Discussion Of Corporate Social Responsibility Research Articles

Diversity and inclusion: Multilevel recommendations

Abstract This article contributes to the knowledge about diversity and inclusion by including a discussion of corporate social responsibility, communication strategies, social capital, and social identity. This article also includes archival data as use cases to demonstrate how two companies are implementing diversity and inclusion practices. I further discuss how the companies' current practices are aligned with human resource components including recruitment and selection; training and development; and compensation and rewards. I conclude by making recommendations to assist companies in building a culture of diversity and inclusion noting a multilevel approach including senior leaders, managers, and underrepresented groups.

Anti-work, TVET and employer engagement

ABSTRACT The paper brings together a range of debates on the left that address TVET’s future in current context. At the heart of these debates rest two issues. The first addresses competing views of capital and the second focuses on the contradiction between the interests of capital and workers. The paper argues that capital is not all of a piece and that decent work that validates human flourishing is not completely unknown. However, as with other forms of waged labour, such work is predicated on capitalist relations and interests and it is important not to overlook waged labour as a site of struggle and contestation. Consequently, when circumstances alter as a result of the development of new technology, itself is a social process, or when the balance of power shifts in favour of capital, such labour may be dispensed with or become so deskilled that it is hardly recognisable. The paper is structured in the following way. The initial sections address the paper’s genesis, a discussion of corporate social responsibility and anti-work that enables an engagement with differing conceptualisations of capital. The subsequent sections, Restrictive and Expansive Learning and Thinking about TVET focus on the contradictory interests of workers and capital. The paper closes with a discussion of TVET and considers responses to current conditions that necessitate an engagement with an earlier tradition of adult and community education.

False legitimation through political corporate social responsibility

Recent academic discussion of corporate social responsibility has identified a political shift in corporate societal roles. Politicization of corporations has been connected with globalization and its effect on the inability of national governance structures to govern global economic activity. Both positive and negative societal outcomes of this politicisation have been identified. The roles of governance and business in society have been blurred. In this paper I look at two research streams that have discussed the political role and participation of business corporations in public policy from different perspectives; firstly, the political corporate social responsibility discussion has approached soft law development in particular as an outcome of the inability of regulatory frameworks to respond to the challenges of economic globalisation, and secondly, discussion of nonmarket strategy and corporate political activity has focused on the political activity of corporations by concentrating on business outcomes. In this paper, I start developing a concept of false legitimisation to facilitate understanding and analysis of the differences and similarities between political CSR and nonmarket strategy activity. The focus is on the procedural aspects of the issue. I then proceed to analyse how theoretical conceptualisations are blurred in the concrete expected outcomes of corporate political activity.

Examining the practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Sub-Saharan Africa

In this study, we will examine the way in which CSR is conceptualised by various scholars along with the realities of its implementation on the ground in specific African countries. The key objectives of this paper are therefore; to extend the discussion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by providing insight into the effect that the level of economic development may have on CSR and the impact this may have on the practice of CSR amongst leading companies in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper will focus on discovering the similarities and differences in policies, procedures and practices in the region as a whole. In order to help shed some light on these issues, this article explores how leading companies report on CSR in five Sub-Saharan countries (Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, and South Africa). Our analysis of company information reveals that opportunities are widely appreciated and that most companies report on their economic and social impacts. However, CSR reporting is fairly generic, and the specific context seems to bear only a limited influence on the type of CSR activities undertaken

Inherent Negatives: Managing Risk and Reputation, Reconsidering Corporate Social Responsibility

This paper introduces the idea of inherent negatives, that is, risks inherent in the business model and value chain that increase the more successful the enterprise is. We argue that a systematic approach to these risks can be taken through a model that manages both downside risks (including issues management) as well as upside value creation, through, for example, brand building and reputation management and include ways of evaluating upstream and downstream risk which are often overlooked. We place this model in the context of contemporary discussions of Corporate Social Responsibility suggesting that CSR aligned with the business model is necessary for sustainable CSR while risk must be sufficiently mitigated before either CSR as currently understood or new trends in the relationship between business and society can be realized.

The True Cost of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Analysis of 1,000 Global Companies

This study elucidated the shadow price of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for 1,024 international companies worldwide that were surveyed from 15 industries in 37 major countries. Our results indicate that the shadow price of GHG at the firm level is much higher than indicated in previous studies. The higher shadow price was found in this study as a result of the use of Scope 3 GHG emissions data. The results of this research indicate that a firm would carry a high cost of GHG emissions if Scope 3 GHG emissions were the focus of the discussion of corporate social responsibility. In addition, such shadow prices were determined to differ substantially among countries, among sectors, and within sectors. Although a number of studies have calculated the shadow price of GHG emissions, these studies have employed country-level or industry-level data or a small sample of firm-level data in one country. This new data from a worldwide firm analysis of the shadow price of GHG emissions can play an important role in developing climate policy and promoting sustainable development.

Measuring Corporate Social Responsibility as a Psychosocial Construct: A New Multidimensional Scale

To date, the discussion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has consistently addressed organizational activities, which are the focus of measures that are able to evaluate CSR in enterprises. However, the psychosocial characteristics of CSR have remained relatively unexplored. Indeed, some scholars have recently proposed that both the perspective-taking (as a cognitive dimension of CSR) and propensity to take care (as an affective dimension of CSR) of different stakeholders are related to sustainable and socially responsible organizational behaviors (as the behavioral dimension of CSR), thus fostering the development of CSR within enterprises that take a multi-stakeholder approach. According to this psychosocial perspective, we propose and test a multidimensional Psychosocial CSR (P-CSR) scale to measure organizational engagement in corporate social responsibility with regard to multiple stakeholders. By linking the cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions of CSR to the propensity of business professionals to enhance their environmental and social ethics, we offer a more complete description of how CSR involving multiple stakeholders arises in enterprises. A survey of 345 business professionals—including both employers and employees—of Italian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) completed a self-reported questionnaire. Based on the psychosocial perspective, we found that multi-stakeholder-oriented perspective-taking, propensity to take care, and socially responsible behaviors are part of the same construct, leading to an exhaustive explanation of CSR at the organizational level. Moreover, we developed both theoretical and practical implications for the promotion of CSR in organizational contexts, especially among SMEs.

“The Big WHY”: Philip Morris’s Failed Search for Corporate Social Value

We examined Philip Morris USA's exploration of corporate social responsibility practices and principles and its outcome. We analyzed archival internal tobacco industry documents, generated in 2000 to 2002, related to discussions of corporate social responsibility among a Corporate Responsibility Taskforce and senior management at Philip Morris. In exploring corporate social responsibility, Philip Morris executives sought to identify the company's social value-its positive contribution to society. Struggling to find an answer, they considered dramatically changing the way the company marketed its products, apologizing for past actions, and committing the company to providing benefits for future generations. These ideas were eventually abandoned. Despite an initial call to distinguish between social and economic value, Philip Morris ultimately equated social value with providing shareholder returns. When even tobacco executives struggle to define their company's social value, it signals an opening to advocate for endgame scenarios that would encourage supply-side changes appropriate to the scale of the tobacco disease epidemic and consistent with authentic social value.

Legal Mechanization of Corporate Social Responsibility Through Alien Tort Statute Litigation: A Response to Professor Branson with Some Supplemental Thoughts

Courts continue to struggle with theories of liability for corporations under the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”) (a/k/a Alien Tort Claims Act (“ATCA”). Recent cases like Kiobel (2d Circuit, 2010) and Doe v. Exxon Mobile (DC Circuit, July 2011) have raised issues of whether corporations can be sued at all under the ATS, illustrate that issues about corporate liability under the ATS continue to percolate within the judiciary.Written in early 2010 and just published in July 2011, this Response essay argues that as Alien Tort Statute jurisprudence “matures” or becomes more sophisticated, the legitimate limits of the law regress. The further expansion within the corporate defendant pool – attempting to pin liability on parent, great grandparent corporations and up to the top – raises the stakes and complexity of ATS litigation. The corporate social responsibility discussion raises three principal issues about how a moral corporation lives its life: how a corporation chooses its self-interest versus the interests of others, when and how it should help others if control decisions may harm the shareholder owners, and how far the corporation must affirmatively go to help right the perceived wrongs in the world in which they operate. Although these questions could be posed simply as ones of policy or morality, with the injection of the ATS into the discussion they become questions that must be answered by examining the dictates and limits of law. Every expansion of liability, whether it is in terms of the persons or entities who may be sued or the nature of claims recognized as creating legal obligations, should be viewed cautiously. In our zeal to “right every wrong,” we should not lose sight of some fundamental principles of corporate law and the limits of the judicial process that are at risk as the ATS liability net widens.

The Theory of the Firm: The Corporation as Sole-Proprietor Surrogate

The Theory of the Firm: The Corporation as Sole-Proprietor Surrogate

From Pulp to Fiction?

The pulp mill conflict between Argentina and Uruguay is a topical environmental local—global dispute including various time—space levels (local—regional—national—global). It is also a politico-economic battle among business, civil society and governments in the two South American countries. This article highlights the widely analysed Argentine and Uruguayan perspectives, but it also brings to the fore the Finnish case (of mass media, the global Finnish paper industry, Finnish NGOs and the government). The article seeks to come to an understanding of the characteristics of the conflict as portrayed by the media in Finland and, critically, to examine the effects of the stereotypical Finnish image — `iconic model' — on Argentina and Uruguay. The article is a study of the discussions in the Finnish mass media, mainly in Helsingin Sanomat ( HS), the key national newspaper, and in the television coverage of the Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE. The analysis shows that the Finnish media, too, have created stereotypes that harden attitudes and make conflict resolution more difficult. What is virtually absent in the Finnish media is a democratic multicultural learning culture that fosters and itself is fostered through a more transnational and interdisciplinary perspective. The global and national media have an increasingly important task in such situations of cultural conflict resolution, situations which are also attached to the recent discussions of corporate social responsibility.

What social responsibility for the corporation?

The questions posed for the national reporters for this International Seminar demonstrate the wide range of issues that can be included as part of an analysis of corporate social responsibility. Even limiting the discussion of corporate social responsibility to employment issues covers a broad scope, represented by the three general questions posed for this Seminar: (1) hiring policy; (2) personnel management policy; and social protection policy. Before entering this discussion of the three questions, though, it may be useful to step back to an even broader question of the meaning of the term, “corporate social responsibility” (CSR). The term, itself, carries an underlying assumption of the legitimacy of a particular economic system and its central actors; that is, corporations are central, legitimate, and functional actors in social relations within a capitalist economic structure. The concept of CSR does not question the existence of corporations and their role in maintaining a system of private ownersh...

Getting to the Bottom of “Triple Bottom Line”

Abstract:In this paper, we examine critically the notion of “Triple Bottom Line” accounting. We begin by asking just what it is that supporters of the Triple Bottom Line idea advocate, and attempt to distil specific, assessable claims from the vague, diverse, and sometimes contradictory uses of the Triple Bottom Line rhetoric. We then use these claims as a basis upon which to argue (a) that what is sound about the idea of a Triple Bottom Line is not novel, and (b) that what is novel about the idea is not sound. We argue on both conceptual and practical grounds that the Triple Bottom Line is an unhelpful addition to current discussions of corporate social responsibility. Finally, we argue that the Triple Bottom Line paradigm cannot be rescued simply by attenuating its claims: the rhetoric is badly misleading, and may in fact provide a smokescreen behind which firms can avoid truly effective social and environmental reporting and performance.

Corporate Social Responsibility: An Assessment of the Enlightened Self-Interest Model

Much recent discussion of corporate social responsibility has concerned operationality. Many activities subsumed under corporate social responsibility can be shown to be public or partially public goods. The theory of public goods can clarify and explain some complex problems of operationalizing the social responsibility doctrine. An examination of philanthropy provides some behavioral applications.

Corporate Social Responsibility: An Assessment of the Enlightened Self-Interest Model.

Much of the recent discussion of corporate social responsibility has been concerned with the issue(s) of operationality. There appears to exist pervasive confusion in the current literature because...