Can Ivory Towers be Green? The Impact of Organization Size on Organizational Social Performance

Organizations differ tremendously in the extent to which they engage in socially responsible behavior and the extent to which this behavior is evaluated by stakeholders. This research examines the complex role of organization size as a driver of perceptions of an organization's socially respons...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business ethics 2017-02, Vol.140 (3), p.537-549
Main Authors: Eilert, Meike, Walker, Kristen, Dogan, Jenny
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Business and Management
Business Ethics
College presidents
Colleges & universities
Community services
Decision making
Donations
Education
Ethics
Higher education
Human resources
Hypotheses
Independence
Interest groups
Management
Organization size
Philosophy
Quality of Life Research
Role models
Size of enterprise
Size of enterprize
Social responsibility
Society
Stakeholders
Statistical analysis
Theory
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Summary:Organizations differ tremendously in the extent to which they engage in socially responsible behavior and the extent to which this behavior is evaluated by stakeholders. This research examines the complex role of organization size as a driver of perceptions of an organization's socially responsible behavior and its social performance. Using a unique data set of 302 organizations in the higher education industry, we find that the strength of the organization size—organizational social performance (OSP) relationship is contingent on whether the organization is autonomous from community stakeholders and resource pressures. Our results show that the organization size—OSP relationship is stronger when stakeholders in the organization's community are more involved in the organization itself and decision-making processes, and that this relationship is weaker when greater financial and human resources are available to the organization.
ISSN:0167-4544
1573-0697
DOI:10.1007/s10551-015-2667-4