Linking Organizational and Field-Level Analyses: The Diffusion of Corporate Environmental Practice

Abstract

This article examines the diffusion of corporate environmental practice in the context of field-level dynamics. It builds a conceptual model that makes links among (a) the complex constituency of the institutional field driving environmental concerns, (b) the multiple cultural frames that emerge from that constituency, and (c) the corresponding structural and cultural routines that become enacted within firms. It offers contributions for research in the domains of both environmental practice and institutional theory. For environmental practice, this article attends to the genesis and diffusion of environmental practice by going beyond the individual organization level. For institutional theory, the implications of this model allow for more sophisticated notions of isomorphism and resistance to change. Inertia, traditionally a phenomenon attributed to the field, can be the result of organization-level dynamics that resist change. The article concludes with ideas for future research.