PhD Proposal
Working Title: Social Business Behaviour in Post-Soviet Economies: The Russian
Case
Outline:
The literature on social business behaviour has proliferated in recent years,
mainly examining CSR of firms in developed economies (Brammer, Jackson, &
Matten, 2012; Campbell, 2007; Carroll & Shabana, 2010; Crouch, 2006; Matten &
Crane, 2005), with definitions of social business behaviour now being plentiful
(Dahlsrud, 2008). More recently assumptions about CSR and why firms engage in
such practices has been challenged by the study of social business behaviour in
emerging market contexts such as Russia, China, Pakistan, or Mexico (Blasco &
Zølner, 2010; Crotty, 2014; Li & Zhang, 2010; Lund-Thomsen, Lindgreen, &
Vanhamme, 2014; Muller & Kolk, 2010; Zhao, 2012). In particular this research
illustrates the need for contextualising social business behaviour (Crotty, 2014;
Dahlsrud, 2008) because in such contexts they are often part of a firms wider
legitimisation activities (Kuznetsov, Kuznetsova, & Warren, 2009; Zhao, 2012).
Frequently firms use engagement in social business behaviours to avert other more
restrictive regulations, for example taxation or environmental protection regulation
(Crotty, 2014). The different utilisation of social business behaviours by firms in such
contexts suggests that their study can provide us with an important insight into
emerging market multinationals. Further, it raises the question as to whether firms
from such contexts increasingly internationalising (Luo & Tung, 2007) will ‘export’
or how they will adjust such behaviours as part of accessing foreign markets.
Therefore, further research of social business behaviour is required to extend our
theoretical understanding of such practices in emerging market multinationals.
The post-soviet environment, and in particular Russia, provides a relevant and
novel context to study social business behaviour. Social business behaviour of
Russian firms can be traced back to their role in the communist economic system
where they were much more then employers (Kornai, 1992). Firms were part of the
state welfare provision and responsible for making a significant contribution to the
local social infrastructure, such as running or supporting hospitals or building and
maintaining playgrounds (Kornai, 1992). In turn firms are likely to have ingrained
traditions and capabilities of engaging in social business behaviours without
necessarily qualifying them as such. Therefore this project would examine the type
and reasons for social business behaviour amongst Russian firms and whether they
are part of their ‘business model’ (i.e. part of their competitive advantage and
potentially exportable as part of their internationalisations) or specifically developed
for their home context. In order to explore this question, the project will address the
following objectives:
- Developing a classification social business behaviours for the Russian context
- Establishing the strategic importance of social business behaviour in Russian
firms
-
Examining the role of social business behaviour in internationalisation
decisions of Russian firms
In order to study social business behaviour in Russian firms and be able to
address the strategic role of such behaviours a qualitative approach will be required.
Thus, data will need to be collected via documentation available from organisations,
interviews with individuals in participating organisations, and observation of strategy
practices in participating organisations. A more detailed data collection strategy will
be developed as the project progresses.
References:
Blasco, M., & Zølner, M. 2010. Corporate Social Responsibility in Mexico and
France Exploring the Role of Normative Institutions. Business & Society,
49(2): 216–251.
Brammer, S., Jackson, G., & Matten, D. 2012. Corporate Social Responsibility and
institutional theory: new perspectives on private governance. Socio-Economic
Review, 10(1): 3–28.
Campbell, J. L. 2007. Why Would Corporations Behave in Socially Responsible
Ways? An Institutional Theory of Corporate Social Responsibility. The
Academy of Management Review, 32(3): 946–967.
Carroll, A. B., & Shabana, K. M. 2010. The Business Case for Corporate Social
Responsibility: A Review of Concepts, Research and Practice. International
Journal of Management Reviews, 12(1): 85–105.
Crotty, J. 2014. Corporate Social Responsibility in the Russian Federation: A
Contextualized Approach. Business & Society.
http://bas.sagepub.com/cgi/doi/10.1177/0007650314561965, January 6, 2015.
Crouch, C. 2006. Modelling the Firm in its Market and Organizational Environment:
Methodologies for Studying Corporate Social Responsibility. Organization
Studies, 27(10): 1533–1551.
Dahlsrud, A. 2008. How corporate social responsibility is defined: an analysis of 37
definitions. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental
Management, 15(1): 1–13.
Kornai, J. 1992. The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism.
Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.
Kuznetsov, A., Kuznetsova, O., & Warren, R. 2009. CSR and the legitimacy of
business in transition economies: The case of Russia. Scandinavian Journal
of Management, 25(1): 37–45.
Li, W., & Zhang, R. 2010. Corporate Social Responsibility, Ownership Structure, and
Political Interference: Evidence from China. Journal of Business Ethics,
96(4): 631–645.
Lund-Thomsen, P., Lindgreen, A., & Vanhamme, J. 2014. Industrial Clusters and
Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing Countries: What We Know,
What We do not Know, and What We Need to Know. Journal of Business
Ethics, 1–16.
Luo, Y., & Tung, R. L. 2007. International expansion of emerging market enterprises:
A springboard perspective. Journal of International Business Studies, 38(4):
481–498.
Matten, D., & Crane, A. 2005. Corporate Citizenship: Toward an Extended
Theoretical Conceptualization. Academy of Management Review, 30(1): 166–
179.
Muller, A., & Kolk, A. 2010. Extrinsic and Intrinsic Drivers of Corporate Social
Performance: Evidence from Foreign and Domestic Firms in Mexico. Journal
of Management Studies, 47(1): 1–26.
Zhao, M. 2012. CSR-Based Political Legitimacy Strategy: Managing the State by
Doing Good in China and Russia. Journal of Business Ethics, 111(4): 439–
460.