The impact of changes in stakeholder salience on CSR activities in Russian energy firms: a contribution to the divergence / convergence debate

This empirical paper examines the drivers underpinning changes to socially-responsible behaviours in the Russian energy sector. Responding to recent requests to contextualise CSR research, we focus on the changing set of stakeholders and developments in their saliency as reflected in corporations’ CSR activities. Based on interviews with more than thirty industry professionals, our findings suggest that Russian energy companies’ CSR is strongly stakeholder driven, and organisations adapt their activities according to their dependence on the resources that these salient stakeholders possess. We challenge the proposition that CSR in Russia arises from purely endogenous, historical, paternalism or neo-paternalism. We identify stakeholders that now shape CSR in the Russian energy sector, both endogenous (institutional and contextual forces relevant to the national business system) and exogenous (relating to the organisational field of the energy industry - international by nature). We thereby contribute to the convergence / divergence debate within CSR theory by demonstrating that both national business systems and the organisational field must be taken into account when analysing the forces that shape CSR strategies in any one country

Metaprofit of organizations: an approach for overcoming the for-profit/nonprofit dichotomy

Driven by changing institutional environments and concepts such as social entrepreneurship, we have recently seen a development of organizations that defy the classical dichotomy between a nonprofit and for-profit orientation. The hybrid nature of these organizations does not only pose challenges for taxation and management issues, but also for academic research. It puts into question the handed down distinction between nonprofit and for-profit organizations used to describe organizational entities, and in particular, the central role given to the notion of profit in determining the ontology of organizations. A more refined understanding of the hybrid nature of recent organizational forms presents an opportunity to rethink the notion of firm, the centrality of organizational purpose, and the usefulness of previously established categories. This article explores why organizations shift their attention from profit towards elements that are beyond profit, without neglecting the economic objectives that contribute to their sustainability, which we refer to as \u201cmetaprofit\u201d. It contributes to the literature by critically examining the appropriateness of the frequently used categorical and often too simple distinction between for-profit and nonprofit organizations, by providing alternatives to overcome this critical dichotomy, and, in this context, elaborating on the notion of metaprofit