Corporate Social Responsibility Movement Research Articles

In between light empowerment and corporate moderate feminism

The relation between the institutional frameworks and the promotion of gender equality, considering the corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement, has been scarcely analyzed from the experiences of developing economies. We aimed to contribute to fill that gap, bringing to the debate the concepts of emancipation in organizations and support groups. We asked: in which ways, gender equality fostered by initiatives implemented in developing economies by transnational corporations in the form of support groups allow for organizational transformations that strengthen the process of women’s emancipation in the corporate world? So, an ethnography was undertaken within a transnational company of the financial sector that operates in Brazil. The results show that these initiatives can only lead to organizational transformations that strengthen women’s empowerment if they are inscribed in an institutional framework that guarantees the participation of multiple actors.

The Corporate Governance Machine

The conventional view of corporate governance is that it is a neutral set of processes and practices that govern how a company is managed. We demonstrate that this view is profoundly mistaken: in the United States, corporate governance has become a “system” composed of an array of institutional players, with a powerful shareholderist orientation. Our original account of this “corporate governance machine” generates insights about the past, present, and future of corporate governance. As for the past, we show how the concept of corporate governance developed alongside the shareholder primacy movement. This relationship is reflected in the common refrain of “good governance” that pervades contemporary discourse and the maturation of corporate governance as an industry oriented toward serving shareholders and their interests. As for the present, our analysis explains why the corporate social responsibility movement transformed into shareholder value-oriented ESG, stakeholder capitalism became relegated to a new separate form of entity known as the benefit corporation, and public company boards of directors became homogenized across industries. As for the future, our analysis suggests that absent a major paradigm shift that would force multiple institutional gatekeepers to switch their orientation, advocacy pushing corporations to consider the interests of employees, communities, and the environment will likely fail, unless such effort is framed as advancing shareholder interests.

The corporate social responsibility movement and law's empire: is there a conflict?

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Three types of organizational boundary spanning: Predicting CSR policy extensiveness among global consumer products companies

AbstractAs part of the rise of a worldwide corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement, companies have increasingly incorporated social and environmental concerns into their policies. This paper examines the extensiveness of these policies, proposing that an underappreciated contributor is the degree of organizational boundary spanning. The paper is novel in integrating multiple types of boundary spanning into a single empirical framework, including product, sub‐unit, and national boundary spanning. The paper adds complexity to the literature by theorizing that different types of boundary spanning associate with CSR policy extensiveness in different issue areas. The results show that product spanning associates with CSR policy extensiveness in the area of consumers, sub‐unit spanning in the areas of workers, and nation‐state spanning in all issue areas. A unique, comprehensive, and global data set of 2,714 prominent consumer goods companies in the GoodGuide database underpins these findings.

A Study of Corporate Social Responsibility Activities and Consumer Responses: Based on the Perspective of Consumers

With the deepening of consumer awareness of corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement, it’s more and more significant to explore the impacts of CSR activities on the consumers from the perspective of consumers. With four hypotheses, this paper summarizes the components of CSR from the view of consumers and studies the impacts of CSR activities on consumers’ purchase intention with questionnaires and experiments. Meanwhile, this paper analyses the regulatory effects of prices of products and the impact of consumers’ supports on CSR activities on consumers’ purchase intention.

Corporate Social Responsibility in Indonesia. Quixotic Dream or Confident Expectation?

During the past decade there has emerged, in North America and Western Europe in particular, a fairly powerful movement to improve the social and environmental performance of large corporations and their affiliates and suppliers in developing countries. By examining the case of Indonesia, this paper looks at how effective this approach has been. Two central questions are addressed. First, do corporate social responsibility (CSR) and accompanying voluntary initiatives have the capacity to change the day-to-day behaviour of TNCs? Second, at this stage of its development, and in the context of crisis, is corporate social responsibility relevant to Indonesia?The discussion on codes of conduct presents both civil society and TNC perspectives on the implementation, achievements and limitations of such initiatives, codes are fundamentally flawed for several reasons: they may serve to place corporations outside of the national regulatory system and bypass the tripartite negotiation system that was one of the major labour reforms of recent years; the process and outcomes of monitoring are usually confidential; monitors usually only see one or two plants chosen by the client; monitoring is often done by accounting firms that have insufficient technical knowledge to deal with the often complex health and safety problems in production plants; sanctions for non-compliance are weak or non-existent; codes are usually designed in the head office, and rarely in consultation with trade unions or others; codes with lower technical specificity are often found in enterprises that are female dominated; codes only apply to a small proportion of a nation’s workers; and corporations often insist that affiliates and sub-contractors improve conditions but provide limited if any resources to support such change.When viewed in the context of culture, economic and political development, and turmoil in Indonesia, the author concludes that CSR remains an ideal. The current transformation is bringing instability, fear and violence. In such a context, it is hard to consider something as abstract as CSR. It is timely, however, to begin to put into place the institutions, educational foundations and management training which are needed for business and political reform, and from which CSR may be a spin-off. Any broader application of CSR needs to stem from an indigenous belief in the necessity of such an institution and not represent a mere shrug to another Western fashion. There is clearly a tension between those in the developing countries who see this as yet another imposition of Western values, no matter how attractive, and those in the developed nations who, put cynically perhaps, wish to consume with a conscience.While it is fair to say that CSR makes a positive contribution to the human rights of those working in TNCs, it is also fair to say that it only makes a difference to those few corporations targeted by consumers or who are already thinking ethically and responsibly. Other industries are not so well inclined. Such anomalies, and the somewhat piecemeal approach of the CSR movement, should alert global citizens to the need for a more systematic approach.That being said, the after-shock of the Indonesian economic crisis has required a re-evaluation of both economic and investment policy, and the way business is run in Indonesia. The previous short-term thinking may have to make way for the type of longer-term pragmatic and visionary thinking required by genuine CSR and supported by Islamic business principles. A lot will depend on how deep the reform process goes. There is a danger, however, that CSR and voluntary initiatives may be a diversion from the real issues of law reform and multilevel political and social development. While CSR may benefit a small minority of Indonesia's workers and those whose lives intersect with TNCs, the development of and adherence to a fair system of law and institutional reform would benefit all. Without such changes, CSR is likely to remain cosmetic.

Dominium and The Empire of Laws

Civic republicanism endorses a freedom ideology that can support the corporate social responsibility movement [CSR] in some of the challenges it faces. This article is a call for CSR to embrace this normative guidance as a superior alternative to mainstream liberalism. Part I is the introduction. Part II discusses the institutional changes that gave rise to CSR’s present incarnation. Part III builds upon this discussion, explaining how corporate risk management strategies pose a threat to CSR’s persuasive authority today. It then considers CSR’s options for enhancing governance when such persuasive authority is not available. It determines that inspiring integrity – above all else – is integral to success and that, in turn, the removal of moral distance is key to inspiring such integrity. It also notes that whether a form of coercive authority exists or not to back a governance mechanism, the removal of moral distance will be key to its effectiveness. Part IV notes that efforts to remove moral distance have been attempted since the 1970s, but time has proven that business actors have been resilient to meaningful change. It argues that this failure to reduce moral distance is, in part, the result of mainstream liberalism, which continues to nullify such efforts to make business actors feel more accountable for the impacts of their decision-making. It then explores liberalism, detangling the meaning of possibly the most contested, and normatively powerful, concept from the twentieth century to the present. Part V explains civic republicanism. It then explores civic republicanism’s conceptual proximity to liberalism. Part VI makes the case for why civic republicanism ought to amend the liberal message, recasting the rights and responsibilities of both imperium (that is, the authority of the sovereign) and dominium (that is, the private authority usually emanating from property and contract) within society. Part VII concludes with a short reflection on the ground covered.

Corporate social responsibility movement in an emerging economy: an institutional and social movement explanation

This study explores the CSR movement in India from the perspective of institutional theory and social movement theory. The paper draws important theoretical framework in the field of CSR in emerging economies. The study takes entirely new theoretical perspective of social movement theory and combines it with institutionalization to give important insights to the adoption of CSR as a law in India. Propositions are developed by drawing on the role of organizational actors and their interactions with institutional forces; and also on the interaction among the different forces. First, these interactions are examined in dyadic form and then the overall effects of these interactions are proposed. It is examined how different actors interact differently with the institutional forces, and how the dominant or competing forces interact with each other to in turn influence the actors. Another set of propositions examine how the organizational strategies shaped the CSR movement in India and how they have been or are likely to be shaped by the CSR movement in India. Implications for public affairs and policy making are drawn for CSR.

CSR Conception and Implications by Commercial Banks in the Context of Bangladesh: A Comparative Study on Selected Commercial Banks

Corporate Social Responsibility ( CSR) is presently one of the most discussed topics by government, non-government and by business itself. CSR movement has gathered great momentum over the past number of years and is now regarded as most prevalent. The purpose of the study is to provide an in-depth scenario of CSR practices by commercial banks in Bangladesh. The study has been taken to observe different regulatory framework of CSR by commercial banks and their contribution. This study found CSR practices by commercial banks are quite scant in comparison to their earned profits. The study reveals that commercial banks are trying to swell up their contribution in accordance with Bangladesh Bank’s proper guidelines regarding CSR practices.

Converged Approach in Regulation for Socialising Business Corporations

The prolonged attempt to create a global code for TNCs was ultimately unsuccessful, yet the simultaneous rise of global frameworks and guidelines by various private bodies highlight the need for monitoring of the performance of TNCs in addition to evaluation of their accountability practice. But none of the current frameworks and guidelines has been successful in laying down a clear way forward for the creation of an accepted global code of conduct for TNCs. The corporate social responsibility movement is a reaction to this need; it assists the shift of the market centered focus of global regulatory framework initiatives to ‘people centered’ (as opposed to country-centered) concerns. Accordingly, the core CSR principles urge that TNCs must not only be compliant but also responsible to their wider stakeholders and the environment. This chapter presents how the implementation of CSR principles in corporations can be an alternative to a global code of conduct for socialising TNCs.

Research on the Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Reputation on Financial Performance—Based on Listed Company Data

With the improvement of living conditions, more and more people have begun to pay attention to environmental safety and social responsibility issues. The market’s growing resistance to irresponsible companies may be that these companies are not aware of the seriousness of the consequences of their consequences on corporate finances. Facing the increasingly harsh product safety environment in recent years, people are increasingly focusing on the pursuit of quality products. With the development of the global corporate social responsibility movement, the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance has gradually attracted people’s attention. A comprehensive study of domestic and foreign scholars found that most scholars’ studies have demonstrated that the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance is positively correlated, followed by irrelevant and uncertain relationships, and negatively related to only a small portion. It can be seen that the fulfillment of corporate social responsibility is generally necessary for the enterprise. In the domestic and foreign literature review, financial performance also takes its related corporate value and other related indicators as part of its performance. Research and development space is huge. This article is a study of corporate social responsibility research on how corporate financial performance affects corporate social responsibility. It aims to provide a clear analysis and explanation of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance through accurate theoretical introduction and empirical analysis by exploring the relationship between the two.

Self-Responsibility Gone Bad: Institutions and the 2008 Financial Crisis

The rise of self-responsibility as practiced in many public policy areas was part of the more general rise of neoliberalism. A case in point is the corporate social responsibility movement. This led in the world of finance to the 2008 financial crisis thanks to various deregulatory moves beginning in the early 1980s. As such, the crisis was the product of a series of incremental institutional changes that enabled corporate self-responsibility in finance to go terribly wrong. Once the crisis hit, a number of more radical institutional changes were pursued in order to reverse the movement toward self-responsibility. This was an institutional rebalancing. This article offers some ideas about how to think about institutional change in the context of this particular corporate self-responsibility movement. It focuses first on the institutional changes that caused the crisis and then on the institutional changes that followed in an effort to minimize the severity of the crisis and reduce the possibility that another one might happen again. The basic argument is that self-responsibility is not a phenomenon that can be reduced to individual action; it cannot work properly without that action being embedded in an appropriate institutional environment. This is an argument at odds with neoliberal theory.

Is corporate social responsibility pursuing pristine business goals for sustainable development?

AbstractThere is a continuing academic debate on corporate social responsibility (CSR), its goals and practices, and its impact on business and society. Following this debate, this study has made a critical investigation of CSR practices of business enterprises with a view to examining their spirit, intentions and roles in terms of pristine business goals. After analyzing the contents of pertinent literature (126 articles, of which 89 are empirical) in both developed and developing country contexts, the study finds that corporate managers are still less concerned about the meaning and essence of pristine business goals and the true goals and role of CSR. They practice CSR largely in a voluntary philanthropic fashion to build public image and primarily enhance business profit, not necessarily for social wellbeing. Their CSR practices have been found to be more of a cosmetic and face‐saving marketing strategy, undermining the social wellbeing goal for sustainable development. The CSR movement, therefore, needs reformation.

Investors as Stewards of the Commons?

The author makes the case that business generally, not just government, should assume responsibility for social and environmental problems. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) formally recognize the role of the private sector in addressing some of the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. What started as a corporate social responsibility movement now a focuses on integrating positive social impact into the core mission of the organization.Encouragingly, studies document that improving firm performance on business‐relevant ESG issues has a positive association with future financial performance. Investors can enable better societal outcomes by exercising ‘voice’ and voting rights in corporate governance.He acknowledges that competitive businesses face a “commons” or “free‐rider” problem where a defector avoids the full cost of his actions. Overcoming this problem requires legally sanctioned collaboration between business enterprises and large institutional shareholders, particularly pension funds. He also acknowledges that the corporate level free‐rider problem has a counterpart that at the investor level. Investor engagement with companies involves resources, money and time. It is no simple matter to justify increased costs in the context of asset managers that compete on the basis of low management fees, such as index funds.Collaboration between companies can mitigate some of these free riding problems. Large institutional investors with long time horizons and significant common ownership across different companies may have the best opportunities for collaboration. But, smaller activist funds and retail investors also have an important role in pushing large institutional investors to engage. While it is unlikely that investors will be able to solve all of the pressing societal problems, progress can be made.

Exploring the Shared Responsibilityy of Cyber Peace: Should Cybersecurity Be a Human Right?

Having access to the internet is increasingly considered to be an emerging human right. International organizations and national governments have begun to formally recognize its importance to freedom of speech, expression, and information exchange. The next step to help ensure some measure of cyber peace online may be for cybersecurity to be recognized as a human right, too. This Article investigates the nuances of this debate, and analyzes the implications of such a designation through the lens of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) movement.

Driving Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) through the Companies Act: an Overview of the Role of the Social and Ethics Committee

The corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement can be described as a bundle of trends comprising regulatory frameworks aimed at improving corporate practices and leading to changes in these practices, the mobilisation of corporate role players to support the development of states, and a management trend the purpose of which is to enhance the legitimacy of a business. Government is regarded as one of the most important driving forces behind the CSR agenda and it has a particularly important role to play in the creation of an enabling CSR environment.
 
 In general, advocates of legislative involvement in framing the CSR policy highlight the failure of existing voluntary systems as one of the main reasons why the state should play a more important role in the facilitation of CSR. Although governments realise the importance of encouraging socially responsible business, it should be noted that CSR should not replace regulation or legislation concerning social rights. Furthermore CSR should not be seen as shifting (or outsourcing) the state's responsibility for the provision of basic services (such as education or the provision of health services) to the private sector and thus "privatising" the state's responsibilities. However, the legacies of apartheid remain firmly entrenched in the social problems facing South Africa and it seems as if the Government is unable to deliver the social and physical infrastructure required to effect the desired transformation, thus necessitating the engagement of the private sector.
 
 The role of Government in establishing a CSR policy framework and driving CSR has become increasingly important. The (perceived) failure of the welfare state has given further impetus to the move of governments toward tapping into the resources of the private sector (through their CSR) in order to address socio-economic challenges.
 
 A purely voluntary approach to CSR without any legislative intervention will not succeed – a clear public policy requiring the implementation of socially responsible practices by the entire private sector is a necessity. Governments in general are increasingly beginning to view CSR as cost-effective means to enhance their sustainable development strategies, and as a part of their national competitiveness strategies to attract foreign direct investment. Given South Africa's history, legislation should be viewed as one of the main instruments enabling the Government to address the private sector's social, environmental and economic outreach activities.
 Against this background, this contribution identifies the regulations released in terms of the Companies Act 71 of 2008 in which the issue of the social and ethics committee is dealt with, as an important measure taken by Government to create a possible CSR platform. This contribution argues that the requirements regarding the creation of a social and ethics committee have the potential to embed the CSR notion in the corporate conscience. The aim of the contribution is to provide an overview of the role of the social and ethics committee, as envisaged by the Companies Regulations, 2011, as a potential driver of CSR.

Lord John Browne: beyond CSR – why business needs to engage more radically with society

Purpose This interview with petroleum executive John Browne, lead author of Connect: How Companies Succeed by Engaging Radically with Society, discusses sustainability practices that could be more successful than those of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) movement. Design/methodology/approach Lord Browne, a British peer, was CEO of BP (British Petroleum) from 1995 to 2007 and is currently executive chairman of L1 Energy, He was interviewed by Prof. Brian Leavy, an S&L contributing editor Findings Connected leadership means integrating societal and environmental considerations into core business strategy at every level of the company. Practical implications The key lesson for business leaders in the wake of …accidents and scandals is that reputation is an outcome of your core business activity, not something constructed alongside it. Social implications Shareholder value, as a theory, presents a false tension between serving stakeholders and shareholders. Originality/value Browne was the first Big Oil chief executive to acknowledge the link between man-made carbon emissions and global warming. His insights into integrating social responsibility and corporate strategy are cutting edge.

A New Perspective on Consumerss Preferences in the Corporate Social Responsibility Movement. The Case for Producer Benefit Experience

In the presence of a production-generated negative externality information asymmetries develop between producers and consumers leading to significant differences between use and exchange value. In this paper, I bring forth the argument that a sustainable Corporate Social Responsible (CSR) behavior on the firm’s side is the result of unusual innovative efforts to develop a safer technology to ameliorate the presence of negative externalities in production. A largely overlooked condition in the field of firm strategy is that in the CSR market segment consumers derive satisfaction both from the product’s intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics. In this regard, when a firm endogenizes consumers’ preferences for CSR type of products into its strategic decision – i.e. relaxes the typical assumption that consumers’ preferences are exogenous and invariant – then the firm is able to develop a competitive advantage and increase performance. This process results in a Producer Benefit Experience where the firm derives positive learning spillover effects from endogenous consumers preferences, leading primarily to a product differentiation strategy that increases consumers’ satisfaction, increases value capturing perspectives, generate higher extrinsic value usage to the consumer and maximizes profits through product differentiation at the extrinsic level.

Corporate Social Responsibility of Commercial Bank in Bangladesh: A Comparative Study on Nationalized and Private Banks

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to strategies corporations or firms conduct their business in a way that is ethical, society friendly and beneficial to community in terms of development. This research analyses the meaning of CSR based on some theories available in literature. CSR is evolving in its meaning and practice. The research discusses the role of CSR in community development. CSR movement has gathered great momentum over the past number of years and is now regarded as being at this most prevalent. CSR is presently one of the most discussed topics. The purpose of the study is to provide deep understanding about CSR benefit, accountability and show steps taken by the government. The study has been taken to observe different CSR areas of nationalized and private commercial banks and its contribution. This study found CSR practices of nationalized and private commercial banks. The study reveals that nationalized and private commercial banks are trying to swell their contribution in accordance with their performance.

Corporate social responsibility reporting practices in banking companies in Bangladesh

Purpose– This paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of the nature and extent of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting in the annual report by banking companies in Bangladesh, identify the impact of regulatory change on CSR reporting and examine whether there is any relationship between the extent of CSR reporting and bank characteristics. CSR movement and CSR reporting practices by financial sector have gathered great momentum in recent years. Banking sector is in the leading position in discharging CSR reporting.Design/methodology/approach– The sample composed of all the 30 banking companies enlisted in Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), and the study used content analysis approach for systematic categorization and analysis of the contents reported in the annual report. A total of 97 CSR items classified into seven classes were selected through a relevant literature review, as the expected items and average, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, percentage and correlation, etc. were used as the tools of analysis. SPSS software version 19.0 was used to analyze the data. An ordinary least square (OLS) regression model is fitted to the data for assessing the effect of independent variables on total CSR reporting score.Findings– The study found that the extent of CSR reporting in banking companies in Bangladesh varies from 27.84 to 65.98 per cent, and on an average, they report 47.39 per cent of the expected CSR items in annual report. It is also observed that banking companies in Bangladesh emphasized on linguistic or written form than charts, graphs or pictures in reporting CSR activities to their stakeholders, and the study found no significant influence of the selected bank characteristics on the extent of CSR reporting. Moreover, the study observed significant impact of regulatory change on nature and extent of CSR reporting.Research limitations/implications– The study considered all the listed commercial banking companies in Bangladesh, and the annual report of 2011 was taken as the main source of data.Social implications– Among others, the implications of the study include the following. Banking companies are expected to get a real scenario of CSR reporting of the banking sector in Bangladesh and banking companies with poor CSR contribution expected to be motivated for contributing more in CSR activities. Government and other regulatory bodies can also get detailed information regarding CSR reporting practices for formulating guidelines in this regard.Originality/value– This empirical study on the determinants of extent of CSR reporting using a larger number of expected CSR items contributes toward a better understanding of the CSR reporting practices of the banking companies in Bangladesh. The study used a new independent variable “CSR Expenditure” in justifying its influence on CSR reporting and identified the impact of regulatory change on CSR reporting. The study expects contributing in the enactment of more regulatory requirements for bringing the CSR reporting into a certain framework and encouraging in more CSR reporting in Bangladesh.