The Politics of Reactivity: Ambivalence in corporate responses to corporate social responsibility ratings

Rieneke Slager, Jean Pascal Gond*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)
30 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Organizational ratings exude anxiety and allure, but relatively little is known about how managers balance resisting and mobilizing ratings. We explore this duality with a qualitative study on managerial responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) ratings. Based on interviews focused on CSR ratings with managers of 60 companies, we induce four responses to ratings: grumbling, contestation, cherry-picking and microstatactivism. We further show how managers combine resistance and mobilization in two ambivalent engagement modes. Our analysis contributes to the literature by developing a more nuanced theory of corporate responses to organizational ratings, which demonstrates the importance of ambivalence in managing institutional pressure.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)59-80
Number of pages22
JournalOrganization Studies
Volume43
Issue number1
Early online date28-Sept-2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1-Jan-2022

Keywords

  • corporate social responsibility
  • grumbling
  • politics
  • ratings
  • reactivity
  • resistance
  • statactivism
  • RANKINGS
  • POWER
  • SUSTAINABILITY
  • COMMENSURATION
  • ORGANIZATIONS
  • CONSTRUCTION
  • INVESTMENT
  • DYNAMICS
  • NUMBERS

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