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Purpose– This paper aims to highlight the links among standardization, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and critical management. It also aims at understanding the implication of the normalization process for CSR but also questions the nature of this concept.Design/methodology/approach– To determine the interest in standardization, we forecasted the trend in issuing ISO certificates based on autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and Holt statistical models. Then a critical approach is used to understand the nature of CSR.Findings– The paper focuses on a critical approach and challenge the definition of CSR through the lenses of standardization. It shows that the notion of CSR is polysemic and highlights the limits of standardization process.Research limitations/implications– The research is only based on ISO standards, not other kind of standardization process.Social implications– The paper questions the notion of CSR and shows the different elements that this notion covers.Originality/value– The paper questions the role of standardization and its impact on CSR adopting a critical view.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the convergence of the social reporting guidelines available in Italy.


Design/methodology/approach
– The research is based on a documentary analysis of four selected social reporting guidelines provided by Italian institutions or translated in Italian.


Findings
– The results of the analysis point out that it is possible to identify an isomorphic convergence among the guidelines, though differences remain relevant and express peculiar institutional expectations on the behaviours of different typologies of organizations.


Research limitations/implications
– The study is limited to Italian social reporting guidelines; however, it provides a methodology which could be applied in different contexts.


Practical implications
– This study identifies the leading and primary issues in social reporting practices across different sectorial and methodological schemes.


Social implications
– The convergence of social reporting guidelines has a twofold implication: on one hand, social accountability is plastic issue, adaptable to different organization sectors and typologies; on the other, a common codification and commodification of social accountability is emerging.


Originality/value
– The article proposes a cross-sectorial analysis of social reporting methodologies, to identify analogies, differences and trends of institutionalization and standardization of this process.

Purpose
– This paper aims to open a dialogue between academic accounts of the subprime crisis and The Life of Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare.


Design/methodology/approach
– Andre Orlean's analysis of the crisis published in 2009 is closely examined to trace the ways in which it echoes this seventeenth-century play on issues of debt, gift, trust and belief.


Findings
– Shakespeare's play provides an astonishingly relevant description that can account for and provide a new reading of most of Orlean's (2009) detailed and in-depth academic analysis.


Originality/value
– Following the chronology of a literary piece, this article opens a dialogue with the academic literature to allow for gaining a particular perspective, namely, beyond specific elements, the underlying dynamics of the subprime crisis are sadly classic in terms of trust and beliefs. As we will see, Shakespeare had already seen everything […].

Purpose– The aim of this paper is to identify difficulties and tension fields encountered in a Social Accountability (SA) 8000 certification process. The paper is based on a case study within a multinational small–medium enterprise (SME) during the implementation of a SA8000 standard.Design/methodology/approach– In the framework of the case study, we adopt a cognitivist approach and use cognitive maps to describe and analyze the corporate social responsibility (CSR) representations of the main actors of the certification process: the owner-manager of the SME and the certification manager. We collected additional information on the case company through document analysis, additional interviews, validation interviews, confrontation interviews and follow-up interviews after one year.Findings– The analysis of cognitive maps revealed tension fields and difficulties linked to the different representations of social responsibility between the social accountability standard SA8000 and the owner-manager strategic vision. It also underlines the sensemaking role of the certification manager in the certification process.Research limitations/implications– Limitations of the research are the explorative character of an illustrative case study and the limits of the construction of cognitive maps. The cognitive perspective brings new insights into the certification process and into the interaction between middle and top management.Practical implications– Implementing a CSR standard necessitates a cognitive change of individual representationsto integrate CSR standardized criteria in the complex, idiosyncratic and systemic representations of the main actors.Social implications– The case study shows clearly the tensions existing between the CSR representation based on a social standard and the CSR representation of SME owner-managers.Originality/value– Cognitive mapping has been often used to analyze and to discuss strategic vision of SME owner-managers, but rarely in the field of CSR. The confrontation of two maps and the complementary analysis of the case study context bring additional perspectives on implementation difficulties.

Purpose– The objective of this paper is to address the question whether and how firms can follow a standard management process to cope with emerging corporate social responsibility (CSR) challenges? Both researchers and practitioners have paid increasing attention to the question because of the rapidly evolving CSR expectations of stakeholders and the limited diffusion of CSR standardization. The question was addressed by developing a theoretical framework to explain how dynamic capabilities can contribute to effective CSR management.Design/methodology/approach– Based on 64 world-leading companies' contemporary CSR reports, we carried out a large-scale content analysis to identify and examine the common organizational processes involved in CSR management and the dynamic capabilities underpinning those management processes.Findings– Drawing on the dynamic capabilities perspective, we demonstrate how the deployment of three dynamic capabilities for CSR management, namely, scanning, sensing and reconfiguration capabilities can help firms to meet emerging CSR requirements by following a set of common management processes. The findings demonstrate that what is more important in CSR standardization is the identification and development of the underlying dynamic capabilities and the related organizational processes and routines, rather than the detailed operational activities.Originality/value– Our study is an early attempt to examine the fundamental organizational capabilities and processes involved in CSR management from the dynamic capabilities perspective. Our research findings contribute to CSR standardization literature by providing a new theoretical perspective to better understand the capabilities enabling common CSR management processes.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to show the importance of an integrative approach to CSR.Design/methodology/approach– The paper is based on the qualimetrics intervention-research methodology. It is an exploratory research project.Findings– The intervention-research case study shows an example where an integrative approach to CSR was made possible.Research limitations/implications– The paper only presents an example of a company. Future research should show how the method that has been experimented to integrate CSR might be implemented.Practical implications– The paper might help company actors debate and propose an innovative approach to CSR.Social implications– The paper provides scientific methods to better negotiate the creation of norms and standards in the field of CSR, enabling to move one step further as regards ISO 26000.Originality/value– It shows some of the conditions required to bridge the gap between CSR and financial standards.