Examining the process of legitimising corporate sustainability within the organisation: Towards a Generalised Legitimising Pathway

This empirical paper explores the process of legitimising sustainability within the organisation. Using interview data from 51 Heads of Sustainability, it finds that a conformance legitimising strategy is foundational to the process, a selection legitimising strategy is then added, often with multiple selection episodes used, and finally, manipulation is attempted in order to change the environment to accept sustainability. Building from this, a Generalised Legitimising Pathway is theorised providing the first legitimising framework to include both the temporal progression of legitimising and the overlap of strategies. Track Sustainable and Responsible Business

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