Determinants of corporate sustainability: Thai frozen seafood processors

Purpose The main purpose of this study is to gain a clearer understanding of key determinants that drive corporate sustainability and barriers that hinder its development. Design/methodology/approach The study employs semi‐structured interviews with top and middle managers and site observations at two frozen seafood processing companies used as case studies. Findings The study reveals that the government, local communities, and top management leadership are the three primary factors influencing company integration of environmental and social responsibility into corporate strategies and practices. Interestingly, international buyers do not take the environmental and social impact generated by their suppliers into purchasing decisions. For them, quality, safety and prices are the main factors influencing their purchasing decisions. The two elements identified as the major barriers to change are: lack of a long‐term view of environmental and social sustainability and absence of a system perspective on the seafood supply chain. Research limitations/implications As an exploratory study, findings cannot necessarily be extrapolated to broader populations. To improve generalization of the findings, future research should broaden the sample. It would also be beneficial to pursue comparative research between industries, countries and regions. Practical implications Adopting a system perspective to the organization with an emphasis on integrating environmental and social responsibility into corporate strategies and practices is a key to creating corporate sustainability. Originality/value This paper contributes to an increased understanding of the role of top management leadership in the creation of corporate sustainability. In addition, the research techniques used could be replicated in different geographic and product areas.