Mia RAYNARD, WU Wien: "INSTITUTIONAL IMPRINTS: THE ENDURING EFFECTS OF PAST POLITICAL REGIMES ON CSR IN CHINA"

Dennis JANCSARY, WU Wien: "THE ROLE OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION IN THE PROCESS OF INSTITUTIONALIZATION"

Location: TC.3.10

Date and Time: Tuesday, May 03rd, 2016; 16.00-19.00

This research study explores how past political legacies have shaped the ways that Chinese organizations are conceptualizing and responding to recent pressures to engage in corporate social responsibility initiatives. While an established body of research has been devoted to unpacking the economic factors that motivate CSR activities, comparatively few studies have examined how past institutional arrangements may shape and channel contemporary responses to CSR. This oversight is surprising given that it is widely acknowledged that the understanding of corporate social responsibility differs across societies, industries, contexts and time. Employing a mixed-method research design that relies heavily on historical research, I attempt to shed some light on the relationship between past political imprints and contemporary variations in CSR activities. The study contributes to theories of imprinting by showing how the resilience of imprints – and how they manifest in contemporary organizational phenomena – may fundamentally depend upon: (1) the contextual conditions under which the imprints were initially formed; and, (2) characteristics of the geographic community in which the organization is embedded. The study also speaks to a growing body of research on institutional logics and complexity by providing insights into how an organization reconciles efforts to conform to new institutional arrangements with those that have been previously encoded in its structures, practices, routines and norms. The underlying implication is that instead of being dismantled and replaced in succession, past institutional logics leave behind residual manifestations that continue to influence subsequent eras in subtle, but consequential ways.

Mia Raynard is an assistant professor at WU Vienna in the Institute of Change Management & Management Development, Department of Management. She obtained her PhD degree at the University of Alberta, an MBA degree at the National Sun Yat-Sen University, and a Bachelor’s of Commerce degree at McGill University. Her research investigates organizational responses to shifting societal expectations, and the impact of conflicting demands on organizational structures and legitimacy. Her work has been published in Academy of Management Annals, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Strategic Organization, and Family Business Review. Her current research projects include examining the enduring effects of political legacies in emerging economies, the rise of responsible investing (SRI) in Europe, and changes in the higher education system in France. She has spent several years working and conducting research in southeast Asia. She serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Management Studies and Family Business Review.

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How does the use of visual text in communication contribute to the emergence and consolidation of new institutions? Utilizing insights from social semiotics, we flesh out a number of unique affordances of visual text (i.e., particular opportunities for meaning construction). Extending, and building on, emerging research on communication and institutions, we develop the argument that visual elements of communication play a crucial role in shaping the institutionalization of a novel idea. Such role can be further specified by considering the specific field structure and the position of text producers within the field. At the core of our article, we develop a set of propositions on how (i.e., through which affordances), and under which conditions, the use of visual text facilitates institutionalization of novel ideas. Our theory development provides novel insight into the dynamics of institutionalization, and also contributes more broadly to visual and multimodal organization and management research.

Dennis C. Jancsary is assistant professor at the Institute for Organization Studies, WU Vienna. His research interests focus on institutionalist approaches in organization theory, particularly the diffusion and theorization of management knowledge, as well as the role of verbal, visual, and multimodal forms of rhetoric, narrative, and symbolism in the construction and institutionalization of meaning.