Sustainable development is frequently an object of standardization, and over 100 000 organizations hold ISO 14001 certifi cates proving they have legitimate environmental management systems. Guidelines for social responsibility are now the object of standardization, resulting in the upcoming ISO 26000 standard. This paper examines the rationale behind developing ISO 26000, highlighting the tendency to decouple complex CSR issues in the organizational context. This is relevant to current problems of poor working conditions, weak regulatory compliance, and corruption often encountered in the production context in low-income countries. In addition, existing codes of conduct are frequently decoupled from actual organizational performance. We highlight how CSR standardization risks isolating complex and contested social issues, more radical attempts at change confl icting with striving for legitimacy. Like the decontexualizing tendency proceeding from the standardized treatment of complex sustainable development issues in organizations, CSR issues also risk becoming decontextualized with the application of standardized approaches such as the ISO 26000 standard.

The Swedish animal welfare debate has for years focused on the meat industry, which sees animals not as sentient creatures but as production factors and commodities to be economically exploited. Although animal rights organizations have tried to change the meat industry and consumer behaviour, meat consumption is increasing. This could be explained as 'affected ignorance' generated by what one already knows but does not want to hear about. This paper discusses how various actors, such as meat industry companies, food retailers, and social movement organizations, frame animal welfare in the media debate with the use of discourses, which are important for producing or discouraging affected ignorance. The paper examines a discursive battle in which actors draw on various discourses over time but also hijack opponents' discourses. This use of discourses seems to blur the debate and confuse people and they will continue to eat meat from factory-farmed animals.

This article is based on a study of three companies, i.e. Volvo, The Body Shop and Tarkett, focusing on their development of environmental strategies. Using a drama metaphor, the empirical case indicates in detail how Tarkett has been strategically able to handle increasing environmental demands. The study also demonstrates that Tarkett depends on itself in its relationship with other actors in its organizational field, and that this influences the interplay between the actors. The article concludes that the three studied companies have adopted different strategies for managing environmental demands, and that the strategy each has used involves a specific sense of 'dependency'. The strategies are explained by institutional automorphism, which means that the companies imitate themselves, employing strategies similar to those they have previously used when tackling other changes in their organization fields.

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PurposeThe aim of this study is to understand how artisanal food entrepreneurs acting as businesses, which are grounded in the logic of profit and growth, navigate the anti-growth constraints of artisanal logic. The study answers the research question of, how and when do the artisanal entrepreneurs respond to tensions between the small-scale craftsmanship logic and the business growth logic?Design/methodology/approachThis study consists of two cases of artisanal food entrepreneurs situated in rural regions of Sweden. The empirical material is collected through interviews, observations and secondary sources. The analysis consists of two steps: a narrative analysis and a categorization of institutional logics using Pache and Santos (2013) framework.FindingsOur findings show that the artisanal food entrepreneurs used several types of response to the tensions between the two institutional logics. As businesses grew, business growth logic increasingly penetrated the companies' operations. They responded by combining and blending the two logics and avoided growing too large themselves by collaborating with suppliers and local farmers. In addition, other activities needed to be compartmentalized and hidden since these activities could threaten their business images and their own criteria for small-scale food artisans.Originality/valueMuch work on how different institutional logics affect businesses have been on a structural level. This study answers the call on that more research is needed on an individual level by studying how individuals interpret logics and use them in their business activities.