IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v148y2018i3d10.1007_s10551-015-3011-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cognitive Processes in the CSR Decision-Making Process: A Sensemaking Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Ulf H. Richter

    (University of Nottingham China)

  • Felix F. Arndt

    (University of Nottingham China)

Abstract

Applying the sensemaking perspective in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a recent but promising development. Using an in-depth exploratory case study, we analyze and discuss the CSR character of British American Tobacco (BAT) Switzerland. Our findings indicate that BAT Switzerland does not follow traditional patters of building CSR. BAT Switzerland can be classified as a “legitimacy seeker,” characterized mainly by a relational identity orientation and legitimation strategies that might provide pragmatic and/or cognitive legitimacy. We conclude that understanding the cognitive processes underlying the CSR decision-making process is of fundamental value when analyzing and changing the CSR approach of a firm. We discuss boundary conditions of the CSR character framework and expand it by differentiating between process and product legitimacy, as both perspectives have important but possibly different implications for the firm.

Suggested Citation

  • Ulf H. Richter & Felix F. Arndt, 2018. "Cognitive Processes in the CSR Decision-Making Process: A Sensemaking Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 587-602, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:148:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-015-3011-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-3011-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-015-3011-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-015-3011-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Khosro Jahdi & Gaye Acikdilli, 2009. "Marketing Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Marriage of Convenience or Shotgun Wedding?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(1), pages 103-113, August.
    2. Xiaomin Yu, 2008. "Impacts of Corporate Code of Conduct on Labor Standards: A Case Study of Reebok’s Athletic Footwear Supplier Factory in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(3), pages 513-529, September.
    3. Stephen Chen & Petra Bouvain, 2009. "Is Corporate Responsibility Converging? A Comparison of Corporate Responsibility Reporting in the USA, UK, Australia, and Germany," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(1), pages 299-317, April.
    4. Lori Holder-Webb & Jeffrey Cohen & Leda Nath & David Wood, 2009. "The Supply of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures Among U.S. Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 84(4), pages 497-527, February.
    5. Andreas Rasche & Daniel Esser, 2006. "From Stakeholder Management to Stakeholder Accountability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 65(3), pages 251-267, May.
    6. Guido Palazzo & Andreas Scherer, 2006. "Corporate Legitimacy as Deliberation: A Communicative Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 66(1), pages 71-88, June.
    7. Maria Joutsenvirta, 2011. "Setting Boundaries for Corporate Social Responsibility: Firm–NGO Relationship as Discursive Legitimation Struggle," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(1), pages 57-75, August.
    8. F. Maon & A. Lindgreen & V. Swaen, 2010. "Organizational Stages and Cultural Phases: A Critical Review and a Consolidative Model of Corporate Social Responsibility Development," Post-Print halshs-00585660, HAL.
    9. Margaret Lindorff & Elizabeth Prior Jonson & Linda McGuire, 2012. "Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility in Controversial Industry Sectors: The Social Value of Harm Minimisation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(4), pages 457-467, November.
    10. Herriott, Scott R & Levinthal, Daniel & March, James G, 1985. "Learning from Experience in Organizations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(2), pages 298-302, May.
    11. Andreas Rasche & Frank Bakker & Jeremy Moon, 2013. "Complete and Partial Organizing for Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(4), pages 651-663, July.
    12. Ker-Tah Hsu, 2012. "The Advertising Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Corporate Reputation and Brand Equity: Evidence from the Life Insurance Industry in Taiwan," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(2), pages 189-201, August.
    13. Marilu Hastings, 1999. "A new operational paradigm for oil operations in sensitive environments: an analysis of social pressure, corporate capabilities and competitive advantage," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(5), pages 267-280, September.
    14. Jesper Grolin, 1998. "Corporate legitimacy in risk society: the case of Brent Spar," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(4), pages 213-222, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Oliveira, Fabio & Kakabadse, Nada & Khan, Nadeem, 2022. "Board engagement with digital technologies: A resource dependence framework," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 804-818.
    2. Domenico Sardanelli & Francesca Conte & Agostino Vollero & Alfonso Siano, 2021. "CSR signals: exploring their use in controversial industries," Italian Journal of Marketing, Springer, vol. 2021(3), pages 249-266, September.
    3. François Maon & Valérie Swaen & Kenneth de Roeck, 2021. "Coporate branding and corporate social responsibility: Toward a multi-stakeholder interpretive perspective," Post-Print hal-03275858, HAL.
    4. Sarah Williams & David F. Murphy, 2023. "Learning from Each Other: UK Global Businesses, SMEs, CSR and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-17, February.
    5. Linda Jansen & Peggy Cunningham & Sandra Diehl & Ralf Terlutter, 2024. "Corporate social responsibility in controversial industries: A literature review and research agenda," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 4398-4427, September.
    6. Sendlhofer, Tina & Tolstoy, Daniel, 2022. "How employees shape CSR transparency: A sensemaking perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 268-278.
    7. Seonghoon Kim & Ann Terlaak & Matthew Potoski, 2021. "Corporate sustainability and financial performance: Collective reputation as moderator of the relationship between environmental performance and firm market value," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1689-1701, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Salla Laasonen & Martin Fougère & Arno Kourula, 2012. "Dominant Articulations in Academic Business and Society Discourse on NGO–Business Relations: A Critical Assessment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(4), pages 521-545, September.
    2. Olivier Boiral, 2010. "Peut-on mesurer les performances de développement durable?," CIRANO Working Papers 2010s-11, CIRANO.
    3. Irina Lock & Peter Seele, 2015. "Analyzing Sector‐Specific CSR Reporting: Social and Environmental Disclosure to Investors in the Chemicals and Banking and Insurance Industry," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(2), pages 113-128, March.
    4. Shaozhen Han & Guoming Li & Michel Lubrano & Zhou Xun, 2020. "Lie of the Weak: Inconsistent Corporate Social Responsibility Activities of Chinese Zombie Firms," AMSE Working Papers 2001, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    5. Andrew Crane & Sarah Glozer, 2016. "Researching Corporate Social Responsibility Communication: Themes, Opportunities and Challenges," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(7), pages 1223-1252, November.
    6. Anne Vestergaard & Julie Uldam, 2022. "Legitimacy and Cosmopolitanism: Online Public Debates on (Corporate) Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 176(2), pages 227-240, March.
    7. Assunta Di Vaio & Luisa Varriale & Angelo Di Gregorio & Samuel Adomako, 2022. "Corporate social performance and non‐financial reporting in the cruise industry: Paving the way towards UN Agenda 2030," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(6), pages 1931-1953, November.
    8. Francesco Gangi & Jérôme Méric & Rémi Jardat & Lucia Michela Daniele, 2019. "Business for society," Post-Print hal-02382307, HAL.
    9. Liu, Yang Stephanie & Zhou, Xiaoyan & Yang, Jessica Hong & Hoepner, Andreas G.F. & Kakabadse, Nada, 2023. "Carbon emissions, carbon disclosure and organizational performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    10. Daniel Reimsbach & Rüdiger Hahn, 2015. "The Effects of Negative Incidents in Sustainability Reporting on Investors’ Judgments–an Experimental Study of Third‐party Versus Self‐disclosure in the Realm of Sustainable Development," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 217-235, May.
    11. Harsha Sarvaiya & Gabriel Eweje & Jim Arrowsmith, 2018. "The Roles of HRM in CSR: Strategic Partnership or Operational Support?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 825-837, December.
    12. Vikrant Shirodkar & Eshani Beddewela & Ulf Henning Richter, 2018. "Firm-Level Determinants of Political CSR in Emerging Economies: Evidence from India," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 673-688, March.
    13. Maria Joutsenvirta, 2013. "Executive Pay and Legitimacy: Changing Discursive Battles Over the Morality of Excessive Manager Compensation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(3), pages 459-477, September.
    14. Heather Markham Kim & Kyuha Cho & Younggin Choi & Junghoon (Jay) Lee & Jinsoo Hwang, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in the Casino Industry: A Content Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-16, October.
    15. Laura Bini & Marco Bellucci & Francesco Giunta, 2016. "Put Your Money where Your Mouth is: The Difference between Real Commitment to Sustainability and Mere Rhetoric," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(2), pages 5-31.
    16. Richter, Ulf Henning & Shirodkar, Vikrant & Shete, Namita, 2021. "Firm-level indicators of instrumental and political CSR processes – A multiple case study," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 279-290.
    17. Dirk Gilbert & Michael Behnam, 2009. "Advancing Integrative Social Contracts Theory: A Habermasian Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 89(2), pages 215-234, October.
    18. Maria Joutsenvirta & Liisa Uusitalo, 2010. "Cultural Competences: An Important Resource in the Industry–NGO Dialog," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 91(3), pages 379-390, February.
    19. Verena Girschik, 2020. "Managing Legitimacy in Business‐Driven Social Change: The Role of Relational Work," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 775-804, June.
    20. Diletta Acuti & Marco Bellucci & Giacomo Manetti, 2024. "Preventive and Remedial Actions in Corporate Reporting Among “Addiction Industries”: Legitimacy, Effectiveness and Hypocrisy Perception," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(3), pages 603-623, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:148:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-015-3011-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.