ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the gap between discourses and practices in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) industry, and try to interpret that gap through early neo-institutional lenses. Building on an analogy between the CSR industry and technical systems, it will provide a different interpretation of that gap. The chapter describes the functional feasibility of the CSR industry is a central problem of its development. It develops a model of the CSR institutionalization process based on legitimacy and feasibility variables and applies this framework to the development of standards in this area. The confrontation between discourses and real practices reveals the distance between talking and doing in the CSR industry. Three elements cast some doubts on the reality of the transposition of the financial logic and tools to the field of CSR. The first interpretation framework derives from the early version of the neo-institutional theories in organizational analysis. From those perspectives, the issue behind CSR management systems or ratings is legitimacy.
