In this passage, the chief winemaker’s emphasis on building
a sustainable winemaking site has had an important bearing
on the company’s value proposition. His personal commit-
ment is not only perceived as the initial motivation behind
74 Y. Wang et al.
123
the company’s sustainability positioning, but also an influ-
ential factor on the company’s ethical climate and culture in
what should be considered as excellent business practice.
This chief winemaker, therefore, as well as the aforemen-
tioned company owners, functions as the early leader whose
values set the organization’s ethical climate, the character-
istics of which eventually become internalized by all
members within the organization (Dickson et al. 2001).
Participant 5, in particular, reflected on how the leadership of
the company is crucial in fostering a sustainability culture in
the organization:
Growing sustainably is a feel-good thing, but it’s not
just that; it’s also just a culture in the company. The
owner of the company, XX [name of the owner], it
starts right at him. It’s a really good company to work
for and the culture and the management support for
sustainability is huge. We have a sustainability
meeting maybe once every six months; senior man-
agers, managing director come and sit down and
make time for it and that’s huge, but it starts from the
top, because if it doesn’t come from him [the owner],
there’s no buying. So it starts from the top and it’s the
culture; it’s something we don’t have to consider, and
it’s just something we do. It’s part of our everyday
business; it’s just second nature for us.
Here, the participant views sustainability practices as part
of the company’s culture—‘‘it’s just something we do. It’s
part of our everyday business’’ and it is just ‘‘second
nature.’’ The owner of the company—‘‘from the top’’—is
seen as the most important driver in development of such a
culture, from senior management to branch employees like
herself. For this participant, the owner’s commitment and
determination is the key to the company’s sustainability
culture simply because ‘‘if it doesn’t come from him,
there’s no buying.’’
Throughout the interviews, moral and ethical consid-
erations prevailed when individuals were identified as the
key motivation behind a company’s sustainability prac-
tices. These individuals’ values and beliefs, often influ-
enced by their experience, are the key to their personal as
well as the company’s commitment to a sustainability path.
Underlying such a commitment is the individual’s desire,
as well as ability, to transform self-interest into ethical and
virtuous business conduct. These motivating individuals
are crucial in fostering a sustainability culture within the
organizations and in elevating the ethical and moral ground
of others. As reflected by many participants in this study,
successful and inspirational individuals are committed to
social missions not only because such an act is ethical and
virtuous—‘‘it’s the right thing to do’’—but also because it
is the individual’s moral imperative to do so—‘‘it’s a
personal thing’’.
Discussion
Our larger study of the New Zealand wine industry iden-
tified strong market motivation that aligns with the ‘‘busi-
ness case’’ argument for sustainable practices. According
to the practice–institution schema (Moore 2002), business
preference for self-regulation and reliance on market
mechanisms are expressions of its pursuit of ‘‘external
goods,’’ such as money, power, and fame, and such pursuit
of ‘‘external goods’’ is determined by its institutional
characteristics as a profit-oriented social economic entity.
Constrained by such institutional characteristics, then, so-
cial and environmental concerns in business would only be
considered when they can be justified as the pursuit of
external goods because of perceivable economic values.
Following such a rationale, then, where market rewards are
lacking, the ‘‘business case’’ argument would become weak
motivation for long-term and sustained CSR practices be-
cause they are not justifiable as the pursuit of ‘‘external
goods’’.
However, as the examples show in this paper, most
participants in this study demonstrated long-term commit-
ment to sustainability practices despite the weak market
signals in many cases. These individuals make a strong
ethical case in understanding sustainable business practices
as they show that individuals’ pursuit of internal goods in
many cases can transform into a company’s collective
pursuit of virtuous business conduct. Our examples show
that many individuals have been identified as the funda-
mental motivation for a company’s engagement with sus-
tainability initiatives and practices. These individuals’
personal commitments to, and philosophy about, sustain-
ability are often seen as the driving force behind not only
virtuous business conduct but also the development of a
moral and ethical climate in the organization.
Individuals’ moral and ethical-based considerations
move the discussion of business sustainability motivation
from the business case of self-interested enlightenment to
an ethical case of the individuals’ desire to ‘‘do good.’’ In
the practice–institution framework, the individuals’ desire
to ‘‘do good’’ is conceptualized in the notion of practice,
where one’s pursuit of internal goods is based on, and
derived from, the virtue and moral character of the indi-
vidual. Essential to an ethical case of sustainability prac-
tices, therefore, is the individuals’ moral character and their
pursuit of internal goods. In other words, whereas the
pursuit of external goods is determined by business’ in-
stitutional market characteristics, the pursuit of internal
goods depends on the individuals in business finding ra-
tionales in ethical narratives and intrinsic values. As shown
in the discussion of many participants as well as their re-
flections on others, for many individuals within the busi-
ness arena, leading business practices to a sustainability
Virtue Ethics and the Practice–Institution Schema 75
123
path is not only seen as ‘‘the right thing to do,’’ but also
simply a way of embracing and engendering virtue and
morality through example and virtuous conduct.
Conclusion
