CSR, employee attitudes, employee typology, grounded theory, qualitative research, social justice, stakeholders,

Even though the link between perceived corporate social responsibility fit (PCSR‐fit) and corporate reputation has received much attention from scholars, this tradition has ignored that the underpinnings of this association vary depending on the particular characteristics of each industry under study. To delve into this matter, we investigate in the increasingly relevant context of controversial industries (CIs) how PCSR‐fit could enhance corporate reputation and which are the mediating mechanisms of this association. Our academic contribution is twofold. First, we find that controversial sectors indeed can increase corporate reputation through CSR activities. However, we find that to achieve this goal, the nature of PCSR‐fit should be different than what extant literature indicates, because companies in these settings should directly focus on avoiding or reducing their inherent controversial harm or impact. Second, we evidence that “CSR initiatives' legitimacy” and “situational skepticism” mediate the PCSR‐fit and corporate reputation relationship in CIs. Therefore, we further unravel the underpinnings of this association to advance what we know on the matter and aid practitioners in this particular context.

Most research studying the corporate social performance (CSP)-corporate financial performance (CFP) link has utilized developed country samples. Also, this literature has generally focused on a wide variety of industries, ignoring the fact that certain sectors -such as controversial industries -have graver social and environmental issues. Hence, a gap exists in this tradition when it comes to emerging markets and controversial industries. This paper attempts to fill this void by providing preliminary evidence and insight on the matter. Based on an exploration in six Latin American countries and five controversial industries, we find a negative bidirectional association (or a non-significant one at best) between CSP and CFP. These results tend to contradict the mainstream conclusion of a positive bidirectional link, suggesting that institutional and market-level forces play a major role in shaping this relationship.

Virtually all studies that focus on the relationship between CSR perceptions and employees’ organizational commitment have not taken into consideration the fit between social and environmental activities and a firm’s business‐unit strategy. This is essential to inquire because scholars have argued that when companies ingrain CSR activities into their strategy‐making process (i.e., in their vision, mission, and overall business model), this might send a more compelling message that resonates closer to workers’ personal standards, and actually enhance employee‐level outcomes. Nevertheless, there is no certainty “if” and “how” these evaluations could affect employees’ organizational commitment. To address this issue, we use cue consistency theory and social identity theory as overarching frameworks to develop a model where we conceptually link perceptions of strategy‐CSR fit with a particular type of organizational commitment: affective. In addition, we posit and test three mediators to understand the underlying psychological mechanisms of this relationship: perceived external prestige, organizational identification, and work meaningfulness. Through structural equation modeling, and using a heterogeneous final sample of 579 employees, we find compelling evidence to support the fact that strategy‐CSR fit enhances employees’ affective organizational commitment through the proposed mediators. Academic contributions and practical implications are then discussed.

academic community, business ethics scholars, CSR, journal quality, survey, ranking,

Even though literature studying the determinants of non-financial disclosure (NFD) is pervasive, Latin America has been overlooked in this tradition. In this sense, scholars have not evidenced which factors compel companies in this context to report this information despite its voluntary nature. Drawing on Stakeholder Theory as a basis, we derive eight possible antecedents of NFD from extant literature and test them in a sample of 643 Latin American firms for a 10 year span (2006–2015). Using a logit panel model, our evidence indicates that firm size, market-to-book ratio, systematic risk, and industry membership are factors that pressure companies to report. However, contrary to our conceptual development we find that profitability and regulatory quality inversely affects NFD. This leads us to posit that Latin America is unique in terms of reporting because agency costs may arise when disclosing data and also that feeble regulations could summon firms to fill this void through NFD. We thus contribute to this strand by revealing that stakeholders in this milieu are essentially different than in developed countries, and therefore the underlying reasons to engage in NFD also differ.

The spatial dimension of sustainability transitions is central to understanding how systems change, yet current literature falls short when it comes to explaining transitions dynamics in context, and the central factors and alternative paths through which particular spaces move towards or away from sustainable development efforts. We conduct an exploratory factor analysis and a post-hoc cluster analysis of sustainability transition dynamics at a spatial level in 99 nations. Based on our analyses we establish a multi-dimensional measurement tool of nation sustainability that considers place, time and directionality. The analysis yielded four key dimensions -governance quality, industrial pollution, socio-environmental conditions and clean wealth creation -upon which we elaborated clusters of nations representing four distinct empirical types of transition pathways, crossroaders, compliers, athletes and laggards. In doing so we provide a holistic view of the phenomenon, which is relevant for both further theorizing and policy development. *Manuscript Click here to view linked References AbstractThe spatial dimension of sustainability transitions is central to understanding how systems change, yet current literature falls short when it comes to explaining transitions dynamics in context, and the central factors and alternative paths through which particular spaces move towards or away from sustainable development efforts. We conduct an exploratory factor analysis and a post-hoc cluster analysis of sustainability transition dynamics at a spatial level in 99 nations. Based on our analyses we establish a multi-dimensional measurement tool of nation sustainability that considers place, time and directionality. The analysis yielded four key dimensions -governance quality, industrial pollution, socio-environmental conditions and clean wealth creation -upon which we elaborated clusters of nations representing four distinct empirical types of transition pathways, crossroaders, compliers, athletes and laggards. In doing so we provide a holistic view of the phenomenon, which is relevant for both further theorizing and policy development.Keywords: Sustainability transitions; Nation-level sustainability measurement; Empirical typology; Sustainability pathways; Factor analysis Highlights  It conducts a quantitative exploration of sustainability transition dynamics at a spatial level  It identifies sets of distinct factors and paths of sustainable development at national level  It conducts an EFA of 22 factors at the national level  It identifies 4 key dimensions relevant to capturing transition dynamics  It conducts a cluster analysis of 99 countries and develops an empirical typology of paths towards SD  It recognizes several policy implications for the four distinct groups of nations  It provides a promising start for the identification of key variables in sustainability research 2 1

Social systems are always exposed to critical processes in which their organization, or part of it, is questioned by the society that demands solutions through different critical saliences. The traditional approach to such social crises has mainly focused on their anticipation and management, implying that the focus is on trying to deal with crises once they occur, rather than delving in their essential characteristics that seemingly depend on the adaptive nature of the system and the increase in its internal complexity. To address this issue, we propose a dual approach that utilizes both qualitative (documentary analysis) and quantitative methods (online social network analysis) in order to delve into the relationship between the complexity of the social system, its adaptation, and critical episodes. Our analysis shows how an explosive economic growth affects a social system, increasing its complexity. This complexity produces different demands from the system itself. These demands manifest signatures of complexity such as a heterogeneous and rich social structure, which emerges during moments when the society acts strongly.