{"id":73932,"date":"2018-10-09T09:15:30","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T07:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ieseg.fr\/?post_type=news&p=73932\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T12:23:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T10:23:41","slug":"how-to-sell-csr-in-large-companies","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.ieseg.fr\/en\/news\/how-to-sell-csr-in-large-companies\/","title":{"rendered":"How to \u201csell\u201d CSR in large companies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"de-bakker-web\"

Frank de Bakker<\/p><\/div>\n

Based on an interview with Frank de Bakker<\/a> and on his paper \u201cPitching for Social Change: Toward a Relational Approach to Selling and Buying Social Issues\u201d (Academy of Management Discoveries<\/em>, 2018), co-written with Christopher Wickert (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam).<\/p>\n

Corporate social responsibility is high on any large company’s agenda, but it needs to be accepted at every level of the organization to translate into real action. How do CSR managers convincingly argue for change? An in-depth study reveals a whole range of strategies for getting people onboard \u2013 and getting the company to walk the talk.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Companies have come a long way since 1970, when leading economist Milton Friedman argued in The New York Times Magazine<\/em> that \u201cthe social responsibility of business is to increase its profits,\u201d setting the tone for boardroom ethics for several decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been a growing awareness that firms have an impact on their physical and social environment and should act accordingly,\u201d says I\u00c9SEG professor Frank de Bakker.<\/p>\n

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has now become standard practice. All large companies, even Big Tobacco and Big Oil, have embraced CSR in some form. But for social and environmental policies to actually be implemented throughout a company, and not remain mere lip-service, they need to be adopted internally at every level of the organization. Achieving this is sometimes an uphill struggle for CSR managers.<\/p>\n

One major difficulty is that these CSR managers tend to be in a relatively weak hierarchical position: middle management. \u201cIn large companies, CSR managers are typically neither in top management nor on the shop floor; they need to convince their peers who have different backgrounds, objectives, and responsibilities,\u201d explains Professor de Bakker.<\/p>\n

Peers often show skepticism, lack of interest, or even downright denial about the effects of corporate practices. So how do CSR managers go about \u201cselling\u201d their message?<\/p>\n

\u201cPitching\u201d for social change<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Initially, Frank de Bakker and his colleague Christopher Wickert were puzzled, guessing that the role of CSR managers was to overcome resistance. They soon realized that was not the whole story. After an in-depth study involving dozens of individual interviews carried out with CSR managers in German multinational companies, they saw patterns emerge.<\/p>\n

In a true \u201cmarketplace of ideas\u201d, struggles arise between those who aim to \u201csell,\u201d or promote, issues and those who are expected to \u201cbuy,\u201d or pay attention to them and act upon them. The researchers uncovered different strategies used by CSR managers to win over their counterparts and obtain concrete results without appearing too pushy. Indeed, Professor de Bakker was struck by the cautiousness his interviewees felt they had to apply: \u201cThey walk a very thin line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opting for a patient, pragmatic approach<\/strong><\/h4>\n

To better understand how and why issue sellers interact with issue buyers, the researchers first examined seller motivation and self-perception.<\/p>\n

People who take on the job of CSR manager tend to be dissatisfied with the status quo. One told the researchers: \u201cWe have a few things, like separating waste, or paying equal wages to men and women. I think that people often don’t see that there is potential to do so much more. Often, no one cares.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frustration with corporate routines is not seen as a reason to resign or give up, but rather as an incentive to keep working as an agent of change. Another interviewee saw the CSR department as the organization’s \u201csocial conscience\u201d, describing it as \u201can internal NGO\u201d. And yet, they all insisted on a patient and pragmatic stance that is more moderate than ideology-driven in terms of expectations of change. Their step-by-step approach is all the more important because of the social nature of the issue, as opposed to technical or economic questions in which the value of change may seem more obvious.<\/p>\n

Lessons in strategy<\/strong><\/h4>\n

CSR managers tend not to wield much formal power, so they try to gradually accumulate influence and make allies. They strive for continuous small and incremental wins, rather than occasional large ones.<\/p>\n

Another engagement strategy that the study reveals is the establishment of proximity to social issues. On a functional level, it can mean discussing the social impacts of the choice of a supplier with a procurement officer, and on an emotional level, it is about creating a personal connection with the issue. \u201cIt\u2019s about making people feel they can contribute to the long-term sustainability of the company\u201d one respondent argued; such strategies are important to develop a sense of urgency and to underline the relevance of the issue, comments Frank de Bakker.<\/p>\n

Last but not least, CSR managers learn to identify the worldviews of their \u201cbuyers\u201d and adapt their language, arguments, and even clothing accordingly! (One interviewee joked about wearing a suit rather than \u201crun[ning] around like Jesus in hippie boots\u201d).<\/p>\n

Jokes about looking like tree-huggers aside, \u201cCSR managers need to blend in so as to be taken seriously and acknowledged as equal partners in the conversation,\u201d says Frank de Bakker.<\/p>\n

\n

Practical applications<\/h2>\n

The most important insight from this research is that the task of selling social issues within an organization is very much a relational endeavor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s about building strong relationships with the ‘buyers’, the persons you need to work with,\u201d says Frank de Bakker, suggesting CSR managers really need to be what is known as \u201cpeople persons\u201d, both \u201cflexible and adaptable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

Methodology<\/h2>\n

The authors chose Germany as their research site because of its high level of social pressure in terms of CSR. They initially conducted 54 open-ended interviews with CSR managers in German multinational companies between 2012 and 2013, followed up with an additional 45 interviews. From the qualitative data thus collected, the researchers developed theoretical categories and identified themes so as to allow patterns to emerge, in a procedure known as inductive research.<\/p>\n

\n

Biography<\/h2>\n

Frank de Bakker is Professor of Corporate Social Responsibility at I\u00c9SEG School of Management in Lille. Before joining I\u00c9SEG in 2016, he taught at the Organization Sciences Department of Amsterdam’s VU University for more than a decade. He holds a PhD in Management from the University of Twente in The Netherlands.<\/p>\n

\u201cPitching for Social Change: Toward a Relational Approach to Selling and Buying Social Issues\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 (Academy of Management Discoveries, 2018), Christopher Wickert (VU) and Frank de Bakker (I\u00c9SEG).<\/p>\n

Find an animated representation of this research here: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Cf225i2oDbM<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Based on an interview with Frank de Bakker and on his paper \u201cPitching for Social Change: Toward a Relational Approach to Selling and Buying Social Issues\u201d (Academy of Management Discoveries, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":100489,"menu_order":0,"template":"","news-category":[56,178,298],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to \u201csell\u201d CSR in large companies - I\u00c9SEG<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Corporate social responsibility is high on any large company's agenda, but it needs to be accepted at every level of the organization.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ieseg.fr\/en\/news\/how-to-sell-csr-in-large-companies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to \u201csell\u201d CSR in large companies - 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