Setting standards for CSR: A comparative case study on criteria-formulating organizations

Though criteria-formulating organizations (CFOs) – organizations in which business and community stakeholders cooperate to formulate standards for ethical issues – play an important role in the relationship between firms and society, they receive scant attention from CSR researchers. Adopting an organizational culture perspective, the present study inductively develops a theory on the development of these ethical standards, on the basis of a comparison of four cases. Specifically, the study examines how the norms of stakeholders, rooted in values, lead to standards for market actors and compliance by market actors. These insights may help CFOs to maximize their contribution to society.