Organizational learning II: Theory, method and practice

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Redesigning Social Inquiry Fuzzy Sets And Beyond

Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World.

Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World

'Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony', American Journal of Sociology, 83, pp. 340-63.

After providing an overview of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) research in different contexts, and noting the varied methodologies adopted, two robust CSR conceptualizations – one by Carroll (1979, ‘A Three-Dimensional Conceptual Model of Corporate Performance’, The Academy of Management Review
 4(4), 497–505) and the other by Wood (1991, ‘Corporate Social Performance Revisited’, The Academy of Management Review
 16(4), 691–717) – have been adopted for this research and their integration explored. Using this newly synthesized framework, the research critically examines the CSR approach and philosophy of eight companies that are considered active in CSR in the Lebanese context. The findings suggest the lack of a systematic, focused, and institutionalized approach to CSR and that the understanding and practice of CSR in Lebanon are still grounded in the context of philanthropic action. The findings are qualified within the framework of existing contextual realities and relevant implications drawn accordingly.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR): theory and practice in a developing country context

Stakeholder theory has gained currency in the business and society literature in recent years in light of its practicality from the perspective of managers and scholars. In accounting for the recent ascendancy of stakeholder theory, this article presents an overview of two traditional conceptualizations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Carroll: 1979, ‘A Three-Dimensional Conceptual Model of Corporate Performance’, The Academy of Management Review 4(4), 497–505 and Wood: 1991, ‘Corporate Social Performance Revisited’, The Academy of Management Review 16(4), 691–717), highlighting their predominant inclination toward providing static taxonomic CSR descriptions. The article then makes the case for a stakeholder approach to CSR, reviewing its rationale and outlining how it has been integrated into recent empirical studies. In light of this review, the article adopts a stakeholder framework – the Ethical Performance Scorecard (EPS) proposed by Spiller (2000, ‘Ethical Business and Investment: A Model For Business and Society’, Journal of Business Ethics 27, 149–160) – to examine the CSR approach of a sample of Lebanese and Syrian firms with an interest in CSR and test relevant hypotheses derived from the CSR/stakeholder literature. The findings are analyzed and implications drawn regarding the usefulness of a stakeholder approach to CSR.

A Stakeholder Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility: A Fresh Perspective into Theory and Practice

Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Questions/Issue: This paper seeks to explore the interrelationships between corporate governance (CG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR): first, theoretically, by reviewing the literature and surveying various postulations on offer; second, empirically, by investigating the conception and interpretation of this relationship in the context of a sample of firms operating in Lebanon. Accordingly, the paper seeks to highlight the increasing cross-connects or interfaces between CG and CSR, capitalizing on fresh insights from a developing country perspective. Research Findings/Results: A qualitative interpretive research methodology was adopted, drawing on in-depth interviews with the top managers of eight corporations operating in Lebanon, with the findings suggesting that the majority of managers conceive of CG as a necessary pillar for sustainable CSR. These findings are significant and interesting, implying that recent preoccupation with CG in developing countries is starting to be counterbalanced by some interest/attention to CSR, with growing appreciation of their interdependencies and the need to move beyond CG conformance toward voluntary CSR performance. Theoretical Implications: This study makes two important contributions. First, it suggests that there is a salient two-way relationship and increasing overlap between CG and CSR. While much previous literature has researched CG and CSR independently, this paper makes the case for considering them jointly and systematically. Second, the paper outlines a number of theoretical propositions that can serve as the basis for future research on the topic, particularly in developing countries, given that the data and theoretical propositions are both derived from and tailored to developing country contexts. Practical Implications: This study can potentially alert managers to the increasing overlap between the CG and CSR agendas and the need to exert diligent systematic efforts on both fronts. CG and CSR share more in common than previously assumed, and this needs to be accounted for by practitioners. The research can also alert policy makers in developing countries to the need to increase the vigilance and capacity of the regulatory and judicial systems in the context of CG reform and to increase institutional pressures, particularly of the coercive and normative variety to enhance CSR adoption.

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Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility Synergies and Interrelationships

Given the rising interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) globally, its local expressions are as varied as they are increasingly visible in both developed and developing countries. This paper presents a multilevel review of the literature on CSR in developing countries and highlights the key differentiators and nuanced CSR-related considerations that qualify it as a distinctive field of study. This review entails a content analysis of 452 articles spanning two-and-a-half decades (1990–2015). Based on this comprehensive review, the authors identify the key differentiating attributes of the literature on CSR in developing countries in relation to depictions of how CSR is conceived or ‘CSR Thinking’ and depictions of how CSR is practiced and implemented or ‘CSR Doing’. The authors synthesize from there five key themes that capture the main aspects of variation in this literature, namely: (1) complex institutional antecedents within the national business system (NBS); (2) complex macro-level antecedents outside the NBS; (3) the salience of multiple actors involved in formal and informal governance; (4) hybridized and other nuanced forms of CSR expressions; and (5) varied scope of developmental and detrimental CSR consequences. The paper concludes by accentuating how the nuanced forms of CSR in the developing world are invariably contextualized and locally shaped by multi-level factors and actors embedded within wider formal and informal governance systems.

Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing Countries as an Emerging Field of Study

This paper capitalizes on an institutional perspective to analyze corporate social responsibility (CSR) orientations in the Lebanese context. Specifically, the paper compiles a new theoretical framework drawing on a multi-level model of institutional flows by Scott (Institutions and organizations: ideas and interests, 2008) and the explicit/implicit CSR model by Matten and Moon (Acad Manag Rev 33(2):404–424, 2008). This new theoretical framework is then used to explore the CSR convergence versus divergence question in a developing country context. The findings highlight the usefulness of the compiled multi-layered institutional framework and the varied nuances and profound insights it offers in analyzing CSR in context. They also suggest that a cosmetic level of global convergence in explicit CSR may materialize in light of mimetic isomorphic pressures, but that the path dependence hypothesis is indeed salient in light of national history trajectories and socio-politico configurations. The findings correspond most closely to patterns of CSR crossvergence, combining elements of both convergence and divergence, and reflecting in complex hybridized CSR expressions. The findings and their implications are presented and assessed.

Dima Jamali

Papers

Corporate social responsibility (CSR): theory and practice in a developing country context

A Stakeholder Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility: A Fresh Perspective into Theory and Practice

Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility Synergies and Interrelationships

Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing Countries as an Emerging Field of Study

Convergence Versus Divergence of CSR in Developing Countries: An Embedded Multi-Layered Institutional Lens.