Sustainability and the UK’s Leading Retailers

• Authors: Jones Peter , Comfort Daphne , Hillier David

Title variants

HR

Održivost i vodeći trgovci na malo u Ujedinjenom Kraljevstvu

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

his paper provides a review of the sustainability commitments and achievements currently being publicly reported by the UK’s leading retailers and of the nature of the reporting process, and also offers some reflections on the ways these retailers are addressing and pursuing sustainability agendas. The paper begins with a short discussion of the characteristics of sustainability and draws its empirical material from the most recent information on sustainability posted on the top ten UK retailer’s corporate websites. The findings reveal that the top ten UK retailers’ sustainability commitments and achievements embrace a wide range of environmental, social and economic issues but that the reporting process has a number of weaknesses that undermine its transparency and integrity. More critically, the authors argue that these commitments are principally driven by the search for efficiency gains and that they are couched within existing business models centered on continuing growth. Thus, the leading UK retailers are, at best, currently pursuing a “weak” rather than a “strong” model of sustainability; in pursuing continuing growth, they are effectively ignoring the fact the current patterns of consumption may be unsustainable in the long term. The paper provides an accessible review of the sustainability agendas being pursued by the UK’s leading retailers and as such it will interest academics, students and practitioners interested in retailing and corporate sustainability.

HR

U radu se iznosi pregled o predanosti i postignućima održivosti, o kojima trenutačno javno izvještavaju vodeći trgovci na malo iz Ujedinjenog Kraljevstva, kao i prirodi procesa izvještavanja. Isto se tako iznose i neka promišljanja o načinima kako se trgovci na malo usmjeravaju na održivost te provode planirane aktivnosti koje su uz to vezane. Rad počinje kratkom raspravom o obilježjima održivosti, a empirijski materijal obuhvaća recentne informacije o održivosti, objavljene na korporativnim web stranicama 10 vodećih trgovaca na malo u Ujedinjenom Kraljevstvu. Rezultati otkrivaju da predanost i postignuća održivosti deset vodećih trgovaca na malo obuhvaćaju širok raspon pitanja vezanih uz okoliš, društvo i gospodarstvo, ali proces izvještavanja ima brojne slabosti koje ugrožavaju transparentnost i integritet. Autori kritički tvrde kako je predanost uglavnom vođena potragom za povećanjem efikasnosti i izražena u postojećem poslovnom modelu koji je usmjeren na neprekidni rast. Vodeći trgovci na malo u Ujedinjenom Kraljevstvu, u najboljem slučaju, trenutačno provode „slabi“, a ne „jaki“ model održivosti, a u potrazi za kontinuiranim rastom učinkovito ignoriraju činjenicu da sadašnji obrasci potrošnje mogu biti dugoročno neodrživi. Rad pruža pristupačan pregled održivih aktivnosti i ciljeva vodećih trgovaca na malo u Ujedinjenom Kraljevstvu i kako takav može biti zanimljiv znanstvenicima, studentima i stručnjacima u praksi zainteresiranim za maloprodaju i održivost poduzeća.

Keywords

EN

sustainability, UK retailers, external assurance, economic growth

HR

održivost, maloprodajni lanci u Ujedinjenom Kraljevstvu, ekonomski rast

• Publisher: Faculty of Economics & Business Zagreb, Department of Marketing, Zagreb, Croatia and CROMAR (Croatian Marketing Association)
• Journal: Market - Tržište
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 27
• Issue: 1

Dates

published

2015-06-30

Contributors

author

Jones Peter

• Business School, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham

author

Comfort Daphne

• Business School, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham

author

Hillier David

• Centre for Police Sciences, University of South Wales, Pontypridd

Identifiers

ISSN

0353-4790