Yeşim KURT, Senem BESLER

Institutional Logics Behind the Corporate Social Responsibilities: A Study on Turkish Airline Companies

Purpose – The subject of this study is the corporate social responsibilities of airline companies. The study, it is aimed to reveal the reasons why airline companies carry out philanthropy corporate social responsibility behaviors. In the research, institutional logic and new institutional theory literature are used to achieve this goal. Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative research method is used in this research. The case study method was used as a qualitative research design. The research area is formed by 8 airline companies in Turkey. Semi-structured interviews and document analysis were used as a data collection method, and all data were analyzed by the inductive method. Findings – As a result of the analysis, two basic logic, community, and market, were found behind the philanthropy responsibilities of airline companies. Although community logic has an impact on these behaviors, market logic plays a dominant role. Discussion – Airline companies use philanthropy responsibilities for corporate and marketing communications. These behaviors, which are seen as advertising and promotional activities, are carried out with the pursuit of pragmatic legitimacy and to be preferred more by customers. According to the results of the research, the concept of "philanthropy" functions as a myth that does not reflect the truth and has a ceremonial meaning.

PDF

___

Aharonson, B. S., and Bort, S. (2015). Institutional pressure and an organization’s strategic response incorporate social action engagement: the role of ownership and media attention. Strategic Organization, 13(4), 307-339.
Arena, M., Azzone, G., ve Mapelli, F. (2018). What drives the evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility strategies? An institutional logic perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production, 171, 345-355.
Beddewela, E., and Fairbrass, J. (2016). Seeking legitimacy through CSR: Institutional pressures and corporate responses of multinationals in Sri Lanka. Journal Of Business Ethics, 136(3), 503-522.
Berg, B. (2001). Qualitative research methods for the social science (4. Baskı). USA: A Pearson Education Company.
Blowfield, M., and Murray, A. (2014). Corporate responsibility. Oxford University Press.
Bowen, H. R. (1953). Social responsibilities of the businessman. New York: Harper And Row
Brammer, S., Jackson, G., and Matten, D. (2012). Corporate social responsibility and institutional theory: New perspectives on private governance. Socio-Economic Review, 10(1), 3-28.
Brammer, S., and Millington, A. (2005). Profit maximisation vs. agency: An analysis of charitable giving By Uk Firms. Cambridge Journal Of Economics, 29(4), 517-534.
Bromley, P., and Powell, W. W. (2012). From smoke and mirrors to walking the talk: Decoupling in the contemporary world. Academy of Management Annals, 6(1), 483-530
Brown, J. A., Clark, C., and Buono, A. F. (2018). The United Nations global compact: Engaging implicit and explicit CSR for global governance. Journal of Business Ethics, 147(4), 721-734.
Campbell, J. L. (2007). Why would corporations behave in socially responsible ways? An institutional theory of corporate social responsibility. Academy Of Management Review, 32(3), 946-967.
Carlsson-Wall, M., Kraus, K., and Messner, M. (2016). Performance measurement systems and the enactment of different institutional logics: insights from a football organization. Management Accounting Research, 32, 45-61.
Carroll, A. B. (1979); A Three-dimensional conceptual model of corporate performance; Academy of Management Review, Vol. 4, No.4; P: 497-505 DOI: 10.2307/257850
Carroll, A. B. (1991); The Pyramid Of Corporate Social Responsibility: Toward The Moral Management Of Organizational Stakeholders, Business Horizons; Julyaugust; P: 39-48
Carroll, A. B. (1999). “Corporate social responsibility: evolution of a definitional construct.” Business and Society, 38 (3): 268-95. https://doi.org/10.1016/0007-6813(91)90005-G
Cobb, J. A., Wry, T., and Zhao, E. Y. (2016). Funding financial inclusion: Institutional logics and the contextual contingency of funding for microfinance organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 59(6), 2103- 2131.
Corbett, J., Webster, J., and Jenkin, T. A. (2018). Unmasking corporate sustainability at the project level: Exploring the influence of institutional logics and individual agency. Journal of Business Ethics, 147(2), 261-286
Creswell, J. W. (2008). Research Design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approach (3. Baskı.). Sage Publication
Creswell, J. W. (2013). Araştırma deseni: nitel, nicel ve karma yöntem yaklaşımları. (Çev: S. B. Demir.) Ankara: Eğiten Kitap
Davis, K. (1973). The case for and against business assumption of social responsibilities. Academy of Management Journal, 16(2), 312-322. https://doi.org/10.5465/255331
Egels‐Zandén, N., Lindberg, K., and Hyllman, P. (2015). Multiple institutional logics in union–NGO relations: private labor regulation in the Swedish Clean Clothes Campaign. Business Ethics: A European Review, 24(4), 347-360.
Fincham, R., and Forbes, T. (2015). Three's a crowd: The role of inter‐logic relationships in highly complex institutional fields. British Journal of Management, 26(4), 657-670.
Freidson, E. (2001). Professionalism, the third logic: On the practice of knowledge. University of Chicago Press.
Friedland, R. (2012) God, Love and Other Good Reasons for Practice: Thinking Through Institutional Logics
Friedland, R., and Alford, R. R. (1991). Bringing society back in: Symbols, practices and institutional contradictions.
Friedman, M. (1970). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. New York Times Magazine, September, 13.
Glesne, C. (2013). Nitel Araştırmaya Giriş (3 Baskı). (Çev: A. Ersoy and P. Yalçınoğlu) Ankara: Anı Yayıncılık.
Glynn, M. A., and Raffaelli, R. (2013). Logic pluralism, organizational design, and practice adoption: The structural embeddedness of CSR programs. In Institutional Logics in Action, Part B (pp. 175-197). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Green Paper, (2001). Promoting European framework for corporate social responsibility, European Commission,
Güçdemir, Y. (2006). Bankaların web sitelerinin sosyal sorumluluk açısından incelenmesi. İstanbul Üniversitesi İletişim Fakültesi Hakemli Dergisi| İstanbul University Faculty of Communication Journal, (26).
Hesse, A., Kreutzer, K., and Diehl, M. R. (2018). Dynamics of Institutional Logics in a Cross-Sector Social Partnership: The Case of Refugee Integration in Germany. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-26.
Hethof, S. D. (2009). Türkiye’de kurumsal sosyal sorumluluk üçgeni: Şirketler, toplum ve toplum kuruluşları. TÜBİTAK Project.
Jamali, D., Karam, C., Yin, J., and Soundararajan, V. (2017). CSR logics in developing countries: Translation, adaptation, and stalled development. Journal of World Business, 52(3), 343-359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2017.02.001
Joseph, J., Ocasio, W., and McDonnell, M. H. (2014). The structural elaboration of board independence: Executive power, institutional logics, and the adoption of CEO-only board structures in US corporate governance. Academy of Management Journal, 57(6), 1834-1858.
Justice, D. W. (2002). Corporate social responsibility: Challenges and opportunities for trade unionists. https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/codes/9
Khan, Z., Lew, Y. K., and Park, B. I. (2015). Institutional legitimacy and norms-based CSR marketing practices: ınsights from MNCs operating in a developing economy. International Marketing Review, 32(5), 463- 491.
Killian, S., & O'Regan, P. (2016). Social accounting and the co-creation of corporate legitimacy. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 50, 1-12.
Koçoglu, C. M., and Aksoy, R. (2017). demografık degıskenlerın kurumsal sosyal sorumluluk algısı üzerındekı etkılerıne yönelık bır arastırma*/A study to the ımpact of demographıc varıables on the perceptıon of corporate socıal responsıbılıty. International Journal Of Management Economics and Business, 13(1), 89.
Kramer, M. R., and Porter, M. E. (2006). Strategy and Society: The link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility. Harvard Business Review, 84(12), 78-92.
Kuo, T. C., Kremer, G. E. O., Phuong, N. T., and Hsu, C. W. (2016). Motivations and barriers for corporate social responsibility reporting: Evidence from the airline industry. Journal Of Air Transport Management, 57, 184-195.
Luthans, F., and Hodgetts, R. M. (1972). Social issues in business.
Lynes, J. K., and Andrachuk, M. (2008). Motivations for corporate social and environmental responsibility: A case study of Scandinavian Airlines. Journal of International Management, 14(4), 377-390.
McGuire, J.B., Sundgren, A. and Schneeweis, T., (1988). Corporate and social responsibility and firm financial performance. Acad. Manag. J. 31, 854-872.
Mcwilliams, A., and Siegel, D. (2001). Corporate social responsibility: A theory of the firm perspective. Academy Of Management Review, 26(1), 117-127.
Meyer, J. W .and Rowan, B. (1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology,340-363 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2778293
Miller, D., Le Breton-Miller, I., Amore, M. D., Minichilli, A., and Corbetta, G. (2017). Institutional logics, family firm governance, and performance. Journal of Business Venturing, 32(6), 674-693.
Nicolini, D., Delmestri, G., Goodrick, E., Reay, T., Lindberg, K., and Adolfsson, P. (2016). Look what's back! Institutional complexity, reversibility, and the knotting of logics. British Journal of Management, 27(2), 228-248.
Orlitzky, M., Siegel, D. S., & Waldman, D. A. (2011). Strategic corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability. Business & Society, 50(1), 6-27.
Patton, M. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. California: Sage Publication.
Pava, M. L., and Krausz, J. (1996). The association between corporate social responsibility and financial performance: The paradox of social cost. Journal Of Business Ethics, 15(3), 321-357.
Perez‐Sanchez, D., Barton, J. R., and Bower, D. (2003). Implementing environmental management in SMEs. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 10(2), 67-77.
Reay, T., and Hinings, C. R. (2009). Managing the rivalry of competing institutional logics. Organization studies, 30(6), 629-652.
Reddy, C. D., and Hamann, R. (2016). Distance makes the (committed) heart grow colder: MNEs’ responses to the state logic in African variants of CSR. Business and Society, 0007650316629127.
Ruef, M., and Scott, W. R. (1998). A multidimensional model of organizational legitimacy: Hospital survival in changing institutional environments. Administrative science quarterly, 877-904.
Scales, K. (2014). Doing what makes sense: Locating knowledge about person-centred care in the everyday logics of longterm care (Doctoral dissertation, University of Nottingham).
Scott, W. R. (1995). Introduction: Institutional theory and organizations. The Institutional Construction Of Organizations. ( Ed: S. Christensen and W. R. Scott). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Scott, W. R. (2005). Institutional theory: Contributing to a theoretical research program. Great minds in management: The process of theory development, 37, 460-484.
Scott, W. R. (2008). Lords of the dance: Professionals as institutional agents. Organization studies, 29(2), 219-238.
Sen, S., and Bhattacharya, C. B. (2001). Does doing good always lead to doing better? Consumer reactions to corporate social responsibility. Journal of Marketing Research, 38(2), 225-243.
Suchman, M. C. (1995). Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and ınstitutional approaches. Academy Of Management Review, 20(3), 571-610. http://www.jstor.org/stable/258788
Thornton, P. H. (2002). The rise of the corporation in a craft industry: Conflict and conformity in institutional logics. Academy of management journal, 45(1), 81-101. DOI: 10.2307/3069286 https://www.jstor.org/stable/3069286
Vickers, I., Lyon, F., Sepulveda, L., and McMullin, C. (2017). Public service innovation and multiple institutional logics: The case of hybrid social enterprise providers of health and wellbeing. Research Policy, 46(10), 1755-1768.
Wall, L. (2017). Institutional logics and curriculum decision making: enacting the Australian Curriculum English and NAPLAN literacy. The Australian Educational Researcher, 44(4-5), 391-407.
Xu, D., Chen, C., and Wu, X. (2018). Ownership structure and the use of non-family executives in familydominated Chinese listed firms: An institutional logics perspective. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 1-24.
Zucker, L. G. (1987). Institutional theories of organization. Annual review of sociology, 13(1), 443-464.