Dror Etzion

Research on Organizations and the Natural Environment, 1992-Present: A Review:

The literature on organizations and the natural environment, published since 1992, is reviewed, with the purpose of determining if and what the contributions have been to strategy and organizational theory. The author performs the review at three levels—firm, industry, and organizational environment. Subsequently, he discusses empirical and conceptual constraints on the production of quality research and highlights research that successfully overcomes these barriers.

The Role of Analogy in the Institutionalization of Sustainability Reporting

We study institutional entrepreneurship in an emergent field by analyzing the case of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and its efforts to purposefully institutionalize the practice of sustainability reporting. We suggest that analogies affect institutionalization processes through two mechanisms. In the early stages of institutionalization, analogy operates primarily as a normative mechanism, and adoption is driven mainly by an instrumental logic. This emphasis on similarity to existing institutions stresses conformity and promotes legitimacy. Yet analogies can also have a cognitive effect on institutional design, especially once initial acceptance from the environment has been secured, by directing attention toward incongruences between the emergent institution and its analogical source. Institutional entrepreneurship can spur innovation and departure from existing institutions by highlighting limitations of the analogical source and providing a compelling value-rational argument that underscores the worth of the new institution. This theoretical contribution helps explain how analogies to existing institutional practices can both provide legitimacy to novel institutions and constitute the basis for a creative process of institutional design.

Tackling Grand Challenges Pragmatically: Robust Action Revisited

In this article, we theorize a novel approach to addressing the world’s grand challenges based on the philosophical tradition of American pragmatism and the sociological concept of robust action. Grounded in prior empirical organizational research, we identify three robust strategies that organizations can employ in tackling issues such as climate change and poverty alleviation: participatory architecture, multivocal inscriptions and distributed experimentation. We demonstrate how these strategies operate, the manner in which they are linked, the outcomes they generate, and why they are applicable for resolving grand challenges. We conclude by discussing our contributions to research on robust action and grand challenges, as well as some implications for research on stakeholder theory, institutional theory and theories of valuation.

Revolving Doors? A Network Analysis of Corporate Officers and U.S. Government Officials

This article analyzes the movement of personnel among elite positions in business and government, contrasting the staffing patterns at higher rungs of the executive branch during the Clinton and G. W. Bush administrations. We find that the Bush administration recruited far more heavily from among corporate officers and directors than did the Clinton administration, particularly when staffing ambassadorships. We also find that both administrations served as springboards for subsequent corporate board appointments. There were relatively few patterns with respect to industry or geography, with the exception of the military: All but one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the turn of the millennium ended up serving on the board of a military contractor after completing their government service.

Diffusion as Classification

An overlooked aspect of the diffusion of a practice in a population is the emergence of a de facto classificatory schema, distinguishing between actors that adopt a practice and those that do not. To investigate diffusion as classification, I develop a simulation model that highlights the conditions under which limited diffusion of practices leads to the emergence and entrenchment of classificatory schemas. The model depicts classification as a systemic phenomenon resulting from the interplay of actor-level micromotives and field-level macrobehaviors that jointly drive diffusion. Whereas extant theory on the origin of classificatory schemas emphasizes the role of agency, results from the model suggest that classificatory schemas can emerge somewhat unintentionally as practices diffuse. Moreover, by conceptualizing diffusion as classification, I suggest a means for disentangling the closely related and often conflated concepts of diffusion and institutionalization.

Big Data, Management, and Sustainability Strategic Opportunities Ahead

We contend that big data and management for sustainability are very good bedfellows, in that many of the affordances big data provides are naturally aligned with sustainability concerns (e.g., multidimensional nature, collective actions, smart allocation of resources, efficiency priority). Notwithstanding this promising stepping off point, and the enticing analytical opportunities that an abundance of data will generate, we provide some reflections on big data and the most promising avenues of research it might inspire in the field of management and sustainability. In the first part of our essay, we explore what managers can do with big data to reinforce organizational sustainability and how different operational, strategic, and corporate activities are affected in this process. In the second part, we focus on what big data allows researchers to explore and examine, ranging from sustainability job descriptions through environmental metrics to industry transformation. We conclude by advocating for strong theoretical orientation in research on and with big data.

RESEARCH ARTICLE: An Analysis of Unconventional Gas Well Reporting under Pennsylvania's Act 13 of 2012

In response to growing concerns about the impact of shale gas development, Pennsylvanias Act 13 of 2012 established an unconventional gas well fee and required the states Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to report on the number of such wells. In this article, we analyze the extent to which the DEP complied with its reporting requirements under Act 13. Using publicly available data, we find that the DEP likely omitted between 15,300 and 25,100 unconventional gas wells from its Act 13 report. Left uncorrected, we estimate that Pennsylvanias state, county, and municipal governments could forfeit fees of

Theoretical Approaches for Studying Corporations, Democracy, and the Public Good

205–

Triangulating Environmental Performance: What Do Corporate Social Responsibility Ratings Really Capture?

303 million in 2012 and up to

Unleashing Sustainability Transformations Through Robust Action

0.75–