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Corporate Social Responsibility and Multinational Corporation Identity: Norwegian Strategies in the Chilean Aquaculture Industry
Abstract
This study brings an organizational identity perspective to the debate regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR) and
multinational corporations (MNCs). The basic proposition is that organizational identities warrant closer attention since
they influence CSR strategies. It is further argued that a more explicit distinction between principles and practices, or
between ‘being’ and ‘doing’, is needed when debating whether multiple organizational identities are required for MNCs operating
in locations characterized by different stakeholder demands. In terms of identity construction, two translation processes
are suggested to be pertinent; from hypernorms to organizational principles and the translation of organizational principles
to practices. The first translation is relevant since ‘hypernorms’ alone do not create the distinctiveness needed for an organizational
identity to develop and the second translation helps in explaining the ability to endorse local contracts.
KeywordsChile-corporate social responsibility-multinational firms-organizational identity-Norway
... For example, eco-certification promises to improve industry sustainability and provide assurance of the sustainability of eco-certified products, but it is only one of many voluntary CSR strategies employed by seafood companies [11,12]. Salmon farming companies have established sustainability principles [36], engaged in public policy processes that influence aquaculture regulations [34], worked with other farming companies to address shared challenges through self-regulated and pre-competitive collaborations such as the Global Salmon Initiative (GSI) GSI ; Osmundsen et al., 2021[37,38], supported local communities through engagement and donations [12,13,36], and sponsored research on sustainable practices in collaboration with research institutes and universities. Where eco-certification is driven by market demand, other strategies may be associated with optimizing production or the need for social licence and acceptance. ...
... For example, eco-certification promises to improve industry sustainability and provide assurance of the sustainability of eco-certified products, but it is only one of many voluntary CSR strategies employed by seafood companies [11,12]. Salmon farming companies have established sustainability principles [36], engaged in public policy processes that influence aquaculture regulations [34], worked with other farming companies to address shared challenges through self-regulated and pre-competitive collaborations such as the Global Salmon Initiative (GSI) GSI ; Osmundsen et al., 2021[37,38], supported local communities through engagement and donations [12,13,36], and sponsored research on sustainable practices in collaboration with research institutes and universities. Where eco-certification is driven by market demand, other strategies may be associated with optimizing production or the need for social licence and acceptance. ...
... The application of an ecosystem services framework revealed alignment between CSR strategies and the goals of EAA. It also helped delineate between CSR strategies that have meaningful sustainability impact versus those that serve company image, thereby enabling a focus on the sustainability case for CSR rather than the business case for CSR [11], or a focus on 'doing' rather than 'being' [36]. At the same time, the ecosystem services framework did not capture some of the targeted outcomes of CSR strategies included in sustainability reporting as they were not directly connected to the delivery of ecosystem services; e.g. ...
Aquaculture eco-certification is especially relevant in salmon farming where it has emerged as a popular corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy, providing global standards that can be applied to a globally traded commodity. However, eco-certification is just one of many CSR strategies used to address seafood sustainability at the corporate level. CSR is important for company image, but it is not clear whether or how these strategies contribute to sustainability outcomes. This paper applies an ecosystem services framework to an analysis of sustainability reporting from top salmon farming companies to identify links between eco-certification, other CSR strategies, and the delivery of ecosystem services. Although eco-certification was used to indicate commitment to sustainability practices across all companies, other CSR strategies, especially practices, power, and partnership, were more frequently and explicitly connected to the delivery of ecosystem services. Results show that individual CSR strategies including eco-certification are not isolated but interact and work in concert to manage the supply of ecosystem services.
... Nevertheless, studies dealing specifically with determinants of multinationals CSR internationalization strategies remain scarce (Husted and Allen, 2006;Huemer, 2010;Jamali, 2010;Hah and Freeman, 2014;Bondy and Starkey, 2014) while some studies do not clearly specify the factors that justify the selection of a local or global CSR strategy (Muller, 2006;Mohan, 2006;Barin Cruz and Boehe, 2010;Kolk et al., 2010). This paper aims to study such factors. ...
... It follows from previous papers that the choice of a CSR internationalization strategy by a multinational may be determined by pressure for CSR global integration or local responsiveness (Bondy and Starkey, 2014;Arthaud-Day, 2005;Husted and Allen, 2006), organizational identity (Huemer, 2010) and in particular by the influence of institutional process given the internal pressure for institutional isomorphism (Husted and Allen, 2006) or the search for external or internal legitimacy (Jamali, 2010;Hah and Freeman, 2014). This former driver will now be specifically analyzed. ...
... The selection of a CSR internationalization strategy, especially concerning the diversity policy and the policy for business integrity, was also determined by the Group organizational identity (Huemer, 2010). The CSR commitment of the Group relies on core values and principles promoted since the Group was created in 1966 (SDR, 2007(SDR, -2008. ...
... The third step, introducing the problem of bottom censoring, publishes the reputational scores (but not subdimensions) only for companies that are rated in the top half of the reputational distribution in their industry. An additional methodological limitation of the Admired lists is that, while they have been created at the world level since 1998, the full rankings (of about 700 companies) have been published only in the years 2009, 2010, 2011. For many years (2003), only the rankings for top 50 companies by reputation (the so-called "All-Stars") are released. ...
... Robustness tests confirmed that other major policy-and commitment-based CSR measures (i.e., FTSE4Good and DJSI indices) also did not associate with improvements in corporate reputation. Our findings, then, are consistent with a coalescing view that many CSR activities no longer provide sufficient strategic differentiation, particularly CSR activities that merely put a company on par with a large set of peers (Dowling & Moran, 2012;Huemer, 2010;Peloza et al., 2012). Rather, social responsibility may need to achieve high stakeholder awareness and be highly distinctive if it is to have a positive reputational impact. ...
... However, some countries governments have reacted to this situation and placed demands on large producers (Huemer 2010). In the case of Scotland, this has led to significant investment in infrastructures like improved roads, schools and other facilities (Georgakopoulos and Thomson 2008). ...
... In Norway, there has been frustration in many coastal communities in the latter years, as increased ownership concentration and centralization of production have excluded many of them from the benefits generated by the aquaculture activities and production chain (Huemer 2010;Sandberg 2003;Isaksen and Mikkelsen 2012). ...
Web: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-51159-7
Abstract:
Decision-making within the marine realm is a complex process, which endorses ecological, societal and economic needs and they must therefore be managed jointly. Much of the formerly “free oceans” is nowadays subject to intensive uses, thus making the need to optimise the management of the resources within a multifunctional and multi-use(r) context apparent. The high competition for functions and uses of inshore and nearshore waters has given strong incentives to investigate the opportunities of moving industrial activities offshore. The current raise of offshore aquaculture is one prominent example of this. However, our understanding of the social dimensions and effects of offshore aquaculture is yet incomplete. We need to consider also how different multi-use settings for offshore aquaculture affect the socio-economic outcomes on various levels. During the development of offshore aquaculture, this multifunctional perspective has emerged especially for the combination with offshore wind farms. This synergy of two different stakeholders, the so-called multifunctional utilisation of marine areas, can be viewed as a new concept by the implementation of integrated, consensus-based resource planning conditions. We suggest a typology of social dimensions of marine aquaculture, based on the literature of “traditional” nearshore aquaculture. Based on this typology we discuss the current level of knowledge on the socio-economic dimensions of multi-use offshore aquaculture and point to further research needs.
... CSR activities should be chosen carefully to be congruent with the company identity (Brammer andPavelin 2006, Moosmayer andFuljahn 2013). Finally, since so many companies are now engaged in CSR activity, the need for companies to differentiate themselves from their competition by engaging in CSR that is particularly innovative is much higher (Huemer 2010). These are each forces that encourage companies to undertake sincere, thoroughly integrated CSR activities that align closely with the company's core operations and identity. ...
... Meanwhile the idea of CSR has become a very generic concept, as it has beat out and subsumed a host of competing concepts: triple bottom line reporting, business ethics, sustainability, stakeholder management, corporate citizenship, and enlightened capitalism, to name a few. Some have argued, even, that CSR has become a hypernorm, as concept so universal that it fails to serve as the basis for a company differentiation strategy (Huemer 2010). The foregoing analysis highlights the abstraction of CSR ideas at various levels: goals, business units, and audiences. ...
... However, a responsible identity is not adopted through a stakeholder analysis that emphasises the role of the stakeholders. Contrary to previous studies (van Riel and Balmer, 1997;Balmer and Gray, 1999;Huemer, 2010), the path to responsible identity lies in the ethics of the organization, i.e. its management, employees and owners. This means that instead of trying to outsource ethical consideration to other stakeholders, the organization itself must think ethically in order to have a responsible identity (that reflects the image and reputation over time through responsible actions). ...
... However, such a plurality is found to be a source of stress and contradiction in both self-representation and social action (Castells, 1997). This does not mean that an understanding of the local contexts is non-vital, but a distinction between CR doing (actions) and CR being (identity) is needed when debating whether multiple organizational identities are required in locations characterized by stakeholder demands (Huemer, 2010), or the lack thereof. Derived from psychology and sociology, identity is the more enduring and less contextual concept, whereas roles fluctuate more in time and place. ...
This thesis attempts to reframe the field of strategic corporate responsibility by examining the responsibility of corporations in terms of their strategic means and ends. The focus is on the research problem of how responsibility and strategy should be connected in a business organization in order for it to become a responsible corporation and contribute to sustainable development.
The thesis comprises four research articles, two of which are empirical and two conceptual extensions to the empirical research. The methods employed were single and multiple qualitative case studies rooted in the constructivist tradition of science. Four case companies were selected from the food industry and one case company from the hospitality industry. Altogether, 23 managers in the Finnish and Swedish business context were interviewed.
In business organizations there is a need to reframe the theorizing and practicing of strategic corporate responsibility, as the conventional market-capability perspective was found inadequate. The market-capability perspective is characterized by (a) an extrinsic responsibility orientation through the logic of economic instrumentalism, and (b) an external and internal strategy orientation through stakeholder thinking. This conventional perspective is inadequate for an organization to become responsible, firstly because it leads to multiple and competing corporate identities that do not reflect a coherent image. Secondly, the conventional perspective assumes weak sustainability that does not lead to sustainable development in both space and time.
To address the shortcomings of the conventional perspective, inclusion of the awareness-sustainability perspective is suggested. This alternative posits that firstly an organization should insource its ethical considerations in order to develop a responsible identity and thus become perceived as a responsible entity, and secondly, an organization should assume strong sustainability in order to reach sustainable development over both space and time. Therefore, in order become a responsible corporation and contribute to sustainable development, responsibility and strategy should be connected in a business organization from the awareness-sustainability perspective.
... These issues are not specific to the aquaculture sector alone as many sectors of production are experiencing these challenges. However, some countries governments have reacted to this situation and imposed minimum corporate social responsibility (CSR) of large producers (Huemer, 2010). In the case of Scotland this has led to significant investment in infrastructures like improved roads, schools and other facilities (Georgakopoulos and Thomson, 2008). ...
... In the case of Scotland this has led to significant investment in infrastructures like improved roads, schools and other facilities (Georgakopoulos and Thomson, 2008). In Norway however, this has led to a frustration of coastal communities with the current governance regime, as they are excluded from the direct benefits generated by the aquaculture activities and production chain (Huemer, 2010;Sandberg, 2003). ...
... This is because brands in low-competition markets are less likely to use CSR due to the lessened demand for differentiation and the potential for differentiation via CA associations. This theoretical argument can also be enriched by empirical results: A connected branch of research empirically demonstrates that the power of differentiation through CSR decreases as CSR becomes more mainstream and prevalent over time (Alves, 2009;Berger et al., 2007;Huemer, 2010;Matten and Moon, 2008;Peloza et al., 2012;Pope and Kim, 2022). To this end, using CSR in competitive industries may lead to lower identity distinctiveness and consumer-brand identification, resulting in weaker behavioral intentions and less positive effects of consumer CSR perceptions on a firm's market value: ...
Purpose
This paper aims to study the impact of consumers’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) associations on corporate financial performance and the moderating role of market competition.
Design/methodology/approach
The panel data set is analyzed using a random effects regression model. The analyzed data is based on the unique RepZ Responsibility scores published by the global research agency Kantar Millward Brown and contains information about consumer CSR associations.
Findings
This study reveals CSR associations' positive, lagged, direct impact on firms’ market value. Market competition moderates this relationship in the way that a company’s market value benefits more from consumers' CSR associations when facing high rather than low market competition.
Practical implications
Consumers' CSR perceptions increase the market value of a company. This effect is intensified when brands are exposed to intense competition, which allows conclusions about CSR as a differentiation strategy to be drawn: To stand out in a competitive market, brands should prioritize improving their CSR associations among consumers to differentiate themselves and increase their market value.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to test the effect of consumers’ CSR associations on forward-looking financial performance measures. Moreover, by analyzing the moderating effect of market competition on the relationship between CSR associations and firms' market value, this study provides information about the differentiating power of CSR from a brand perspective using a panel-data analysis.
... The salience of such symbolic threats to MNEs' global operations is heightened due to the scrutiny and demands from global stakeholders (Carroll, 2004). It is, thus, essential for firms to defend their global reputation by addressing conflicting moralities in host countries and by upholding their core values and moral standards across borders (Huemer, 2010). Indeed, violation of MNEs' identity as ethical and responsible global players may be ruinous, as seen in the case of GlaxoSmithKline's bribery scandal in China, which resulted in a significant decrease in the firm's global sales (Hirschler, 2013). ...
Through extending the psychological approach to threats, we advance a threat–contingency model to understand how two domains of host-country threats–symbolic and realistic–drive multinational enterprises (MNEs) to deploy parent-country nationals to manage their foreign subsidiaries. When faced with symbolic threats related to ethics and morals in a host country, MNEs act rigidly and conservatively, increasing the likelihood of deploying parent-country nationals as executives in foreign subsidiaries. When dealing with realistic threats associated with potential economic losses in a host country, however, MNEs are adaptive, decreasing the tendency to transfer parent-country nationals abroad and increasing the use of host-country nationals in foreign subsidiaries. The two threats interact in affecting staffing decisions. Moreover, industry globalization moderates asymmetrically the influences of the two threats: globalization strengthens the effect of symbolic threats but weakens the effect of realistic threats. We used a primary archival study and supplementary laboratory studies to test our hypotheses. Overall, our study provides an additional theoretical account to explain MNEs’ divergent responses toward two domains of threats in a host country. We conclude the study with implications for international business and global mobility research.
... The making of such claims usually presupposes that businesses follow practices understood by stakeholders to represent a state-of-the-art for social and/or environmental engagement (Tröster and Hiete, 2019). There is also widespread acknowledgement that claims about the responsible nature of business result from negotiations and contestations between stakeholders (Azevedo, in press;Frostenson et al., 2022;Schultz, 1997, 2002;Kennedy et al., 2012;Kouamé et al., 2022;Levy et al., 2016;Scott and Lane, 2000), while such claims affect an organization's strategy and legitimacy building (Huemer, 2010;Napier et al., 2023). What is further noteworthy is that there has been a change regarding the foci of such claims; from an emphasis on major upstream resource producers to a value chain perspective that includes also downstream processors and traders (Bleischwitz et al., 2012;Deberdt, 2022;Liu et al., 2022;Mancini et al., 2021;Sauer and Seuring, 2017;Tröster and Hiete, 2019). ...
Claims about resource sustainability abound in business communications. Yet, little do we know about how such claims are enabled amidst ongoing controversy of industrial and organizational benefits. Here, we propose to approach these claims through the concept of organizational sustainability identities (OSIs), which are claims serving as sustainable identifiers, and whose meanings are co-constructed by stakeholders. We assess how a new voluntary sustainability standard (VSS) of the metals industry is driven by a mission to enable an OSI for the product of its members, such as that their metal 'is' 'responsible', and how the members attain this through the structural conditions set by the new scheme. We present an exploratory case study that is based on data from a content analysis of standards texts and thematic analysis of stakeholder interviews. We find that VSS enable OSIs through a) an advanced performance rationale, b) the creation of a community of practice, c) members' perceptions of altered power relations among value chain stakeholders, and d) the facilitation of a platform to keep defining the 'responsible metal'. We contribute to the discussions of VSS emergence and their effectiveness, for which we highlight the prolificness of the OSI concept and introduce a novel comparative method of provision type analysis to capture the developments of performance rationales.
... It assumes a larger perspective than work identity (the identity that individuals assume in their work environment) and organizational behavior (the study of human behavior in organizational settings). Per this theory, an organization's identity affects its strategy and legitimacy building, thus influencing CSP practices as well (Huemer, 2010). ...
We examine the 2022 JIBS Decade Award article by Ioannou and Serafeim (J Int Bus Stud 43(9):834–864, 2012) and review the literature since 2012 to clarify research developments in corporate social responsibility and corporate social performance (CSP) in the multinational enterprise, articulating key themes, findings and antecedents. We present a general framework that highlights unique traits and processes of CSP for MNEs. To advance scholarly progress, we delineate how new theoretical perspectives, such as organizational identity and strategic choice, can be blended with the IB literature to deepen theorization of the topic. We also discuss how new global dynamics, such as geopolitics, digitization, and activism, may shape CSP strategies and activities for MNEs and how future research can tackle these issues.
... The ways in which these three approaches have been operationalised in aquaculture has been the subject of some scholarly investigation (Costa-Pierce and Page, 2010;Leith et al., 2014;Vince and Haward, 2019;Huemer, 2010;Bailey et al., 2018). However, questions remain regarding whether the activities relating to these approaches are enough in addressing social sustainability. ...
Recently we have seen a substantial increase in pressure for industries, such as aquaculture, to become more sustainable. When it comes to practical attempts to operationalise sustainable development, however, the ‘social stuff’ is often neglected. In this paper, we provide a detailed exploration of how the concept of social sustainability is operationalised (and therefore understood) within the aquaculture certification context. We found that a) certification schemes do address social sustainability, but relevant indicators mostly focus on workers’ rights, or link directly back to environmental sustainability (through the consequences of environmental impact on humans); and b) the actions required often add little over and above existing legal requirements. Essentially, aquaculture sustainability certification schemes have not (yet) taken the opportunity to further shape our understanding of what social sustainability means, or how it is practiced. The consequence of this may be the impression that industries are truly sustainable, just because they have obtained sustainability certification.
... But the institutional environment of host country and home country is different, and its influence on the fulfillment of corporate social responsibility has not reached a consensus. Internal influencing factors mainly involve corporate governance, organizational characteristics and corporate code of conduct (Huemer L 2010). Some scholars also try to explore the problem of enterprise operation from the distance difference between the enterprise's home country and the host country. ...
Attracting and retaining talented employees has become one of the most pressing challenges for com-panies in their struggle for achieving and sustaining competitive advantage. Personnel assessment and personnel selection plays an important role in this context. On the one hand, its methods can help, to distinguish between suitable applicants and less suitable ones. On the other hand, personnel assess-ment and selection affects the perceived attractiveness of the employer. Therefore, it is closely related to employer branding.
In the course of digitization, artificial intelligence is now increasingly used in personnel attraction and selection. New instruments are being introduced. For example, computer-aided speech recognition can allegedly be used to generate personality profiles of applicants. However, the scientific debate on this topic seems to lag far behind the marketing of corresponding instruments. From a scientific point of view, it is questionable not only whether such instruments are prognostically valid, but also whether they are accepted by applicants.
Within the framework of an experimental study, two important questions are thus investigated: What effect do job advertisements have on the perceived attractiveness of an employer if the use of comput-er-aided speech recognition for personnel selection is explicitly pointed out? To what extent is the rela-tionship between job advertisements with and without reference to speech recognition on the attractive-ness of employers moderated by technology acceptance, country-specific differences and qualification? Answers to these questions will enhance our understanding of applicant reactions to selection proce-dures. In addition, they provide important information for the practice of human resource management in the context of employer branding.
... Indeed, due to these pressures, critics have suggested that even official CSR policies are oftentimes decoupled from everyday practices so that organizations can protect their operational core from nontechnical social influences (Bromley & Powell, 2012). As for organizational identity, companies with high boundary spanning may wish to avoid integrating themselves around widely held "hyper-norms" (Huemer, 2010) that may strike their various business segments as overly generic (Fleming & Waguespack, 2007;Levina & Vaast, 2005). Indeed, due to the contemporary widespread involvement of companies in CSR, some have argued that CSR may have lost its ability to distinguish companies from their competitors (Dowling & Moran, 2012;Peloza, Loock, Cerruti, & Muyot, 2012). ...
As part of the rise of a worldwide corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement, companies have increasingly incorporated social and environmental concerns into their policies. This paper examines the extensiveness of these policies, proposing that an underappreciated contributor is the degree of organizational boundary spanning. The paper is novel in integrating multiple types of boundary spanning into a single empirical framework, including product, sub‐unit, and national boundary spanning. The paper adds complexity to the literature by theorizing that different types of boundary spanning associate with CSR policy extensiveness in different issue areas. The results show that product spanning associates with CSR policy extensiveness in the area of consumers, sub‐unit spanning in the areas of workers, and nation‐state spanning in all issue areas. A unique, comprehensive, and global data set of 2,714 prominent consumer goods companies in the GoodGuide database underpins these findings.
... It is important that the field of legitimate stakeholders is taken into account so that an environmental conflict can be avoided. An environmental conflict is, according to the Environmental Policy and Conflict Resolution Act of 1998 (Huemer 2010), defined as a dispute or conflict, disagreements, which relate to topics of the environment held in the public trust and natural resources generally. Conflicts in these cases arise for different reasons between different groups, such as the salmon industry and the need to lease ocean space for net pens -often in areas where the wild fish can also be harvested. ...
Norway is the largest global producer and exporter of farmed salmon, however the growth of the industry has coincided with environmental impacts to the marine ecosystem and negative perceptions of salmon farming. Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) is one solution, and scientists in Norway have researched salmon-driven IMTA for over a decade. Their research suggests that IMTA can mitigate some of the negative environmental impacts of salmon farming through waste recycling, however regulations in Norway do not allow IMTA. A participatory workshop was conducted to assess the future of IMTA in Norway, and participants were experts with a comprehensive understanding of the biological and technological processes of IMTA or salmon farming. Two group exercises gave participants the opportunity to conceptualize IMTA in the Norwegian salmon industry, and results indicate that IMTA would improve perceptions of the industry, create skilled jobs in coastal communities, and provide the industry with new sustainable sources of marine ingredients for feed. Participants identified that advocates of IMTA have a difficult task in advancing their agenda because of other stakeholders, such as policymakers and the public concerned with the environmental impacts from salmon farming, communities that regulate access to their coastal zone, and a powerful industry focused on producing salmon. This article explores how advocates could advance IMTA regulations in Norway using agenda building to influence policymakers and agenda setting to sway public opinion. This is the first interdisciplinary article on IMTA in the Norwegian salmon industry using a social science approach.
... Thus, this research is in line with Simões and Sebastiani's (2017) study, underlining the symbiotic and vice versa relationship between corporate identity and CSR and examining the former both as an antecedent and as an outcome of the latter. The same orientation was adopted by Wickert et al. (2016) and Huemer (2010) who examined how corporate identity contributes to perceptions about CSR. Similarly, Powell (2011), who found a positive relationship between corporate identity and managing internal stakeholders, and Arendt and Brettel (2010), who directly linked corporate identity to the company's success. ...
This paper explores the factors affecting consumers’ evaluation of luxury corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. In particular, it examines how corporate identity and consumer attitude influence the importance they attribute to a variety of luxury CSR practices. The existing academic literature neglects this question, and there has been a call for understanding which type of CSR practices is appropriate for luxury brands. Findings from an empirical study regarding the French luxury brand Hermes indicate that corporate identity is a significant predictor of which CSR practices consumers evaluate as important. As well that, consumer attitude mediates the latter effect. The current research thereby stresses the need for luxury brand managers to link CSR practices to corporate identity and to acknowledge how consumers’ attitude can affect this relationship.
... Even though the sustainability literature sometimes applies different interpretations of sustainability (e.g. some operate in global market contexts [27,28], others are focusing on local knowledge (e.g. [29,30])), it frequently shares the inclusion of ecological, economic and social objectives [14,[31][32][33]. ...
The capture fishing sector causes direct and indirect impacts on benthic habitats and associated fauna and flora. Effectiveness of new mitigation measures depends on fishermen's perceptions; their acceptance of, and compliance to, those measures. Accordingly, by means of Advisory Councils (ACs), fisheries stakeholders are encouraged by the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform to contribute to policy formulations. Still, the CFP reform remains unclear about how to possibly incorporate perceptions of specific conservation measures and objectives in practice. Against this background, this article aims at exploring a systematic multi-criteria approach that provides information about stakeholder preferences for objectives reflecting on what is more important to aim for (‘what’), mitigation measures as strategies for reaching their objectives (‘how’), and accountability options that can enhance trust in the people who carry out management (‘who'). The approach applies a pairwise comparison approach to elucidate the stakeholder preferences, and to estimate the relative importance of the different options. It is conducted in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the North Sea. The outcomes of the questionnaire survey succeed in transparently reflecting a diversity of preferences. It is advised that in order to inform the CFP, the ACs develop a user-friendly attractive online version of this approach that can reach multiple stakeholders across Europe and facilitate updates on a continuous basis. In this way the ACs could better facilitate bottom-up participation in fisheries management by representing a wide range of stakeholder perceptions.
... To Husted and Allen (2006, p. 839)-corporate social responsibility is defined as the firm's obligation to respond to the externalities created by market action‖. This view is supported by Fukukawa and Teramoto (2009), Huemer (2010) and Wiig and Kolstad (2010), which they complement saying it's the sense of social obligation of the company where they must make decisions that are beneficial to the goals and values of society. In addition, Rodriguez et al. (2006), Husted and Allen (2009), Hah and Freeman (2014) and Park and Ghauri (2014) understand CSR as the commitment of the company beyond legal obligations where this advances in social and environmental causes. ...
Corporate social responsibility is an important international business issue strongly related to the strategy of multinationals corporations. This paper aims to analyze the scientific literature (from Scopus and Web of Science) about CSR regarding the strategies of multinationals. A systematic literature review was presented as well as perspectives for its development.
... Global mandates provide a set of values for local adaptation (Beddewela and Herzig, 2013;Huemer, 2010). Cruz and Boehe (2010, p.259) argue that a global mandate 'provides a margin for local action, in particular, the adaptation of global CSR policies to local host-country conditions under an umbrella of corporation-wide shared values'. ...
Multinational enterprises operating in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) exist within an environment marked by complexity, inequality and socioeconomic challenges, yet also sustained economic growth. This research focuses on how German multinationals define a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) mandate that is relevant to the local context and responds to the demands of stakeholders in their host countries within SSA. We find that the broad CSR mandate is defined at headquarters but that it contains a discretionary and a non-discretionary component. This is to ensure that, while global standards are adhered to, the local CSR engagements remain relevant and impactful. CSR in SSA tends to focus on activities that aim for long-term development which indicates a high level of local embeddedness and recognition of the meaningful impact that CSR can have in developing countries. We find that, organisationally, subsidiaries can extend their autonomy in pursuing CSR by building capacities that can be leveraged in the corporations globally. The study contributes to our understanding of multinationals operating in emerging markets and adapting to unique environments, and more specifically to CSR engagement in developing countries.
... Global mandates provide a set of values for local adaptation (Beddewela and Herzig, 2013;Huemer, 2010). Cruz and Boehe (2010, p.259) argue that a global mandate 'provides a margin for local action, in particular, the adaptation of global CSR policies to local host-country conditions under an umbrella of corporation-wide shared values'. ...
... Furthermore, there is often more emphasis on how CSR is governed by social relations and shared sociocultural values and norms. For example, various definitions emphasize that CSR is normative and prescriptive in the sense of seeking congruence with sociocultural values and norms (Huemer 2010;Mohan 2001;Robertson 2009) and seeking to enhance relationships within the business-society social contract (e.g. Gao 2009;Gugler and Shi 2009;Yu 2009). ...
Given the rising interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) globally, its local expressions are as varied as they are increasingly visible in both developed and developing countries. This paper presents a multilevel review of the literature on CSR in developing countries and highlights the key differentiators and nuanced CSR-related considerations that qualify it as a distinctive field of study. This review entails a content analysis of 452 articles spanning two-and-a-half decades (1990–2015). Based on this comprehensive review, the authors identify the key differentiating attributes of the literature on CSR in developing countries in relation to depictions of how CSR is conceived or 'CSR Thinking' and depictions of how CSR is practiced and implemented or 'CSR Doing'. The authors synthesize from there five key themes that capture the main aspects of variation in this literature, namely: (1) complex institutional antecedents within the national business system (NBS); (2) complex macro-level antecedents outside the NBS; (3) the salience of multiple actors involved in formal and informal governance; (4) hybridized and other nuanced forms of CSR expressions; and (5) varied scope of developmental and detrimental CSR consequences. The paper concludes by accentuating how the nu-anced forms of CSR in the developing world are invariably contextualized and locally shaped by multi-level factors and actors embedded within wider formal and informal governance systems.
... This "coordination hypothesis" is at the heart of the literature on "global CSR," which asks whether "multinationals should develop centrally coordinated, 'global' CSR strategies, or whether they should stimulate decentralized, 'local' CSR strategies" (Muller 2006: 189). One position gaining ground in this literature is that multinationals should "follow a globally integrated strategy that allows them to maintain policies, processes and structures that are consistent with their expressed mission and values, across all relevant cultures" (Chaudhri 2006: 39; but also see Husted and Allen 2006;Mohan 2006;Huemer 2010). I predict here that well-articulated and ready-made CSR policies, as available through the global CSR frameworks, allow companies to strike a common chord in a globally dispersed employee and consumer base. ...
Why do corporations increasingly engage in good deeds that do not immediately help their bottom line, and what are the consequences of these activities? This volume examines these questions by drawing on historical documents, interviews, qualitative case comparison, fieldwork, multiple regression, time-series analysis and multidimensional scaling, among others. Informed by neoinstitutionalism and political economy approaches, the authors examine how global and local dimensions of contemporary corporate social responsibility (CSR) intersect with each other. Their rigorous empirical analyses produce insights into the historical roots of suspicions concerning cross-societal economic actors, why and how global CSR frameworks evolved into current forms, how conceptions of CSR vary across societies, what motivates corporations to participate in CSR frameworks, what impacts such participation might have on corporate reputation and actual practices, whether CSR activities shield corporations from targeting by boycott campaigns or invite more criticism, and what alternative responses corporations might have to buying into CSR principles.
... Reading the empirical data in the light of corporate community responsibility and CSR, we could identify gaps in the existing theory and how our empirical stories contributed to the development of the field of corporate community responsibility and CSR. Thus, we classify this article as an example VOL. 10 NO. 2 2014 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY JOURNAL PAGE 301 of the abductive approach to research (Alvesson and Sköldberg, 1994): an approach that has also previously been recognized in CSR research seeking to develop theory by moving between theory and empirical cases (Huemer, 2010). ...
Purpose
– The purpose of this article is to improve our understanding of the nature of social responsibility in actual practices and, specifically, the influence of individuals on these processes.
Design/methodology/approach
– An abductive approach is applied (Alvesson and Sköldberg 1994), i.e. theory is developed by moving between theory and four empirical cases. The stories highlight the importance of the individual and closeness to local stakeholders and the presence of overlapping rationales.
Findings
– The individuals’ simultaneous roles – as owners, managers and community members – influence how they are held or see themselves as accountable and how they account for the firms’ engagement in the community. The activities are conducted in the name of the firm but originate from private as well as business-oriented concerns. Our conclusions encourage an extension of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) construct to approach it as an entangled phenomenon resulting from the firm and the individual embeddedness in internal and external cultures.
Originality/value
– This study brings the individual managers and owner-managers into focus and how their interplay with the surrounding context can create additional dimensions of accountability, which impact on the decisions taken in regard to CSR. A micro-perspective is applied. Corporate community responsibility, particularly in smaller and rural communities, contributes to recognize and understand how individuals influence and are influenced by CSR.
This chapter aims to understand how migration enhanced the global capability in the social embeddedness of a Mexican MNC. The case builds on today’s Mexican contextual challenges of a massive migration flow of low-skilled migrants and refugees and the pressures of the United States to adopt the characteristics of a ‘safe third country.’ The case discussed in this chapter is about FEMSA, a Mexican MNC which operates in 13 countries. FEMSA enhanced its global capability in social embeddedness by hiring refugees as part of its diversity and inclusion policy. Through the company’s CSR and sustainability reports analysis, micro-level processes and structures emerged to build its diversity policy. The internationalization processes made the company adopt global standards on diversity issues and train employees to receive a diverse workforce. The company introduced a new structure for human resources practices, such as complaints systems, verification and audit mechanisms, and a diversity governance committee. The diversity policy evolved through processes and structures within the firm serving the company to respond to the contextual challenges of migration and enhance its social embeddedness capability.
Corporate Social Responsibility Across the Globe demonstrates many ways that CSR can be applied by law to overcome regulation and governance challenges around the world. Using interdisciplinary and comparative models and perspectives, the book challenges dominant understandings of CSR, such as neoliberal voluntarism, and demonstrates the regulatory and governance implications of an interdependent relationship between CSR and the law. The book identifies substantive and procedural barriers for CSR in national, public, and private international law. By analyzing, deconstructing, and reframing CSR in these contexts, the book underlines opportunities for more effective application of CSR as a governance mechanism. Chapters investigate relevant regulation concepts, paradigms and approaches for CSR; methods for infusing CSR in corporate governance; and ways to facilitate private regulation of CSR in more developed, emerging, and developing jurisdictions.
At present, aquaculture is still subject to social debate. This paper analyzes its social acceptance compared to traditional fishing, mainly by applying the structural equations methodology. This technique has been widely used in recent times in social sciences but is minor in this field. We propose a model in which we break down its acceptance in two dimensions: Product and company. We also try to see if there are differences in the perception of men and women. To this end, we have carried out 803 personal surveys in several Spanish coastal provinces. Among the results, we can highlight the good level of acceptance of its products, positively influencing their companies' perception. We can recommend the development of synergies between the different agents involved to improve their acceptance. By gender, general acceptance is higher in men than in women; however, we have not detected significant differences in both groups' perceptions when analyzed using structural equations.
Social acceptability has become an important issue, influencing public and private decision making in many different areas of society, including the management of uses of common marine resources and space. As these uses intensify and social interactions become more complex, effective governance is a prerequisite for sustainable decision making. Participatory approaches are broadly recognised as a tool for involving stakeholders in the decision-making process to increase the acceptability of collective choices. However, despite the recommendations of new governance frameworks which promote inclusive and democratic bottom-up approaches, there is an increased complexity to apply such approach at local level. This paper aims to capture this complexity through the analysis of the local agency-led participative process and ad-hoc interviews with coastal users to understand whether and how perception and attitudes towards aquaculture evolve throughout the process. Here we present the result of a 3-year collaborative action science-policy with the agency responsible to manage aquaculture in Andalucía region (South of Spain). Even though the effectiveness of this participatory process in aquaculture planning should be assessed over the long-term, here we have identified a number of social, environmental and economic elements that can generate local opposition, especially by traditional fishers. The paper highlights the fact that the inclusion of stakeholders in the decision-making processes is not sufficient ensure the acceptance of aquaculture development. The effectiveness of the participatory processes is limited by the lack of institutional frameworks to accompany these processes, by the insufficient skills and expertise in engineering participation of the Administration staff and the poor integrated vision in policy making. As a result, the lack of coherence between political objectives constructed on a national or European scale and the complex social reality of the territory scale can lead to social opposition as experimented by the aquaculture sector.
The rapid development of salmon aquaculture worldwide and the growing criticism of the activity in recent decades have raised doubts about the capacity of the sector to learn from its own crises. In this article, we assess the discursive, behavioral and outcome performance dimensions of the industry to identify actual learning and lessons to be learned. We focus on the case of Chiloé Island, Chile, a global center of salmon production since 1990 that has gone through two severe crises in the last 15 years (2007–2009 ISAV crisis and 2016 red tide crisis). On the basis of a multi-method approach combining qualitative analysis of interviews and statistical data analysis, we observe that the industry has discursively learned the relevance of both self-regulation and the well-being of communities. However, at the behavioral and outcome performance levels, the data show a highly heterogeneous conduct that questions the ability of the sector as a whole to learn from crises. We conclude that detrimental effects for ecosystems and society will increase if learning remains at the level of discourses. Without significant changes in operational practices and market performance there are no real perspectives for the sustainability of the industry. This intensifies when considering the uneven responses to governance mechanisms. The sector needs to adapt its factual performance to sustainable goals and reflexively monitor this process. The first step for achieving this is to produce reliable data to make evidence-based decisions that align the operational dynamics of the entire sector with a more sustainable trajectory in the near future, as well as advancing towards hybrid and more reflexive governance arrangements.
In many parts of Ghana, communities, state agencies and other organisations lie in wait for some support from firms. But the moral obligation to attend to these basic needs of all these organisations does not in itself say much of about how such an obligation should be discharged or whether it can be achieved and over what time period. The boundary-less nature of CSR whilst creating that altruistic tendency has also left in its wake a dependence syndrome which when unmanaged effectively often attenuates the whole concept, leading to misunderstandings and often bad relationships. The chapter explores this aspect of CSR that is less debated or is very much under-researched. It focuses on Ghana, where community members and other stakeholders make excessive and incessant demands on firms operating within their vicinities. It provides an insight into how these pressures are creating unpleasant situations for firms. The role, responsibilities, and actions of firms in relation to these beneficiaries are furthermore reflected upon, and finally, the chapter offers a way forward as to what can be done in addressing the issue.
According to surveys of companies, branding is one of the main objectives of their corporate social responsibility (CSR). With advantageous data from Brand Finance, we address three contextual factors that may condition the relationship between CSR and brand value. First, we hypothesize that the relationship between CSR and brand value obtains across major world regions and industrial sectors ("the convergence thesis"). Second, we hypothesize that the relationship has weakened with time, as companies have had increasing difficulty using CSR to differentiate their brands in a sea of CSR-espousing competitors ("the crowding out thesis"). Third, we hypothesize that the relationship is weaker where a brand's identity is different from that of its corporate owner, which may make it difficult for observers to readily link (corporate-level) CSR with its potential (lower-level) brand beneficiaries ("the identity-match thesis"). We support these hypotheses with random effects, fixed effects, and instrumental-variable regressions before ending with contributions, limitations, implications, and potential next steps.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to analyze how Amazon and Walmart, two of the largest global companies, present the balance among their economic, social and environmental activities and construct their identities as good corporate citizens helping to create a sustainable world.
Design/methodology/approach
A content analysis methodology was applied to the companies' official websites in order to examine their corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework was used to provide coding categories.
Findings
The findings indicate that expectations and pressures from the public may help trigger companies to report their CSR efforts. In addition, this study also indicates that the triple bottom line TBL concept does not fully explain each companies' global CSR efforts.
Originality/value
Most CSR studies have analyzed communication in only one country, rather than taking a global view. This study examines how Amazon and Walmart have constructed their identity as global corporate citizens and how they work to communicate their identity globally.
Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing and Emerging Markets - edited by Onyeka Osuji December 2019
Salmon farming has developed significantly since its inception in Scotland. It is now an established part of the rural communities in which it operates, is a key contributor to the Scottish and UK economies and has an important role in meeting the growing global demand for food. However, the Scottish salmon industry is subject to a number of regulatory, environmental and social licence challenges, amongst others, that must be overcome if it is to continue to develop and expand to meet ambitious targets for increasing production. Beyond compliance is one way in which the industry can seek to overcome such challenges. Based on qualitative data gathered from analysis of industry reports, stakeholder interviews and questionnaires, this paper i) provides an overview of challenges currently facing Scottish salmon farming, ii) presents beyond compliance measures already taking place, iii) discusses industry opportunities and challenges in terms of beyond compliance, and iv) offers suggestions for the future of beyond compliance, including incentives and ways in which it could be effectively measured.
Activities in the North Sea are intensifying. The European Union instructs maritime spatial planning across member states that motivates coordination of activities, stakeholders, policies, governance levels and nations. Social innovation is a concept addressing ways in which changing attitudes, behaviour or perceptions are leading to new and improved ways of acting jointly within a group and beyond. The main aim of this article is to explore social innovation in maritime spatial planning. Instances of social innovation are assessed across three sectors in the Dutch North Sea: the offshore wind energy, the offshore mussel cultivation and the offshore seaweed farming. The assessment shows that, while existing systems of social innovation are favourable to the offshore wind expansions, the barriers to grow for the offshore mussel sector include low willingness to change within the sector, and disadvantageous governmental support to change. The offshore seaweed farming is in a stage of re-organisation of not yet developed regulations, rules and norms for production offshore and enhanced cooperation, with unsure outcomes. Maritime spatial planning can play a more influential role for change if tackling main challenges, including inclusiveness, accountability, private user rights and realisation of organisation or reorganisation, and if making use of the potentials of knowledge brokers when sectors are advancing with new technologies.
This paper examines the growing number of publications on multinational enterprise management of sustainability issues. Based on an integrative literature review and thematic analysis, the paper analyses and synthesises the current state of knowledge about main issues arising. Key issues identified include the following: choice of sustainability strategies; management of the views of headquarters towards sustainability; local cultural sustainability perspectives in developed and developing host countries; MNEs with home in developing/emerging countries; and resource availability for implementing sustainability initiatives. Findings indicate that although the literature is tending towards growing acceptance about sustainability and its challenges most researchers have focused on corporate social responsibility and investigate their own niche problem, industry, and country, using their own chosen theory and do not consider the need for consolidation and integration of social, environmental and economic performance. Avenues for future research are identified which will provide a means for the ethical foundations of theory and practice to be improved.
Why do corporations increasingly engage in good deeds that do not immediately help their bottom line, and what are the consequences of these activities? This volume examines these questions by drawing on historical documents, interviews, qualitative case comparison, fieldwork, multiple regression, time-series analysis and multidimensional scaling, among others. Informed by neoinstitutionalism and political economy approaches, the authors examine how global and local dimensions of contemporary corporate social responsibility (CSR) intersect with each other. Their rigorous empirical analyses produce insights into the historical roots of suspicions concerning cross-societal economic actors, why and how global CSR frameworks evolved into current forms, how conceptions of CSR vary across societies, what motivates corporations to participate in CSR frameworks, what impacts such participation might have on corporate reputation and actual practices, whether CSR activities shield corporations from targeting by boycott campaigns or invite more criticism, and what alternative responses corporations might have to buying into CSR principles.
Full text available open access at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090951617304388
While studies on international corporate social responsibility (CSR) have expanded significantly, their true global nature can be questioned. We systematically review 494 articles in 31 journals over a 31-year period. We assess the embeddedness of CSR in international management/business (IB); analyze the coverage of developing, emerging, and developed countries; map the literature thematically; summarize key findings; discuss main empirical features; and identify unanswered questions, implications, and best practices. We find that international CSR research is far from being global and still emerging in ‘mainstream’ IB. This comprehensive review also helps to set an agenda for future international CSR scholarship.
Why do corporations increasingly engage in good deeds that do not immediately help their bottom line, and what are the consequences of these activities? This volume examines these questions by drawing on historical documents, interviews, qualitative case comparison, fieldwork, multiple regression, time-series analysis and multidimensional scaling, among others. Informed by neoinstitutionalism and political economy approaches, the authors examine how global and local dimensions of contemporary corporate social responsibility (CSR) intersect with each other. Their rigorous empirical analyses produce insights into the historical roots of suspicions concerning cross-societal economic actors, why and how global CSR frameworks evolved into current forms, how conceptions of CSR vary across societies, what motivates corporations to participate in CSR frameworks, what impacts such participation might have on corporate reputation and actual practices, whether CSR activities shield corporations from targeting by boycott campaigns or invite more criticism, and what alternative responses corporations might have to buying into CSR principles.
Why do corporations increasingly engage in good deeds that do not immediately help their bottom line, and what are the consequences of these activities? This volume examines these questions by drawing on historical documents, interviews, qualitative case comparison, fieldwork, multiple regression, time-series analysis and multidimensional scaling, among others. Informed by neoinstitutionalism and political economy approaches, the authors examine how global and local dimensions of contemporary corporate social responsibility (CSR) intersect with each other. Their rigorous empirical analyses produce insights into the historical roots of suspicions concerning cross-societal economic actors, why and how global CSR frameworks evolved into current forms, how conceptions of CSR vary across societies, what motivates corporations to participate in CSR frameworks, what impacts such participation might have on corporate reputation and actual practices, whether CSR activities shield corporations from targeting by boycott campaigns or invite more criticism, and what alternative responses corporations might have to buying into CSR principles.
Aquaculture expansion is a political priority in Norway, despite simmering conflicts, and competing claims. We expand on this hypothesis and analyze the Norwegian governance system by adding stakeholder theory in case of a simulated model of the effects of municipal coastal zone planning in the municipality of Frøya, Norway. One cannot analyze the governance system in Norway without fully comprehending the perspectives of the stakeholders involved. Different stakeholders will react and respond differently and have conflicting presumptions basing their actions toward the planning process for coastal areas. They will also have different levels of power and abilities to influence the system. The article presents the interdisciplinary, first generation development of an agent based simulation model that mimics the outcomes of coastal zone planning for a stakeholder groups, the commercial fishers and the aquaculture industry, based on qualitative input from legislation, regulations, and stakeholder workshops. We proceed with verifying the applicability of this simulator in light of the key actors involved, namely the commercial fishers. We found that the simulator had two outcomes for the commercial fishers that were consistently recurring, namely “collapse” and “stability,” based on the simulated occurrences of complaints by the stakeholders, with the latter being the de facto perceptions of actuality by the commercial fishers. Using stakeholder theory, we argue that the aquaculture industry's role has the saliency of an Important Stakeholder in Frøya has steered the commercial fishers, who has the role of Dependent Stakeholders according to stakeholder theory, to no longer see any legitimacy in the process in that their complaints were never upheld because of their lack of the attribute Power.
Why do corporations increasingly engage in good deeds that do not immediately help their bottom line, and what are the consequences of these activities? This volume examines these questions by drawing on historical documents, interviews, qualitative case comparison, fieldwork, multiple regression, time-series analysis and multidimensional scaling, among others. Informed by neoinstitutionalism and political economy approaches, the authors examine how global and local dimensions of contemporary corporate social responsibility (CSR) intersect with each other. Their rigorous empirical analyses produce insights into the historical roots of suspicions concerning cross-societal economic actors, why and how global CSR frameworks evolved into current forms, how conceptions of CSR vary across societies, what motivates corporations to participate in CSR frameworks, what impacts such participation might have on corporate reputation and actual practices, whether CSR activities shield corporations from targeting by boycott campaigns or invite more criticism, and what alternative responses corporations might have to buying into CSR principles.
Corporate social responsibility is an important international business issue strongly related to the strategy of multinationals corporations. This paper aims to analyze the scientific literature (from Scopus and Web of Science) about CSR regarding the strategies of multinationals. A systematic literature review was presented as well as perspectives for its development.
The role of corporations in modern society is in flux, and the state is not what it used to be. During recent years the scholarly debate on the borders between the public and private domains has focused on how large transnational companies have gained authority in areas of global governance and regulation that traditionally belonged to the state, intergovernmental organizations and the public sector ( Jordana and Levi-Faur, 2004; Djelic and Sahlin, 2006; Kobrin, 2009). This trend comes in many shapes and forms. Increased co-operation and boundaryblurring are conceptualized as network governance (Bäckstrand, 2008), multi-sectoral or global policy networks (Benner et al., 2005), forms of neo-liberal governmentality (Lipschutz, 2005), a manifestation of an emerging global public domain (Ruggie, 2004; Helgesson and Mörth, 2012), private international authority (Cutler, 2003; Hall and Biersteker, 2002), private government (Crane et al., 2008), and public-private partnerships (Dingwerth, 2007; Schäferhoff et al., 2009; Bexell and Mörth, 2010). A common theme in the literature is that the state and the public sector have become more dependent on business norms and resources, to what is in national and European contexts referred to as New Public Management (Lane, 2000; Mörth, 2008), and in the global context discussed in terms of market multilateralism (Bull and McNeill, 2007).
Why do corporations increasingly engage in good deeds that do not immediately help their bottom line, and what are the consequences of these activities? This volume examines these questions by drawing on historical documents, interviews, qualitative case comparison, fieldwork, multiple regression, time-series analysis and multidimensional scaling, among others. Informed by neoinstitutionalism and political economy approaches, the authors examine how global and local dimensions of contemporary corporate social responsibility (CSR) intersect with each other. Their rigorous empirical analyses produce insights into the historical roots of suspicions concerning cross-societal economic actors, why and how global CSR frameworks evolved into current forms, how conceptions of CSR vary across societies, what motivates corporations to participate in CSR frameworks, what impacts such participation might have on corporate reputation and actual practices, whether CSR activities shield corporations from targeting by boycott campaigns or invite more criticism, and what alternative responses corporations might have to buying into CSR principles.
Why do corporations increasingly engage in good deeds that do not immediately help their bottom line, and what are the consequences of these activities? This volume examines these questions by drawing on historical documents, interviews, qualitative case comparison, fieldwork, multiple regression, time-series analysis and multidimensional scaling, among others. Informed by neoinstitutionalism and political economy approaches, the authors examine how global and local dimensions of contemporary corporate social responsibility (CSR) intersect with each other. Their rigorous empirical analyses produce insights into the historical roots of suspicions concerning cross-societal economic actors, why and how global CSR frameworks evolved into current forms, how conceptions of CSR vary across societies, what motivates corporations to participate in CSR frameworks, what impacts such participation might have on corporate reputation and actual practices, whether CSR activities shield corporations from targeting by boycott campaigns or invite more criticism, and what alternative responses corporations might have to buying into CSR principles.
Why do corporations increasingly engage in good deeds that do not immediately help their bottom line, and what are the consequences of these activities? This volume examines these questions by drawing on historical documents, interviews, qualitative case comparison, fieldwork, multiple regression, time-series analysis and multidimensional scaling, among others. Informed by neoinstitutionalism and political economy approaches, the authors examine how global and local dimensions of contemporary corporate social responsibility (CSR) intersect with each other. Their rigorous empirical analyses produce insights into the historical roots of suspicions concerning cross-societal economic actors, why and how global CSR frameworks evolved into current forms, how conceptions of CSR vary across societies, what motivates corporations to participate in CSR frameworks, what impacts such participation might have on corporate reputation and actual practices, whether CSR activities shield corporations from targeting by boycott campaigns or invite more criticism, and what alternative responses corporations might have to buying into CSR principles.
We investigated the attempt of a high-technology R&D organization to transform into a market-oriented organization by ©grafting© new, nontechnological knowledge. The intended strategic transformation did not succeed for reasons with wide implications for theory and research. Our findings suggest that the intersection of organizational identity, knowledge, and practice hindered the development of the new knowledge and undermined the broader strategic transformation effort itself. The failure of the graft revealed a previously underrecognized relationship between identity and knowledge that manifested itself in organization members' efforts to preserve the collective practices that characterized how they used knowledge in accomplishing their work.
This article synthesizes the large but diverse literature on organizational legitimacy, highlighting similarities and disparities among the leading strategic and institutional approaches. The analysis identifies three primary forms of legitimacy: pragmatic, based on audience self-interest; moral, based on normative approval; and cognitive, based on comprehensibility and taken-for-grantedness. The article then examines strategies for gaining, maintaining, and repairing legitimacy of each type, suggesting both the promises and the pitfalls of such instrumental manipulations.
In this article, the authors reflect on the past two decades of research on organizational identity, looking to its history and to its future. They do not provide a review of the literature, nor do they promote a particular perspective on the concept. Instead, they advocate pluralism in studying organizational identity while encouraging clarity and transparency in the articulation of definitions and core theoretical suppositions. Believing there is no one best approach to the study of organizational identity, their intent is to establish a reference point that can orient future work on organizational identity. They focus on three questions they feel are critical: What is the nomological net that embeds organizational identity? Is organizational identity “real” (or simply metaphoric)? and How do we define and conceptualize organizational identity? Last, they try to anticipate organizational identity issues on the horizon to suggest future directions for theory and research.
This paper tests predictions from institutional and rational perspectives about the adoption of organizational practices through a comparative study of human resource management in firms located in six European countries. Distinguishing between calculative practices—aimed at efficient use of human resources—and collaborative practices—aimed at promoting the goals of both employees and employer—the paper predicts differences in adoption across countries. Results show that institutional determinants, as indicated by the national embeddedness of firms, have a strong effect on the application of both calculative and collaborative human resource management practices. Firm size, a rational determinant, has a considerable impact on calculative practices, whereas the effect of industrial embeddedness is quite modest for both practices.
Based on the assumption that consumers will reward firms for their support of social programs, many organizations have adopted
corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Drawing on social identity theory, a model of influence of CSR on loyalty
is developed and tested using a sample of real consumers. Results demonstrate that CSR initiatives are linked to stronger
loyalty both because the consumer develops a more positive company evaluation, and because one identifies more strongly with
the company. Moreover, identity salience is shown to play a crucial role in the influence of CSR initiatives on consumer loyalty
when this influence occurs through consumer-company identification. A strong identifier is not necessarily in a constant state
of salience, but activating identity salience of a particular consumer social identity (a company) will affect consumer reactions
to product stimuli, increasing consumer loyalty.
What is the relationship of global and local (country-specific) corporate social responsibility (CSR) to international organizational strategy? Applying the strategic logic of the Bartlett and Ghoshal typology to the realm of CSR, multinational firms should respond to pressures for integration and responsiveness from salient stakeholders. However, an institutional logic would suggest that multinational firms will simply replicate the existing product-market organizational strategy (multidomestic, transnational, global) in their management of CSR. These alternative approaches are tested with a survey instrument sent to MNEs operating in Mexico. The results of this study are consistent with the proposition that institutional pressures, rather than strategic analysis of social issues and stakeholders, are guiding decision-making with respect to CSR. We develop implications for MNE management and research, as well as public policy. Journal of International Business Studies (2006) 37, 838–849. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400227
Multinational enterprises (MNEs) play a pivotal role in the development of many emerging economies. In consequence, they became the focus of scholarly research by economists and policy analysts. In contrast, international business scholars have been comparatively uninterested in analysing this role of MNEs. Yet they could make important contributions to these debates. First, studies taking the individual firms as starting point would enhance understanding of the interaction between MNEs and the local environment. Second, theories and research methodologies developed in international business research could provide new insights into the dynamics of MNEs in emerging economies. The objective of this paper is to motivate more international business scholars to engage in research on positive and negative spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) in emerging economy societies. To advance this research agenda, scholars need to analyse the specific activities and capabilities of the firms involved, and the impact of FDI on the broader social and environmental context. For management, this agenda raises the ethical question: To what extent ought businesses to care about their local stakeholders?Journal of International Business Studies (2004) 35, 259–276. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400084
Between 1975 and 2000, annual per-capita GDP in Chile grew at 5%. Yet, regions did not benefit equally: poverty declined significantly in all regions but regional income inequality remained stagnant. We found that convergence in per-capita income and productivity levels is too slow to become a significant force in equalizing regional income. Lack of convergence is mostly associated with low levels of internal migration. This, in turn, is found to be largely the result of government policies, in particular, public housing. The efficient targeting of subsidies coupled with the prohibition to sell houses, tied families to their geographical location, inhibiting migration.
Scholars have linked the institutional view with strategic choice to better understand institutional pressures and the associated organizational strategic responses. We empirically evaluate Oliver's [Acad. Manage. Rev. 6 (1991) 145] framework that addresses these relationships using information from the steel industry and the important issue of radioactive contamination of scrap steel. Our findings, partially replicating three earlier studies, provide general support for her framework. In addition, we identified support for this typology in areas where earlier studies provided inconsistent results.An important finding was that firms that cooperated with others in their industry favored less active firm strategies and were less inclined to engage in the actively resistant strategies of avoidance and defiance. Finally, our findings question the positioning of the manipulation strategy and suggest that using separate lenses for institutions and organizations may be appropriate. The firms in our study considered the strategy of manipulation similar to acquiescence and compromise.
This book challenges current beliefs about organizational identity, reputation, and branding. It contains a wealth of new ideas for finding the elusive answers to questions troubling contemporary organizations. How does an organization create a strong reputation? What are the implications of corporate branding on organizational structures and processes? How do organizations discover their identities? These are some of the vexing problems addressed in this book by a diverse international team of contributors. According to the authors, the future lies with 'the expressive organization'. Such organizations not only understand their distinct identity and their brands, but are also able to express these externally and internally. In order to thrive in an era of transparency and customer choice, the authors argue, organizations will have to be expressive.
This article synthesizes the large but diverse literature on organizational legitimacy, highlighting similarities and disparities among the leading strategic and institutional approaches. The analysis identifies three primary forms of legitimacy: pragmatic, based on audience self-interest; moral, based on normative approval: and cognitive, based on comprehensibility and taken-for-grantedness. The article then examines strategies for gaining, maintaining, and repairing legitimacy of each type, suggesting both the promises and the pitfalls of such instrumental manipulations.
In this article we first review the development of the concept of global business citizenship and show how the libertarian political philosophy of free-market capitalism must give way to a communitarian view in order for the voluntaristic, local notion of "corporate citizenship" to take root. We then distinguish the concept of global business citizenship from "corporate citizenship" by showing how the former concept requires a transition from communitarian thinking to a position of universal human rights. In addition, we link global business citizenship to global business strategy and to three analytical levels of ethical norms. Finally, we trace a process whereby global businesses can implement fundamental norms and learn to accommodate to legitimate cultural differences.
This article applies the convergent insights of institutional and resource dependence perspectives to the prediction of strategic responses to institutional processes. The article offers a typology of strategic responses that vary in active organizational resistance from passive conformity to proactive manipulation. Ten institutional factors are hypothesized to predict the occurrence of the alternative proposed strategies and the degree of organizational conformity or resistance to institutional pressures.
This article describes the theory and process of global business citizenship (GBC) and applies it in an analysis of characteristics
of company codes of business conduct. GBC is distinguished from a commonly used term, “corporate citizenship,” which often
denotes corporate community involvement and philanthropy. The GBC process requires (1) a set of fundamental values embedded
in the corporate code of conduct and in corporate policies that reflect universal ethical standards; (2) implementation throughout
the organization with thoughtful awareness of where the code and policies fit well and where they might not fit with stakeholder
expectations; (3) analysis and experimentation to deal with problem cases; and (4) systematic learning processes to communicate
the results of implementation and experiments internally and externally. We then identify and illustrate the three attributes
of a code of conduct that would reflect a GBC approach. The three attributes are orientation, implementation, and accountability.
The various components of these attributes are specified and illustrated, using website examples from six global petroleum
companies.
Providing a complete portal to the world of case study research, the Fourth Edition of Robert K. Yin's bestselling text Case Study Research offers comprehensive coverage of the design and use of the case study method as a valid research tool. This thoroughly revised text now covers more than 50 case studies (approximately 25% new), gives fresh attention to quantitative analyses, discusses more fully the use of mixed methods research designs, and includes new methodological insights. The book's coverage of case study research and how it is applied in practice gives readers access to exemplary case studies drawn from a wide variety of academic and applied fields.Key Features of the Fourth Edition Highlights each specific research feature through 44 boxed vignettes that feature previously published case studies Provides methodological insights to show the similarities between case studies and other social science methods Suggests a three-stage approach to help readers define the initial questions they will consider in their own case study research Covers new material on human subjects protection, the role of Institutional Review Boards, and the interplay between obtaining IRB approval and the final development of the case study protocol and conduct of a pilot case Includes an overall graphic of the entire case study research process at the beginning of the book, then highlights the steps in the process through graphics that appear at the outset of all the chapters that follow Offers in-text learning aids including 'tips' that pose key questions and answers at the beginning of each chapter, practical exercises, endnotes, and a new cross-referencing tableCase Study Research, Fourth Edition is ideal for courses in departments of Education, Business and Management, Nursing and Public Health, Public Administration, Anthropology, Sociology, and Political Science.
Case studies are frequently used in industrial network research. In this article, we discuss the difficulties and opportunities characterizing the case study approach. In particular, we deal with single case research aiming at theory development. For this purpose, we suggest an approach based on ‘systematic combining’ grounded in an ‘abductive’ logic.
Labor Practices in the Farmed Salmon IndustryThe Eye of the Beholder: The Role of Corporate Reputation in Defining Organizational Identity
- Pure Salmon
- C J Fombrun
PURE SALMON CAMPAIGN: 2008, 'Labor Practices in the Farmed Salmon Industry', http://www.pure salmon.org/labor_practices.html. Rindova, V. P. and C. J. Fombrun: 1998, 'The Eye of the Beholder: The Role of Corporate Reputation in Defining Organizational Identity', in D. A. Whetten and P. C. Godfrey (eds.), Identity in Organizations: Building Theory Through Conversations (Sage, Thousand Oaks), pp. 62–66.
Identity lost or identity found? Celebration and lamentation over the postmodern view of identity in social science and fiction The expressive organization: Linking identity, reputation and the corporate brand
- B Czarniawska
Gobierno evalúa reubicación de trabajadores salmoneros
- E Olivares
- R Zanetta
- J Troncoso
The eye of the beholder: The role of corporate reputation in defining organizational identity
- V P Rindova
- C J Fombrun
- V. P. Rindova
Labor Practices in the Farmed Salmon Industry
- Pure Salmon Campaign