Corporate Responsibility Issues Research Articles

From Aspiration to Public Policy: Imprinting UNGP-Aligned Footprints of Corporate Responsibility and Accountability into the Shifting Sands of International Arbitration Practice

Abstract Endorsed more than a decade ago by the UN Human Rights Council, the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) articulate the responsibilities of States and corporations for human rights. Since then, the issue of corporate responsibility for human rights, and also the environment, and how it ought to be recognized and enforced, has attracted increasing attention. In more recent years, States have promulgated a flurried storm of ESG regulations requiring disclosure of human rights or climate risks or mandating human rights due diligence across global supply chain networks, intensified their transition to greener economies, and continued to negotiate treaties infused with dreams of more sustainable investment and development. Against this backdrop, in October 2023, a UN Special Rapporteur presented a report that condemned the international arbitration system for prioritizing the protection of corporate property rights over the protection of international human rights and the environment. In tracing the development of a ‘soft law’ aspiration of corporate responsibility to inscriptions into ‘hard law’ international investment law treaty instruments and then considering how those inscriptions have been interpreted and applied by tribunals, this article finds that despite the nascent recognition of corporate responsibility for human rights and the environment, the enforcement of accountability for that responsibility in international arbitral practice is currently misaligned with the UNGPs and with other fundamental tenets of international law. This article subsequently explores the opportunity, and implications, for imprinting stronger footprints of responsibility and accountability in international arbitral practice, including through the potential recognition of new international public policy upholding corporate responsibility for human rights and the environment, and in doing so, highlights the need for greater cross-industry, multidisciplinary and multilateral dialogue on an issue of not only global significance, but with global impact.

Bringing the human problem back into transnational law: the example of corporate (ir)responsibility

ABSTRACT The special issue revisits the notion of human problems in Philip C Jessup’s 1956 Transnational Law' Storrs Lectures on Jurisprudence. In order to explore the methodology and analytical utility of human problems and transnational law, the contributions introduce various case studies on corporate (ir)responsibility. This introduction first presents the role of human problems in Jessup’s lecture on transnational law. It then briefly outlines some of the analytical benefits of a transnational human problem perspective in general and in the context of studying issues of corporate (ir)responsibility in particular. A final section provides summaries of the contributions brought together in this special issue.

Corporate Responsibility Reporting in Africa: The Effect of Macroeconomic Indicators and Political Regime

The main aim of this paper is to empirically assess the relationship between macroeconomic indicators, political regime, and corporate responsibility reporting in African countries. Using ex post facto research design, the paper stands out from previous analyses by including other independent variables, such as regulatory quality, rule of law and government effectiveness in assessing the relationship between corporate responsibility reporting, macroeconomic indicators, and political regime. The population comprises 58 African countries, and the sample is based on 48 African countries. Secondary data was employed to gather information on the variables. The study used a multiple regression model to examine the relationship between foreign direct investment, gross domestic product, inflation, political regime, and corporate responsibility reporting in African countries. The study found an insignificant positive relationship between the number of corporate responsibility reports, political regime, foreign direct investment, gross domestic product, and inflation after applying controls for government effectiveness, regulatory quality, and rule of law. The paper assists in understanding the relationship between political regime, macroeconomic indicators, and corporate responsibility reporting in Africa. Also, an understanding of how institutional factors influence corporate responsibility reporting in African countries could help enforcement institutions, such as the stock exchange, industry regulators and key players that monitor corporate, social, and environmental responsibility issues, to take the necessary steps to improve responsibility reporting provided by organizations in Africa. To conclude, the paper makes a unique contribution to the assessment of the relationship between macroeconomic indicators, political regime, and corporate responsibility reporting.

BUSINESS AND THE POLITICS OF HUMAN RIGHTS: The Protection of Human Rights Defenders by State and Business as an Opportunity to Build Up a Democratic Society in Brazil

Abstract
 This paper considers the interplay of international law, politics and national law in the protection of human rights defenders (HRDs) that are challenging businesses practices in Brazil. It argues that the Brazilian State and transnational and domestic businesses have a responsibility to protect HRDs and should adopt robust means of doing this, embracing their work as opportunity rather than a threat in building up a democratic society. To demonstrate the validity of this claim, this paper highlights the role of HRDs in promoting corporate responsibility and in exposing and remedying the adverse human rights (HR) impacts of business in Brazil. It further explains how HRDs working on issues of corporate responsibility and accountability are under threats and attacks from both state and non-state actors as a result of their work. The paper then analyses some of the responses from the organized civil society, business, and the Brazilian State in order to tackle violence against HRDs. The paper considers that the relationship between business and the Brazilian State is dialectical and complementary and, as such, should be arbitrated by the international HR system. In this process, the paper calls for a binding instrument to regulate the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises to be adopted at the UN level and argues that it could potentially influence the rhetoric and practices in the politics of HR in Brazil. The final section provides an explanation for how the Brazilian State and transnational and national businesses should protect HRDs. 
 
 Keywords: Business. Human Rights. Human Rights Defenders.

Separation or integration of journalistic and business responsibilities? Corporate responsibility in Finnish media companies

ABSTRACTNot only do media organisations serve a societal role, they also influence societies through their behaviour as businesses. Therefore, the full range of the responsibilities of media organisations extends to include issues of both journalism ethics and business ethics. This article examines sector-based corporate responsibility as a way to integrate journalistic and business responsibilities. Empirically, the article examines how journalistic and business responsibilities unfold in large Finnish media companies. The analysis shows that “dual thinkers” narrow corporate responsibility only to environmental issues and, consequently, fail to address large areas of social responsibility, whereas “integrative forerunners” make meaningful connections between journalistic and business responsibilities. For media managers, the article offers insights into how sector-based corporate responsibility can weave industry-specific responsibilities into general corporate responsibility issues.

GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS AND THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

: Sustainable development issues are considerably popular subjects within the international research community. On the other hand the importance of the issues related to global supply chains has also increased significantly. This paper will also mention a change in one of the main economic paradigms: from international exchange between countries and individual companies there is a transition to exchange between the participants along the global supply chains. The interest in global supply chains and their management is provoked by the fact that they are a major source of competitive advantage on global markets. Nowadays, global supply chains are an integral part of the activities of a number of companies operating abroad. Every business operation finds its place in one or more supply chains. Within the contemporary context of scarce resources and the widely spread sustainable development idea, the companies compete on a global economic scale where the main business unit is the world as a whole, not an individual country or region. All these trends and global developments provoked our scientific interest and with the project “Corporate governance and the global supply chains” we tried to find out how the global supply chains are actually influenced by the issues of sustainable development. Within the course of the project we have reviewed and analyzed quite a lot of scientific literature, we studied the publicly available information of the big international corporations related to their social corporate responsibility and sustainable development issues. In addition, we have made empirical research among local suppliers of big international companies as well as a number of international NGOs dealing with sustainable development and social policy issues. Some of the findings from our project are presented in the current paper.

The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare 2016 Report

The 2016 Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare Report assesses how 99 of the world’s largest food companies in the food retailer and wholesaler, restaurant and bar, and food producer and manufacturer sectors are managing farm animal welfare. The report concludes that farm animal welfare is rising up the business agenda with an increasing number of companies having established policies and set objectives and targets. Despite this progress, farm animal welfare continues to receive much less attention than other corporate responsibility issues, almost one quarter of the companies covered by the benchmark yet to even establish a policy on farm animal welfare.

Determinants of The Islamic Social Reporting Disclosure

The issue of corporate responsibility was a warm up for discussion. This study aimed to analyze the influence of company issuing sukuk, size, and profitability on the disclosure of Islamic Social Reporting. This study uses secondary data obtained through the site www.bapepam.go.id and www.idx.co.id by using purposive sampling. The results showed that only size that affect the disclosure of ISR, so the larger the total assets of the greater disclosure of Islamic Social Reporting. Sukuk issuance has no effect because the ownership structure of companies in Asia, including Indonesia tends to family ownership concentration. Profitability has no effect because the company has a perspective that is different to the Islamic Social Reporting. DOI: 10.15408/aiq.v9i1.3771

Role of personal values in investment decisions

Purpose This paper aims to examine the role personal values play in investment decision-making processes among Ghanaian shareholders. Design/methodology/approach In consequence of the recent emergence of the issue of corporate governance practices in Ghana, and the kind of the research objective of this paper, a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods was used. These methods were used in two stages. The first stage was qualitative, which purposively selected 20 individual shareholders to solicit their perspectives on how personal values influence investment decisions. Their responses were used to construct the content of this enquiry. The second stage, which was quantitative, used stratified sampling technique to select 503 individual shareholders to confirm the responses obtained from stage one of the enquiry. Findings The findings of the study reveal that individual shareholders in Ghana hold value priorities and that honesty, a comfortable life and family security play a significant role in their lives and their investment decision-making processes, and the kind of companies they choose to invest in. Also, to Ghanaian individual shareholders, there is a clear distinction between a comfortable life and a prosperous life in the sense that they are not incentivized more by the latter but by the former in their investment decisions. Practical implications The results can inform corporate directors and managers what values are considered in investment decisions, and that it is not purely financial. With these results, they can be informed that while some financial values are important, it is just to live a comfortable life and not a prosperous life. This may influence these directors and managers to have a more long-run focus and to have more of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) focus by putting implementable measures in place to tackle corporate responsibility issues and to take up a responsibility for their CSR feat. Also, the results can be used for public policy in that if regulators find out that more CSR-type information is important to investors, they might require additional CSR-type disclosures in financial statements. Originality/value This paper contributes to the knowledge on the stakeholder perspective of corporate governance that individual shareholders’ personal values have influence on their investment decisions and the choice of companies they invest in.

Corporate Social Responsibility In Turkey: An Analysis Through Web Sites

In today’s business environment, there is no chance for a corporation to be succeeded simply by doing profit oriented business. Corporations are the living entities along with their stakeholders therefore corporations are expected to be responsive on the cultural, environmental and economic issues of society. Socially responsible programs that corporations execute would contribute the corporate image and reputation. Furthermore, these programs benefit both corporations and society. The aim of this study is to examine the presence and organization of information on corporate responsibility present on the corporate web sites of companies which are in the Capital top 500 list. We will choose the top 100 companies on the top 500 list. By using content analysis, identified corporate responsibility issues will be analyzed. In this study, the information given in the web sites of these top 100 companies will be analyzed. We will be examining how the information is organized, presented, and related to the corporate responsibilities.

The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare 2015 Report

The 2015 Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare Report assesses how 80 of the world’s largest food companies in the food retailer and wholesaler, restaurant and bar, and food producer and manufacturer sectors are managing farm animal welfare. The report concludes that farm animal welfare is rising up the business agenda with an increasing number of companies having established policies and set objectives and targets. Despite this progress, farm animal welfare continues to receive much less attention than other corporate responsibility issues, with one third of the companies covered by the benchmark yet to even establish a policy on farm animal welfare.

Audience Enabling as Corporate Responsibility for Media Organizations

Media organizations engaging in journalistic production face ethical challenges that concern business ethics as much as journalism ethics. This article studies expectations of responsibility for media organizations that engage in journalistic production and assesses them from the viewpoint of sector-specific corporate responsibility. The data are obtained from interviews with Finnish nongovernmental organization experts who work closely with media issues. Of the three positive and three negative expectation themes identified, audience enabling was associated with most confidence. Audience enabling deals with the impacts of media products and social connectivity that links media organizations (as businesses) into larger societal processes and issues. It is concluded that without the synchronization of journalism ethics and business ethics, it can be difficult to address complex corporate responsibility issues.

Corporate Responsibility and a Firm's Reasons for Acting

In this paper I consider the issue of corporate responsibility though a discussion of the types of reasons that may be given for a firm’s actions and outcomes. These reasons may variously be given by the firm as explanation or justification, or by persons affected by the firm as endorsement or critique, or as part of the public policy debate about the scope and limits of a firm’s activities. To provide a structure for this analysis I outline a model that seeks to describe the possible extent of a firm’s responsibility for the outcomes of its activities through an idea of four dimensions of value. This locates firms along a minimal-maximal spectrum of corporate responsibility, without assuming where this location might be for any particular firm. I then discuss the question of reasons. This starts with some thoughts about agency and responsibility, and then considers the distinction between various types of reasons. I use the minimal-maximal spectrum to map out the various arguments. I group the arguments under the following headings: four dimensions of value; a minimal-maximal spectrum of corporate responsibility; reasons and agency: individual responsibility; reasons and agency: corporate responsibility; minimal corporate responsibility; formal and informal reasons; internal and external reasons; reasons and minimal responsibility: four examples of an appeal to ethical significance; wide and narrow instrumentalism; instrumentalism and self interest; further issues; concluding comments. This arguments presented in this paper are part of an attempt to analyse the conceptual issues that arise from corporate responsibility. Many of these arguments are suggestions, others are more fully developed. I have included both. I hope these ideas stimulate further discussion.

The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare 2014 Report

The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare 2014 Report assesses how 80 of the world’s largest food companies in the food retailer and wholesaler, restaurant and bar, and food producer and manufacturer sectors are managing farm animal welfare. The report concludes that farm animal welfare is rising up the business agenda with an increasing number of companies having established policies and set objectives and targets. Ten companies - Co-operative Food (UK), Coop Group (Switzerland), Cranswick, J Sainsbury, Marks and Spencer, McDonalds, Migros, Noble Foods, Unilever and Waitrose - have carved out clear leadership positions on this issue, and one quarter of of the 80 companies have made notable improvements in their farm animal welfare-related management and/or reporting over the past year. Despite this progress, farm animal welfare continues to receive much less attention than other corporate responsibility issues, with one third of the companies covered by the benchmark yet to even establish a policy on farm animal welfare.

Activism for Corporate Responsibility: Conceptualizing Private Regulation Opportunity Structures

AbstractIn this article, we examine how private regulatory initiatives (PRIs) – which define standards for corporate responsibility (CR) issues and sometimes monitor their application by firms – create opportunities and constraints for activist groups aiming to push firms towards more stringent CR activities. Drawing on social movement theory, we conceptualize how private regulation opportunity structures affect such CR‐based activist groups' targets and tactics at both the firm and field levels. At the field level, we argue that both radical and reformative activist groups direct most of their time and resources towards PRIs with comparatively more stringent standards. At the firm level, while radical activist groups are likely to target firms participating in more stringent PRIs, reformative activist groups target firms participating in less stringent PRIs, or those that do not participate in PRIs at all. When facing unfavourable opportunity structures, CR‐based activist groups tend either to advocate the creation of new PRIs or to shift their activities to pressure other focal points. This article contributes to moving beyond extant literature's emphasis of PRIs as settlements of contentious firm–activist interactions towards also viewing them as starting points for activist groups aiming to push firms towards a more substantive CR engagement.

The Kiobel precedent and its effects on universal jurisdiction and the business & human rights agenda: a continuation to “a human rights forum in peril?”

The United States Supreme Court issued on 17 April 2013 an important precedent that served as a culmination to the well-known case brought by Esther Kiobel and other Nigerian plaintiffs against the oil giant Shell, Kiobel et al. v. Royal Dutch Petroleum et al.1 This case, on which large hopes were deposited by human rights activists worldwide to become a beacon of hope in relation to the involvement of corporations on human rights abuses, saw the plaintiffs file a civil case before U.S. federal courts under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) for the alleged aiding & abetting by Shell of the Nigerian military in the commission of crimes against humanity, torture and arbitrary arrest and detention. This statute, passed in 1789 as part of the First Judiciary Act, sets forth that U.S. district courts have “original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.”2 The issue of corporate responsibility for human rights violations, including their participation through aiding and abetting, saw lower courts divided

The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare: 2013 Report

The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare: 2013 Report assesses how 70 of the world’s largest food companies in the food retailer and wholesaler, restaurant and bar, and food producer and manufacturer sectors are managing farm animal welfare. The report concludes that farm animal welfare is rising up the business agenda with an increasing number of companies having established policies and set objectives and targets. Seven companies - Co-operative Food (UK), Coop Group (Switzerland), J Sainsbury, Marfrig, Marks and Spencer, Noble Foods and Unilever - have carved out clear leadership positions on this issue, and almost one third of the 70 companies have made notable improvements in their farm animal welfare-related management and/or reporting over the past year. Despite this progress, farm animal welfare continues to receive much less attention than other corporate responsibility issues, with almost 30% of the companies covered by the benchmark yet to even acknowledge farm animal welfare as a business issue.

Exploring Corporate Social Responsibility in food retail category management

Purpose– The objective of this paper is to understand how corporate social responsibility issues are managed through a multi-stakeholder dialogue and reflected in category management decisions. Design/methodology/approach– The paper is based on a qualitative research design following a case study approach to understand the associated conditions and challenges when addressing complex corporate responsibility issues. Findings–Food retailers are particularly exposed given their central position in the supply chain. One way for retailers to differentiate is by taking responsibility for what is being offered to the consumers, referred to as category management. An extended stakeholder dialogue offers valuable exchange of knowledge and an opportunity to balance a wide set of values and interests. Corporate challenges are associated with the selection of dialogue partners, trust, shared value creation and the underlying query of corporate raison d’etre. Limitations – The case adopts a corporate perspective of the second largest food retailer in Sweden. It serves as a contemporary contextualized example, where the underlying reasoning could be extended to other retailers. Implications– The paper contributes to the understanding of stakeholder management in relation to the character of an organization, when it comes to strategic decisions related to retail portfolio management. It seeks to understand what the role of category management as a CSR tool could be. Contribution – Corporate Social Responsibility offers an extended perspective of values and criteria for evaluating organizational performance, which is founded in economic, social and environmental aspects of corporate conduct. The case offers a unique perspective on how a traditional company rationalizes choices and decisions that go beyond pure profit maximization objectives. It aims at academic persons as well as practitioners in the field.

Corporate crime and the discursive deletion of responsibility: A case study of the Paddington rail crash

There has been little in-depth research on media representations of corporate crime in either media studies or critical discourse analysis (CDA). Taking one small step to address this situation, this paper assesses the unfolding press representations of one instance where corporate negligence and greed led to the death of 31 people – the Paddington rail crash in London in 1999. At first the event is covered as a ‘disaster’ through its associated language of ‘accidents’ and ‘heroes’. Later, issues of corporate responsibility are raised even in the popular press, but there are a number of obstacles to the language of crime and criminality being used.

Internal marketing for engaging employees on the corporate responsibility journey

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore whether internal marketing could be a powerful tool for engaging employees on the corporate responsibility journey. Design/methodology/approach: In the absence of empirical work linking internal marketing efforts in organizations and employee engagement in corporate responsibility issues, a conceptual approach based on literature review is carried out to determine the existing possibilities provided by internal marketing to enhance corporate responsibility.