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Article | Organization Science | September–October 2018

The Paradox of Responsive Authoritarianism: How Civic Activism Spurs Environmental Penalties in China

by Christopher Marquis and Yanhua Bird

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Abstract

Recognizing the need to better understand institutional change processes in authoritarian states, which play an increasingly prominent role in the world economy, we examine the efficacy of civic activism aimed at spurring governmental action concerning the environmental performance of firms in China. We highlight the paradox of “responsive authoritarianism” on display in China: to avoid needing to rule by coercion alone, the government seeks citizens’ feedback and tolerates pressures for change, but at the same time it resists the associated legitimacy threats regarding its capacity to rule. Local governments and the media play crucial and dual roles in this system: they mitigate change pressures from civic activism that takes place within the state’s systems, but they magnify change pressures from publicly visible civic activism occurring outside those systems. We test our conceptual model using a unique dataset of environmental penalties imposed on Chinese publicly listed firms from 2007 to 2011. Our findings contribute to understanding processes of institutional change and outcomes of social movements.

Keywords: civic activism; authoritarianism; regulation; corporate sustainability; Environmental Sustainability; Government and Politics; Business and Government Relations; Social Issues; Change; China;

Format: Print Find at Harvard Register to Read

Citation:

Marquis, Christopher, and Yanhua Bird. "The Paradox of Responsive Authoritarianism: How Civic Activism Spurs Environmental Penalties in China." Organization Science 29, no. 5 (September–October 2018): 948–968.

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  • Article | Organization Science | July–August 2019

    Coupling Labor Codes of Conduct and Supplier Labor Practices: The Role of Internal Structural Conditions

    Yanhua Bird, Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

    Exploitive working conditions have spurred companies to pressure their suppliers to adopt labor codes of conduct and to conform their labor practices to the standards set forth in those codes. Yet little is known about whether organizational structures such as codes are associated with improvements in supplier labor practices, especially in organizations in which they compete with productivity-driving incentive structures. We investigate under what internal structural conditions suppliers’ labor practices are likely to become more tightly aligned—or coupled—with their formal commitments to labor codes of conduct. Using data on 3,276 suppliers in 55 countries, we find that in suppliers with high-powered efficiency structures (piece-rate pay), labor codes are internally buffered and thus less tightly coupled with labor practices, yet tighter coupling is more likely in suppliers with certain types of managerial structures (certified management system and unions). We also find important interactions between these organizational structures: managerial structures offset efficiency structures, and the presence of multiple managerial structures within a single supplier hastens improvement. Our focus on the internal structural dynamics of suppliers extends the existing decoupling literature and provides the first empirical investigation of internal buffering of multiple organizational structures. Furthermore, our findings suggest important strategic considerations for managers selecting supplier factories and provide key insights for the design of transnational sustainability governance regimes.

    Keywords: organization theory; economic sociology; social responsibility; sustainability; auditing; process improvement; Organizational Structure; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Supply Chain; Labor; Working Conditions;

    Citation:

    Bird, Yanhua, Jodi L. Short, and Michael W. Toffel. "Coupling Labor Codes of Conduct and Supplier Labor Practices: The Role of Internal Structural Conditions." Organization Science 30, no. 4 (July–August 2019): 847–867.  View Details
    CiteView DetailsFind at Harvard Read Now Related
  • Conference Presentation | 7 Apr 2016

    Assessing and Improving Working Conditions at Global Supply Chain Factories

    Michael W. Toffel and Yanhua Zhou

    Citation:

    Toffel, Michael W., and Yanhua Zhou. "Assessing and Improving Working Conditions at Global Supply Chain Factories." Paper presented at the Ethical Sourcing Forum, New York, NY, April 7, 2016.  View Details
    CiteView Details Related
  • Article | Work In Progress (American Sociological Association blog) | March 22, 2016

    The Globalization of Corporate Environmental Disclosure: Accountability or Greenwashing?

    Christopher Marquis, Michael W. Toffel, Yanhua Zhou, Christopher Marquis, Michael W. Toffel and Yanhua Zhou

    This article is a layman summary of "Scrutiny, Norms, and Selective Disclosure: A Global Study of Greenwashing," published in Organization Science 27, no. 2 (March–April 2016): 483–504.

    Keywords: reporting; environmental performance; civil society; Corporate Disclosure; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Civil Society or Community; Environmental Sustainability;

    Citation:

    Marquis, Christopher, Michael W. Toffel, and Yanhua Zhou. "The Globalization of Corporate Environmental Disclosure: Accountability or Greenwashing?" Work In Progress (American Sociological Association blog) (March 22, 2016). (Reprinted as Environmental disclosure: corporate accountability or greenwashing?” LSE Business Review, June 9, 2016.)  View Details
    CiteView Details Read Now Read Now Related
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