RESPONSE - Insead

Methodology Company case studies
The participant companies made up five pairs and three triads (table 4). Triads were formed where
more than two invitations sent to several companies in a given industry group were accepted.
In each participant company, the data collection
process followed the five steps in table 5.
Step 1: After a data collection exercise from
publicly available sources, including official
company communication (annual and social
reports, etc.) and a web­search for debates and
external initiatives concerning the company’s
activities, an initial ‘fact­finding’ visit was made to
meet the managers responsible for “corporate
responsibility” issues (however defined by the
company).
Step 2: The fact­finding field visit followed a structured protocol (see Exhibit 1) aimed at reconstructing
the evolution of corporate responsibility practice in the company and collecting systematic information
about firm­level characteristics, such as its origins, its strategy and organisational structure, its
governance and leadership, its key change events, etc.
Step 3: An average of 12 stakeholders were selected for each firm. Stakeholders included social
rating agencies (SRAs), social stakeholders such as non­governmental organisations (NGOs),
international institutions and educational institutions, as well as the company’s “inner ring” of
stakeholders (Freeman, 1984; Preston, Post and Sachs, 2002). “Inner ring” stakeholders include
shareholders, employees, customers,
suppliers, local governments, the
media and industry associations.
Figure 3 presents a profile of the
stakeholders who were interviewed.
The majority of stakeholders who
were interviewed can be classified
as social stakeholders. Non­
governmental organisations
comprised the greatest number of
these. In total, 89 non­governmental
organisations were interviewed for
the research. A total of 41 interviews
took place with Social Rating
Agencies, while 44 interviews
involved the inner circle of more
classical corporate stakeholders.
Stakeholders varied in terms of their
level of knowledge about the
company in general – as well as in
terms of their knowledge of the
Social
rating
agencies
19%
Table 5. Research Protocol
Step 1 Desk research
Step 2 “Fact finding” field visit
Step 3 Selection of stakeholders
Step 4 Stakeholder interviews
Step 5 Internal company interviews
Figure 3: : Overview of Stakeholder Interviews
"Inner
circle"
34%
Social
47%
N =219
company’s social responsibility activities. In part, this is a reflection of how they were identified, with
stakeholders nominated by the company being – in general – more knowledgeable. In part, the
varying level of knowledge is a reflection of the interests and focus of specific stakeholders. Many
external stakeholders have issue­specific interests, and as a result, their knowledge of a company
may be relatively narrow. However, the number and range of interviews conducted provides a high
level of knowledge about individual companies.
RESPONSE: understanding and responding to societal demands on corporate responsibility
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