Corporate Community Responsibility as an Outcome of Individual Embeddedness
Author
Summary, in English
Purpose:
The purpose of this article is to improve our understanding of the nature of socialresponsibility in actual practices and, specifically, the influence of individuals on these processes.
Design/methodology/approach:
An abductive approach is applied (Alvesson and Sköldberg 1994), i.e. theory is developed by moving between theory and four empirical cases. The stories highlight theimportance of the individual and closeness to local stakeholders and the presence of overlappingrationales.
Findings:
The individuals’ simultaneous roles – as owners, managers and community members –influence how they are held or see themselves as accountable and how they account for the firms’engagement in the community. The activities are conducted in the name of the firm but originate fromprivate as well as business-oriented concerns. Our conclusions encourage an extension of thecorporate social responsibility (CSR) construct to approach it as an entangled phenomenon resultingfrom the firm and the individual embeddedness in internal and external cultures.
Originality/value:
This study brings the individual managers and owner-managers into focus and howtheir interplay with the surrounding context can create additional dimensions of accountability, whichimpact on the decisions taken in regard to CSR. A micro-perspective is applied. Corporate communityresponsibility, particularly in smaller and rural communities, contributes to recognize and understandhow individuals influence and are influenced by CSR.
The purpose of this article is to improve our understanding of the nature of socialresponsibility in actual practices and, specifically, the influence of individuals on these processes.
Design/methodology/approach:
An abductive approach is applied (Alvesson and Sköldberg 1994), i.e. theory is developed by moving between theory and four empirical cases. The stories highlight theimportance of the individual and closeness to local stakeholders and the presence of overlappingrationales.
Findings:
The individuals’ simultaneous roles – as owners, managers and community members –influence how they are held or see themselves as accountable and how they account for the firms’engagement in the community. The activities are conducted in the name of the firm but originate fromprivate as well as business-oriented concerns. Our conclusions encourage an extension of thecorporate social responsibility (CSR) construct to approach it as an entangled phenomenon resultingfrom the firm and the individual embeddedness in internal and external cultures.
Originality/value:
This study brings the individual managers and owner-managers into focus and howtheir interplay with the surrounding context can create additional dimensions of accountability, whichimpact on the decisions taken in regard to CSR. A micro-perspective is applied. Corporate communityresponsibility, particularly in smaller and rural communities, contributes to recognize and understandhow individuals influence and are influenced by CSR.
Department/s
Publishing year
2014
Language
English
Pages
297-315
Publication/Series
Social Responsibility Journal
Volume
10
Issue
2
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Topic
- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
- Business Administration
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1747-1117