Robin Struber

Enabling long term sustainability strategies through leadership identity: Evidence from the Plant-Based sector

Pressure is increasing on societies to establish organised social mechanisms to reduce the environmental impacts of production processes with an emphasis on sustainability; particularly in the Foods and Drinks sector, which accounts for more than a third of man-made emissions (34%). Yet quantitatively, innovation in the agro-food industry is significantly lower than other sectors, despite the pressing need for restructuring based on sustainable intensification and driven by sustainability and system innovation.

his research avers that effective adaptation will be met off the back of appropriate innovation driven by ethical leadership. With businesses struggling to accommodate meaningful, long term sustainability strategies and the rising phenomenon of 'Greenwashing', scholarship is increasingly focussed on understanding the role identity leadership plays in reshaping organisational cultures and using it as a vehicle towards significant change. However, conservative consumer tastes and path dependencies of MNEs mean a slowing innovation curve in Foods and Drinks and an aversion to disruptive innovation. Particularly in cases of global crisis such as climate change the complexity and abstract consequences in the future further form significant cognitive roadblocks to meaningful change. The aim is therefore to establish empirical observations on effective ethical leadership by exploring the individual narratives of micro-foundational leadership. The research methodology applies a mixed methods ‘Innovation Biographies’ approach based on qualitative semi-structured interviews and discourse analysis centred on grey literature reviews. The work will contribute to the wider literature on micro-level CSR by increasing our understanding of how changing leadership identities shapes approaches to sustainable strategy and in fact its prioritisation alongside economic and social measures. Understanding the identity of leaders will be key to the successful management of long-term sustainability and competitiveness imperatives across industries everywhere.

Email: r.struber@bham.ac.uk

Supervisors: Professor Roshan Boojihawon and Professor John Bryson