The Cultural Construction of Corporate Responsibility: A Comparative Study across Three Developed Nations

在讨论企业责任的大量文献中，文化在该术语含义中的作用被广泛忽视。根据新制度主义的世界文化理论，责任越来越多地从地方背景中解放出来，并在全球范围内扩散。这种假设的全球同质性导致了这样一种观点，即CR作为一种社会建构的制度，不仅作为一种标签或实践扩散，而且还导致规范和社会认知的同构。这种同构表明CR的全球意义的发展。我们解决这个建议，但没有调查的规范和认知同构的过程中，经验，我们研究是否有-语言学上讲-随着时间的推移，在不同的国家越来越多的趋同的意义。因此，我们分析了CR在三个发达国家（德国，英国，美国）的含义。我们通过将定量（计算机）语言学方法应用于1950年至2015年关于CR的公共话语来做到这一点。这种方法揭示了我们期望看到的对责任的文化理解的变化。此外，我们希望从经济史的角度系统地回顾企业责任的文献。最后，我们希望将我们研究的两个部分结合在一起，以深刻地解决对责任的文化理解与商业历史之间关系的问题。拟议的项目旨在得出对新制度主义和关于公司责任的科学讨论的影响。

In the bulk of literature discussing corporate responsibility (CR), the role of culture in the meaning of the term has been widely neglected. According to the world culture thesis in new institutionalism, responsibility increasingly emancipates from local contexts and diffuses on a global scale. This assumed global homogeneity leads to the idea that CR as a socially constructed institution not only diffuses as a label or practice but also results in isomorphism in norms and social cognition. This isomorphism indicates the development of a global meaning of CR. We tackle this proposed but not investigated process of normative and cognitive isomorphism empirically as we examine whether there is - linguistically speaking - a growing convergence of meaning across different countries over time. Therefore, we analyze the meaning of CR in three developed, and economically significant, nations (Germany, United Kingdom, United States of America). We do so by applying quantitative (computer-)linguistic methods to the public discourse about CR from 1950 to 2015. This approach reveals the changes in the cultural understanding of responsibility that we expect to find visible. In addition, we want to systematically review the literature on the responsibility of business from an economic history perspective. Finally, we want to bring both parts of our study together in order to profoundly address questions on the relationship between the cultural understanding of responsibility and business history empirically. The proposed project aims at deriving implications for both new institutionalism and the scientific discourse on CR.