Sustainability Strategies in U.S. Agribusiness: Understanding Key Drivers, Objectives, and Actions

This study explores the domain of sustainability from the agribusiness perspective by establishing levels or stages of sustainability in terms of views, actions and performance measures. In addition, it analyzes factors including firm characteristics and internal and external stakeholders that influence a company’s sustainability initiatives. In a sample of U.S. agribusiness managers, results indicate that strong management pressures have a positive and highly significant relation-ship with the level of a firm’s sustainability initiatives. Other pressures including competition, government regulations, and the media have little or no effect. The size of the company also has minimal influence on a company’s level of sustainability, whereas a company’s primary function plays a more significant role.