ABSTRACT Electric utilities are expected to implement measures to improve their performance in all three dimensions of sustainable development—environmental, social, and economic. While several studies have investigated the environmental dimension, measures related to the social pillar have hardly been researched to date. This article addresses this gap by examining the control practices of 60 large electric utilities in the European Union and the United States regarding social issues. The conducted content analysis revealed that electric utilities already employ a wide range of different management practices for social issues, but that there are substantial differences in terms of types of control used and the social issues addressed. Differences were also found when comparing the two regions. In addition, the Mann–Whitney U tests results suggest that not only the region but also the ownership structure and market concentration play a role. From a theoretical perspective, these differences can be explained by institutional theory and strategic stakeholder theory. While institutional theory proposes that formal and comprehensive management control practices are adopted as a result of institutional pressure in the regulated European Union context, strategic stakeholder theory highlights the more discretionary and strategic use of such practices in the United States. The results have numerous implications for regulators, policymakers, standards‐setters, and practitioners.
Aliu et al. (Sun,) studied this question.
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