The organisational justifications made for CSR-related decisions and actions are examined over time using a structured framework premised on instrumental, political, integrative and ethical as well as first and second-order rationales. Using material from semi-structured interviews and drawing on documentary sources, we find that the decision-making processes underlying CSR-related initiatives were complex and multi-layered with varied patterns of motivation and justification that was modified over time. While an instrumental rationale was always apparent, political, integrative and ethical rationales were also important in the context of first and second-order rationales. The paper provides a framework to help understand the justification of CSR initiatives in a structured way and has implications for both theory and practice.
This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in European Management Journal. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in European Management Journal, 41, 3, 2023 DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2022.04.001
