This paper evaluates the influence of multiple actors in both formal and informal governance systems on corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Drawing on institutional theory, a quantitative survey was developed and conducted of a sample of 140 firms in the electronics, food, textiles, toys and personal care sectors in Brazil. We examine how institutional pressures and firm-level agency influence the emergence of different patterns of CSR. We distinguish two clusters of companies: active companies identify business outcomes and actors that effectively exert an influence on their CSR practices, while passive companies consider institutional pressures to be of minor importance. Our contribution relates first, to institutional theory concerning the role of different actors in influencing the implementation of social and environmental practices; second, to the importance of collective coordination or its absence in shaping the specific characteristics of CSR; and third, to the agency of firms in responding to institutional pressures as being dependent on their perceptions of business outcomes. The theoretical insights drawn from this study should be applicable to similar countries, that is, to emerging but politically and economically unstable markets with marked social and economic inequalities.

本文评估了正式和非正式治理系统中多个参与者对公司社会责任（CSR）实践的影响。根据制度理论，对巴西的电子，食品，纺织，玩具和个人护理行业的140家公司进行了抽样调查，并进行了定量调查。我们研究了制度压力和公司层面的代理如何影响不同形式的企业社会责任的出现。我们将公司分为两类：活跃的公司确定业务成果和有效影响其CSR实践的参与者，而消极的公司则认为机构压力次要。我们的贡献首先是 关于不同参与者在影响社会和环境实践的实施中的作用的制度理论；其次，集体协作的重要性或缺乏其在塑造企业社会责任的特定特征方面的重要性；第三，对于公司的代理机构，以应对机构压力，因为机构压力取决于他们对业务成果的看法。从这项研究中得出的理论见解应适用于类似的国家，即具有明显的社会和经济不平等现象的新兴市场，但在政治和经济上不稳定。