TY - JOUR

T1 - “We Can’t Compete on Human Rights”

T2 - Creating Market-Protected Spaces to Institutionalize the Emerging Logic of Responsible Management

AU - Schüßler, Elke S.

AU - Lohmeyer, Nora

AU - Ashwin, Sarah

N1 - Funding Information: Action Plan [for Human Rights] comes from the Federal Foreign Office, then there’s also the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs with the Berlin Leonardo Marques, Carolin Puhl, Eshan Samimi, Joerg Sydow, and Waldemar Kremser. We also want to thank three anonymous reviewers and the handling editor, Jennifer Howard-Grenville, for detailed and constructive comments and excellent guidance. We gratefully acknowledge funding by the Volkswagen Foundation for the project “Changes in the Governance of Garment Global Production Networks: Lead Firm, Supplier, and Institutional Responses to the Rana Plaza Disaster” under the European and Global Challenges Program. All correspondence should be directed to lead author Elke S. Schuessler (elke.schuessler@leuphana.de). The second and third author have contributed equally. Publisher Copyright: Copyright of the Academy of Management, all rights reserved.

PY - 2023/8

Y1 - 2023/8

N2 - To what extent are multinational corporations able to address societal challenges through voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR)? Based on an in-depth qualitative study of how apparel multinational corporations have addressed labor standards violations since the deadly 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse, we show how CSR managers navigate the tension between the emerging responsible management logic and the highly institutionalized market logic, revealing how some go beyond accommodating responsible management within the market by prioritizing responsible management in market-protected spaces. We theorize the construction of market-protected spaces as a multilevel mechanism for institutionalizing an emerging logic in the context of a field dominated by the market logic via three forms of institutional work: restraining the jurisdiction of the market logic, infusing the responsible management logic with nonmarket elements, and maintaining market-protected spaces against resistance. A “market-protected space” is an institutionally bound space that suspends the dominance of the market logic on selected issues based on a binding institutional infrastructure that allows prioritizing responsible management—unlike voluntary CSR, which still prioritizes the market logic. The concept of a market-protected space maps a path for policy-makers, managers, and other actors interested in institutionalizing responsible management in the global economy.

AB - To what extent are multinational corporations able to address societal challenges through voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR)? Based on an in-depth qualitative study of how apparel multinational corporations have addressed labor standards violations since the deadly 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse, we show how CSR managers navigate the tension between the emerging responsible management logic and the highly institutionalized market logic, revealing how some go beyond accommodating responsible management within the market by prioritizing responsible management in market-protected spaces. We theorize the construction of market-protected spaces as a multilevel mechanism for institutionalizing an emerging logic in the context of a field dominated by the market logic via three forms of institutional work: restraining the jurisdiction of the market logic, infusing the responsible management logic with nonmarket elements, and maintaining market-protected spaces against resistance. A “market-protected space” is an institutionally bound space that suspends the dominance of the market logic on selected issues based on a binding institutional infrastructure that allows prioritizing responsible management—unlike voluntary CSR, which still prioritizes the market logic. The concept of a market-protected space maps a path for policy-makers, managers, and other actors interested in institutionalizing responsible management in the global economy.

KW - Management studies

KW - Research Methods

KW - Qualitative Orientation

KW - Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations

KW - Corporate social responsibility

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/d67284fb-af4f-30b7-afa9-6c9f764a9568/

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85170674776&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.5465/amj.2020.1614

DO - 10.5465/amj.2020.1614

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 66

SP - 1071

EP - 1101

JO - Academy of Management Journal

JF - Academy of Management Journal

SN - 0001-4273

IS - 4

ER -