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In France, a religious congregation created the first ethical fund in 1983. By the end of the 1980s, only two ethical funds were operating. During the second half of the 1990s, the number of SRI funds rose rapidly – only 7 were available in 1997, by December 2001 this number had jumped to 42 and then to 137 by the end of 2007. In 2010, almost 300 SR funds were available. During the period from end of 2001 to end of 2010, the percentage of total French mutual fund capitalization represented by SRI funds climbed from 0.12% to nearly 1% (www.novethic.fr). Despite the fact that this total amount remains modest, still all retail networks are now offering such funds.

This chapter focuses on the circumstances under which active clients in universities construct external management consultants as actors. Much research focuses on how consultants legitimize decisions and trends in business organizations, but we know little about how consultants become legitimized as actors in other organizational fields. In the academic field, clients are embedded in a variety of organizational settings embedded in different institutional logics, which determine their sense making. By analyzing how consultants are legitimized, the authors contribute to a better understanding of the organizational preconditions that support the construction of an external expert as an actor. By focusing on IT and strategy consulting in academia, further, the authors discuss the role of competing institutional logics in legitimization processes and the importance of intra-organizational communities.

This study aims to provide an integrated view of performance measurement systems (PMS) by developing a taxonomy reflecting the interdependencies among various PMS aspects. This study aims to move the study of PMS from a cartesian form of contingency fit to a configuration form. More specifically, the following research question is investigated in this study: To what extent do similar patterns across various dimensions of PMS occur with regularity? Using a survey approach to collect data from a sample of manufacturing firms, this study aims to develop a taxonomy based on three aspects of the PMS process, namely the design (i.e., the mix of financial, customer, internal processes, innovation and learning measures), the use (i.e., monitoring, strategic decision-making, attention-focusing, legitimization), and the revision (i.e., the addition, deletion, and changes in performance indicators). Three patterns of relationships reflecting the role and importance of PMS within the organization emerge: (a) PMS as an outcomes surveillance mechanism, (b) PMS as a management support tool, and (c) PMS as an institutionalized organizational process. This study contributes to the management accounting literature by providing a different understanding of the various levels of integration of PMS within organizational routines.

Did the expansion of democratic institutions play a role in determining central government spending behavior in the 19th and 20th centuries? The link between democracy and increased central government spending is well established for the post-Second World War period, but has never been explored during the first “wave of democracy” and its subsequent reversal, that is 1870–1938. The main contribution of this paper is the compilation of a dataset covering 24 countries over this period to begin to address this question. Utilizing various descriptive techniques, including panel data regressions, we explore correlations between central government spending and the institutional characteristics of regimes. We find that the data are consistent with the hypothesis that democracies have a broader need for legitimization than autocracies as various measures of democracy are associated with higher central government spending. Our results indicate that the extension of franchise had a slight positive impact on central government spending levels, as did a few of the other democracy variables. We also find that early liberal democracies spent less and monarchies more than other regimes; debt increases spending; and participation in the Gold Standard reduced government spending substantially.

Entrepreneurship teachers (ETs) evolve in an environment where different categories of people interact: students, teachers and stakeholders. Assuming one or more identities or roles, teachers, practitioners, ex-entrepreneurs and/or researchers are the ‘transmitters’¹ of entrepreneurship education (EE). The question of recognition of teachers’ professional status is not always addressed (Hargreaves, 2000). Scientific research in EE shows certain weaknesses (Byrne, Fayolle, & Toutain, 2014; Fayolle, 2013), notably, a lack of interest in questions of (i) the perceived legitimacy of ETs and (ii) the support they receive in carrying out their work (particularly professional development). Taking a decidedly multidisciplinary perspective, this chapter aims to deal with the question of the perceived legitimacy of ETs using a literature review that covers all disciplines having shown an interest in the notion of teacher legitimacy.

The legitimacy of EE depends on the interactions between legitimate instructors and legitimate students in a given context, which respects certain collectively accepted norms. It also depends on the context and the objective of EE. Following the example of a university hospital worker (doctor), ETs can be practitioners, teachers and researchers. Their degree of expertise, position in the institution, positioning in relation to other actors – students, peers, colleagues, institutional and professional stakeholders – and the discourse they use are the elements that constitute their legitimacy.

This paper analyses the construction of value under the context of radical uncertainty (Keynes, 1936; Orléan, 1987) in the financialised real estate sector in France. It is based on a participant observation of valuation practices in an international real estate consulting firm and 26 in-depth interviews with professionals of the sector. We show that these practices rely on an institutional architecture that participates in the consolidation and legitimisation of the accumulation activity of asset managers and thus in the feeding of real estate bubbles in the hearts of large metropolises. Completing the conventionalist approach of value (Orléan, 2011) by focussing on the functioning of the organisations involved in the valuation process, I show that the determination of value is less the result of the emergence and autonomisation of a collective belief through market relationships than the product of power relationships between agents integrated in hierarchical professional organisations and in a specific legal framework.

In this paper, my claim is that employee ownership of industrial companies enables economic survival, democracy, and joint responsibility. My main focus is a case study of Ljuders Nickelsilfverfabrik and its change to employee ownership. In 1980, 36 of the 42 employees became owners. My research question is how have the economy and democracy in an employee-owned industrial company changed over the years? My main research method includes a 35-year in-depth longitudinal case study of Ljuders Nickelsilfverfabrik since its employee takeover. The empirical material includes documents, interviews, participant observations, and informal talks over the entire study period. My theory is based on the study by Connell Fanning and McCarthy (1983, 1986), who have compiled the critical literature on employee-owned companies and have asked why so few employee-owned companies exist in Western economies. They formulate six non-viability hypotheses for employee ownership, against which I present my empirical study and conclude that employee ownership is possible. From my case study in combination with the literature about organizational changes, I formulate a recipe for a successful employee takeover and collective entrepreneurship. The experience of Ljuders Nickelsilfverfabrik shows that a more complete business idea can subsequently unfold with the help of different people’s knowledge and experiences. Degeneration from democratic to more traditional ownership and control can be avoided by placing new people in leadership positions. The management must create legitimacy for a different organizational form for internal and external stakeholders.

Sport ecology research has finally reached a point of critical mass where it is time to see it as a subdiscipline within the sport academy. Researchers have worked to grow the quality of this research over the years. This improvement is due, in part, to the deeper collaboration that those working in the sport ecology field have made with industry professionals. These partnerships have led to richer data and deeper influence on common practice and deeper integration of sustainability in the sport sector.

This chapter discusses the progress and the challenges that have come with legitimizing this line of research, which some now refer to as sport ecology. We approach this chapter based on research specific to partnerships in and out of sport focused on advancing environmental sustainability. However, we draw on our own experiences as they pertain to the role that academics can play to enhance and contribute to the integration of environmental sustainability into industry practice by advancing sport ecology research.

Academics have an integral role to play through contributing a foundational understanding of research methods and specific content areas (e.g., marketing, consumer behavior, policy development, governance, and organizational behavior) to the sport sector's efforts.

The difficulties of engaging the sport sector are discussed and an optimistic, albeit idealized, “preferred future” is proposed on how academics and practitioners can collaborate to promote the sport sector's role in advancing worldwide efforts to address climate change through climate action.

Agri-biotech multinational enterprises (MNEs) are persisting to push genetically modified plant varieties (GMV) worldwide including emerging countries as a technological solution for sustainable development. However, in emerging countries, the structure and effectiveness of regulation and compliance measures to ensure human and environmental safety are much less developed. There are three types of concerns: the economic risks faced by farmers while using existing low-yielding conventional seed varieties, in the face of inadequate institutional mechanisms and safety nets, the long-term environmental risks, and finally, risks posed by other possible externalities. In an attempt to provide some insight on the aforementioned debate, this chapter focuses on a commercially successful GMV—namely genetically modified cotton, also referred to as Bt cotton. The literature on adoption of Bt cotton is first examined, and its findings are confronted with the reality of the introduction and diffusion of Bt cotton in India to derive inferences on how MNE and emerging countries’ governments can manage coexistence. Our findings indicate that in order to be successful, MNEs have to establish the sociopolitical legitimacy of GMV through investment in outreach with regulatory authorities, government departments dealing with the environmental and bio safety, farmer groups, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). MNEs also have to keep in mind that pricing and high technology fee can become an impediment for the legitimization of technology. Finally, MNEs can partner with NGOs to educate and accompany farmers to maximize their livelihood, while preserving the ecological sustainability of their farm lands.