When is there a sustainability case for CSR? Pathways to environmental and social performance improvements

Little is known about when corporate social responsibility (CSR) leads to a sustainability case (i.e., to improvements in environmental and social performance). Building on various forms of decoupling, we develop a theoretical framework for examining pathways from institutional pressures through CSR management to sustainability performance. To empirically identify such pathways, we apply fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to an extensive dataset from 19 large companies. We discover that different pathways are associated with environmental and social performance (non)improvements, and that pathways to success and failure are for the most part not symmetrical. We identify two pathways to improved environmental performance: an exogenous and an endogenous one. We find two pathways to improved social performance that both involve integrating social responsibility into the core business. Pathways to nonimprovements are multiple, suggesting that failure can occur in a number of ways, while there are only a few pathways to sustainability performance improvements

The state and corporate social responsibility: Theorising the relationship

Typically, the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and state action is considered to be one of complementing or substitution. However, growing numbers of governments consider CSR as a potential policy tool and attempt to actively shape organisational CSR policies and outcomes. Yet, different types of states exhibit different levels of interventionism and different preferences regarding the means and ends of state intervention in the economy. This suggests that CSR policies and outcomes vary across different types of states. The extant literature has only given scant attention to this issue and has not systematically considered the relationship between types of states and CSR policies and outcomes. In this chapter we seek to remedy this shortcoming. We systematically explore the relationship between varieties of states and corporate social responsibility, by constructing a typology of corporate responsibilities indifferent types of states. We combine existing typologies of states and of government-CSR configurations, to answer the question how different types of state lead to different firm-level CSR practices and overall outcomes. We find that a regulatory state seeks a minimum role in facilitating CSR, largely leaving CSR to the market for self-regulation. A welfare state takes an active role shaping CSR practice through direct affiliations in cross sector collaboration and mandatory CSR policy. A developmental state also has a direct involvement in CSR practice through frequent partnerships involving social projects or CSR facilitated through subsidies as well as CSR as a form of government. Lastly, we theories that predatory states have little interest in CSR, and when they do it is mostly in an opportunistic fashion with limited social and environmental outcomes.</div

Organizational memory studies

This paper provides an overview and discussion of the rapidly growing literature on organizational memory studies (OMS). We define OMS as an inquiry into the ways that remembering and forgetting shape, and are shaped by, organizations and organizing processes. The contribution of this article is threefold. We briefly review what we understand by organizational memory and explore some key debates and points of contestation in the field. Second, we identify four different perspectives that have been developed in OMS (functional, interpretive, critical and performative) and expand upon each perspective by showcasing articles published over the past decade. In particular, we examine four papers previously published in Organization Studies to show the distinctiveness of each perspective. Finally, we identify a number of areas for future research to facilitate the future development of OMS