Meng Zhao

This paper views social enterprise development in China as a process of institutional invention. This process indicates the foreign concept or practice’s being modified to fit local realities and being combined with local elements to shape a course of development different from that in the home context. In particular, based on a comprehensive analysis of interviews and media reports, this article provides knowledge in four aspects. First, I reveal an updated scenario about how the social… Show more

This paper views social enterprise development in China as a process of institutional invention. This process indicates the foreign concept or practice’s being modified to fit local realities and being combined with local elements to shape a course of development different from that in the home context. In particular, based on a comprehensive analysis of interviews and media reports, this article provides knowledge in four aspects. First, I reveal an updated scenario about how the social enterprise concept is translated. This work identifies systematic variation in the discourse patterns used to distinguish different ways of understanding and discussing “social enterprise” in Chinese. Second, this paper analyzes social-cognitive tensions that complicate the perception and acceptance of this concept. Third, I demonstrate how incumbent government officials open up opportunities for social enterprise development. Finally, I discuss how grassroots supporters strategically explore local translations and political opportunities to facilitate social enterprise development. Besides empirically specifying the reinvention process, this paper downplays the heroic focus in social enterprise studies and invites more researches on common and distinct patterns of how contextual forces give shape to the local form of social enterprises. Show less

By exploring how state–NGO struggles drive an unintended change of the governance system on China’s green NGO sector, this paper makes following contributions to the understanding of political legitimacy and institutional change. First, we extend the political legitimacy’s resource-focused role in existing studies by identifying the processual and sequential pattern of legitimacy granting, building and utilization that results in the unintended institutional change. Second, we depart from… Show more

By exploring how state–NGO struggles drive an unintended change of the governance system on China’s green NGO sector, this paper makes following contributions to the understanding of political legitimacy and institutional change. First, we extend the political legitimacy’s resource-focused role in existing studies by identifying the processual and sequential pattern of legitimacy granting, building and utilization that results in the unintended institutional change. Second, we depart from relatively static legitimacy strategies in existing studies and clarify these strategies’ iterative mechanisms that shape the boundary of the unintended change. Third, we specify the under-studied role of relational structures within the state system that enables and constrains legitimacy strategies. Finally, we conceptualize a trajectory view of political legitimacy that captures these extended, iterative and relational features of political legitimacy in an integrative theoretical model. This paper also generates strategic implications for disadvantaged change makers in a restrictive political context. Show less

Emerging markets experience institutional and social changes over time that present different stakeholder expectations for multinational corporations (MNCs). MNCs are often accused of social misdeeds and experience public crises during the changes, leaving questions how they adapt to the local social transition to sustain operations. Conventional adaptation strategies put too much emphasis on maximizing economic returns by arbitraging national differences and catering to local market and… Show more

Emerging markets experience institutional and social changes over time that present different stakeholder expectations for multinational corporations (MNCs). MNCs are often accused of social misdeeds and experience public crises during the changes, leaving questions how they adapt to the local social transition to sustain operations. Conventional adaptation strategies put too much emphasis on maximizing economic returns by arbitraging national differences and catering to local market and consumer characteristics. The economic orientation may fail to address evolving and diverse stakeholder expectations, easily leading to public crises. This study conceptualizes economic adaptation and social adaptation as two sets of knowledge and capabilities that would have equally important impacts on MNCs’ sustainable operations in emerging markets. The empirical testing examines consumer rights-related public crises experienced by 180 MNCs in China. The results suggest that MNCs’ social adaptation activities have significantly positive effects in mitigating public crises while certain aspects of economic adaption, such as early entry into China, reliance on local leadership, and speedy expansion of local employees, lead to public crises. The significant interaction effects confirm that MNCs need to follow a balanced approach paying attention to both economic and social components to avoid public crises and sustain growth in emerging markets. Show less

Entering the new century, foreign Fortune 500 companies operating in China and Russia have encountered an increasing number of public crises concerning various social and environmental issues. The public crisis refers to an unexpected, non-routine, and media-exposed event in which affected stakeholders (e.g., community members, employees, customers) charge that a company has compromised their interests. Although many of these crises involved the misdeeds of multinational corporations (MNCs)… Show more

Entering the new century, foreign Fortune 500 companies operating in China and Russia have encountered an increasing number of public crises concerning various social and environmental issues. The public crisis refers to an unexpected, non-routine, and media-exposed event in which affected stakeholders (e.g., community members, employees, customers) charge that a company has compromised their interests. Although many of these crises involved the misdeeds of multinational corporations (MNCs), the story is beyond catching baddies. Instead, there are contextual challenges rooted in the social, political, and market environments of China and Russia that drive the occurrence of the public crisis regardless of MNC misdeeds. Considering the institutional change and stakeholder growth in these countries, it is increasingly important for MNCs to understand and effectively deal with these challenges. This article provides insights to MNCs and researchers in three ways. First, the article reveals the patterns of MNC crises in the two countries from 2000 to 2011 and presents the variation between the two countries. Second, the article identifies four types of contextual challenges, including the global-national challenge, the social-trust challenge, the institutional-voids challenge and the normalized-misdeed challenge. Finally, the article discusses the managerial implications of these challenges and recommends tackling strategies. Show less

The state is a key driver of corporate social responsibility across developed and developing countries. But the existing research provides comparatively little knowledge about: 1) how companies strategically manage the relationship with the state through CSR; 2) how this strategy takes shape under the influence of political institutions. Understanding these questions captures a realistic picture of how a company applies CSR to interacting with the state, particularly in countries where the… Show more

The state is a key driver of corporate social responsibility across developed and developing countries. But the existing research provides comparatively little knowledge about: 1) how companies strategically manage the relationship with the state through CSR; 2) how this strategy takes shape under the influence of political institutions. Understanding these questions captures a realistic picture of how a company applies CSR to interacting with the state, particularly in countries where the state relationship is critical to the business operation. This paper draws on political legitimacy as a useful concept to directly address both strategic and politically embedded natures of CSR. This work extends the currently under-specified political implication of the strategic view of CSR and provides fresh insights to the political legitimacy research by specifying a typology of CSR-based legitimacy strategies and its contextual variation. China and Russia are the focal settings. A qualitative analysis of business-state interaction cases is done using a database that contains the majority of CSR reports published in Chinese and Russian as the end of 2009. As a result, this paper identifies four qualitatively different types of CSR-based political legitimacy strategies and reveals how the adoption of these strategies differs across Chinese companies, Russian companies and multinational corporations. Show less

Social enterprises in China are being shaped by several interconnecting forces: The country’s cultural and linguistic history, new state approaches to economic and social development, and the strategic framing of social enterprises by leaders and supporters.

In recent years, the Chinese and Russian media have enthusiastically disclosed and condemned foreign multinational corporations (MNCs). Among common accusation are marketing fraud, product quality flaws, environmental pollution and abusive labor practices. As a result, the MNC public crisis in China and Russia has increased during the past decade. These crises have caused financial and reputational losses to MNCs. Social and political expectations on MNCs in terms of social-environmental… Show more

In recent years, the Chinese and Russian media have enthusiastically disclosed and condemned foreign multinational corporations (MNCs). Among common accusation are marketing fraud, product quality flaws, environmental pollution and abusive labor practices. As a result, the MNC public crisis in China and Russia has increased during the past decade. These crises have caused financial and reputational losses to MNCs. Social and political expectations on MNCs in terms of social-environmental responsibility are going high, and the regulation system is improving. If managers are not able to notice changes, they will not have a chance to anticipate possible crises. This report aims to reveal the pattern of crisis incidents, analyze the difference between China and Russia, and make suggestions to MNC managers working in both countries. Show less

The government initiative on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the number of CSR-related reports in China and Russia have increased dramatically in the last decade. It is important to specify the government’s role when people try to understand CSR dynamics and even answer a fundamental question of “what is CSR” in these countries. The report, “Beyond Business, Not Beyond Government: How Corporate Social Responsibility Leaders in China and Russia Do Philanthropy” reveals how the… Show more

The government initiative on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the number of CSR-related reports in China and Russia have increased dramatically in the last decade. It is important to specify the government’s role when people try to understand CSR dynamics and even answer a fundamental question of “what is CSR” in these countries. The report, “Beyond Business, Not Beyond Government: How Corporate Social Responsibility Leaders in China and Russia Do Philanthropy” reveals how the government in China and Russia is not only guiding CSR efforts in general, but also shaping the specific way for companies to talk about government in CSR reports and actually do philanthropy. Show less

公益风险投资整合了基于绩效的长期资本投资、综合的专业服务和高度互动的
伙伴关系,旨在帮助“社会目标组织”发展壮大。文章认为,现代意义上的公益风险投资活动兴起
于20世纪90年代中期的美国, 2002年左右在英国和意大利正式起步并迅速在欧洲大陆蔓延。越
来越多的人已经认识到,公益风险投资能够为解决社会问题提供比较充足和量身定制的资金支
持,能够有效提升“社会目标组织”的可持续发展能力和社会绩效。它可能成为本世纪重大社会创
新诞生的摇篮。文章试图总结已有研究成果,并结合笔者取得的第一手信息,向读者介绍了欧美
公益风险投资的含义、历史与发展现状。