Performative Work: Bridging Performativity and Institutional Theory in the Responsible Investment Field

Callon’s performativity thesis has illuminated how economic theories and calculative devices shape markets, but has been challenged for its neglect of the organizational, institutional and political context. Our seven-year qualitative study of a large financial data company found that the company’s initial attempt to change the responsible investment field through a performative approach failed because of the constraints posed by field practices and organizational norms on the design of the calculative device. However, the company was subsequently able to put in place another form of performativity by attending to the normative and regulative associations of the device. We theorize this route to performativity by proposing the concept of performative work, which designates the necessary institutional work to enable translation and the subsequent adoption of the device. We conclude by considering the implications of performative work for the performativity and the institutional work literatures

Institutional Investor Activism on Socially Responsible Investment: Effects and Expectations

Starting by establishing the importance of institutional investor activism and Socially Responsible Investment, the article goes on to investigate the effects of SRI and attempts to offer a convincing explanation on the persisting theoretical and empirical divergence. It is suggested that the positive impact of institutional investors’ activism on SRI has been empirically undermined due to the defects of current evaluation systems. Nevertheless, the passivism of institutional investors and other practical concerns determine that SRI will remain as a minor investment trend in Anglo-American countries, at least in the near future