Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
9-2024
Abstract
Incumbent firms resist change as they have much to lose if things go wrong. But inertia can also be costly, particularly in times of crisis. In a world on fire, does corporate transparency foster engagement with external threats to future organizational success? To answer this question, we conduct a mixed-methods analysis of 887 public earnings-calls meetings between executives, investors, and outside analysts from 24 major oil and gas companies in 2007-2020, a period marked by extreme weather events and increased popular and political pressure to slow global warming. We find that formal rituals that promote openness and debate to protect investors reproduce the status quo by cultivating narratives that deny the need for change.
Keywords
Organizations, Inertia, Denial, Climate change, Computational sociology
Discipline
Place and Environment | Sociology
Research Areas
Sociology
Areas of Excellence
Sustainability
Publication
Social Problems
ISSN
0037-7791
Identifier
10.1093/socpro/spae045
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Citation
LADEGAARD, Isak, & RIEGER, Annika Marie.(2024). How “Ceremonial Openness” prevents organizational change : An analysis of corporate earnings calls in the oil and gas industry, 2007–2020. Social Problems, .
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/4106
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spae045
