Presented by the David O'Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise at the John Molson School of Business in collaboration with The John Molson School of Business RBC Professorship in Responsible Organizations.

Friday, October 15, 2010
11 a.m. to noon
1450 Guy Street (corner of de Maisonneuve blvd.) MB 6.260, Montreal, Quebec. View map
Admission is free but seats are limited, please arrive early.

We investigate the impact of greenwashing policies, i.e. policies or codes of conduct followed for symbolic purposes without necessarily applying them in practice and on environmental legitimacy, i.e. the external validation for a firm’s alignment with those environmental values demanded by the broader public. Drawing on institutional theory, we first argue and then empirically test that, in strong institutional fields, like polluting industries, symbolic actions have a positive impact on a firm’s environmental legitimacy only when they are coupled with evidence of the implementation of more substantive policies. Our findings suggest that symbolic endeavours alone might harm a firm’s environmental legitimacy.

Pascual Berrone

Pascual Berrone is Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at IESE Business School. Dr. Berrone earned a B.S. in Business Administration from the Universidad Católica de Córdoba, holds a Senior degree in Management and International Business from the FUNCER Business School, and completed his PhD in Business Administration and Quantitative Methods degree at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Before joining the IESE Business School, Pascual Berrone held
two visiting scholar appointments at Arizona State University in recent years.
Originally from Argentina, Dr. Berrone has extensive managerial experience throughout Latin America, Europe, and the United States. His professional interests include ongoing programmatic work in three areas: (1) corporate governance, (2) social issues in management, and (3) family firms. Dr. Berrone’s academic work has been published in international journals like Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Human Resource Management, Journal of Business Ethics, International Journal of Human Resource Management (all these journals included in the FT40 list), Journal of Business Research and Corporate Governance: An International review, and in prestigious Spanish outlets such as Revista de Economía Financiera.

Pascual Berrone has been recognized on several occasions for his outstanding research. In 2009, he won the Best Paper Award in the Corporate Governance Track at the EURAM conference. The award is sponsored by the Center for Family and Enterprise and Ownership (CeFEO). In 2008, he won the “Best Paper Proceedings Award” - Academy of Management (ONE Division) for his work on environmental innovation. More recently, his article “The Impact of Symbolic and Substantive Actions on Environmental Legitimacy” was named among the top three finalists for the “Best Paper Award” at the Iberoamerican Academy of Management Conference.

Pascual Berrone just released his new book on executive compensation (M.E. Sharpe). Dr. Berrone has presented his research at several international conferences. He is a frequent participant at the Annual Academy of Management Meetings and he is an active member of the Iberoamerican Academy of Management.



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For More Information

The David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise
Centre d’études David O’Brien sur la durabilité des entreprises

Eugenia Manolakos
David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise
John Molson School of Business
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(514)848-2424 ext 5131