Business & Society
May 2015; Vol. 54, No. 3
Articles
A Transactional Culture Analysis of Corporate Sustainability Reporting Practices: Six Examples From India
Taran Patel and Steve Rayner
Corporate sustainability (CS) can be defined as organizations' commitment to profitability, environment, and social well-being. This study uses a transactional culture analysis of CS reporting practices to explain why some Indian organizations conform to voluntary CS reporting guidelines and others do not. The literature contains two different perspectives on culture, defined broadly as a set of values that guide people's behavior at a given time. Most past studies typically use national culture to explain differences in CS practices across nations. This concept embeds corporate cultures within the larger national culture, neglecting intranation diversity. Conversely, according to the transactional culture approach (TCA) used in this study, cultures are plural and independent of geoethnic boundaries, and emerge through social transactions (i.e., patterned exchanges of material and immaterial items between individuals or groups). TCA encourages multilevel explorations of complex social phenomena. Since CS reporting preferences are the outcome of ongoing transactions among organizational stakeholders across different levels, TCA is more appropriate for this study. Since this application requires an understanding of social accountability (i.e., how individuals hold themselves accountable to others and vice versa), the authors use Mary Douglas's Cultural Framework (DCF), a transactional framework of social accountability. A qualitative exploration of six Indian organizations using DCF reveals different dominant forms of social accountability in these organizations: either alone or as paired hybrids. Consequently, each organization prioritizes different stakeholders and reacts differently to voluntary CS reporting guidelines. Identifying the dominant form or forms of social accountability in their organizations and understanding their underlying reasons for resisting voluntary CS guidelines enables managers to secure better collaboration for their CS initiatives. | | This article examines the role of social context in corporate social responsibility (CSR) research. The authors direct attention to three major perspectives in organization studies-institutional, cultural, and cognitive-that bear on the social context and explore how these perspectives are used in CSR research. These perspectives are framed as representative of the levels at which CSR may be analyzed, and each perspective is associated with a certain level of social context: the institutional perspective relates to the external social context, the cultural perspective relates to the organizational level, and the cognitive perspective relates to the individual level. The authors demonstrate how the CSR field can benefit by combining or integrating multiple perspectives that bear on the social context, and by engaging in more explicit multilevel analysis of the social context within which CSR practicesunfold. Three promising avenues for future CSR research are outlined: social ecology, cross-sector social partnerships, and strategy-as-practice. The authors argue that these avenues transcend levels and perspectives (even allowing for the combination of the three schools) and offer the prospect of more context-sensitive CSR research. | | Social Issues in Management Dissertation Forum
The dissertation abstract and reflection commentary present the work of Dr. Maryam Kouchaki. The abstract provides an overview of research examining the role of professional identities on ethical behavior. Across a number of studies, this work demonstrates that professionalism, either measured or manipulated, can increase individuals' unethical behaviors. This dissertation extends prior work on professionalism by examining its psychology and shedding new light on importance of its meanings in driving individuals' behaviors. Below, the author discusses the reasons for why professionals may engage in unethical behaviors. Finally, the reflection commentary provides insights about the author's journey as a PhD student. | This dissertation abstract and the reflection commentary present the work of Dr. Rieneke Slager. The dissertation addresses the influence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) metrics on responsible corporate behavior, through a case study of a prominent metric in the Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) market, namely, the FTSE4Good Index. This extended dissertation abstract introduces the research questions, theoretical framework, methods, and findings. The author's views on successful completion of a PhD are discussed in the appendix | This dissertation abstract and the reflection commentary present the work done by Dr. Lea Stadtler. Comprising four articles, the dissertation explores the challenge of designing successful public–private partnerships (PPPs) for development and contributes to the discourse on partnerships and business engagement in society. Article I adopts the company perspective and develops a conceptual framework for interest alignment in PPPs for development. Based on a theoretical analysis, Article II examines the role that different structures play in handling common design challenges. Articles III and IV are empirical: The former analyzes how partners cope with tensions occurring on the PPP's boundaries, while Article IV explores the roles of broker organizations, which increasingly facilitate the partnering process of PPPs for development. This extended dissertation abstract introduces the dissertation's research focus and summarizes each article's research question, methods, and main findings. The reflection commentary in the appendix discusses the author's views of her dissertation journey as a junior scholar and the research process. | |
Andy Crane, Dirk Matten, Irene Henriques, Bryan Husted
Co-Editors, Business & Society
Schulich School of Business
York University
4700 Keele Street, Toronto, M3J 1P3
baseditors@schulich.yorku.ca | |