Exploring Dialectical Tensions for Institutional Maintenance: A Case of Google and Its Censored Chinese Search Engine

Abstract

Organizations can adapt to the institutional environment by exploiting the equivocality within the existing institutional discourses to strategically position themselves within their institutional environments. This process is illustrated through a case study of Google’s discussion of the institution of corporate social responsibility. Google reframes the dialectical tensions of business and ethics, global standards and local compliance, and corporate control and state control, defending and then denouncing its censored search engine in China.