On the management success of regulative failure: standardised CSR instruments and the oil industry's climate performance

Purpose – Corporate social responsibility (CSR) may serve as a regulatory framework for corporate practices or as a management trend that helps to improve the legitimacy of corporations. This article explores whether and how petroleum corporations' adherence to standardised CSR instruments has influenced how they deal with climate change. Design/methodology/approach – Comparative case study of Hydro and Shell based on assessments of central documents, publications on CSR and interviews with corporate representatives. Findings – The management trend mode of CSR has prevailed within both companies. Company conduct is deeply influenced by the global petroleum field, but it mainly promotes CSR as legitimacy enhancer and hinders the instruments in working as regulative frameworks. Hydro executives have no aim of applying the CSR instruments to guide their actions. Executives at Shell have tried, but without being fully able to get the vast Shell group to adapt. Thus far, the failure of CSR as a regulative framework seems to contribute to its success as legitimacy enhancing concept. Nonetheless, it is not clear whether the two trends will continue to contrast or if they may start to work in conjunction. Research limitations/implications – Due to the global organisational span of such corporations, CSR research may gain from focussing specifically on institutionalisation processes at the level of their global organisational field. Practical implications – The negative trade‐off between CSR as legitimacy enhancer and as a regulative framework may represent a core concern for CSR practitioners. Further, the findings indicate that it may prove more fruitful to develop CSR instruments within specific organisational fields than to focus on holistic instruments. Originality/value – The framework applied tracks micro‐effects of the instruments and provides insights into the relative importance of company‐internal and ‐external factors. This may prove fruitful for CSR research directed at other business and social concerns.