical implications – The authors conclude with a set of recommen...