The making of meanings : The role of institutions and actors in the co-construction of field level interpretations and meaning systems.

Summary This thesis examines the interaction between structure and agency in the context of multi-level institutionalization. Institutions interact in complex ways at the field, national and transnational levels. This complex dynamic conditions both the interpretations and beliefs generated by actors and their mobilization of meaning to put interpretations and beliefs into practice in the case of multiple demands. The two empirical studies explore this in detail, the first focusing on the role played by national institutions in the transnational regulation of SWFs, and the second on the role of actors and institutions in the evolution of interpretive frameworks applied to socially responsible investments. Both studies are based on qualitative research methods that draw on a variety of data sources, including participant observation, interviews, and numerous documentary and secondary sources. These studies resulted in three research articles, two empirical and one conceptual. The two empirical articles, Sovereign Wealth Funds, International Monetary Funds and Transparency and From God to Markets, address theoretical questions about the role of actors and institutions at different levels of the field, society and transnational space in the interpretive and semantic constitution. Both articles refer to and enrich other theoretical frameworks, notably in the areas of transparency, the interpretive study of accounting, transnational governance, social movements and soft law. The third article, Corporate Social Responsibility and "Market Karma", proposes a conceptual framework for the mechanisms that are supposed to translate corporate social behavior into financial performance. It introduces different characteristics of the firm as well as institutional factors impacting this link. The thesis as a whole sheds light on how competing institutions condition the behavior of actors and how actors selectively mobilize institutional frameworks and semantic inputs.