PurposeThe rise of CSR followed a demand for CSR standards and guidelines. In a sector already characterized by a large number of standards, the authors seek to ask what CSR schemes apply to agribusiness, and how they can be systematically compared and analysed.Design/methodology/approachFollowing a deductive‐inductive approach the authors develop a model to compare and analyse CSR schemes based on existing studies and on coding qualitative data on 216 CSR schemes.FindingsThe authors confirm that CSR standards and guidelines have entered agribusiness and identify a complex landscape of schemes that can be categorized on focus areas, scales, mechanisms, origins, types and commitment levels.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings contribute to conceptual and empirical research on existing models to compare and analyse CSR standards. Sampling technique and depth of analysis limit this research, but the authors offer insights into patterns of CSR standard development in agribusiness and point to important research avenues.Practical implicationsThese findings can help agribusiness managers to select and analyse CSR standards and other forms of CSR guidance.Social implicationsStandard and guidance setting activities can be expected to have real‐life effects on CSR outcomes. These effects need to be better understood by policy makers and stakeholders. The authors' meta‐analysis contributes to further research on who or what influences standard development.Originality/valueModels to compare CSR schemes are rare and often focus on a small number of cases. The authors provide decision makers and researchers with insights into structural conditions through a meta‐analysis of a larger number of CSR schemes.

How organization designs evolve between adaptation to changing conditions and the pressures toward persistence of the designs adopted at founding remains an understudied phenomenon. To fill this lacuna, we conducted a longitudinal, multicase study of eight young ventures. We find that, in these ventures, specific organization design solutions changed frequently, triggered by various internal and external developments, although the changes were typically incremental and myopic. However, the more abstract principles of design, captured in the founders’ logics of organizing, were less amenable to change. This explains why observations of imprinting effects in logics of organizing may be consistent with observations of dynamic change to organization designs.

This study draws on nine cases of microenterprise growth in Tanzania to investigate what microenterprise founders learn from organizational process experience. The findings lead to a set of propositions about founders' learning in opportunity-rich, growth-constrained environments, and are integrated into a discussion of microenterprise growth challenges.

Over the past 20 years the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has gained momentum in business practices and strategies. In the agribusiness sector, the need for CSR integration has recently triggered a number of private sector led initiatives that should contribute to sustainable agricultural practices. Consequently we emphasize that for managing innovation processes for sustainability and their institutional context, the food sustainability discourse also needs to investigate the state of the art of CSR in agribusiness. Based on a model to compare and contrast accountability standards we analyse the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) platform and its principles. We conclude that over the past 5 years agribusiness corporations have become more pro-active in addressing sustainability concerns, and mainstream initiatives start to compete with the traditional niche markets. The SAI was founded by three big players in the food industry, and represents a global initiative among a number of private-sector driven institutional innovations for the sustainability transformation of the mainstream parts of the sector. In order to evaluate and exploit their potential for sustainable development, we advise scholars, policy makers, and managers to not only address questions about legitimacy and stakeholder involvement, but also take strategic objectives into account.

Small businesses are increasingly expected to contribute to sustainable development. Drawing on needs theory and institutional theory, this paper investigates drivers of and barriers to socially responsible workplaces that can fulfill the existence, relatedness, and growth needs of people working in these organizations. The findings generated from an indepth study of small enterprises in Tanzania indicate that owners' and employees' changing needs contribute to workplace creation but nevertheless often remain unfulfilled. The resulting tensions pose a challenge for sustainable development in Africa's emerging economies. This is discussed with regard to solutions that leverage the normative common ground between traditional values and Western notions of corporate social responsibility (CSR), taking into account the pressures exercised by regulatory and mimetic institutional forces. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Keywords: CSR, Africa, workplace, needs theory, institutional theory RésuméDe plus en plus, les petites entreprises sont censées contribuer au développement durable. À partir de la théorie des besoins et de la théorie institutionnelle, le présent article examine les facteurs qui favorisent ou entravent la mise en place de milieux professionnels socialement responsables et capables de satisfaire l'existence, le rapprochement et les ambitions des employés. Les résultats obtenus après une analyse profonde de petites entreprises basées en Tanzanie révèlent que même si les besoins changeants des propriétaires et des employés contribuent à la création de l'environnement professionnel, ces besoins restent souvent insatisfaits. Les tensions qui découlent de cette insatisfaction constituent des obstacles au développement durable au sein des économies émergentes d'Afrique. Les résultats sont analysés par rapport aux solutions qui mettent à contribution le lieu commun normatif entre les valeurs traditionnelles et la notion occidentale de responsabilité sociale des entreprises (RSE) et tiennent compte des pressions exercées par les contraintes réglementaires et les forces institutionnelles mimétiques.