The Transfer of management ideas to a western "Periphery": the case of corporate social responsibility in Australia

Previous research has revealed that management knowledge can be transferred across national borders as a result of different carriers, but also acknowledges that the institutional context of different countries can shape how management knowledge is diffused. We demonstrate the importance of macro institutional arrangements on the transfer of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to Australia since the early 1990s. Taking examples of financial markets (socially responsible forms of investment) and international environmental management standards (International Standardization Organization certification) as illustrative of how CSR practices have been diffused in Australia, it is argued that the Australian institutional context has produced a limited transfer of CSR in a largely instrumental and legitimating form.