Building an Organizational Sustainable Identity: An Exploratory Analysis of Brazilian Coffee Producers

This study, based on organizational identity theory literature (Albert et al., 2000; Gioia et al., 2013; Haslam et al., 2017) and on sustainability (Kiefhaber et al., 2020; Verwaal et al., 2022) aims to advance our understanding of the organizational pathways to building organizational sustainable identity. We analyze organizational sustainable identity as a social construct that frames organizational behavior by introducing relevant norms and values toward maintaining sustainable development. We argue that by implementing economic-, social- and environmental-based mechanisms, firms shape organizational identity towards a sustainable one. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore key pathways leading to the creation of an organizational sustainable identity. The findings are based on a qualitative analysis of 26 Brazilian firms operating in the food industry. The model comes from an exploratory analysis of in-depth semi-structured interviews on the pathways for developing organizational identity integrating sustainable aspects. Thus, we propose an exploratory framework related to the formation of an organizational sustainable identity.