How Formal and Informal Institutional Environments Affect the Way Greenpeace Fights Genetically-Modified Organisms in Europe and the United States

Abstract

We applied institutional theory to examine the effect of differences in institutional pressures on strategic decisions of a non-profit non-governmental organization, Greenpeace, in its fight to stop the use of genetically-modified organisms. The effects of differences in institutional pressures were examined through examining differences between the United States and the European Union as well as between two European nations, France and Spain, in Greenpeace’s strategy. We suggested that formal and informal institutional pressures influence strategic decision-making in Greenpeace’s independent national units. We proposed that the US differs from the EU in both formal and informal institutional environments, Spain and France differ in the informal dimension, and these differences are reflected in Greenpeace’s strategies. We also argued that Greenpeace exemplifies the successful use of a transnational strategy and discussed that non-profits may be better able to adopt a transnational strategy than do for-profits. To cite this document: Stephen R. Luxmore and Clyde Eirikur Hull, "Are Non-Profits Better at Adopting a Transnational Strategy Than For-Profits? How Environments Affect the Way Greenpeace Fights Genetically-Modified Organisms in Europe and the United States", Contemporary Management Research, Vol.14, No.3, pp. 225-252, 2018. Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.7903/cmr.17889