Corporate Social Responsibility Codes Research Articles

How to Incorporate Corporate Social Responsibility into DNA of the Companies?

Abstract In my presentation I would like to treat corporate social responsibility (CSR) from a legal perspective and especially discuss how to achieve an effective application of the CSR codes and principles. In this respect I would like to discuss solution proposals such as emphasizing compliance programs or certification systems and especially the question how CSR principles could be regulated by legislations with binding character, as hard law instruments. This is also mentioned as the ultimate goal of the CSR in the summary of European Commission’s Multi-Stakeholder Forum “The ultimate goal of CSR should be to embed social responsibility into DNA of companies, rendering it absolete through normative compliance”. Corporate Social Responsibility, is an approach that companies should conduct their business in a responsible and fair way and that they should take responsibility of their impact on society. CSR, has different pillars such as sustainability, environment, human rights, investment, public procurement etc… Among all these different subsectors, I will treat the applicability of the CSR principles mostly from the sustainability perspective. Since CSR has so many different facets and propose a general policy of good conduct rather than concrete specific rules and legal provisions, stays as a vague concept and need to be defined and concretized. CSR has no description and is not regulated in the national codes and legal systems. However, there are a lot of regulations, guidelines and standards prepared by international authorities and organizations and the European Commission.

Corporate Social Responsibility Standards: Is it Possible to Meet Diverse Customer Requirements?

Abstract The purpose of the study is to review the internationally recognised CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) standards, codes of conduct (cross-industry and industry-specific used in electronics, automotive and steel industry) and selected codes and supplier evaluation approaches applied by individual customer organisations. It also aims to identify problems related to CSR compliance demonstration from the view of supplier organization supplying its products for more industry sectors. Literature review, interview with the selected large manufacturing organisation and synthesis of information were conducted to achieve the purpose of the study. The difficulties for supplier organisations during CSR verifications and audits conducted by customers or third parties according to a variety of standards are discussed in the paper. It often results from different structure, terminology and content of the CSR standards and codes. One of the possible solutions is to create and maintain the intelligent database of CSR requirements of customer organisations. There is a lack of studies dealing with the existence of various CSR standards and codes and its impact on suppliers supplying their products to more industry sectors. The paper contributes to fill the knowledge gap and extend the existing literature.

Flower growing firms’ contribution to community water use management in Naivasha Sub County, Kenya

Water is a life necessity and is central to various social, economic and environmental aspects such as sanitation, health, economic growth, species protection, food etc. Companies require water for their production activities and can only thrive where the social, environmental and economic dimensions are well facilitated. Healthy and vibrant communities and environments cannot exist if water management is neglected. In a period of growing environmental concerns, collaborating and working collectively among entities in public sector, private sector and community based organizations to solve environmental problems seems more viable than ever. Naivasha area portrays an interesting case consisting of different formal and informal institutions as it has a long history of formal regulations as well as of self-organized water user groups all aimed at addressing sustainability in the use of water resources. With the observed lax on the authorities end in regulating the utilization of water resources among the diverse users, this study attempted to draw out the role played by flower growing firms in conjunction with the resident communities by examining how their activities affect the water resources available and the counter measures put in place to ensure availability of the resource for both mentioned stakeholders. The study was conducted among four wards in Naivasha Sub-County with the target population and subsequent sample size encompassing both flower growing firms and the residents inhabiting the selected areas. Majority of the residents interviewed confirmed having access to piped water. It was noted that the flower farms relied more on Lake Naivasha and ground water sources in the form of boreholes for their water requirements and made use of constructed wetlands for wastewater disposal and treatment to a larger extent. Waste water disposal systems were however not well developed among the resident communities with unrestricted disposal noted, leading to contamination of the surroundings. Whilst the local authorities confirmed efforts made by the flower growing firms in waste water disposal were efficient, their contribution to local water management efforts was noted to be low with their initiatives barely recognized by the surrounding communities. The study recommended use of low cost techniques among the resident communities in waste water disposal and uptake of well-designed corporate social responsibility codes and standards by the flower growing firms to manage water abstraction while assisting the surrounding communities in their water use management efforts.

CSR Statements in International and Czech Luxury Fashion Industry at the Onset and during the COVID-19 Pandemic—Slowing Down the Fast Fashion Business?

COVID-19 leads to a reinforced need to address sustainability at the economic, environmental, and social pillars, and the six categories of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of businesses, that is, their self-commitment to integrate sustainability in their policies and strategies and to become more effective and efficient. Luxury fashion businesses refer heavily but not identically, to their CSR, by formally issuing CSR reports and Codes of Ethics, and informally voicing their pro-CSR statements. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and brought important changes. This burning issue translates into three objectives in this paper—assessing the CSR statements of International and Czech Luxury Fashion Industry businesses (i) at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, (ii) during the COVID-19 pandemic, and (iii) identifying new trends. To address them, a holistic and interdisciplinary case study exploration was performed entailing 10 International Luxury Fashion businesses and 10 Czech Luxury Fashion businesses. The resulting data were explored via Meta-Analysis and content analysis, teleological interpretations, etc. The critical and comparative review revealed six interesting trends indicating a shift in perception of sustainability and CSR caused by COVID-19. The review offers propositions for how the COVID-19 threats could become an opportunity for rebuilding this industry.

CSR communication in stakeholder networks: a semiotic perspective

Purpose This paper is explorative in its nature and aims to create a deeper understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication within stakeholder networks. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to focus on how CSR communication is organised and communicated within stakeholder networks from a semiotic perspective. More specifically, the paper looks at the CSR communication of Nordic-based multinational companies. Design/methodology/approach The research design of this study is twofold. First, eight in-depth interviews were conducted with senior managers in five Nordic-based global industrial companies in order to understand how their CSR communication is organised. Second, CSR messages from the interviewed companies’ websites and annual sustainability reports were semiotically analysed in order to understand the codes used in the CSR message in the communication to the stakeholder network. Findings The result of the research consists of a communication platform for CSR communication in stakeholder networks and a list of specific semiotic codes applied to CSR messages targeting various actors in a company’s stakeholder network. The developed CSR communication platform together with the specific CSR codes have practical value for managers aiming to develop the company’s CSR communication in a stakeholder network context. Originality/value The study contributes to the scarce literature on CSR communication in business management. It particularly highlights the need to consider a more in-depth, semiotic approach, when developing and studying CSR communication in a stakeholder network context.

Corruption and corporate social responsibility codes of conduct: The case of Petrobras and the oil and gas sector in Brazil

Corruption and combating corruption is one of the most important challenges for both developing and developed countries. Corruption is a serious threat to principles and values of any government. It undermines the enforcement of the rule of law and compromises democracy. In the early 1990s, corporate social responsibility (CSR) codes of conduct emerged as an effective mechanism for integrating responsible economic practices against corruption. However, the question that arises is whether this self-regulatory instrument has any impact on the practice and policy of companies with respect to corruption. This study addresses this question through an analysis of the provisions related to corruption issues embodied in international conventions and guidelines, the norms or standards of oil and gas associations, NGOs, international and multilateral organizations. In particular, this paper examines how Petrobras, the giant Brazilian oil and gas company, responds to corruption in its CSR code of conduct. Using a comparative analysis of Petrobras’ policy and practice as expressed in its CSR statements and the related provisions embodied in the international framework, this study examines the extent to which provisions included in Petrobras’ CSR code of conduct are consistent with the belief of the current international framework system. Finally, this paper investigates the responses to questionnaires related to CSR codes of conduct of oil and gas companies operating in Brazil.

Transnational Networked Constitutionalism

The emergence and increasing importance of private transnational legal structures in global governance presents a puzzle for legal theory. These new forms of transnational law (TL) can be found in diverse areas, ranging from trade‐related issues, to corporate responsibility, human and labour rights, and environmental protection. Transnational constitutionalists have argued that this phenomenon has a constitutional quality. The challenge of transnational constitutionalism lies in developing an institutional model that explains how constitutionally embedded legal authority can arise independently of the institutional structures of state‐based public law. We propose a new theoretical framework for thinking about non‐statist legal authority, which we term ‘networked constitutionalism'. We conceptualize transnational legal authority as an emergent, network‐based phenomenon and elaborate the institutional conditions that undergird its emergence. We illustrate our thesis through a network analysis of a large sample of corporate social responsibility codes.

Do Factory Audits Improve International Labor Standards? An Examination of Voluntary Corporate Labor Regulations in Global Production Networks

This research examined the effects of voluntary factory audits on labor conditions. Sometimes referred to as corporate social responsibility (CSR) codes of conduct, corporations impose voluntary labor standards coupled with regular auditing to help ensure the protection of workers throughout their global production networks (GPNs). While some believe that auditing factories ensures that CSR codes of conduct are followed and helps private corporations promote higher labor standards, others argue that factory audits have little effect on labor standards at the factory level. Using unique panel data of internal factory audit reports of factories in four Southeast Asian countries between 2003 and 2010, this paper sought to understand whether voluntary GPN audits improve labor standards at the factory level. The results showed that a factory’s number of audits between 2003 and 2010 did not improve factory working conditions significantly and that the local neighborhood in which a factory is located has a greater effect on changes in factory audit scores. These findings suggest that CSR codes of conduct and auditing alone are not sufficient to improve labor standards in GPNs. Rather, joint private-public collaboration is needed to improve labor conditions for workers in the global south.

Transnational Networked Constitutionalism

The emergence and increasing importance of private transnational legal structures in global governance presents a puzzle for legal theory. These new forms of transnational law (TL) can be found in diverse areas, ranging from trade-related issues, to corporate responsibility, human and labor rights, and environmental protection. Transnational constitutionalists, have argued that this phenomenon has a constitutional quality. The challenge of transnational constitutionalism lies in developing an institutional model that explains how constitutionally embedded legal authority can arise independently of the institutional structures of state-based public law. In this paper we propose a new theoretical framework for thinking about non-statist legal authority, which we term “networked constitutionalism”. We conceptualize transnational legal authority as an emergent, network-based phenomenon and elaborate the institutional conditions that undergird its emergence. We illustrate our thesis through a network analysis of a large sample of corporate social responsibility codes.

Why Domestic Enforcement of Private Regulation Is (Not) the Answer: Making and Questioning the Case of Corporate Social Responsibility Codes

Why Domestic Enforcement of Private Regulation Is (Not) the Answer:Making and Questioning the Case of Corporate Social Responsibility Codes Anna Beckers and Mark T. Kawakami I. Global Private Regulation and the Domestic State Globalization has been commonly understood as a phenomenon that leads to the dissolution of territorial borders and the growing interdependence of social and economic activities that remain spatially remote.1 The law, in this regard, has not been spared from the impacts of globalization either. There is a constant interest in grasping the evolving legal system under the effects of globalization in terms such as transnational law,2 global law without3 or beyond4 the state, global legal pluralism,5 or transnational regulation.6 Certainly, much can be gained from a conceptualization of global ordering structures as autonomous global law that function independently of the state legal system. [End Page 1] Nevertheless, the enthusiasm for the effective functioning of these global ordering structures has recently waned. In particular, private regulatory processes have experienced various instances of functional ineffectiveness at the global level.7 Moreover, these private regulatory processes may face serious problems in terms of legitimacy and accountability,8 which, in turn, provide a justification to reconsider the role of domestic legal systems. In this context, it is equally important to note that the state and its formal legal system have never been irrelevant for global legal processes. To the contrary, the functions of domestic courts and legislators remain significant and relevant—as much as the global processes—and should continue to be so. The true global "delocalized" law has rightly been labeled as a utopia.9 Against this background emerges the question of whether domestic legal systems can and should play a role in administering and enforcing these global rules against private actors. In other words, is a stronger regulatory role of domestic law an appropriate response to the risks associated with the processes of economic globalization? In response, legal research seems to have already initiated a change in focus from the characteristics of this transnational ordering to investigating the interaction of global rules with state legal systems.10 One important element in this discussion is the renewed focus on the [End Page 2] enforcement of global private regulation through private law. Shifting the attention from the less tangible social pressures to legal enforcement, scholars have identified a variety of substantive areas in which the legal enforcement of private regulation could play a role,11 such as advertising and food safety,12 labor standards,13 and financial markets.14 In that respect, it is also normatively postulated that the national legal and political systems should play a more significant role in order to reinforce the potential rather than undermining the regulatory efforts on a global scale.15 This issue aims to contribute to this debate by providing different perspectives on whether and how domestic enforcement of transnational private regulation through private law can and should be furthered, if at all. This is accomplished by narrowing the broader topic and focusing on the investigation of one particular area: the starting point of all the contributions will be the debate over private corporate social responsibility (CSR) codes and the case for or against their enforcement under domestic private law. These CSR codes are understood as codes of conduct developed and published by transnational corporations to show their globally applicable commitment to respect human rights, improve fundamental labor standards, protect the natural environment, and prevent corruption. [End Page 3] The focus on private corporate social responsibility initiatives seems, for that debate, a particularly suitable example: First, unlike in other forms of private self-regulation, domestic enforcement is critical for corporate social responsibility because separate enforcement institutions have not evolved on a global level. In relation to the lex mercatoria, arbitral tribunals are primarily called upon to provide for juridification. For private internet governance, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has evolved as a core player. The Court of Arbitration (CAS) has been dominant in shaping and enforcing the lex sportiva. Similar international courts or private arbitral institutions, although recently considered,16 have not been realized for corporate social responsibility...

Legalization Under the Premises of Globalization: Why and Where to Enforce Corporate Social Responsibility Codes

This contribution advances the argument that global self-regulation through corporate social responsibility codes can and should be enforced under domestic private laws. Corporate social responsibility codes are defined as unilateral corporate commitments that indicate a corporation's willingness to take on a global regulatory role in the absence of a global political government—a phenomenon that is difficult to grasp from the perspective of traditional private law categories. The contribution thus starts by discussing the aspects in which private corporate codes and private law categories seem not to fit, and points to recent developments in substantive private law that could change this situation, namely case law, statutory reform, and the novel contract designs used by private actors to effectuate their corporate social responsibility codes, which private law can rely upon. This contribution argues that these developments provide sufficient ground to assume a gradually evolving readiness within substantive private law to provide for the enforcement of these corporate social responsibility codes. Subsequently, the contribution focuses on the normative side of the argument. From a socio-legal perspective, the main reason in favor of enforcement is identified in the specific social potential and the risks created through these corporate codes for a globalized society that private law has to help mitigate. Based on this argument, the contribution continues by discussing the possible actors that could realize enforcement. First, it identifies domestic courts as important actors to enforce this type of global self-regulation, and, in this context, analyzes how, in order for domestic courts to pursue such an enforcement strategy on the basis of substantive private law, private international law equally requires a transformation. Second, the contribution considers international arbitral tribunals as additional institutions that could be entrusted with the enforcement if related changes in domestic arbitration laws can safeguard the function of domestic courts to monitor this enforcement role of arbitrators .

Enforcing Corporate Social Responsibility Codes Under Private Law: On the Disciplining Power of Legal Doctrine

A central question in the debate on corporate social responsibility is to what extent CSR codes can be enforced among private parties. This contribution argues that this question is best answered by reference to the applicable doctrinal legal system. Such a doctrinal approach has recently regained importance in American scholarship, while it is still the prevailing method of legal analysis in Europe. Applying a doctrinal analysis of CSR codes allows for the possibility of private law enforcement, that is, enforcement by means of contract or tort, dependent on three different elements: the exact type of claim that is brought, the evolving societal standards about the binding nature of CSR codes, and the normative complexity of the doctrinal system itself. This approach allows for a typology of cases in which the enforceability of CSR codes can be disputed. It is subsequently argued that societal standards have not yet reached the stage where the average consumer who buys a product from a retailer can hold that retailer legally liable for violations of the norms incorporated in the code.

Regulating Corporate Regulators Through Contract Law? The Case of Corporate Social Responsibility Codes of Conduct

Codes of conduct transcend the boundaries between the concepts of self-regulation, contract and regulation. This contribution focuses specifically on the phenomenon of corporate codes of conduct and argues that these codes can be described as a genuine form of regulation initiated by corporations, which as a consequence requires private law as the applicable legal framework to become more regulatory itself. In the context of this paper, corporate codes are defined as unilateral self commitments by companies to respect fundamental societal interests, such as human rights, labour standards or environmental protection, and the specific focus is on the role of contract law in regulating this corporate regulatory activity. To that end, the paper consists of four parts: it starts by proffering an explanation of why the phenomenon of corporate codes of conduct has only recently started to interest contract law scholars. It continues by analysing the way in which corporations use (and do not use) contracts and contract law enforcement in developing and practising their codes, and how contract law doctrine perceives this strategy. It reveals that there is currently a high degree of uncertainty over how contract law doctrine should react to this phenomenon. A normative argument is therefore developed and contextualised in favour of a stronger role for contract law in enforcing and regulating corporate codes. The paper concludes by emphasising the need for contract law to become regulatory in a novel sense: rather than focusing solely on the regulation of private actors via mandatory rules, contract law needs to be responsive to the conflict brought about by regulation through corporate codes of conduct by specifying clear rights and obligations that corporate regulators incur through adopting of a code of conduct.

A <em>Lex Mercatoria</em> for Corporate Social Responsibility Codes Without the State? A Critique of Legalization Within the State Under the Premises of Globalization

Recent efforts have sought to theorize the legalization of the social and economic sphere that is undiminished by time. Though the context has changed over time, the project remains the same—to embed behavior control within a network of mandatory proscriptions attached in some authoritative way to the state. Corporate social responsibility has been bound up in corporate codes of behavior and related private governance standards systems. In that form, it serves as a key site for the evolution of legalization and legitimacy in governance. That evolution appears to take corporate social responsibility from its twentieth century formalist rigidity into something of a bridge between the political and social sphere. This essay considers the legalization project and its challenge to the logic and legitimacy of law and the dangers—for state and business enterprise—that flow from the fundamental ideological premises that appear to make this legalization project within the state both necessary and inevitable. These dangers include the misdirection of labeling—dismissing nonlaw as necessarily illegitimate, the obliteration of the fundamental construct of and constraints inherent in the corporate form, the error of conflating regulation with law, the unintended consequence of subverting law through the incorporation of a societal element in lawmaking, the error of denaturing the societal element of corporate codes, and the production of perversity through the formalism of law that masks inverted power relations between powerful enterprises and weak states. Paradoxically, perhaps, the project of legalization evidences how a love of ancient custom, in this case the customs and patterns of the post-Westphalian law-state, remains, while power shifts to those, enterprises included, that have brought about a revolution in the state and in the meaning of legalization in a new world order that has yet to be revealed.

Enforcing Corporate Social Responsibility Codes Under Private Law, Or: On the Disciplining Power of Legal Doctrine

A central question in the debate on corporate social responsibility is to what extent CSR Codes can be enforced among private parties. This contribution argues that this question is best answered by reference to the applicable doctrinal legal system. Such a doctrinal approach has recently regained importance in American scholarship, while it is still the prevailing method of legal analysis in Europe. Applying a doctrinal analysis of CSR Codes allows to make the possibility of private law enforcement, i.e. enforcement by means of contract or tort, dependent on three different elements: the exact type of claim that is brought, the evolving societal standards about the binding nature of CSR Codes, and the normative complexity of the doctrinal system itself. This approach allows to make a typology of cases in which the enforceability of CSR Codes can be disputed. It is subsequently argued that societal standards have not yet reached the stage where the average consumer who buys a product from a retailer can keep that retailer legally liable for violations of the norms incorporated in the code.

The implementation of selected elements of the CSR concept on the example of agribusiness enterprises from Warmia and Mazury

The concept of corporate social responsibility , functioning under the name of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), which is the responsibility of the business, is becoming more popular not only in academia, but also business. The purpose of this paper is to present the issues related to the implementation of selected elements of the concept of CSR (codes of ethics , norms and standards for quality management and dialogue with stakeholders) in the surveyed enterprises agribusiness. Research on business opinion on the concept of CSR has been carried out in the second half of 2013 and included 174 micro-enterprises (0-9 persons), small (10-49 employees ) and medium (50-249 employees) businesses agribusiness established in rural areas of Warmia and Mazury . The results showed that it is necessary first of all to think of entrepreneurs in terms of CSR and strategic approach to community engagement in the area where the company knows best. It is important to create their own solutions among companies understood as a business strategy , not just the actions taken occasionally.

Integrating Corporate Social Responsibility in Corporate Governance Codes in the EU

While having different starting points, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate governance have developed along similar paths and today they are linked in many different ways. As a consequence of this development, CSR is becoming an integral part of corporate governance codes in the EU, and the aim of this article is to analyse the extent of this integration. It is concluded that stakeholder-related issues in particular are now part of most codes in the EU, whereas corporate governance recommendations refer less frequently to specific CSR issues. However, specific CSR recommendations are still common, so it seems that in most codes it is recognised that there is a strong link between CSR and corporate governance. Even though this link may be widely recognised, it is also clear that the existing codes show a great variety of solutions to the integration of CSR and corporate governance codes. It is shown that for CSR the codes mostly contain specific recommendations related to transparency and that other recommendations are less specific. The vagueness of the recommendations on CSR issues seems to be common to all the codes examined. This general vagueness makes CSR recommendations 'soft' and frequently open to interpretation. It is also shown that the countries whose codes are most dominant in the field of corporate governance do not seem to be at the forefront of integration of CSR in their corporate governance codes. Furthermore, an analysis of two examples of the reporting on CSR recommendations under the comply-or-explain principle shows that the adoption of this principle for CSR disclosure may not work without measures to overcome some of the shortcomings seen hitherto in the application of the comply-or-explain principle.

As if God existed: religion and liberty in the history of Italy

Develtere spends almost no time discussing the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in alleviating poverty. He cites the case of Repsol as the role model for appropriate transnational corporate (TNC) behavior. Tell that to President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina, who nationalized Repsol’s YPF SA in April 2012 and the late President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who on July 24, 2012, threatened Repsol against taking any action against Argentina. I would emphasize that foreign direct investment provides tax revenues and job creation! A quick look at the World Investment Report 2012 reveals the positive impact of the $1.5 trillion in FDI that took place in 2011: $904 billion were greenfield projects of which developing and transition countries received 55 percent, sub-Saharan Africa received $37 billion, Latin American received $211 billion, and LDCs received $33.3 billion. Foreign affiliates of TNCs support 69 million jobs. Transnational corporations have signed Corporate Social Responsibility Codes and set supplier codes for Social and Environmental performance standards. I could go on. Overall, the book is worth a read. I would also suggest that his next edition include a subject index.

Sustainable Development in Emerging Markets & CSR Codes of Conduct: Oil and Gas Industry in Brazil

This paper intends to provide a comparative analysis of corporate social responsibility codes of conduct (CSR Codes) of the oil and gas industry operating in Brazil with the provisions embodied in the international legal framework system, such as the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the Fundamental Conventions of the International Labour Organization. For comparative purposes, and given the usual structure that CSR Codes tend to follow, the analysis has been developed around the three most emphasized issues - namely, labor and human rights, environment and socio-economic issues - which in turn have been divided into common subcategories of CSR Codes. One can argue that if CSR Codes are actually based on the new international sustainable development law, which may be used to verify CSR Codes' compliance and enforcement, CSR Codes can be seen as a «global commons» understanding framework to improve sustainable development operations in emerging markets such as Brazil.

CSR codes and the principal-agent problem in supply chains: four case studies

The benefits of corporate social responsibility (CSR) affect the entire supply chains a firm participates in. However, not every firm is in a position to force the implementation of CSR in its supply chains as some, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), lack the necessary power. Chain directors can implement it acting as a principal, whereas the other chain members can act as agents. In the principal-agent framework, two main problems occur due to information asymmetry: adverse selection and moral hazard. This paper examines how a code of conduct (i.e. Social Accountability 8000) can help address the principal-agent problem, for SMEs, between chain directors and partners. The research method involves four case studies on CSR practices as implemented by Italian and Dutch SMEs within their supply chains.