The rise of the Global Reporting Initiative: a case of institutional entrepreneurship

Brown, Halina Szejnwald; Jong, Martin de; Lessidrenska, Teodorina

doi:10.1080/09644010802682551

Cited by 285 publications

(218 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…That said, some convergence is likely between CMEs and LMEs originated companies when the issue of corporate reputation is considered as a motivating factor. The take-up of the GRI, as a benchmark in which to match sustainability reporting, has been more prominent in those countries where voluntarist approaches to regulation apply (the LMEs; Brown, de Jong, & Lessidrenska, 2009). …”

Section: 'Varieties' Of Sustainable Hrm?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reporting on sustainability and HRM: a comparative study of sustainability reporting practices by the world's largest companies

Ehnert

Parsa

Roper

et al. 2015

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

310

279

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As a response to the growing public awareness on the importance of organisational contributions to sustainable development, there is an increased incentive for corporations to report on their sustainability activities. In parallel with this has been the development of 'Sustainable HRM' which embraces a growing body of practitioner and academic literature connecting the notions of corporate sustainability to HRM. The aim of this article is to analyse corporate sustainability reporting amongst the world's largest companies and to assess the HRM aspects of sustainability within these reports in comparison to environmental aspects of sustainable management and whether organisational attributes -principally country-of-origin -influences the reporting of such practices. A focus in this article is the extent to which the reporting of various aspects of sustainability may reflect dominant models of corporate governance in the country in which a company is headquartered. The findings suggest, first and against expectations, that the overall disclosure on HRM-related performance is not lower than that on environmental performance. Second, companies report more on their internal workforce compared to their external workforce. Finally, international differences, in particular those between companies headquartered in liberal market economies and coordinated market economies, are not as apparent as expected.

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Section: 'Varieties' Of Sustainable Hrm?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reporting on sustainability and HRM: a comparative study of sustainability reporting practices by the world's largest companies

Ehnert

Parsa

Roper

et al. 2015

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

310

279

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The strategic logic behind carbon disclosure is similar to that of the Global Reporting Initiative, an earlier initiative of Ceres (Brown et al, 2007). In its focus on highlighting the relationship between share price and climate strategy, while bypassing formal regulatory mechanisms of the state, carbon disclosure also constitutes a "non-state market driven governance system" (Cashore et al, 2004).…”

Section: Co Ceptual Backgrou D: I Stitutio Alizatio a D Gover A Cementioning

confidence: 99%

Corporate Responses in an Emerging Climate Regime: The Institutionalization and Commensuration of Carbon Disclosure

Kolk

Levy

Pinkse

2008

European Accounting Review

588

495

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This paper examines corporate responses to climate change in relation to the development of reporting mechanisms for greenhouse gases, more specifically carbon disclosure. It first presents some background and context on the evolution of carbon trading and disclosure, and then develops a conceptual framework using theories of global governance, institutional theory and commensuration to understand the role of carbon disclosure in the emerging climate regime. Subsequently, a closer look is taken at carbon disclosure and reporting mechanisms, with a particular focus on the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Our analysis of responses shows that CDP has been successfully using institutional investors to urge firms to disclose extensive information about their climate change activities. However, although response rates in terms of numbers of disclosing firms are impressive and growing, neither the level of carbon disclosure that CDP promotes nor the more detailed carbon accounting provide information that is particularly valuable for investors, NGOs or policy makers at this stage. As a project of commensuration, carbon disclosure has achieved some progress in technical terms, but much less with regard to the cognitive and value dimensions.

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“…These activities indicate that GRI, unlike its financial reporting counterparts the FASB and IASB, is expanding beyond its core activity of producing a reporting standard, and is actively engaged in promoting and facilitating its use. With this expanded mission, GRI requires additional resources, a significant portion of which is provided by corporate philanthropy, a practice perceived by many as problematic and potentially distorting (Brown et al 2007). Similar to GRI's early years, the same two discursive strategies for institutionalizing sustainability reporting are apparent: the financial reporting analogy and the motivation for adoption.…”

Section: "Some Voices In the Gri Process Maintain That Being Explicitmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Analogy in the Institutionalization of Sustainability Reporting

Etzion

Ferraro

2010

Organization Science

323

319

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We study institutional entrepreneurship in an emergent field by analyzing the case of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and its efforts to purposefully institutionalize the practice of sustainability reporting. We suggest that analogies affect institutionalization processes through two mechanisms. In early stages of institutionalization, analogy operates primarily as a normative mechanism and adoption is driven mainly by an instrumental logic. This emphasis on similarity to existing institutions stresses conformity and promotes legitimacy. Yet, analogies can also have a cognitive effect on institutional design, especially once initial acceptance from the environment has been secured, by directing attention towards incongruences between the emergent institution and its analogical source. Institutional entrepreneurship can spur innovation and departure from existing institutions by highlighting limitations of the analogical source and providing a compelling value-rational argument underscoring the worth of the new institution. This theoretical contribution helps explain how analogies to existing institutional practices can both provide legitimacy to novel institutions and constitute the basis for a creative process of institutional design.3 Institutional entrepreneurship is a delicate balancing act between two conflicting tasks. On the one hand institutional entrepreneurs must disguise the radical nature of their enterprise in order to engage supporters and evade the wrath of incumbents, while on the other they cannot adhere too closely to existing practices, for by doing so, they will not be able to further any meaningful change (Aldrich and Fiol 1994). Institutional entrepreneurs need to become skilled cultural operatives, fashioning stories in order to attract resources. In this work it is essential to "balance the need for legitimacy by abiding by societal norms about what is appropriate with efforts to create unique identities that may differentiate and is relatively well-studied. However, the role of analogy in shaping institutional design has not been explored in depth. Tropes like simile, analogy and metaphor can help gather political support and legitimacy, but they also lead to analytical closure (Oswick, Keenoy and Grant 2002). Remaining within the confines of a clearly defined analogy cannot lead to evolution to profoundly different institutions (Hoffman and Ventresca 1999). Furthermore, the analogy cannot be discarded at later stages (Ocasio and Joseph 2005) when deeper institutional change is being advocated, as cognitive lock-in has already limited external constituents' receptivity to alternative scenarios. How, then, do analogies shape the construction and evolution of proto-institutions? 4In this article we address the role of analogies in institutional change by presenting a longitudinal case-study of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and its strategies to promote and institutionalize sustainability reporting practices. GRI, a non-profit organization headquartered in Amsterdam, ...

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The rise of the Global Reporting Initiative: a case of institutional entrepreneurship

Cited by 285 publications

References 25 publications

Reporting on sustainability and HRM: a comparative study of sustainability reporting practices by the world's largest companies

Reporting on sustainability and HRM: a comparative study of sustainability reporting practices by the world's largest companies

Corporate Responses in an Emerging Climate Regime: The Institutionalization and Commensuration of Carbon Disclosure

The Role of Analogy in the Institutionalization of Sustainability Reporting

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