Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden

Employee-driven norm entrepreneurship for corporate social responsibility

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Abstract

Employees are not only recipients of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities but can take an active role in their development. Yet, scholarly attention has been lacking to develop a sophisticated understanding of how employees who wish to develop new CSR norms make use of their organisational agency in the persuading of other stakeholders. The study draws on qualitative case study data, conducted at a small and medium-sized enterprise that is a CSR leader in the apparel industry. I uncover the activities of employees who are actively seeking to persuade their organisational stakeholders to adopt their CSR norms. By opening the black box of organisational microfoundations, the article offers contributions to current CSR literature and refines the concept of norm entrepreneurship by suggesting two concepts to be vital: contesting and candid transparency. Lastly, this article demonstrates that employee-driven CSR can be analytically understood as norm entrepreneurship and thus strengthens the relevance of the concept.

Biography

Tina Sendlhofer is a PhD candidate in Business Administration at Misum at the Stockholm School of Economics. Her doctoral work studies organising processes of CSR in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). More specifically, her empirical research interests are in organisation studies and its intersection with SMEs, business ethics and private governance. In her research, she has focused on exploring microfoundations of CSR, such as employee-driven CSR and the implications for workers from the digitalisation of labour rights trainings. Throughout her doctoral work, she has specialised on qualitative research methods. Tina’s research contributes to the inter-disciplinary research program Mistra Future Fashion. She has an international background, studying and working in Europe, North America and Asia.