Home / Lectures / Magali Delmas, UCLA
The Uncertainty of Corporate Sustainability Metrics

Magali Delmas, UCLA
Description
Semester:
- Fall 2022
Speakers:
Lecture Time:
Fri, November 4, 2022 @ 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm
Lecture Location:
R0240, Ross School of Business, Lower Level
Speaker Webpage(s):
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/person/magali-delmas/
Introduced By:
Yulin Yu
Abstract
Researchers have long studied corporate performance metrics for organizational and financial performance. However, we still know little about how to design sustainability metrics that can move organizations towards better societal outcomes. Questions remain regarding the substantive areas of sustainability performance that should be measured, how data should be aggregated, and how metrics can be engineered to reduce greenwashing. In this paper, we propose a framework to assess corporate sustainability metrics based on the level of uncertainty associated with the effectiveness of the metric and its measurement. We consider whether the metric is measuring management processes or outcomes and discuss how the choice of metrics with lower uncertainty may hamper some types of greenwashing. We argue that organizations should use outcome metrics when uncertainty in measuring the performance outcome is low, and process-based metrics when the outcome is difficult to measure or the link between process and outcome is undetermined. When both types of uncertainty are high, it is unclear whether metrics should be used at all. We illustrate our framework with examples of corporate disclosure in the areas of social and environmental metrics. Our framework enriches our understanding of the uncertainty associated with corporate sustainability disclosures and can be useful for government agencies thinking about mandated disclosures, for managers thinking about what metrics to disclose, and for researchers developing or using sustainability metrics.
Recording & Additional Notes
No recordings available.
Magali (Maggie) Delmas is a Professor of Management at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and the Institute of the Environment & Sustainability. She is the director of the UCLA Center for Impact at Anderson. She conducts research in Strategy and Corporate Sustainability, and has published more than 90 articles, book chapters and case studies on the subject. She is the recipient of the Academy of Management/Organization and the Natural Environment Distinguished Scholar Award. She currently works on developing effective information strategies to promote conservation behavior and the development of green markets. She is engaged in refining current methodologies to measure and communicate firm and product environmental and social performance. Her award-winning book: “The Green Bundle: Pairing the Market with the Planet,” is published at Stanford Press. She received her PhD in Strategic Management from HEC, Paris. Previous to embarking on an academic career she worked at the corporate strategy of Framatome, a nuclear engineering company, and at the European Commission at the Directorate General for Industry.