Showing papers by "Bryan W. Husted published in 2020"

The rise and stall of stakeholder influence: How the digital age limits social control

Abstract: Have stakeholders increased their influence over firm behavior in the digital age? We draw from cognitive theory to argue that although social media has made it easier for stakeholders to broadcast...

Proto-CSR Before the Industrial Revolution: Institutional Experimentation by Medieval Miners’ Guilds

Abstract: In this paper, we argue that antecedents of modern corporate social responsibility (CSR) prior to the Industrial Revolution can be referred to as “proto-CSR” to describe a practice that influenced modern CSR, but which is different from its modern counterparts in form and structure. We develop our argument with the history of miners’ guilds in medieval Germany—religious fraternities and secular mutual aid societies. Based on historical data collected by historians and archeologists, we reconstruct a long-term process of pragmatic experimentation with institutions of mutual aid that address social problems in the early mining industry, and thus before the rise of the modern state and the capitalist firm. Co-shaped by economic and political actors, these institutions of mutual aid have influenced the social responsibility programs of early industrialists, modern social welfare legislation, and contemporary CSR. We conjecture that other elements of proto-CSR might have evolved according to similar trajectories.

Municipal Green Purchasing in Mexico: Policy Adoption and Implementation Success

Abstract: In this paper, we seek to determine what factors drive the adoption of green purchasing among municipalities in Mexico and the success of their implementation. Given the lack of research and theory in the area, this study is exploratory in nature. We applied the green purchasing survey developed by Arizona State University to all municipalities in Mexico with a population of 25,000 or more inhabitants. Using the least absolute shrinkage and selector operator method (LASSO), we reduced the set of measures, which we then employed in a logistic regression to predict whether the municipality would adopt a green purchasing policy. We found that complementary environmental practices, department rules, and city-wide contracts to reduce purchasing costs have a positive and significant effect on the propensity to adopt green purchasing policies, but the time for routine low-cost purchases has a negative effect on green purchasing policy adoption. Then, using two-stage least squares, we developed a model of the factors leading to successful implementation of green purchasing. We found that complementary environmental policies, environmental practices, environmental program knowledge, and city-wide contracts to reduce purchasing costs are positively and significantly related to successful implementation. However, department resources and the time for routine low-cost purchase are significant, but negatively related.

Who responds to whom and for what? A grounded theory analysis of social responsibility in the 1857 Frankfurt Bienfaisance Congress

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine and interpret the characteristics of social responsibility in general, and business responsibility in particular, that were evident during a period in European history that was plagued by widespread social problems and change. Based on that interpretation we explore the lessons those characteristics may have for social responsibility in a contemporary world that is facing similar conditions. The paper presents a qualitative analysis of the proceedings of the Bienfaisance Congress held in Frankfurt in 1857, where societal leaders from different nations met to answer the question, who has responsibility for whom, and for what? We use grounded theory, as it is operationalized in what is known as the “Gioia template,” to conduct a structured analysis of this particular text, and to in turn produce a theoretical interpretation of how that question was answered. Our interpretation is that congress participants articulated certain established dimensions of responsibility (individual, organizational, national), as well as one new dimension (international), and did so by differentiating boundaries of responsibility; in turn, we suggest that these dimensions and boundaries work together to form a nested system of responsibilities. There is limited empirical evidence available that documents the variety of responsibility-based initiatives that were being conducted during the 19th-century. An analysis of the congress proceedings allows us to gain a better understanding of how the 19th-century world, particularly the upper echelons of European society, approached the question of under what conditions actors in different domains have responsibility for another. While our implications are limited by our analysis of the proceedings of one congress that was attended by elites, they do provide a snapshot of how Europe sought to articulate a system of bounded responsibilities during a time of widespread social problems and change. Although the nested system of responsibilities framework that emerged from our grounded-theory analysis is not applicable to all situations, it should sensitize policy makers and business leaders to the need to address social problems in a systemic way. The authors both present a systems-based framework for understanding how responsibility is differentiated among actors (individual, organizational, state, and international) and demonstrate how a theoretical interpretation of historical documents can be accomplished through the use of grounded theory, as operationalized through the Gioia template.