The Institutionalization of CSR: At the Crossroads of Home and Host Countries Institutional Settings, Multinational Corporations, and Multinational Institutions
Beyond the UN Global Compact: Institutions and Regulations
ISBN: 978-1-78560-558-1, eISBN: 978-1-78560-557-4
Publication date: 13 April 2015
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter examines the institutional configuration of internal CSR in MNCs operating in Canada and Brazil, as well as headquarters-subsidiary relations within the institutional settings of their home and host countries.
Methodology/approach
The institutional logics perspective is used as it provides a systematic approach to understanding the institutional orders at play in the development of soft policies.
Findings
Whereas the institutional framework of the host country is a key factor in the regulatory and distributive spheres, the spheres of discretionary spending and soft policies are largely influenced and shaped by the MNCs through self-regulation, and may also be guided by intergovernmental institutions and NGOs.
Research limitations/implications
The empirical data is limited to two case studies. It seeks to understand the multiple facets of CSR reality and produce contextual insights. Generalizations might fit better with other context communities – research subjects and the researchers who investigate them, beyond the mining industry – in a non-positivist, non-probabilistic sense, than with other context settings within the same industry.
Practical implications
The chapter concludes that institutional discourses and practices around internal CSR seek to strengthen a firm’s legitimacy. CSR does not necessarily increase the MNC’s performance when viewed in a market logic, but its operational viability can align with the corporation’s global strategy and identity. It also highlights resistance resulting from professional and community institutional logics.
Originality/value
This chapter contributes to the literature on internal CSR and is original in including an MNC from the South with subsidiaries in the North.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the Centro de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação das Américas of the University of Brasilia (CEPPAC/UnB) and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for a four-year study grant that enabled me to carry out this work.
I am also grateful to professors Danilo Nolasco, Moisés Balestro, Roberta Aguzzoli and two anonymous reviewers for comments and to Mona-Lynn Courteau for copy-editing the chapter.
Citation
Lamontagne, A. (2015), "The Institutionalization of CSR: At the Crossroads of Home and Host Countries Institutional Settings, Multinational Corporations, and Multinational Institutions", Beyond the UN Global Compact: Institutions and Regulations (Advances in Sustainability and Environmental Justice, Vol. 17), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 47-66. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2051-503020150000017010
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015 Emerald Group Publishing Limited