Our paper provides one of the first empirical investigations of Basu and Palazzo's (2008) process model of CSR sensemaking. While Basu and Palazzo's (2008) framework introduces different dimensions of CSR sensemaking, it is unclear how these sensemaking processes are related to stages of CSR development. This paper addresses the question whether organizations in different stages of CSR development use different sensemaking methods. Such an investigation is important because prior research has shown that the diffusion and sophistication of CSR policies vary across countries, most notably, between those of developed and emerging economies. This paper compares CSR practices in two nation states with different degrees of economic development, namely, the UK and India. To do so, it draws on a qualitative study of the CSR initiatives of three British and three Indian retailers. Data for the research was collected through 70 interviews in the UK and India. We find that Basu and Palazzo's (2008) process model of sensemaking is useful to describe CSR sensemaking both in the UK and in India. Our results indicate that organizations in different stages of CSR development use different sensemaking methods. We discuss how contextual differences can explain these findings.
ABSTRACT:The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the instrumental perspective on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in practice and theory by relying on sociological analyses of a well known organization: the Italian Mafia. Legal businesses might share features of the Mafia, such as the propensity to exploit a governance vacuum in society, a strong organizational identity that demarcates the inside from the outside, and an extreme profit motive. Instrumental CSR practices have the power to accelerate a firm's transition to Mafia status through its own pathologies. The boundaries of such instrumentalism are explored and lessons for future CSR research derived, with specific emphasis on a firm's social and normative embeddedness, taking into account the inherent challenge of regulating corporate behaviour in the global economy.
In contrast to content-based models of corporate social responsibility (CSR), we propose a process model of organizational sensemaking explaining how managers think, discuss, and act with respect to their key stakeholders and the world at large. We also propose a set of cognitive, linguistic, and conative dimensions to identify such an intrinsic orientation that guides CSR-related activities. Recognizing patterns of interrelationships among these dimensions might lead to a better understanding of a firm's CSR impact and generate a rich research agenda that links key organizational features to CSR character.
The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the instrumental perspective on corporate social responsibility by relying on sociological analyses of a well known organization: the Sicilian Mafia. Legal businesses might share features of the Mafia, such as the propensity to exploit a governance vacuum in society, a strong culture that demarcates the inside from the outside, and an extreme form of the profit motive. Instrumental CSR has the power to accelerate a firm’s transition to Mafia status through its own pathologies. Lessons for future CSR research are derived, with specific emphasis on understanding a firm’s social embeddedness, acknowledging limitations in regulating corporate behaviour in the global economy, and most critically, the risk of viewing CSR simply as a means rather than as an end.
Past decades have witnessed the growing success of branding as a corporate activity as well as a rise in anti-brand activism. While appearing to be contradictory, both trends have emerged from common sources – the transition from industrial to post-industrial society, and the advent of globalization – the examination of which might lead to a socially grounded understanding of why brand success in the future is likely to demand more than superior product performance, placing increasing demand on corporations with regard to a broader envelop of socially responsible behavior. Directions for strategic and managerial options are suggested.
Past decades have witnessed the growing success of branding as a corporate activity as well as a rise in anti-brand activism. While appearing to be contradictory, both trends have emerged from common sources – the transition from industrial to post-industrial society, and the advent of globalization – the examination of which might lead to a socially grounded understanding of why brand success in the future is likely to demand more than superior product performance, placing increasing demand on corporations with regard to a broader envelop of socially responsible behavior. Directions for strategic and managerial options are suggested.
We develop a middle-range theory of CSR by proposing an inductive categorization that seeks to distinguish a firm's CSR behaviors in terms of strategy and value congruence. We propose to treat the normative foundation on the one hand (value) and stakeholders and issues on the other hand (strategy) as two dimensions of CSR that are conceptually independent of each other. We suggest that the CSR engagement of a corporation can be either on value or off value, and that it can be either on strategy or off strategy. Cross-classifying two levels of each of these leads us to consider four CSR prototypes which we label -- Robber Baron, Robin Hood, Book Keeper, and Statesman. Those prototypes are shown to exhibit specific characteristics on a set of features. Our framework for categorization of CSR, analysis of featural qualities of each type, and suggested pathways for migration, opens up both construct validity aspects and comparative studies into CSR. Rather than simply developing inventories of CSR activities, and seeking correlations with financial performance measures, it is possible to turn attention to a broad range of independent (i.e., CSR preconditions) as well as dependent (i.e., CSR consequences) variables, and attempt meaningful comparisons to achieve relevant benchmarks. Furthermore, it serves to bridge the gap between CSR scholarship and practice which seem to have evolved in parallel universes.
In this paper, Kunal Basu and Pankaj Chandra develop a framework for market driven manufacturing that identifies market conditions and success requirements for determining the necessary manufacturing focus. These are then mapped on to specific operational practices. Managerial and research implications of the above are presented followed by an illustrative network flow model that plans manufacturing capabilities under different marketing environments.
Customer loyalty is viewed as the strength of the relationship between an individual’s relative attitude and repeat patronage. The relationship is seen as mediated by social norms and situational factors. Cognitive, affective, and conative antecedents of relative attitude are identified as contributing to loyalty, along with motivational, perceptual, and behavioral consequences. Implications for research and for the management of loyalty are derived.
Discriminating between analytic and nonanalytic categorization mechanisms can be of value in designing marketing stimuli that facilitate consumers' acceptance of a product/brand. Two methodological paradigms were employed, the first involving the outcome of categorization judgments made by consumers for unfamiliar products/brands. The second, based on the retrieval of exemplars acquired during category learning and verification of their match with the target, was subjected to its first empirical examination. Both the category judgment and verification paradigms were found to be promising in terms of model identification. Potential complimentarities between the two, as well as operational refinements are suggested.
Recently, a new method of the splat-cooling process has been successfully applied to produce dental alloy ribbons. In the present investigation, gold-containing dental alloy splat-cooled ribbons were prepared and studied primarily by electron optical and x-ray diffraction methods. An Ortec Si(Li) x-ray multichannel energy-dispersive spectrometer was coupled with the scanning electron microscope (SEM) in order to obtain the distribution of elements from the specimen surface. The microstructure revealed the first time in the SEM and showed that the pure Ag3Sn ribbons contain γ grains separated by regions of β phase while the gold-containing Ag3Sn ribbons contain γ grains separated by sharply defined grain boundaries. Electron microprobe analysis further confirmed that the pure Ag3Sn ribbons contain a greater excess of tin inside the γ grains than between the regions of β phase, while ghe gold-containing Ag3Sn ribbons show a uniform distribution of gold all over the γ grains. X-ray diffraction showed that the Ag3Sn lattice contracts with the addition of gold, as expected. The average grain diameter in the splat-cooled ribbons was found to be 3.2 μm.
