Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-01T10:53:10.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - NGO campaigns against corporations and (de-)legitimacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Michael Yaziji  and
Jonathan Doh
Michael Yaziji
Affiliation:
IMD, Lausanne
Jonathan Doh
Affiliation:
Villanova University, Pennsylvania
Get access

Summary

NGO campaigns can severely threaten profitable firms and constrain their scope for strategic action. For example, under pressure by a coalition of advocacy NGOs, Aventis paid more than $500 million to buy back genetically modified StarLink corn from growers, fired the head of its US crop sciences division and spun off its agricultural business (see Case illustration on p. 46). In another case, the Free Burma Coalition of NGOs forced companies such as Levi Strauss, Macy's, Liz Claiborne, PepsiCo, Texaco, Amaco, ABN AMRO, Kodak, Apple, Disney, Motorola and many others out of Burma. Pharmaceutical companies have also been targeted as AIDS activist NGOs pressured them with threats of negative public relations regarding patents on AIDS drugs in South Africa. Companies targeted in that campaign included GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche and others.

Peter Drucker stated that, “in the next society, the biggest challenge for the large company – especially for the multinational – may be its social legitimacy.” Raymond Vernon noted that these advocacy organizations were increasingly pushing firms, under threat of delegitimation and its attendant costs, in order to support the norms and values that the NGOs were dedicated to promote. In this chapter we will start by highlighting how these campaigns represent an under-studied area of risk for firms. We will then turn to looking at the process and risk factors of these campaigns.

Type
Chapter
Information
NGOs and Corporations
Conflict and Collaboration
 , pp. 57 - 73
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

, P., “Will the corporation survive?” Economist November 3 (2001), 15.Google Scholar
Vernon, R., In The Hurricane's Eye (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998).Google Scholar
Suchman, M. C., “Managing legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches,” Academy of Management Review 20 (3) (1995), 571–610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Selznick, P., Leadership in Administration (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957).Google Scholar
Scott, R. W., Institutions and Organizations (Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2001).Google Scholar
Aldrich, H. E. and Fiol, C. M., “Fools rush in? The institutional context of industry creation,” Academy of Management Review 19 (4) (1994), 645–670CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliver, C., “Strategic responses to institutional processes,” Academy of Management Review 16 (1991), 145–197CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suchman, , “Managing legitimacy,” 571–610
Zimmerman, M. A. and Zeitz, G. J., “Beyond survival: Achieving new venture growth by building legitimacy,” Academy of Management Review 27 (3) (2002), 414–431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Aunno, T., Sutton, R. I. and Price, R. H., “Isomorphism and external support in conflicting institutional environments: A study of drug abuse treatment units,” Academy of Management Journal 34 (3) (1991), 636–661Google ScholarPubMed
Kostova, T. and Zaheer, S., “Organizational legitimacy under conditions of complexity: The case of the multinational enterprise,” Academy of Management Review 24 (1) (1999), 64–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruef, M. and Scott, R. W., “A multidimensional model of organizational legitimacy: Hospital survival in changing institutional environments,” Administrative Science Quarterly 43 (4) (1998), 877–904.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, , Institutions and Organizations for a thorough review.
Oliver, C., “Strategic responses to institutional processes,” Academy of Management Review 16 (1991), 145–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorngate, W., “Possible limits on a science of social behavior,” in Strickland, L. H., Aboud, F. E. and Gergen, K. J. (eds.), Social Psychology in Transition (New York: Plenum, 1976), pp. 121–139Google Scholar
Weick, K. E., “What theory is not, theorizing is,” Administrative Science Quarterly 40 (3) (1995), 385–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frooman, J., “Stakeholder influence strategies,” Academy of Management Review 24 (1999), 191–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garguilo, M., “Two-step leverage: Managing constraint in organizational politics,” Administrative Science Quarterly 38 (1) (1993), 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stark, D., “Recombinant property in East European capitalism,” American Journal of Sociology 101 (4) (1996), 993–1027.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yaziji, M., “Turning gadflies into allies,” Harvard Business Review, February (2004), 110–115.Google ScholarPubMed
Hannan, M. T. and Freeman, J., “The population ecology of organizations,” American Journal of Sociology 82 (5) (1977), 929–964.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, D. and Friesen, P. H., “Momentum and revolution in organizational adaptation,” Academy of Management Journal 23 (4) (1980), 591–614.Google Scholar
Staw, B. M., “The escalation of commitment to a course of action,” Academy of Management Review 6 (4) (1981), 577–587.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Aunno, Sutton and Price, , “Isomorphism and external support,” 636–661
Deephouse, D. L., “Does isomorphism legitimate?” Academy of Management Journal 39 (4) (1996), 1024–1039CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, J. W., Scott, R. W. and Strang, D., “Centralization, fragmentation, and school district complexity,” Administrative Science Quarterly 32 (1987), 186–201CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, W. W., “Institutional effects on organizational structure and performance,” in L. G. Zucker (ed.), Institutional Patterns and Organizations: Culture and Environment (Cambridge, MA: Ballinger, 1988), pp. 115–136Google Scholar
Ruef, and Scott, , “A multidimensional model of organizational legitimacy,” 877–904.
Kostova, and Zaheer, , “Organizational legitimacy,” 64–81.
D'Aunno, Sutton and Price, , “Isomorphism and external support,” 636–661.
Eisinger, P., “The conditions of protest behavior in American cities,” American Political Science Review 67 (1973), 11–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, J. C. and Perrow, C., “Insurgency of the powerless: Farm workers' movements (1946–1972),” American Sociological Review 42 (1977), 249–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gale, R., “Social movements and the state: The environmental movement, countermovement, and government agencies,” Sociological Perspectives 29 (1986), 202–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelkin, D. and Pollak, M., The Atom Besieged (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981).Google Scholar
McAdam, D., McCarthy, J. D. and Zald, M. N., “Social movements,” in Smelser, N. (ed.), Handbook of Sociology (Newbury Park: Sage, 1988), pp. 695–737.Google Scholar
Zald, M. N. and McCarthy, J. D., “Organizational intellectuals and the criticism of society,” Social Service Review 49 (1975), 344–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Emilio, J., Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983).Google Scholar
Freeman, J., “The origins of the women's liberation movement,” American Journal of Sociology 78 (1973), 792–811CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, A., The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement (New York: Free Press, 1984).Google Scholar
Karatnycky, A., Freedom in the World: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties 2001–2002 (New York: Freedom House, 2002).Google Scholar
Scott, , Institutions and Organizations.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×