A Bait-and-Switch Model of Corporate Social Responsibility

The notion that transparency forces organizations to eschew decoupling and embrace substantive adoption represents an important assumption in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature. Conversely, research on learning control has considered opacity—understood as a lack of transparency—to be conducive CSR adoption. These opposing viewpoints highlight fundamental tension: Is good or bad for adoption? This paper resolves this tension by asking alternative question: When is bad, why? We advance dynamic perspective conceives opacity transitory phenomena, we specify boundary conditions which either enduring forms further CSR. Our analyses reveal that, circumstances under motivation ceremonial hypocritical (rather than opportunistic) where both practice abandonment are difficult, former can maximized first allowing adopt ceremonially (“bait”), then prompting adopters become through shift (“switch”). Specifying bait-and-switch mechanism its underlying contingencies reveals hitherto unexplored, potentially effective, pathway toward institutionalization