Under Pressure: Understanding How and Why a Multinational Firm Reacts to Consumerist Organizations in Brazil’s Business Context

Abstract Recent scandals in human rights, environmental and social issues involving powerful companies have amplified the debate about the appropriate role of business corporations in today’s society. Among a myriad of NGOs that focus their attention on corporate behavior, there are the consumer protection organizations. This study aims to analyze the relationships among one multinational company and two consumerist organizations in Brazil, through the perspective of neo-institutional theory. Our key theoretical contribution was the identification of two corporate attributes—identity and intra-organization communities—that influence the company to react in distinct ways to the approaches of the organizations.