The Performativity Conditions of Discourse on Creating Shared Value

The concept of Creating Shared Value (CSV), proposed by Porter and Kramer, does not have unanimous support within the academic community. Yet it does enjoy some popularity among company managers, who see it as an effective way to meet the challenges of sustainable development and, indirectly, to reconcile economic, social and ecological goals. By referring to CSV in company discourse, a manager can reassure all the stakeholders about what the company is aiming to achieve, but effects are not necessarily produced in its organizational practices. Using data from a longitudinal single case study, the author is interested here in the process of going from talk to action. He examines the performativity of CSV and identifies some performativity conditions that are specific to CSV discourse. From this research, three factors can thus be identified as facilitators: not having a competing theory; implementing a social acceptance process; and placing CSV within a more comprehensive approach to the company's reason for being. These findings, which of course should be confirmed by a larger-scale study, build upon preceding studies on the performativity conditions of strategy discourse by adapting it to the CSV concept now widely used in the business community.