Patterns of actor response to environmental change

Abstract

Organisations respond to environmental change in many and complex ways and, as a result, studying the way in which they do so is problematic. In this paper, we take advantage of a natural experiment — the banning of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) — to investigate a situation where many organisations were facing the same external threat at the same time. The study employs a theoretical framework that incorporates elements from the Industrial Networks and Strategic Management schools, as well as critical realist ontology. A case study methodology, which is particularly appropriate for critical realist approach, was used and the analysis involved comparisons among 10 case studies of focal actors. The response outcomes, in this case, timing, size, and internalisation/externalisation of change, were explained by reference to a single deep process — minimisation of change — and a series of contextual variables internal and external to the focal actors.