Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

12-2011

Abstract

This article examines why global corporate social responsibility (CSR) frameworks havegained popularity in the past decade, despite their uncertain costs and benefits, and how theyaffect adherents’ behavior. We focus on the two largest global frameworks—the United NationsGlobal Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative—to examine patterns of CSR adoption bygovernments and corporations. Drawing on institutional and political-economy theories, wedevelop a new analytic framework that focuses on four key environmental factors—globalinstitutional pressure, local receptivity, foreign economic penetration, and national economicsystem. We propose two arguments about the relationship between stated commitment andsubsequent action: decoupling due to lack of capacity and organized hypocrisy due to lack ofwill. Our cross-national time-series analyses show that global institutional pressure throughnongovernmental linkages encourages CSR adoption, but this pressure leads to ceremonialcommitment in developed countries and to substantive commitment in developing countries.Moreover, in developed countries, liberal economic policies increase ceremonial commitment,suggesting a pattern of organized hypocrisy whereby corporations in developed countriesmake discursive commitments without subsequent action. We also find that in developingcountries, short-term trade relations exert greater influence on corporate CSR behavior thando long-term investment transactions.

Keywords

environmentalism, global and transnational sociology, human rights, world society approach, world-system theory

Discipline

Political Economy | Political Science

Research Areas

Political Science

Publication

American Sociological Review

Volume

77

Issue

1

First Page

69

Last Page

98

ISSN

0003-1224

Identifier

10.1177/0003122411432701

Publisher

SAGE Publications (UK and US) / American Sociological Association

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122411432701

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