THE PROACTIVE CORPORATION - ITS NATURE AND CAUSES

We argue that the stakeholder perspective on corporate social responsi bility is in the process of being enlarged. Due to the process of inst itutional isomorphism, corporations are increasingly adopting organiza tional features designed to promote preactivity over mere reactivity i n their stakeholder relationships. We identify two sources of pressure promoting the emergence of the proactive corporation - stakeholder ac tivism and the recognition of the social embeddedness of the economy. The final section describes four organizational design dimensions bein g installed by the more proactive corporations today - cooperation, pa rticipation, negotiation, and direct anticipation.