| Author: | Andrew J. Hoffman |
| Title: | The Environmental Transformation of American Industry: An Institutional Account of Organziational Evolution in the Chemical and Petroleum Industries (1960-1993) |
| Institution: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Date: | February 1995 |
| Advisor: | Fred Moavenzadeh, John Ehrenfeld, Robert Thomas, William Ocasio, William Pounds, David Marks |
| Key Words: | Institutional theory, organizational behavior, history, chemical industry, petroleum industry, content analysis, legal cases |
| How to Obtain: | Contact MIT archives |
| Abstract: | How have the structure and strategy of the American industrial enterprise
evolved in response to environmentalism, and what are the dynamics by which
this transformation has taken place? To answer these questions, this
dissertation draws upon the theoretical field of organizational behavior
and in particular, institutional theory. In explaining the emergence
of corporate environmental management strategies, I find that what we have
been witnessing over the past three decades has been the co-evolution of
institutions outside the firm and the structures and strategies inside
the firm. Both have been continually evolving as new events or crises
call attention to the need for new forms of broadly accepted legitimate
behavior. The status of corporate environmental management is explained
as the historical product of this external examination, the result of what
is described as a negotiation among the internal members of the firm and
external members of the institutional field: primarily the government,
other firms sharing similar technological and political constraints, and
external environmental interests.
Using a content analysis of two trade journals and a statistical review of federal case law, both studies being longitudinal from 1960 - 1993, this dissertation links the evolution of corporate attention and strategy, not simply with shifts in environmental costs, but rather with shifts in the makeup and power balances in the institutional field. Observed to be in an interactive relationship, the institutional field, corporate attention and corporate strategy were found to have evolved through a concurrent four stage evolution, with transitions in 1970, 1981-1983 and 1988-1990. To further build this analysis, case studies of the Amoco Corporation and the environmental investor group, the Council of Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) provide additional insights into the institutional model. These results have practical implications for the business manager, policy analyst and environmental activist and theoretical implications for the organizational theorist. |