The Cultural Construction of Corporate Responsibility: A Comparative Study across Three Developed Nations

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Peter Walgenbach
• Subject Area: Accounting and Finance ; Sociological Theory
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 322948626

In the bulk of literature discussing corporate responsibility (CR), the role of culture in the meaning of the term has been widely neglected. According to the world culture thesis in new institutionalism, responsibility increasingly emancipates from local contexts and diffuses on a global scale. This assumed global homogeneity leads to the idea that CR as a socially constructed institution not only diffuses as a label or practice but also results in isomorphism in norms and social cognition. This isomorphism indicates the development of a global meaning of CR. We tackle this proposed but not investigated process of normative and cognitive isomorphism empirically as we examine whether there is - linguistically speaking - a growing convergence of meaning across different countries over time. Therefore, we analyze the meaning of CR in three developed, and economically significant, nations (Germany, United Kingdom, United States of America). We do so by applying quantitative (computer-)linguistic methods to the public discourse about CR from 1950 to 2015. This approach reveals the changes in the cultural understanding of responsibility that we expect to find visible. In addition, we want to systematically review the literature on the responsibility of business from an economic history perspective. Finally, we want to bring both parts of our study together in order to profoundly address questions on the relationship between the cultural understanding of responsibility and business history empirically. The proposed project aims at deriving implications for both new institutionalism and the scientific discourse on CR.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants