Institutional Approaches to Organizations and the Natural Environment

Lounsbury, Michael; Fairclough, Samantha; Lee, Min‐Dong Paul

doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199584451.003.0012

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…Much like CSC, CEC is also subject to institutional norms and expectations. There is much about CEC that is socially constructed and deemed socially acceptable or unacceptable (Lounsbury, Fairclough, & Lee, 2012). For example, even though scientists have by and large accepted the evidence around climate change, the Kyoto Protocol was not fully ratified in many countries.…”

Section: Theory and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Extensiveness of Corporate Social and Environmental Commitment across Firms over Time

Bansal

Gao

Qureshi

2014

Organization Studies

104

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Corporate social commitment (CSC) and corporate environmental commitment (CEC) are often combined under the general rubric of corporate social responsibility. Although the two sets of activities are similar, they are also very different. Both CSC and CEC respond to issues raised by stakeholders, but CEC tends to be more "technical". This characteristic demands that CEC fit with the organization, which exposes greater economic opportunities than CSC. As a result, we argue that the extent to which these practices are implemented differs across firms over time. We analyze the extensiveness of implementation of CSC and CEC across 266 firms from 1991 to 2003, using latent growth curve modeling and one-way ANOVA. We find that firms moved towards at least a moderate level of CSC over time, but tended to bifurcate in the extent to which they implemented CEC practices, towards either the high or low end of the scale, over time. In this paper, we contribute to the institutional analysis of practice diffusion by examining how the characteristics of different kinds of practices shape the extensiveness of firm adoption patterns. As well, this research also speaks to corporate social responsibility researchers, pointing to the need to sometimes discriminate between social and environmental practices.

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Section: Theory and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Extensiveness of Corporate Social and Environmental Commitment across Firms over Time

Bansal

Gao

Qureshi

2014

Organization Studies

104

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“…Based on the work of others (e.g., Dacin et al, 2002;Lounsbury et al, 2012;Thornton et al, 2012), we would suggest that there is an additional linkage between decision-making at the project level and the multiple institutional logics and organizational identity at the macro level. Specifically, each episode and decision provides experience and knowledge that lays the groundwork for larger changes (Leonard-Barton, 1992).…”

Section: Limitations and Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 84%

Unmasking Corporate Sustainability at the Project Level: Exploring the Influence of Institutional Logics and Individual Agency

2015

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“…The authority of this institution, which is based on its regulative legitimacy, can be interpreted as an effective way to objectively institutionalize an understanding of sustainability (Lounsbury et al, 2011). Through legislation, the State can demand sustainable positions and practices from organizations.…”

Section: Sustainability: An Institutional Pressurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, this is just one example and does not diminish the importance of other actors in local, regional, or national contexts. Environmental movements, given their legitimacy in the field and their coercive capacity, can influence the perceptions of other relevant actors, since their principles and practices favor the monitoring and regulation of sustainable measures in organizations (Lounsbury et al, 2011). The increasing popularity of debates around sustainability and the strength of the normative pillar have given rise to civil society as a major player in endorsing the control of sustainable organizational practices.…”

Section: Sustainability: An Institutional Pressurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…It can also contribute to theoretical discussions about organizational sustainability, mainly as an attempt to accept a validated understanding between environmental, social, and economic fields about a concept that is, in fact, socially constructed -i.e., subject to constant changes, depending on actors, discourses, and policies. Finally, we contribute to issues that reach practitioners by allowing them to see sustainability as an institutional matter that shapes organizations and organizational fields in increasingly significant ways (Gümüsay et al, 2020;Jennings & Hoffman, 2017;Jennings & Zandbergen, 1995;Lounsbury, Fairclough, & Lee, 2011;Scherer et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reflections on Sustainability’s Meaning in Organizations

Zanoni

Oliveira

2023

Rev. adm. empres.

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Adopting an institutionalist perspective on the construction of the meaning(s) of sustainability for organizations, we argue that this polysemic concept is linguistically employed in diverse fields with the intent to provide legitimacy. We apply the semiotic model of the institutionalization process to the concept of sustainability, highlighting its linguistic-social construction in two ways: as denotation and connotation. We then discuss the departure from the objective nature of the concept to its mythical-rational nature in which the separation of doing, saying, and meaning transmute its semantic content. Sustainability is, then, understood as another institutional pressure to which organizations need to respond, and they usually do so strategically through acceptance, adaptation, or contestation. Thus, even if certain actors aim to institutionalize sustainability as a denotation, its connotation fluctuates due to convenience or lack of clarity on how to operationalize it in organizations.

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Institutional Approaches to Organizations and the Natural Environment

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

The Extensiveness of Corporate Social and Environmental Commitment across Firms over Time

The Extensiveness of Corporate Social and Environmental Commitment across Firms over Time

Unmasking Corporate Sustainability at the Project Level: Exploring the Influence of Institutional Logics and Individual Agency

Reflections on Sustainability’s Meaning in Organizations

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