TY - JOUR

T1 - From the Substantive to the Ceremonial

T2 - Exploring Interrelations Between Recognition and Aspirational CSR Talk

AU - Trittin-Ulbrich, Hannah

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022.

PY - 2023/5

Y1 - 2023/5

N2 - Stakeholder recognition constitutes a firm’s experience of affirmation and acknowledgment from stakeholders and is deemed essential for organizations to develop positive self-relations and a sense of themselves as morally responsible social actors. Through an in-depth case study, I show how a firm’s varied experiences of stakeholder recognition for its corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts alternately facilitated and hindered the performativity of its aspirational CSR talk through two key processes: (a) a recognition-attainment process whereby the experience of stakeholder recognition helped turn aspirational CSR talk into “substantive” talk with the performative potential to catalyze other CSR practices; and (b) a subsequent recognition-commodification process induced by a perceived misrecognition that ultimately rendered such talk “ceremonial.” Elucidating stakeholder recognition as an undertheorized boundary condition of aspirational CSR talk, this study adds to performative approaches to CSR communication. It further contributes to research on recognition by demonstrating the explanatory potential of Axel Honneth’s notion of recognition in researching business and society interactions.

AB - Stakeholder recognition constitutes a firm’s experience of affirmation and acknowledgment from stakeholders and is deemed essential for organizations to develop positive self-relations and a sense of themselves as morally responsible social actors. Through an in-depth case study, I show how a firm’s varied experiences of stakeholder recognition for its corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts alternately facilitated and hindered the performativity of its aspirational CSR talk through two key processes: (a) a recognition-attainment process whereby the experience of stakeholder recognition helped turn aspirational CSR talk into “substantive” talk with the performative potential to catalyze other CSR practices; and (b) a subsequent recognition-commodification process induced by a perceived misrecognition that ultimately rendered such talk “ceremonial.” Elucidating stakeholder recognition as an undertheorized boundary condition of aspirational CSR talk, this study adds to performative approaches to CSR communication. It further contributes to research on recognition by demonstrating the explanatory potential of Axel Honneth’s notion of recognition in researching business and society interactions.

KW - aspirational talk

KW - corporate social responsibility (CSR)

KW - CSR communication

KW - performativity

KW - recognition

KW - Management studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85135485764&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/018e04ca-805e-3dd2-957e-f5f85ee5fe27/

U2 - 10.1177/00076503221114795

DO - 10.1177/00076503221114795

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85135485764

VL - 62

SP - 917

EP - 949

JO - Business and Society

JF - Business and Society

SN - 0007-6503

IS - 5

ER -