Daina Mazutis
Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario
The strategic leadership of corporate social strategies

dmazutis@ivey.uwo.ca

Daina Mazutis is a fourth year doctoral candidate at the Richard Ivey School of Business where her research focuses on the strategic leadership of corporate social strategies. In particular, she investigates how business leaders manage the tension between their personal values and the behaviour expected of them under the 'rational actor model' of the firm. In addition to numerous awards received in both her MBA and undergraduate degrees, Daina is currently a Trudeau Scholar and SSHRC doctoral fellow. She has published in Management Learning, Business Horizons, AOM and ASAC Best Paper proceedings as well as presented extensively at international conferences. Daina is also actively involved with academic service in the Ivey PhD student association and has guest lectured in the International MBA program at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China. Prior to her doctoral studies, Daina enjoyed a successful career in advertising, marketing and sales specializing in the strategic planning, research, development and implementation of national marketing campaigns.

The strategic leadership of corporate social strategies

How strategic leaders interpret the wide array of social issues that face a firm has direct implications on firm performance. Yet, previous research in corporate social responsibility (CSR) has not adequately addressed the role of chief executive issue interpretation in the strategic decision making process. Drawing on the upper echelon and strategic issue interpretation literature, I argue herein that the manner in which a CEO interprets a social issue (as opportunity/threat, certain/ambiguous, urgent/not urgent and proximal/distal) has a direct impact on the nature of the corporate social strategies he/she chooses to pursue (reactive, defensive, accommodating or proactive). In so doing, I develop a model of strategic leadership and CSR, where the relationships are moderated by the degree of managerial discretion in the industry and the firm. As such, this paper contributes to theory development in upper echelons and CSR, answering the call for better understanding of this important relationship.