Miron Avidan
McGill University
PERFORMATIVE EFFECTS OF SUSTAINABILITY DISCLOSURE
Abstract
Sustainability disclosure is an exemplar of “Social Evaluation Tools (SET’s)” such as certifications, ratings, accreditations and similar devices that have been employed mostly over the last decade for the measurement of social and environmental conduct. I point that whereas the stated goal of these tools is to promote public good, they are often viewed in the literature as generating reactivity and manipulation on the part of actors. I suggest to employ a performativity perspective to examine whether SET’s can also exert effects that are more socially desirable. I use the popular sustainability disclosure format GRI/G3 as my context, and find that organizations’ application levels of reports using this format have improved over time, thus suggesting that the GRI/G3 effectively performed the way theymanage and measure corporate responsibility. In order to support this interpretation I conduct a mixed method approach, involving both time series analysis and interviews with key practitioners. My findings shed light on the role of sustainability disclosure as a calculative device, thereby extending performativity theory to a new setting.
Biography
Miron Avidan is a third year PhD student at McGill’s faculty of management working under the supervision of Professor Dror Etzion. He is interested in the development, diffusion and performative effects of organizational metrics. Together with his supervisor Miron has so far published in the “Journal of Cleaner production” (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2620334) and had also completed a SSHRC-funded research project for the Canadian regulator on the effectiveness of public disclosure (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alliance-for-research-on-corporate-sustainability-/whatmakes-public disclos_b_10742576.html)
Prior to pursuing his Ph.D, Miron was working as a sustainability analyst in an Israeli NGO that promotes corporate responsibility, and had also written corporate responsibility reports and codes of conduct for large Israeli corporations. Miron has a M.Sc in applied statistics, an M.B.A and a B.A in social science – all from Tel-Aviv university.