Firms face a fundamental and persistent challenge in balancing the tensions between environmental sustainability and profitability, where elements that seem logical individually become contradictory when juxtaposed. Individual decision makers' beliefs about the tensions between environmental sustainability and profitability can shape decision outcomes, offering an intriguing micro-foundation for strategic choices. This article conceptualizes and proposes a scale to measure decision makers' beliefs about the tensions between environmental sustainability and profitability. Across three studies, we develop a reliable, valid, parsimonious 12-item environmental sustainability–profitability beliefs (ESPB) scale. Three further studies demonstrate its ability to predict evaluations of sustainable new product ideas, investment success in markets with different crowdfunding platforms, and information search efforts for sustainable new product ideas. Overall, the findings emphasize the important influence of individual-level beliefs about sustainability and profitability for determining strategic decision outcomes, enhancing the understanding of key micro-foundations of firms’ sustainability practices.

中文翻译：

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环境可持续性 - 公司决策者的盈利能力信念：测量和后果


企业在平衡环境可持续性和盈利能力之间的紧张关系方面面临着一个根本而持久的挑战，其中单独看似合乎逻辑的要素在并列时变得相互矛盾。个人决策者对环境可持续性和盈利能力之间紧张关系的信念可以影响决策结果，为战略选择提供有趣的微观基础。本文概念化并提出了一个量表来衡量决策者对环境可持续性和盈利能力之间紧张关系的看法。在三项研究中，我们开发了一个可靠、有效、简洁的 12 项环境可持续性-盈利能力信念 （ESPB） 量表。三项进一步的研究表明，它能够预测对可持续新产品创意的评估、在不同众筹平台的市场中的投资成功以及可持续新产品创意的信息搜索工作。总体而言，研究结果强调了个人层面对可持续性和盈利能力的信念对确定战略决策结果的重要影响，从而增强了对公司可持续发展实践关键微观基础的理解。