Exploring and Expanding Supererogatory Acts: Beyond Duty for a Sustainable Future

Journal of Business Ethics https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-022-05144-8 ORIGINAL PAPER Exploring and Expanding Supererogatory Acts: Beyond Duty for a Sustainable Future Gareth R. T. White1 · Anthony Samuel2 · Robert J. Thomas3 Received: 3 February 2021 / Accepted: 6 May 2022 © The Author(s) 2022 Abstract Supererogation has gained attention as a means of explaining the voluntary behaviours of individuals and organizations that are done for the benefit of others and which go above what is required of legislation and what may be expected by society. Whilst the emerging literature has made some significant headway in exploring supererogation as an ethical lens for the study of business there remain several important issues that require attention. These comprise, the lack of primary evidence upon which such examinations have been made, attention has been given to only singular pro-social acts of organizations, and the focus has been upon the actions of large organizations. Furthermore, Heyd’s (Supererogation, Cambridge University Press, 1982) original taxonomy of six supererogatory acts, comprising Moral Heroism, Beneficence, Volunteering, Favour, Forgiveness and Forbearance, has been considered to be complete and other forms of supererogatory acts have not yet been explored. In order to address these gaps this study poses the research questions: First, it studies how a single, contemporary SME performs multiple supererogatory acts in its attempts to address its social and environmental goals that go beyond CSR. Second, it seeks to gain a deeper theoretical understanding of Heyd’s (Supererogation, Cambridge University Press, 1982) taxonomy of six forms of supererogation through the capture of primary data. This research makes a three-year case study examination of a single SME that has been formally recognized for its work in addressing social and environmental issues at local, national and global levels. Primary data are acquired of the supererogatory acts that it performs through a threeyear participant observation case study, utilizing 61 interviews and 3 focus groups with internal and external stakeholders. In doing so, it addresses the empirical limitations of the extant research, substantiates each of the forms that supererogatory acts may take, and makes a contribution to the theory of supererogation by identifying a further class of act that is ‘Sharing’. Keywords Supererogation · Favour · Forgiveness · Forbearance · Sharing · Sustainability · Other-regarding Introduction * Anthony Samuel Gareth R. T. White Robert J. Thomas 1 South Wales Business School, University of South Wales, Pontypridd CF37 1DL, UK 2 Senior Lecture Marketing and Strategy, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Colum Road, Cardiff CF10 3EU, UK 3 Lecturer Strategy and Marketing, Aston Business School, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK There is a vast and growing literature that examines the behaviour of organizations toward society and the environment that comprise Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSR is an evolving concept (Sarker & Searcy, 2016) and the boundaries of organizational responsibility are not universally agreed (Ohreen & Petry, 2012; Okoye, 2009). Much of this literature adopts Carrol’s (1979) original conceptualization of CSR and comprises the legislated expectations and limitations that are placed upon business, as well as those acts that go beyond what is enforced (McWilliams & Siegel, 2001) or what may be expected of a rational commercial enterprise (Margolis & Walsh, 2003). Whilst the need to reduce the deleterious effects of business activities has become enshrined in CSR frameworks and legislation, there is a growing recognition that 13 Vol.:(0123456789) G. R. T. White et al. the study and performance of this alone is insufficient to achieve triple-bottom-line (TBL) sustainability (Barnett et al., 2020; Fukuda & Ouchida, 2020; Hira, 2020; Mazutis, 2014; White et al., 2015). A further criticism of CSR is its commercial dominance and marketing focus, and research has identified its relationship with unethical practices such as greenwashing (Gosselt et al., 2019), woke-washing (Vredenburg et al., 2020) and image laundering (Renard, 2003). This work has brought into question CSR’s ability to authentically capture and promote positive social, ecological and economic activity (Illia et al., 2013; Samuel et al., 2018). Subsequently it has been argued that voluntary, other-regarding and indeed many authentic pro-social actions of organizations cannot be readily explained by contemporary CSR business theory and require exploration with alternative ethical theories (Mazutis, 2014). Supererogation (Heyd, 1982) has recently began to garner academic interest, with both Tencati et al. (2020) and Mazutis (2014) arguing it to be a suitable lens through which the non-mandated ‘good deeds’ of organizations are better understood and theorized. For instance, Tencati et al. (2020) use it to develop a qualified account of the ‘other-regarding’ acts of organizations that is “superior to conventional CSR reasoning” (p. 250) and Mazutis (2014) expands supererogation theory to develop a nuanced deontological framework of CSR to improve upon its “conceptual clarity” (p. 517). Whilst both papers advocate supererogation theory as a means of exploring and explaining the ethics of businesses, they also expose the dearth of work using this lens and set the foundations for a number of research opportunities to advance its utilization. There are several notable deficiencies in the current supererogation literature. First, there is a lack of primary research to exemplify these types of acts in contemporary organizations. Both Mazutis (2014) and Tencati et al. (2020) draw upon accounts of these types of acts that have been reported in popular media. Second, research has tended to explore singular examples of the supererogatory behaviour of organizations. No research has yet attempted to identify organizations that perform multiple types of supererogatory acts. Third, the existing literature is dominated by examples of supererogatory acts that are performed by the large, multinational organisations, thus ignoring the role of SMEs in pioneering ethical business practices. Last, there have been no attempts to develop Heyd’s (1982) taxonomy of six types of supererogatory acts. Heyd (1982) acknowledged that his typology was not necessarily complete and that supererogatory acts may take other forms. In response to these shortcomings, and to advance the application and understanding of supererogation, we immersed ourselves in the novel research landscape of Forest Green Rovers, an ethically proactive SME and ‘the world’s 13 most sustainable football club’, in order to answer the following research questions: First, it studies how a single, contemporary SME performs multiple supererogatory acts in its attempts to address its social and environmental goals that go beyond CSR. Sec (...truncated)