Acad. Management J. 60, 1633–1661 (2017)

Anthropogenic causes of climate change are intimately related to economic behaviour and businesses are increasingly being called on to respond. Christopher Wright and Daniel Nyberg explain how corporations, over time, make sense of, negotiate the meaning of, and adapt to the challenge of climate change.

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Using data collected from public information on organizational responses, proprietary business documents, and successive interviews with key managers, the authors create five in-depth case studies of major Australian corporations. Comparative analysis of the cases reveals a three-stage process of engagement with climate change, consisting of: framing — the process of interpreting climate change as something that is compatible with business; localizing — an effort to create local conventions and practices that respond to climate change; and normalizing — a final stage in which earlier climate change initiatives are unwound or realigned in a return to business as usual.

The framing of climate change in terms of profit maximization and shareholder value allows for the creation of business-compatible local practices, but leads naturally back towards business-as-usual. The authors argue that the inevitability of this process suggests that corporations are poorly suited to provide the dramatic decarbonization needed to avoid severe climate change.