THINK THE BUSINESS AS A POLITICAL SPACE: OSTROM WITH COMMONS

Abstract

The article aims to show the interest of a link between Elinor Ostrom and John R. Commons in order
to form a theoretical framework that allows to reconsider corporate social responsibility (CSR) with
an institutionnalist approach, and more generally to apprehend the firm as a specific political area.
This framework is characterised by a distinction between three institutionnal orientations: apart from
the market and the state orientations, we defend the idea of a “common” logic as autonomous
institutionnal co-construction. The CSR can therefore be interpreted as the expression of this logic
within the firm