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Exploring the impact of firm communication on the organization's commitment to ethical labels: Do family firms decouple less?
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2014-07-24
Author(s)
Abstract
Due to increasing environmental complexity firms can no longer rely on their taken-for-granted legitimacy but instead have to actively manage their image in society through communication. This is particularly true for firms operating in industries characterized by severe ethical challenges such as commodity farming. With the help of quantitative text analysis, this paper seeks to scrutinize the firms' legitimizing strategies in the coffee, tea and chocolate industry, assessed through archival website content. Based on the institutional logics literature and the French Pragmatist Sociology, my theorizing suggests that firms will mostly rely on vocabulary associated with two distinct worlds, the ‘domestic world' and the ‘civic world,' when seeking to maintain their legitimacy vis-à-vis western consumers. I argue that the prevalence of each world within firm communication affects the organization's effort to ensure work standards by collaborating with ethical labeling organizations. The impact of the firm's legitimizing strategy on the organization's labeling effort in turn depends on whether the firm can be classified as family firm as the latter is less likely to engage in decoupling.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Publisher
IFERA
Start page
35
Event Title
14th Annual IFERA World Family Business Research Conference
Event Location
Lappeenranta, Finland
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
230410