The Glocalization of Responsible Investment: Contextualization Work in France and Québec

Abstract

This study investigates the institutional work that underlies the diffusion of responsible investment (RI) and enhances its adaptation to local settings. Building on institutional and actor-network theory, we advance the concept of contextualization work to describe the institutional work that sustains RI glocalization. Empirical data from two case studies highlight how entrepreneurial actors imported the notion of responsible investment (RI) from the US to France and Québec. Our findings uncover three types of contextualization workfiltering, repurposing, and coupling -that sustain RI glocalization, and show how actors employed them in both settings to overcome the lack of technical, cultural or political fit between the imported practice and their local context. Our results explain how divergent glocalized versions of RI are developed and adapted through contextualization work. Lastly, we discuss how our repertoire of contextualization work can account for local forms of a global concept and the uneven pattern of its diffusion. Investment THE GLOCALIZATION OF RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT: CONTEXTUALIZATION WORK IN FRANCE AND QUEBEC'In fact, the trajectory of a project depends not on the context but on the people who do the work of contextualizing.' (Latour 1996, p.150) Although Responsible Investment (RI) has become a globally diffused phenomenon (Louche and Lydenberg 2006), it is also recognized as being highly heterogeneous (Sandberg et al. 2009), and as being embedded in the local cultural, religious and political contexts in which it is practiced (Bengtsson 2008; Lozano, Albareda and Balaguer 2006). But how has RI spread globally while maintaining, and even increasing, its cross-national diversity? How is RI reshaped as a result of being embedded in different contexts?To address these questions, we focus on the process of 'glocalization', whereby a practice undergoes local transformation at the same time as it diffuses globally (Latour 1993;Robertson 1992). Our objective is to identify and theorize the activities involved in the glocalization of RI and, in so doing, to provide an explanation for both the global diffusion of RI and the maintenance of its diversity. Ultimately, we aim to shed light on micro-processes that contribute to transforming RI and to advance the conceptualization of glocalization; more precisely, we show how material and symbolic dimensions are combined in micro-level glocalization processes.Conceptually, our investigation of the process of RI glocalization builds on recent developments in the literature on 'institutional work', which pertains to creating, maintaining and disrupting institutions (Lawrence and Suddaby 2006). The concept of institutional work concerns the exploration of how actors address the potential lack of technical, cultural, or political 'fit' between the practice and its new local context (Ansari et al. 2010;Perkmann and Spicer 2008). Prior studies in this field have somewhat neglected the capacity of actors to purposefully select elements of the institutional conte...

How are Practices Made to Vary? Managing Practice Adaptation in a Multinational Corporation

“…Practice variation is thus likely to be the rule, rather than the exception Akrich, Callon Recent work on the diffusion of management practices has revealed novel insights into how practices are modified across networks, projects, and geographies (Perez-Aleman, 2011) local context (e.g., Ansari et al, 2010;; Canato et al, forthcoming;; Fiss, Kennedy & Greve, 2011). While scholars have examined diffusion and adaptation of practices at the field level (e.g., Bromley et al 2012;; Fiss, et al, 2011;; Gond & Boxenbaum, forthcoming), there has been less research about adaptation within organizations (Kostova & Roth, 2002). Adaptation within organizations may be a double-edged sword.…”

Complete and Partial Organizing for Corporate Social Responsibility

“…By contrast, MNCs possess characteristics that are favorable for promoting external communication and reporting, but, at the same time, constrain internal implementation. Gond and Boxenbaum (2013) study how responsible investment practices were imported in two different geographical regions and were adapted to these local settings. They show how actors employed three types of contextualization work (filtering, repurposing, and coupling) in both geographical settings to overcome the lack of technical, cultural, or political fit between the imported practice and their local context.…”

“…Whereas the paper by Baumann-Pauly et al (2013) focuses on complete organization to learn how differences in formal organizations lead to different ways of organizing CSR, the paper by Gond and Boxenbaum (2013) clearly takes a partial organization perspective as it highlights how different actors try to adapt practices to a local context, requiring them to deviate from standards and to engage in deliberate engineering practices. The paper by BaumannPauly et al (2013) is the most focused on complete organization, providing a comparative study to examine how different forms of organization play out in different contexts.…”

“…This demonstrates how a systematic comparison between organizations based on their formal organizational elements can lead to useful insights on the organization of CSR. Gond and Boxenbaum (2013) focus on the explicit use of partial organizing, highlighting how this creates room for contextualizations. The more ''completely'' the responsible investment practices are organized, the less room they leave for local flavoring and adaptation.…”

“…Recent attempts to change traditional ''sustainability reporting'' into ''integrated reporting'' via a new standard, the International Integrated Reporting Framework, is a case in point. Understood in this way, it is possible to organize institutions and hence introduce a certain level of control over them-the study by Gond and Boxenbaum (2013) provides an example of such institutional work, but more research is needed to unpack these processes.…”