WHEN DO THEORIES BECOME SELF-FULFILLING? EXPLORING THE BOUNDARY CONDITIONS OF PERFORMATIVITY

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Marti, Emilio; Gond, Jean-Pascal
• 署名单位: Erasmus University Rotterdam - Excl Erasmus MC; Erasmus University Rotterdam; City St Georges, University of London
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0363-7425
• DOI: 10.5465/amr.2016.0071
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 487-508
• 关键词: corporate social-responsibility; INSTITUTIONAL WORK; COLLECTIVE BELIEFS; management; CONSTRUCTION; performance; INVESTMENT; BUSINESS; science; MARKET

摘要

Management researchers increasingly realize that some theories do not merely describe but also shape social reality-a phenomenon known as performativity. However, when theories become performative or even self-fulfilling is still poorly understood. Taking this gap in current research as our starting point, we develop a process model to show that new theories will only become self-fulfilling if (1) they motivate experimentation, (2) experimentation produces anomalies, and (3) these anomalies lead to a practice shift. On that basis we identify six boundary conditions that determine whether theories will come to shape social reality. To illustrate our argument, we explore the conditions under which theories that postulate a positive link between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance may become self-fulfilling.