Social standards: An empirical examination of early and late adopters’ motives and attitudes.

Certifiable management standards (CMS) are an important means of translating the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda into managerial practices. There is no agreement in the literature, however, about their effectiveness. This paper argues that the latter depends on the motives and dedication of the firms that subscribe to the standards and reveals that there are notable differences in this regard between early and late adopters. Utilising survey data, and employing discriminant analysis, this study demonstrates that late adopters’ decision to subscribe to a CMS is mostly related to competitive factors, rather than ethical or relational motives. The results also indicate that late adopters tend to use CMS as symbolic statements of conformance to societal demands rather than in a sincere pursuit of a CSR agenda. More generally, these findings suggest that, in certain institutional contexts, self-regulation, although meeting necessary formal requirements, may miss its intended targets nonetheless.