Harmonization of firm CSR policies across national contexts: Evidence from Brazil & Sweden

•Brazilian firms adopt CSR policies to a greater extent than Swedish firms.•CSR policy harmonization between Brazil and Sweden occurs with internationalization.•Brazilian firms seek legitimacy through CSR policies locally and internationally.•Swedish firms have incentives to gain such legitimacy at...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International business review 2020-10, Vol.29 (5), p.101711, Article 101711
Main Authors: Mazboudi, Mohamad, Sidani, Yusuf M., Al Ariss, Akram
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brazil
Convergence
Corporate social responsibility
CSR policies
Divergence
Institutional theory
Institutional voids
Legitimacy
Sweden
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:•Brazilian firms adopt CSR policies to a greater extent than Swedish firms.•CSR policy harmonization between Brazil and Sweden occurs with internationalization.•Brazilian firms seek legitimacy through CSR policies locally and internationally.•Swedish firms have incentives to gain such legitimacy at the international level. We empirically investigate differences in CSR policy adoption between Brazil and Sweden. We find that Brazilian firms adopt CSR policies to a greater extent than Swedish firms. These differences suggest that the Swedish institutional context, where the public sector is the dominant player in the social arena, may have unintended consequences on the adoption of CSR policies by the private sector. We also find that with internationalization, a trend towards harmonization in CSR policy adoption between Brazil and Sweden is likely to happen. These results suggest that Swedish firms seek to gain legitimacy through greater CSR policy adoption at the international level.
ISSN:0969-5931
1873-6149
DOI:10.1016/j.ibusrev.2020.101711