Dilemmas of balancing organizational and public interests : how environment affects strategy in Dutch Main Ports
- 2002
Corporate social responsibility implies more attention to company relationships with governments and other stakeholders. The need for intensive interaction is most conspicuous when company activities come close to the provision of (former) public goods, which also have strong environmental and social implications. This article examines how port deal with environmental issues in their strategies and relationships with other companies and stakeholders, focusing more on win-lose situation than on the well-known win-win oportunieites. It anlyses the dilemmas at the interface between public and private mangaement in case studies of Schiphol Amsterdam Airport and the seaports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Despite increasing interaction and recognition of the side effects, less attention is paid to the economic risks of the ports' expansion strategy and of the government focus on transport. The debate on the environmental limits to growth seems a good opportunity to consider the economic limitations as well, thus relping a strategic reorientation