The creativity of organizations in the taking of management panaceas – On the implementation of CSR in German high-tech firms.

It is a challenge for companies to simultaneously follow corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the profit maximization premise as principles guiding their activities. Handling conflicting demands is a topic of increasing interest in institutional literature. We use the case of CSR implementation to develop a model of the organizational implementation and handling of emerging conflicting institutional demands. We build on and differentiate between the well-established theoretical concepts of isomorphism, translation and decoupling on different implementation levels. We argue that it is necessary to distinguish between a rhetorical and a structural handling. We further show that companies apply a strategy that creates tolerance for ambivalence.