In recent years, the idea of 'green' or 'political' consumers expressing their political beliefs in everyday life has been widely embraced. Eager to satisfy the needs of this new market segment, firms have allocated substantial resources to environmental management, social accountability, corporate citizenship, occupational health and safety etc. During the 1990s, the industrialized world also witnessed a growing number of environmental labels, expected to guide the political consumers in their shopping decisions. Evaluations of these environmental labelling (eco-labelling) programmes indicate that some labels and product groups receive a great deal of attention while others remain in obscurity. To understand these differences, the paper will discuss some of the factors that determine the market impact of environmental labelling. It is concluded that the concept of the 'green' consumer is over-simplified and fails to capture the actual complexity of consumer values, attitudes and behaviour. The results are based on existing literature and our own empirical findings. Copyright

This paper analyses how large Danish companies are responding to new governmental regulation which requires them to report on corporate social responsibility (CSR). The paper is based on an analysis of 142 company annual reports required by the new Danish regulation regarding CSR reporting, plus 10 interviews with first-time reporting companies and six interviews with companies that failed to comply with the new law. It is concluded that coercive pressures from government have an impact on CSR reporting practices. Further, the analysis finds traces of mimetic isomorphism which inspires a homogenisation in CSR reporting practices. Finally, it is argued that non-conformance with the new regulatory requirements is not solely about conscious resistance but may also be caused by, for example, lack of awareness, resource limitations, misinterpretations, and practical difficulties.

This paper aims to juxtapose two separate perspectives on CSR in terms of their ability to explain the cognitive alignment between managers and stakeholder on what constitutes the social responsibility of the focal firm, and to explain social performance. The first perspective is the stakeholder engagement one, which has historically characterized the debate on CSR. The second one focuses on the internal change processes required to integrate CSR in the firm’s operations. We leverage on data from 427 interviews, of which 209 with managers and 219 with stakeholders of 19 multinational firms in 8 sectors, to assess (a) the extent of cognitive alignment between managers and stakeholders on the conceptualization of CSR for the relevant firm, (b) which of the two theoretical perspectives is connected with the degree of cognitive alignment, and (c) which of the two is connected with the perception of corporate social performance (CSP). The data examined shows no evidence that the degree of sophistication in stakeholder engagement practices is connected with neither the magnitude of cognitive gaps, nor the level of CSP; whereas the degree of integration in internal operations is connected with both narrower cognitive gaps and higher CSP

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to analyse how managers in a multinational corporation (MNC) experience corporate social responsibility (CSR); the concept, the reasons for dealing with it, and its integration in everyday practices. Moreover, the paper aims to discuss how the alignment and misalignment of managerial perceptions are likely to affect corporate social performance. Design/methodology/approach -The analysis is based on a case study that includes interviews with ten managers and survey data from 149 manager respondents. Findings -The paper concludes that managerial perceptions of CSR are characterised by a great deal of heterogeneity. It shows that, even in an organisation with a long CSR tradition and formalised CSR policies, standards and procedures, managers hold different, and not necessarily convergent, views of CSR. Originality/value -The results indicate that simple categorisations of firms' CSR activities fail to encompass the multitude of perceptions and viewpoints that actually exist in modern organisations. Moreover, the paper questions whether managerial alignment on CSR issues is a precondition for high corporate social performance.

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