Andrew John Hoffman

Institutional Evolution and Change: Environmentalism and the U.S. Chemical Industry

This study measured changes in the constituency of an organizational field centered around the issue of corporate environmentalism in the period 1960–93, correlating those changes with the institut...

From heresy to dogma : an institutional history of corporate environmentalism

From Heresy to Dogma provides a fascinating tale of how the unfolding of the 1960s environmental social movement led to corresponding changes in the perceptions and practices of large-scale corporations in the chemical and petroleum industries. Focusing explicitly on the relationship of organizations to the broader social systems within which they are embedded, Hoffman provides an account of the evolution of corporate environmentalism that speaks to ongoing debates in organizational theory without sacrificing accessibility. For anyone interested in the evolution of environmentalism, here is a fresh narrative that focuses on the vantage point of industrial corporations from 1960 to 1993. For organizational scholars, this book provides a perspective on institutional change that features an innovative use of multiple methods coupled with a panoply of thought-provoking theoretical ideas.

Linking Organizational and Field Level Analyses: The Diffusion of Corporate Environmental Practice

This article examines the diffusion of corporate environmental practice in the context of field-level dynamics. It builds a conceptual model that makes links among (a) the complex constituency of the institutional field driving environmental concerns, (b) the multiple cultural frames that emerge from that constituency, and (c) the corresponding structural and cultural routines that become enacted within firms. It offers contributions for research in the domains of both environmental practice and institutional theory. For environmental practice, this article attends to the genesis and diffusion of environmental practice by going beyond the individual organization level. For institutional theory, the implications of this model allow for more sophisticated notions of isomorphism and resistance to change. Inertia, traditionally a phenomenon attributed to the field, can be the result of organization-level dynamics that resist change. The article concludes with ideas for future research.

Climate Change Strategy: The Business Logic Behind Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Reductions

Economic uncertainties have prompted American policy-makers to withdraw U.S. involvement in the Kyoto Treaty. But interestingly, some U.S. companies are taking advantage of the present lack of a mandatory U.S. GHG emission reduction program to set targets at their own pace and in their own way; a way that fits with their own strategic objectives. To date, as many as sixty corporations, with net revenues of roughly

Overcoming the Social and Psychological Barriers to Green Building

1.5 trillion, have set reduction targets. And hundreds more are considering such steps. In point of fact, many of these companies are agnostic about the science of climate change or the social responsibility of protecting the global climate. The reasons that they are making these emission reductions are decidedly strategic. They are searching for ways to be prepared for the long term should GHG emission reductions become mandatory, while at the same time attempting to reap near term economic and strategic benefits should that future not emerge or be delayed. Using examples of specific business actions, this paper will assess a series of ways in which this is being done.

Organizations, Policy, and the Natural Environment: Institutional and Strategic Perspectives.

The green building movement has overcome formidable, technical, and economic hurdles in recent years, yet adoption of green building practices within the design and construction field remains low. Major corporations now offer products and services at a scale that is bringing costs down to competitive levels, but environmental sustainability in building design and delivery remains at the early stages of the adoption s-curve. This article argues that environmental progress in the building design and construction industry will continue to stall if the significant social and psychological barriers that remain are not addressed. After surveying the three levels of barriers—individual, organizational, and institutional—the article concludes with strategies for overcoming them. Seven specific strategies are elaborated, namely, issue framing, targeting the right demographic, education, structural and incentive change, indemnifying risk, green building standard improvements, and tax reform.

The Institutional Framing of Policy Debates: Economics Versus the Environment

As institutional approaches have become established within organizational analysis, critics from within and without have consistently pointed to an area of weakness: the lack of attention to agency and conflict. With Organizations, Policy, and the Natural Environment, Hoffman and Ventresca have marshaled an effective response to this chronic complaint. Through a conference that was the basis for this important edited volume, these two organizers brought together institutional researchers with experts from the field of strategy. The encounter was disciplined by a clear empirical focus on a topic that would seem to be friendly terrain to institutional arguments: environmental policy. Evidence of imitation driven by uncertainty, conformity in response to regulation, and decoupling of policy from practice should all be expected here, given the combination of strong political and moral demands for environmental protection and a frequent lack of effective technologies and economic incentives. In a series of rich empirical papers, however, these expectations are both confirmed and confounded.This book brings together emerging perspectives from organization theory and management, environmental sociology, international regime studies, and the social studies of science and technology to provide a starting point for discipline-based studies of environmental policy and corporate environmental behavior. Reflecting the books theoretical and empirical focus, the audience is two-fold: organizational scholars working within the institutional tradition, and environmental scholars interested in management and policy. Together this mix forms a creative synthesis for both sets of readers, analyzing how environmental policy and organizational practices are shaped, spread and contested.

Hybrid Organizations : New Business Models for Environmental Leadership

By framing the economics versus environment debate as a mixed-motive situation, opportunities become visible that allow greater benefits to all interests in the debate. Yet, social, cultural, and institutional arrangements frame how these interests see these opportunities, creating a barrier to mixed-motive analyses. In this article, the authors use an institutional perspective to analyze how the economics versue environment debate emerges from institutions as presently structured. They present an analysis of its present framing based on three aspects of institutions—regulative, normative, and cognitive—and consider the prescriptive implications they expose at the managerial and organizational level of action. The authors conclude with an analysis of possible solutions to overcome them.

Linking Social Systems Analysis To The Industrial Ecology Framework

Foreword Andrew J. Hoffman, Holcim (U.S.) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise, University of Michigan Introduction 1. Why hybrid organizations? 2. The hybrid landscape 3. Uncovering the layers 4. Hybrid trends and lessons 5. Case study SUN OVENS International - patient dealmaker 6. Case study Guayaki - creating an entirely new value chain 7. Case study Eden Foods - lasting leadership and the risks of succession 8. Case study Maggies Organics - connecting producers and consumers to the cause 9. Case study PAX Scientific - learning to run 10. Business lessons for hybrid organizations 11. Reflecting back, looking forward References Appendix: List of hybrid organizations completing survey About the authors Index

The BP Oil Spill as a Cultural Anomaly? Institutional Context, Conflict and Change

In theory, industrial ecology is a powerful analytical tool that challenges us to think beyond a mechanistic, fragmented view of environmental problems (and solutions). Indeed, it provokes thinking about the holistic industrial system. Presently, however, the field tends to focus primarily on technical processes and quantitative, material-oriented analysis. This article invites a discussion about expanding industrial ecologys models by considering social systems analysis. Its purpose is not to argue for dismantling or replacing extant industrial ecology. Instead, by advocating that industrial ecologists link their perspectives with perspectives from social science, it is hoped that the existing strengths of the discipline can be augmented with an emphasis on social and broader systemic factors. This direction is consistent with more holistic thinking and the roots of the discipline.