How environmental irresponsibility is maintained in Russian multinational enterprises through their interactions with the national and global institutional contexts

Despite the increasing calls for businesses to behave responsibly, corporate irresponsibility, i.e., firms' actions that cause harm to humans or nature, still recurs in different parts of the world. Part of the reason why corporate irresponsibility continues to take place is the inability of business and society studies to produce critical knowledge on the mechanisms that give rise to and maintain corporate irresponsibility – the basis for understanding whether and how corporate irresponsibility could be prevented. One of the key factors limiting the impact of business and society studies is the over-reliance of business and society scholars on the economic view of the firm. In doing so, business and society scholars have tended to consider the sources of corporate bad acts to be located almost exclusively inside the firm. As a result, the insights of business and society scholars on how corporate irresponsibility can be prevented stemmed from analytical frameworks that do not account for the systemic origins of corporate bad acts. Recently, however, calls for a contextual turn in studies of corporate irresponsibility have arisen. Scholars have been pointing out the need to acknowledge the systemic nature of corporate irresponsibility and examine harmful corporate practices within broader institutional contexts in which firms are embedded. Therefore, aiming to advance an evolving understanding of corporate irresponsibility being more than a product of corporate greed, this dissertation addresses the following overall research question: How is corporate irresponsibility maintained in Russian MNEs through their interactions with the Russian national and global institutional contexts? Empirically, this dissertation examines the environmental irresponsibility of three Russian MNEs. The dataset for this study includes interviews, observations and archival materials. The findings demonstrate corporate bad acts as perpetuated through constellations of multiple actors and valuation logics of both national and international levels.