Data di Pubblicazione:
2019
Citazione:
Compliance with socially responsible norms of behavior:reputation vs. conformity / L. Sacconi, V. Cecchini MAnara. - Milano : EconomEtica, 2019 Aug. (ECONOMETICA WORKING PAPERS)
Abstract:
The Social Responsibility of Business typically involves self-regulation, which entails spontaneous
compliance with social norms or standards that are not imposed by hard law.
In the debate on Corporate Social Responsibility, its voluntary basis has been stressed both in some
official documents1 and, more significantly, by the major scholars of the stakeholder approach.
In particular, the effectiveness of social responsible behavior requires a change in beliefs and
motivations rather than in formal rules. For example, Margaret Blair and Lynn Stout (1999) argue
that the internal hierarchy of public corporations should play a mediating role among all the team
members (stakeholders of the firm) that does not require a change in the corporate law, but a shift
from the dominant paradigm of shareholder primacy towards a team production model. Also in the
stakeholder theory (Freeman et al. 2010), the importance of modifying the current mindsets about
business is highlighted as a determinant factor for “putting business and ethics together” in a way that
is implementable in the real world.
In order to understand the mechanisms that lead economic agents to comply with socially responsible
norms that are not legally enforced, and do not coincide with profit, or self-interest, maximization,
our starting point is the analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility as an institution, in the sense of
Aoki (2001), who conceptualizes institutions as equilibria, i.e. self-enforcing systems of beliefs and
behaviors, where individual and collective cognitions and motivations are intertwined. In this
interpretation, the organizational process may be considered as a game among agents with different
knowledge, beliefs and motivations; an institution refers to that portion of agents’ equilibrium beliefs
common to (almost) all of them regarding how the game is actually played.
Tipologia IRIS:
08 - Relazione interna o rapporto di ricerca
Keywords:
corporate social responsibiliy; Conformity to norms; reputation effects; psychological games;
Elenco autori:
L. Sacconi, V. Cecchini MAnara
Link alla scheda completa: