Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Social Reaction Theory'

The majority of information related to the postprison experiences of exonerated individuals is frequently found in reports by journalists, or based on the findings of scholars on systematic factors that contribute to wrongful incarcerations. There is a lack of social science research on the unexplored meanings and essence of the postprison lived experiences of exonerees exclusively from their perspectives. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand and describe the postprison lived experiences of exonerated individuals, 1 year or longer after their prison release. The conceptual framework was guided by Tajfel's social identity theory and Becker's social reaction theory. Interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 8 exonerated males who were released from prison 1 year or longer. The data were analyzed using van Kaam's 7-step phenomenological analysis process as modified by Moustakas. The 7 themes that emerged from the data were employment and financial challenges, negative societal reaction, broken family relationships, unresolved emotional and psychological factors, self-imposed social isolation, role of family support, and resilience. Understanding the experiences of exonerees contribute to positive social change by providing knowledge to policymakers and others in the criminal justice system to assist in creating policies to expunge the records of exonerees without the necessity of litigation. Findings from this study also provide valuable insights on the need to offer monetary compensation and social services assistance to exonerees in all U.S. states to help in their reintegration experiences as they transition into their communities.

The prevailing discourse of “resistance vs. acceptance” in IT implementation research mostly personalizes the issue as “users” versus IT implementers (e.g., managers, CIOs, CMIOs, etc.). This kind of discourse has created an IT-implementer-centric attitude among IS scholars and practitioners. The IT-implementer-centric attitude, while embraces “acceptance” as a desirable reaction almost unconditionally, frequently holds for minimizing or more conservatively suppressing “resistance” to IT implementation. In other words, the mainstream IT implementation research, almost completely, treats “users” as passive recipients whose choices, as they face pre-developed/pre-designed/pre-rolled-out technology being implemented, can only be defined on a spectrum from “acceptance” to “resistance.” The current research study, however, offers an alternative perspective that views the “resistance vs. acceptance” duality “from the other side,” i.e., from the perspective of the supposed “resistors” or “acceptors” themselves. Through a review of the literature, this study first identifies major drawbacks of the extant theories and models of IT implementation research. Next, drawing on an interpretive paradigm of research (more specifically, phenomenological sociology), this study investigates a real world case of healthcare IT implementation. The results of the aforementioned literature review and case investigation subsequently form the basis for the study’s proposed theoretical account, which provides an unprecedented understanding and explanation of how actors representing different stakeholder groups, among which people who are routinely called “users” are but one group, experience IT implementation as they live their everyday lives. The proposed theoretical account is lastly used as a guide for crafting both practical and research prescriptions with respect to managing IT-involved change occasions.

Columnists and social media users commonly stated that terrorist attacks resonate differently in the world and they speculated on some potential reasons such as familiarity, number of victims, and the difference in expectations of a country to be a stage for a terrorist attack to explain this difference. An academic perspective, more specifically a sociological one, is needed to bring light to this debate. In this study, I aimed to understand the discourse after terrorist attacks and to find out if there is a difference between reactions to terrorist attack based on where they happened. This paper embraces a text mining approach to uncover what topics are discussed after four cases of terrorist attacks and to reveal if there is a discrepancy in reactions towards terrorist attacks based on the country they happened. The study consists of two parts. In the first part, the determinants of the public interest and support and how public interest differentiates between different cases of terror attacks is explored. In the second part, topic sentiment analysis is conducted to reveal the nature of the discourse on terrorism. Using the insights from social identity theory, realistic conflict theory and integrated threat theory, I argued that social group categorization in the context of terrorism takes place in a dichotomous manner as Western and Non-Western. This argument, social self-identities being based on ‘West vs. the Rest' mentality in the context of terrorism, is supported by the statistical evidence and the topic model. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Employing a mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology among undergraduate students at the University of Ottawa, this research has explored attributions about sexual assault and the role of perceived intoxication in the context of female and male victims of sexual assault. The use of qualitative methodology and the application of a feminist critique of attribution theory and its contemporary application to rape perception research have contributed to a better understanding of these judgements and the varied ways in which undergraduate students apply the core constructs of responsibility and blame to sexual assault, while simultaneously highlighting the limitations of typically positivistic research in this area. Analyses suggest that the judgements students make about the victims and perpetrators involved in sexual assault are varied and complex, and future research employing a similar methodology and theoretical lens among other populations, both within and outside post-secondary spheres, is warranted.

This investigation explores the reactions to Darwinism in the format and informal education of New Zealand society. The subsidiary purpose is to look at some implications for formal education. Many of the reactions have focussed on distortions of the Darwinian theory of evolution with the form of reaction to Darwinism being centred on different views of humankind. The various group interests have caused different aspects of Darwinism to be highlighted particularly when groups feel their interests are under threat. Using aspects of an "HS3" historical survey technique i.e. the history of the public reaction to an aspect of science and science teaching, key features of this debate are set in context. This context is then used to show that creationist objections and social Darwinian interpretations share many characteristics with their overseas counterparts. A philosophical analysis of the positions taken supports a charge that New Zealand creationist science is partly non science, and partly bad science. It is also shown that confusion has been created when groups have debated issues from different perspectives including cultural perspectives. In particular there has been a lack of communication as various creationist groups, using different research bases, and political, economic and legal institutions, have adopted generalist conservative positions, highlighted metaphysical and ethical considerations and drawn on creationist science literature to support the science of their case while pro-evolutionist groups have adopted specialist liberal or progressive positions, concentrated on the logic and epistemology of the debate and have drawn on mainstream science literature. Finally some implications have been drawn from this analysis of the different reactions, and recommendations have been made for future teaching of evolution and related concepts.

The experiment examined negative social reactions to bereaved parents from unrelated others. Both the behavior displayed by the parent and attachment style of the perceiver were expected to influence reactions to bereaved parents. Undergraduates at a southern university (N = 239) completed both attachment measures and measures of reactions to videotapes of bereaved parents. Results indicated that bereaved parents do indeed receive negative evaluations from unrelated others, in the form of decreased willingness to interact in various roles. However, a nonbereaved parent displaying depressive symptoms also received negative evaluations. Depressed targets in the present study did receive negative evaluations, supporting the predictions of Coyne's interpersonal-process theory of reactions to depressed individuals. Contrary to the predictions of interpersonal-process theory, a bereaved parent displaying loss content without depressive symptoms also elicited negative evaluations. Coyne's hypothesis that the amount of induced negative affect in the perceiver leads to negative evaluations was not supported by the data. Subjects appear to react to a complex set of factors when forming these evaluations, including both personal and situational information. Two factors may have undermined the present study s ability to adequately test this theory. Subjects may have perceived depressive symptoms in loss content in the present study. Further, subjects may not have identified with the parent in the present study as anticipated. Research is necessary to identify the amount and focus of subjects' identifications with depressed and bereaved targets. Only minor support was found for the prediction that attachment style would be related to reactions to bereaved parents. Continuous measures of attachment style were related to amount of induced negative affect. However, grouping subjects by attachment patterns was not related to either induced negative affect or evaluations. The present study and previous research suggest the possibility that conceptually attachment may contain several components which relate to behavior in varying degrees and ways. Further study of the components of attachment is necessary to clarify what behaviors are related to attachment disturbance.

The aim of this qualitative study was to examine six individuals' experiences to talk about the sexual abuse that occurred in their childhood. We interviewed five women and one man, using a phenomenological approach during the work process. The theories emerged as we analyzed our results and appeared to be communication, cognitive theory, validation, trauma theory and taboo. The results showed that the respondents, whom disclosed the abuse as children, were most likely to get a negative response from both formal and informal support systems. While as adults they were confirmed to a greater extent and therefore achieved a better physical and mental wellbeing. Although it may be difficult to listen to the respondents’ experiences of sexual abuse, it is of great importance that the social surroundings dare to listen and acknowledge their stories. The result also showed the importance of confirmation and to be validated as they talked about the abuse. Our findings support earlier research stating the importance of validation, and that the reactions from their social surroundings, were most important for the outcome of the disclosure.

In my research, I will attempt to examine the way in which Neoliberal Capitalist Globalization and economic conditions in the marketplace have shaped and continue to shape the assessment by Islamic groups of modernity, secularism and their place within it as a mutually constitutive process. I will conduct this analysis utilizing two country case studies: that of Turkey and Pakistan, each within the context of the theoretical frameworks of Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim and their study of the impact of religious ideas upon economic structures. In the last 30 years, from the start of market Neoliberalism, the political economy has shaped religious ideas in Muslim-populated regions as a result of privatization, deregulation of the market and urbanization. I found this process similar to that of the industrialization and emergence of modern capitalism in the beginning of 19th century Europe, which produced rapid urbanization. This, in turn, created a different lifestyle, family structure and (most importantly) produced a unique and secularized individual that was and is a product of modernity. The process can also be described as a departure from tradition and God. Economic transformations of this period restructured the concept of social and politics. The politics of God have been replaced by the politics of economy. On the other side, neoliberal economic policies have instigated a desecularization process within Muslim-populated countries. In Turkey, privatization and deregulation of the market have actually helped Muslims and Political Islam to move upward in the social stratification ladder and the result is the emergence of an Islamic-oriented middle class. The Gulen movement in Turkey is one of the best examples of this process. In Pakistan, the Jama’at-e-Islami has been a key player in the political and social sphere and has been supported by the middle class since the country was established in 1947. However, the polarization of Pakistani politics has weakened Jama’at at and has consequently led to the formation of even more religious groups and movements. Both countries have in common similar social, political and economic characteristics and the desecularization process is taking place rapidly. In my research, I will compare the Fethullah Gulen Movement and the Jama’at at in the context of the strengthening Neoliberalist economic process, and will look at how and why economic policies have created and led to a de-secularization of the social and political spheres, unlike the case of 19th century Europe. According to this research, desecularization in Muslim populated societies is a temporal process, which represents the larger social and political patterns of transformation that have been fueled by the market economy. Although we do witness an increasing trend of Islamization in Pakistan and Turkey, these movements will in time become weakened and absorbed by new market conditions. In the Turkish case, the Gulen Movement has already been integrated into the market economy and should be understood as a market oriented movement rather than an Islamic-based Nurcu movement. This is because in the Gulen Movement, establishing an Islamic order is not the primary objective, but the movement instead seeks political power as well as economic prosperity. I therefore describe the Gulen Movement as an 'Islamic movement without Islam.' On the other hand, The Jama’at at in Pakistan represents a persisting form of classical Islam, which conflicts with and directly opposes the market conditions. However, powerful economic forces have transformed the Jama’at-e-Islami of Pakistan from a classical form of Islam to a more reactionary form of Islam. I argue that both the Gulen Movement in Turkey and the Jama’at at in Pakistan will be domesticated by powerful market forces; however, this change will occur over the longer term. In this global era, there will continue to be less space for traditional community, and instead, market-based-individualism will play a dominant role in social relations. I contend that Islam will not be able to escape from this domestication process.
Ph. D.

Under 50- och 60-talet i USA växte bilismen och städer byggde väldigt mycket motorvägar. Trots detta började då i Washington, D.C. det förlopp som skulle leda till att de fick en tunnelbana på 70-talet. Denna uppsats studerar hur denna osannolika och oväntade tunnelbana kunde uppstå med hjälp av teorin om stigberoende.Genom att använda teorin om stigberoende som ett analytiskt verktyg, identifierar denna uppsats följande: (1) vilka små händelser, även kallade formativa moment, som startade processen att ge D.C. en tunnelbana, (2) den resulterande kedja av händelser, även kallade reaktiva sekvenser, vilka ledde tunnelbanerörelsen till den punkt där den upplevde självförstärkande processer. (3) Dessa självförstärkande processer, vilka slutligen resulterade i uppkomsten av tunnelbanan i D.C.Uppsatsen identifierar tre relativt små händelser som genom olika kedjor av reaktiva sekvenser leder till att kongressen, år 1965, beviljar tunnelbanan pengar vilket, genom efterföljande självförstärkande processer, säkerställer tunnelbanans uppkomst.
During the 50's and the 60's automobile usage in the United States grew significantly and cities constructed extensive highway networks. In spite of these trends, key events in the 1950's initiated a process that would result in the construction of the Washington, D.C. Metro System – one of the first metro systems built since the 1920's. By applying the Path Dependence Theory and examining narratives of actors and events in Washington, D.C. that influenced the development of the metro during that time, this paper shows how this unlikely and unexpected process occurred.Using the Path Dependence Theory as an analytical tool, this paper identifies the following: (1) certain small events, also known as critical junctures, which started the process of giving DC a metro; (2) the resulting chain of events, also known as reactive sequences, which allowed the metro (movement) to reach the point at which it experienced self-reinforcing processes; (3) these self-reinforcing processes, which finally resulted in the genesis of the metro in DC.The paper concludes that three relatively small events, through different chains of reactive sequences, led to Congress granting the metro funds in 1965 – which then brought about self- reinforcing processes that ensured the metro's genesis.
To be translated into English (upon request).; Appendix included.

O dilema do prisioneiro é geralmente visto como o ponto de partida para entender o problema da cooperação. Em comparação com o dilema do prisioneiro discreto e iterado, poucos estudos existem sobre o dilema do prisioneiro contínuo e iterado. A maioria dos trabalhos que investigaram o dilema do prisioneiro contínuo e iterado concentrou-se no período de 1990 a 2000, não obtendo resultados conclusivos sobre a melhor estratégia a ser adotada neste tipo de jogo. Duas estratégias diferentes se destacam neste tipo de dilema. A primeira é a estratégia RTS (Raise-the-Stakes) de Roberts e Sherrat (1998) que testa o terreno antes de aumentar os investimentos na relação. A segunda deriva do modelo LRS (Linear Reactive Strategies) de Wahl e Nowak (1999a). Esta última estratégia estando em equilíbrio de Nash cooperativo apresenta três características: (i) generosidade, i.e., investir o máximo possível no início da relação de cooperação; (ii) otimismo, i.e., contar com o melhor cenário para as próximas rodadas, e (iii) intransigência. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo principal contrapor as estratégias RTS e LRS num dilema do prisioneiro contínuo e iterado, na presença e ausência de ruído, com jogadas simultâneas e alternadas e para diferentes valores do parâmetro w (probabilidade de interagir novamente). Restringimos a nossa análise a um conjunto de seis estratégias: ALLC, ALLD, TFT, RTS, LRS e RTSM. O método utilizado foi o da simulação baseada em agente (ABM) no formato de torneios, semelhante ao de Axelrod (2006), Roberts & Sherratt (1998), Nowak & Sigmund (1992) e Nowak & Sigmund (1993). Utilizamos o software Netlogo e documentamos todo o processo da concepção e construção do modelo por meio da ferramenta TRACE (TRAnsparent and Comprehensive model Evaludation). Os resultados mostram que as estratégias mais cooperativas são mais favorecidas quando o jogo consiste em jogadas alternadas ao invés de simultâneas. A estratégia RTS teve melhor desempenho em jogos simultâneos para valores intermediários de w, na presença ou ausência de ruído. Por sua vez, a estratégia LRS teve melhor desempenho nos jogos simultâneos, na presença ou ausência de ruído, ou alternados e na presença de ruído, em ambos os casos para valores grandes de w
The prisoner\'s dilemma is generally seen as the starting point for understanding the problem of cooperation. In comparison with the discreet and iterated prisoner\'s dilemma, few studies exist on the continuous iterated prisoner\'s dilemma. Most of the works that have investigated the continuous iterated prisoner\'s dilemma has concentrated in the period from 1990 to 2000, not getting conclusive results on the best strategy to be adopted in this type of game. Two different strategies stand out in this kind of dilemma. The first is the RTS strategy (Raise-the-Stakes) of Roberts and Sherrat (1998) that tests the ground before increasing investment in the relationship. The second is the model deriva LRS (Linear Reactive Strategies) de Wahl and Nowak (1999a). This last strategy being in Nash equilibrium cooperative presents three characteristics: (i) generosity, i.e., investing as much as possible at the beginning of the cooperation relationship; (ii) optimism, i.e., rely on the best scenario for the next rounds, and (iii) intransigence. This research has as main goal to reconcile opposing RTS strategies and LRS in a continuous iterated prisoner\'s dilemma, in the presence and absence of noise, with simultaneous moves and alternate and for different values of the parameter w (probability of interacting again). We restrict our analysis to a set of six strategies: ALLC, ALLD, TFT, RTS, LRS and RTSM (halfway between RTS and LRS). The method used was the agent-based simulation (ABM) in tournament format, similar to that of Axelrod (2006), Roberts (1998), Sherratt & Nowak & Sigmund (1992) and Nowak & Sigmund (1993). We use the NetLogo software and document the whole process of design and construction of the tool model TRACE (TRAnsparent and Comprehensive model Evaludation). The results show that most strategies are more favoured unions when the game consists of alternating plays rather than simultaneous. The RTS strategy had better performance in simultaneous games for intermediate values of w, in the presence or absence of noise. In turn, the IRS strategy had better performance when simultaneous games, in the presence or absence of noise, or switched, and in the presence of noise, in both cases, for large values of w

This project examines the relationship between team identification and collaboration configuration and how they affect attributions to failure. In a sample of 110 participants, we examined reactions to failure. We manipulated perceptions of similarity among participants and a confederate of the study, we also manipulated collaboration configuration. We found that the collaboration configuration manipulation effected attributions; attributions about teammate failure in the collocated condition were more situational than attributions in the distributed condition, which were more dispositional. This finding supports the notion that collaboration configuration is important for understanding reactions to teammate failure.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the market reaction to Corporate Sociopolitical Activity, utilizing an event study methodology to determine the impact of an event on the companies’ abnormal stock returns. The sample consists of Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, US-based companies that made a statement condemning racism after the death of George Floyd on May 25 of 2020. Daily stock return is used to calculate the Cumulative Abnormal Returns (CAR) and Cumulative Average Abnormal Returns (CAAR) for the [-1,1] event window, which includes the day before, the day of, and the day after the event took place. Main results indicate that there is marginal evidence to believe that companies that made those statements saw a positive stock market return. Furthermore, using the Multiple Regression model, it was shown that the level of liberalism by the employees in the firm that made the statement negatively impacts the stock market returns.
O objetivo deste estudo é investigar a reação do mercado a Estratégias Sociopolíticas Corporativas, utilizando a metodologia de estudos de eventos, de modo a determinar o impacto de um evento nos retornos anormais da cotação de mercado da empresa. A amostra consiste em empresas americanas, pertencentes ao Index Standard & Poor’s 500, que emitiram comunicados a condenar o racismo, após a morte de George Floyd, a 25 de maio de 2020. Os retornos da cotação de mercado diários são aplicados, de maneira a calcular Retornos Anormais Acumulados e os Retornos Médios Anormais Acumulados para a janela de evento [-1,1], que inclui o dia antes, o dia e o dia depois de o evento acontecer. Os resultados principais indicam que existe provas marginais para acreditar que as empresas que efetuaram esses comunicados tiveram uma reação positiva do mercado. Adicionalmente, ao usar o modelo de Regressão Múltipla, verificou-se que o nível de liberalismo dos empregados das empresas que emitiram os comunicados afeta negativamente os retornos na bolsa.

Racism persists individually and institutionally in the U.S. and race-based comedy prevails in media, accepted by diverse audiences as jokes. Media priming and Social Identity Theory theoretically ground this two-part experimental study that examines Latino participants' judgments of in-group (Latino) and out-group (White) alleged offenders in judicial cases after being primed with race-based stereotype comedy performed by an in-group (Latino) or out-group (White) comedian. First, participants read race-based stereotype comedy segments and evaluated them on perceptions of the comedian, humor, enjoyment, and stereotypicality. Second, participants read two criminal judicial review cases for alleged offenders and provided guilt evaluations. Importantly, a distinction was made between high and low Latino identifier participants to determine whether racial identity salience might impact responses to in-group and/or out-group members in comedy and judicial contexts. The results reveal that the high Latino identifiers found the race-based comedy segments more stereotypical than did the low Latino identifiers. Latino participants rated the comedy higher on enjoyment when the comedian was perceived to be a Latino in-group member as opposed to a White out-group member. The high Latino identifiers rated the White alleged offender higher on guilt than the Latino alleged offender after being primed with race-based comedy. Simply projecting in-group or out-group racial identity of comedians and alleged offenders with name manipulations in the study influenced how participants responded to the comedy material, and persisted in guiding guilt judgments on alleged offenders in the judicial reviews based on participants' Latino identity salience. A Latino comedian's position as popular joke-teller in the media overrides in-group threat, despite invoking in-group stereotypes in humor. Even with greater enjoyment expressed for Latino comedians' performing stereotypical race-based material, the tendency to react more harshly against perceived out-group members as a defense strategy to maintain positive in-group salience remained in real-world judgments on alleged offenders. Despite the claim that light-hearted comedy is meant to be laughed at and not taken seriously, jokes that disparage racial groups as homogeneous, simplistic, and criminal impact subsequent responses to out-group members in a socially competitive attempt to maintain positive in-group identity, to the detriment of out-groups.

Text in English
The aim of the current study was to explore the impact of the Educhange and Research Foundation (ERF) self-awareness programme on the participants’ reactions, experiences, and changes in opinion regarding their knowledge of concepts of self-awareness. This study constitutes an evaluation of a workshop presented by the ERF which is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) aimed at generating solutions toward a better education for all learners through the application of Kirkpatrick’s model of evaluating education and training programmes. Kirkpatrick’s model follows the goal-based evaluation approach and is based on four levels of evaluation. These four levels are widely known as reaction, learning, behaviour, and results. Due to the feasibility of the research, only the reaction and learning evaluation levels were researched. The population identified for the study comprised 15 grade 9 to 11 secondary school learners from Soweto in South Africa which were encouraged to volunteer to take part in the study at their convenience. The sample consisted of all the learners who attended the self-awareness workshop, in effect making this a purposive, convenience sampling. The ERF Board were responsible for the sample selection for their scholarship programme. One of the minimum criteria of selection to take part in the programme was that the learner must have obtained 70% and stem from poor backgrounds. The relatively small sample size possesses the potential to limit the generalisation of the findings. A mixed method approach was employed for this research. Positivist paradigm is the epistemological stance adopted due to the social reality investigated. The sources of data consisted of pre- and post-evaluation questionnaires on self-awareness. The results were thematically and statistically analysed. Thematic analysis included familiarisation with the data and first finding meaning, and then identifying patterns of recurring meaning by generating initial codes and lastly generating themes that run through these meanings.Statistical analysis was conducted through comparison of the data before and after the workshop using chi-square. Objective self-awareness theory and the self-regulation theory were the theoretical framework that informed the current research study. The main finding from this study was that the programme was perceived to have raised positive subjective opinions and feelings of most of the participants, although one participant raised negative subjective opinions about the programme and made suggestions for improvement. After the workshop, the participants felt that they had gained a better understanding of the key concepts of self-awareness, although most items were found to be statistically insignificant.
Psychology
M.A. (Psychology)

Os valores sociais e imposições institucionais têm servido como base para as organizações definirem a sua identidade ecológica e os padrões de atuação em matéria de ambiente. Contudo, com a abertura ao comércio internacional em contextos tecnologicamente sofisticados e com elevada taxa de mutação, como são os do setor químico e farmacêutico aqui estudado, torna-se difícil às organizações estabelecidas alcançarem vantagem competitiva através do isomorfismo, havendo algumas que optam pela diferenciação. O objetivo que conduziu esta investigação foi perceber o que é que leva a que algumas organizações se desvinculem dos padrões de atuação ecológica dominantes do campo institucional e adotem uma estratégia proativa (renovação voluntária das estratégias ambientais), enquanto outras adotam uma estratégia reativa (conformam às normas e/ou renovam as estratégias ambientais com base em acontecimentos externos), bem como perceber como é que tal acontece. Sabendo que a atuação proativa em matéria de ambiente depende sobretudo da ideologia organizacional que se aproxima da sua razão de ser, investigámos a Identidade Organizacional (IO) que é aquilo que a organização tem de central, distinto e que se perpetua, e que aplicada à sustentabilidade ambiental corresponde ao modo como a organização se define com base na sua atuação ecológica e como é que aspira ao seu desenvolvimento. Escolheram-se duas multinacionais pertencentes ao mesmo setor (químico-farmacêutico) e com outras semelhanças entre si, mas que apresentavam estratégias ambientais diferentes: uma delas proativa e a outra reativa. Do ponto de vista metodológico, optou-se pela realização de estudos de caso múltiplos. Numa primeira abordagem, a IO foi investigada do ponto de vista processual em retrospetiva. Numa segunda, foram investigados os conteúdos da IO através da Laddering-Technique, permitindo ultrapassar a desejabilidade social e efetuar a representação dos valores centrais e distintos que compõem a IO recorrendo ao mapeamento. Em termos gerais, a teorização que resultou demonstra que a atuação ecológica por parte das organizações depende diretamente da IO, quer dos seus processos (capacidade de desenvolvimento da identidade ecológica), quer dos seus conteúdos (como é que pensa a sustentabilidade). Ainda que esta proposta não afaste a influência das pressões externas, designadamente do nível de complexidade do campo institucional, verifica que o que mais condiciona a atuação ecológica proativa é a capacidade de desenvolver a IO mediante um estilo informativo e de pensar a identidade como um fim em si mesmo. De facto, é a capacidade da organização se renovar e estender o nível de abrangência da sua identidade, bem como ter a sustentabilidade como aspiração identitária, os maiores condicionantes. O facto da atuação proativa resultar da ambidestria estrutural (coexistência das estratégias explore e exploit) ancorada na IO, dá algumas pistas em relação à mudança que tem de ocorrer para que as organizações possam evoluir de normativas para proativas na estratégia ecológica. Pelo facto de se assumir que o processo de formação e mudança da identidade ecológica resulta da capacidade evolutiva, identificam-se os microprocessos responsáveis e sugerem-se alguns fatores potencialmente influentes.
Social values and institutional constraints have served as a basis for organizations to define their ecological identity and standards of practice regarding the environment. However, with the openness of international markets in sophisticated technology contexts with high mutation rate, such as in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, it is difficult for incumbent organizations to achieve competitive advantage through isomorphism, and then some opt for differentiation. The question that drove this research was to understand what takes some organizations to untie themselves from the dominant ecological performance standards of the institutional field and implement a proactive strategy (voluntary renewal of environmental strategies), while others accommodate and adopt a reactive strategy (meet the legal requirements and/or renew environmental strategies based on external events), as well as understanding how that happens. Knowing that proactive action on the environment is rooted in the values and organizational ideology, that are closer to its reason for being, we investigated Organizational Identity (OI) that, according to its proponents, is what is central, distinctive and enduring in organizations, and that, when applied to environmental sustainability, corresponds to the way the organization thinks about its own ecological performance and how aspires to its development Two multinationals were chosen from the same sector (chemical-pharmaceutical) and with other similarities between them, but having different environmental strategies: one proactive and another reactive. From a methodological viewpoint, we opted for the realization of multiple case studies. In the first, the OI was investigated from a processual perspective with a retrospective approach. In the second case study, we researched the OI contents by using the Laddering-Technique, which allows overcoming social desirability and representing the central and distinct values that compose OI through mapping. Overall, the resulting theory demonstrates that organizations’ ecological behavior depends directly on the OI, both from its processes (ecological identity development capacity), as well as from its contents (how does it conceives sustainability). Although this proposal does not discard the influence of external pressures, such as the level of complexity of the institutional field, finds that what most affects the proactive environmental performance is the ability to develop the OI by means of an informative style and thinking identity as an end in itself. Indeed, it is the organization's ability to renew itself and extend the level of coverage of its identity, as well as having sustainability as an identity aspiration, which are the major constraints. The fact that a proactive role is an outcome of structural ambidexterity (coexistence of the explore and exploit strategies) anchored in OI, gives us some clues regarding the change that has to occur, so that organizations can evolve from normative to proactive, in terms of ecological strategy. This change, although profound, needs not be radical, by accumulating ecological identity contents, rather than getting rid of them. Since it is assumed that the ecological identity formation process is a consequence of evolutionary capacity, we identify the responsible micro processes and suggest some potential influential factors