Corporate community engagement strategies and organizational arrangements: a multiple case study in Canada

Abstract

There is a growing consensus among scholars and practitioners that corporate community relations matter, especially from a sustainability standpoint. While current research has focused on strategies of corporate community engagement per se, little is known about the interactions between organizational arrangements and community engagement strategies of companies. Through the empirical study of 17 companies that pose serious and direct environmental risks, this article underscores the importance of organizational arrangements, including human and financial resources, competencies, issue status, and measurement tools. This study contributes to the literature on corporate community relations both empirically and conceptually. First, it provides a detailed examination of the experience of managers directly involved in the day-to-day practice of engagement with local community. This detailed examination sheds light on the integrational strategy, an inherently transverse strategy of engagement. The integrational strategy complements other strategies previously theorized and opens new research avenues.