IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/orstsc/v8y2023i2p139-148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inside-out and Outside-in Perspectives on Corporate Purpose

Author

Listed:
  • Juan (“John”) Almandoz

    (Managing People in Organizations Department, IESE Business School, New York, New York 10019)

Abstract

Corporate purpose is receiving an extraordinary amount of attention from both scholars and practitioners. But do existing theories of management help us to understand this unexpected development? This study represents an effort to understand purpose better. I characterize inside-out and outside-in perspectives on purpose as distinct but connected phenomena related to different research traditions. Inside-out purpose is a channeling of the passion and commitment employees feel toward fulfilling stakeholder needs; outside-in purpose is society and external stakeholders urgently calling on the organization to live up to its responsibilities. I devote special attention to theories that best explain the present moment’s unique awareness of corporate purpose. Among them is the work of Philip Selznick, emphasizing values, and the literature on the new institutionalism and institutional logics. I conclude with a section on how leaders can leverage the benefits of both perspectives while mitigating their risks. I also make recommendations for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan (“John”) Almandoz, 2023. "Inside-out and Outside-in Perspectives on Corporate Purpose," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 8(2), pages 139-148, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orstsc:v:8:y:2023:i:2:p:139-148
    DOI: 10.1287/stsc.2023.0180
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/stsc.2023.0180
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/stsc.2023.0180?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:orstsc:v:8:y:2023:i:2:p:139-148. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.