Taming Wicked Problems: The Role of Framing in the Construction of Corporate Social Responsibility

TY - JOUR

T1 - Taming Wicked Problems

T2 - The Role of Framing in the Construction of Corporate Social Responsibility

AU - Reinecke, Juliane

AU - Ansari, Shaz

PY - 2016/5

Y1 - 2016/5

N2 - While scholars have explained how business has increasingly taken on regulatory roles to address social and environmental challenges, less attention has been given to the process of how business is made responsible for wicked problems. Drawing on a study of ?conflict minerals? in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we examine the process through which companies became responsible for a humanitarian crisis. We contribute by: (1) bridging insights from contentious performance and deliberative approaches ? to present a model of corporate political responsibilization for a wicked problem that explains how a ?field frame? of responsibility can emerge; (2) explaining shifting boundaries between public and private responsibilities and the changing role of the state as catalytic rather than coercive; and (3) showing how responsibility can be attributed to a target by framing an issue and its root cause in ways that allow such an attribution, and how the attribution can diffuse and solidify.

AB - While scholars have explained how business has increasingly taken on regulatory roles to address social and environmental challenges, less attention has been given to the process of how business is made responsible for wicked problems. Drawing on a study of ?conflict minerals? in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we examine the process through which companies became responsible for a humanitarian crisis. We contribute by: (1) bridging insights from contentious performance and deliberative approaches ? to present a model of corporate political responsibilization for a wicked problem that explains how a ?field frame? of responsibility can emerge; (2) explaining shifting boundaries between public and private responsibilities and the changing role of the state as catalytic rather than coercive; and (3) showing how responsibility can be attributed to a target by framing an issue and its root cause in ways that allow such an attribution, and how the attribution can diffuse and solidify.

U2 - 10.1111/joms.12137

DO - 10.1111/joms.12137

M3 - Article

SN - 0022-2380

VL - 53

SP - 299

EP - 329

JO - Journal of Management Studies

JF - Journal of Management Studies

IS - 3

ER -