Understanding power-related strategies and initiatives

Massimo Contrafatto · John Ferguson · David Power · Lorna A. Stevenson

30 citations0/0 files storedAccounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

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Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting Regulation and Compliance Studies Management and Organizational Studies

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretically informed analysis of a struggle for power over the regulation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social and environmental accounting and reporting (SEAR) within the European Union. Design/methodology/approach The paper combines insights from institutional theory (Lawrence and Buchanan, 2017) with Vaaraet al.’s (2006) and Vaara and Tienar’s (2008) discursive strategies approach in order to interrogate the dynamics of the institutional “arena” that emerged in 2001, following the European Commission’s publication of a Green Paper (GP) on CSR policy and reporting. Drawing on multiple sources of data (including newspaper coverage, semi-structured interviews and written submissions by companies and NGOs), the authors analyse the institutional political strategies employed by companies and NGOs – two of the key stakeholder groupings who sought to influence the dynamics and outcome of the European initiative. Findings The results show that the 2001 GP was a “triggering event” (Hoffman, 1999) that led to the formation of the institutional arena that centred on whether CSR policy and reporting should be voluntary or mandatory. The findings highlight how two separate, but related forms of power (systemic and episodic power) were exercised much more effectively by companies compared to NGOs. The analysis of the power initiatives and discursive strategies deployed in the arena provides a theoretically informed understanding of the ways in which companies acted in concert to reach their objective of maintaining CSR and SEAR as a voluntary activity. Originality/value The theoretical framework outlined in the paper highlights how the analysis of CSR and SEAR regulation can be enriched by examining the deployment of episodic and systemic power by relevant actors.

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References

1999Corporate Social Responsibility 2008“Implicit” and “Explicit” CSR: A Conceptual Framework for a Comparative Understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility 2002Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method 2004Corporate Social Responsibility Theories: Mapping the Territory 2011Institutional Complexity and Organizational Responses 2006Institutions and Institutional Work 2008Institutions and Organizations: Ideas and Interests 1999INSTITUTIONAL EVOLUTION AND CHANGE: ENVIRONMENTALISM AND THE U.S. CHEMICAL INDUSTRY.

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