نقش عوامل احتمالی در رابطه بین شیوه های پایداری و عملکرد سازمانی The role of contingency factors on the relationship between sustainability practices and organizational performance

1. Introduction Numerous studies have addressed the principles of sustainable development and the need for organizations to pursue sustainability business strategies (e.g. Bansal, 2005). Prior studies have widely discussed the relevant issues concerning the integration of sustainability aspects into organizations’ systems (Lozano, 2012). It is argued that organizations should proactively integrate sustainability aspects into strategy to enhance corporate sustainability performance in terms of the environmental, economic, and social perspectives (Wijethilake, 2017). Accordingly, several voluntary tools, approaches, and initiatives have been developed for organizations to address these sustainability aspects and issues. In this regard, prior studies have addressed the issue of the fit between an organization and sustainability-related practices, which can be articulated in many different forms (de Jong and van der Meer, 2015). However, as argued by Lozano (2012), there is a need to further clarify and explain how the sustainability initiatives address the different elements of the organization’s system and how they contribute to the following perspectives of sustainability: economic, environmental, social, and time. However, a review of the current literature suggests that there is a substantial challenge in applying principles of sustainable development at the corporate level, especially in terms of translating and integrating the normative sustainability concepts into day-to-day business practices (Scherrer et al., 2007). As proposed by Engert et al. (2016), the integration of corporate sustainability into strategic management and consequently into day-to-day business is dependent upon several issues (e.g. internal and external drivers, supporting and hindering factors, etc.).