The rise of the Global Reporting Initiative: a case of institutional entrepreneurship

Since its conception in 1999, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has become a leading template for voluntary sustainability reporting by companies. Emerging on the crest of the debate about corporate social responsibility, appropriate roles for business, government, and civil society in the susta...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental politics 2009-03, Vol.18 (2), p.182-200
Main Authors: Brown, Halina Szejnwald, de Jong, Martin, Lessidrenska, Teodorina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Civil society
Companies
Corporate social responsibility
Corporations
CSR
Data collection
Empirical analysis
Entrepreneurship
Governance
GRI
Information
information disclosure
Institution building
institutional entrepreneurship
Power
Reporting
Self Disclosure
Social entrepreneurship
Social movements
Social Responsibility
State role
Sustainability
Sustainability reporting
Sustainable Development
Tactics
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Summary:Since its conception in 1999, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has become a leading template for voluntary sustainability reporting by companies. Emerging on the crest of the debate about corporate social responsibility, appropriate roles for business, government, and civil society in the sustainability transition, and private forms of global governance, it is also a descendant of 1970s social movements. Drawing on extensive empirical data collected through interviews and documentary analysis in four countries, the institutional entrepreneurship framework is used to analyse three types of tactics deployed by GRI champions: discursive, material and charismatic. Central to GRI entrepreneurs' success was maintaining balance between the individual and collective interests of their diverse constituencies, between inclusiveness and efficient pursuit of technical objectives, and between building a new institution and not challenging existing institutions and power relations. This strategy, though perhaps appropriate under the circumstances, left a legacy of unresolved tensions. How these are resolved will determine GRI's future shape and function.
ISSN:0964-4016
1743-8934
DOI:10.1080/09644010802682551