RT Article
T1 Dressing up for Diffusion: Codes of Conduct in the German Textile and Apparel Industry, 1997–2010
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 126
IS 4
SP 559
OP 580
A1 Scheiber, Florian
LA English
PB Springer Science + Business Media B. V
YR 2015
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1785653121
AB I study the diffusion of codes of conduct in the German textile and apparel industry between 1997 and 2010. Using a longitudinal case study design, I aim to understand how the diffusion of this practice was affected by the way important “infomediaries”—a trade journal and a professional association—shaped its understanding within the industry. My results show that time-consuming processes of meaning reconstruction by these infomediaries temporarily hampered but finally facilitated the broader material diffusion of codes of conduct within the industry. These findings detail existing conceptualizations of code diffusion as they demonstrate how infomediaries—through creation, use, and reconstruction of explanatory accounts as well as frames of reference—participate in defining the relevance and meaning of CSR practices. I move beyond prior empirical work as I explicitly assess not only processes of meaning construction evolving around a CSR practice but also how these processes over time coincide with quantitative patterns of its material diffusion. Implications of my findings for existing research on the diffusion of codes of conduct specifically and CSR practices in general as well as for conceptualizations of diffusion from institutional theory are discussed.
K1 Infomediaries
K1 Institutional Theory
K1 Discourse
K1 Diffusion
K1 code of conduct
K1 corporate code of ethics
DO 10.1007/s10551-013-1964-z