2018/06/08 by Michael Hunoldt, Simon Oertel, Anne Galander · 51 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · #Business #Computer science #Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting #Corporate social responsibility #Environmental Sustainability in Business #Management and Organizational Studies #Marketing #Political science #Process (computing) #Process management #Public relations #Qualitative research #Sociology
paper · doi:10.1177/0007650318777738
published in Business & Society 59(7), 1441-1482 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2018/06/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02
Focusing on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation process, we analyze how institutional complexity that arises from tensions between social and environmental elements and economic and technical concerns is managed by CSR managers. We further question how these micro-level processes interact with organizational-level processes over time. Our research is a 24-month qualitative process study in which we followed CSR managers. The study’s results allow us to distinguish between four strategies that CSR managers use to promote CSR implementation and to cope with tensions. Our results further indicate that organizational characteristics influence the intensity with which these strategies are applied and that the intensity of strategy application affects organizational behavior in the course of time. Through the discussion of these findings, our study contributes to the research on micro-level processes that occur in response to complex institutional demands as well as to the development of a comprehensive, multilevel approach to CSR implementation.