Social Responsibility Issues Research Articles

Change in Financial Firms and Avoiding Harm to People and Environment

This paper explores issues of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Net Zero change in financial firms, with reference to top teams, employees, customers, citizens, and other stakeholders. It proposes a holistic approach to managing these problems of change, of reducing harm to people and environment, and contributing to social sustainability. Changes in financial firms and financial markets to become CSR and Net Zero oriented are being driven by major external change. There are increased demands to reduce harm to individuals, teams, and the environment, and to maintain social sustainability. The change pressures combine with problematic internal firm and external network predispositions. These exacerbate barriers to change and contribute to CSR and Net Zero problems. The paper uses a conceptual framework or “Behavioral theory of the financial firm” (BTTF) to think holistically about these problems and their impact on humans, their social systems, and physical systems. The BTFF is a basis for management and stakeholders to promote change based on credible organizational practices and prevention of exploitation of human capital and social conditions. These support social sustainability and occupational health and safety, or the ability of current and future generations to create healthy, living, and liveable communities in financial firms, and amongst external stakeholders. This holistic narrative and metaphor approach is a means for individuals and teams in the firm and externally to answer the question, “What is going on here?” when responding to uncertainty. The contribution of the paper focuses on firms, practitioners, and academics by closing knowledge and values gaps in fields of practice and academia. This has potential “to make a difference” in; researching, learning, thinking, and believing about desirable actions and responses to problems and harms, and to demands for Net Zero and CSR oriented change in financial firms and wider systems.

Sustainability (Is Not) in the Boardroom: Evidence and Implications of Attentional Voids

Strategic leadership and corporate governance scholars have long been interested in how boards of directors make decisions pertaining to important strategic issues that can have a material impact on their organizations. To date, however, research on board decision-making, especially as it relates to issues of corporate social responsibility (CSR), environmental management, or sustainability, has concentrated almost exclusively on structural, demographic, or ownership factors of boards and their impact on various aspects of corporate social or environmental performance. Even still, many reputable corporations with exemplary corporate governance structures continue to make questionable strategic decisions with regards to environmental sustainability. As such, this research seeks to look into the “black box” of corporate governance to understand exactly how boards of directors are dealing (or not) with issues related to environmental sustainability. To do so, we conducted a series of qualitative interviews with directors and were surprised to find that social and environmental sustainability was simply not debated in the boardroom. Using an attention-based view of the firms (ABV), we present a process-based model that explains this phenomenon and introduce the new construct of attentional voids so as to contribute to our understanding of governing for social and environmental sustainability.

CORRELATING THE CONCEPTS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) AND SUSTAINABILITY TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE PLASTIC WASTE MANAGEMENT IN LAGOS, NIGERIA

So far, many CSR studies have focused on developed countries, while little attention has been paid to CSR activities in developing countries. On the other hand, the increasing discussion on sustainable development in developing countries, especially in Nigeria, has made a significant difference and triggered a wide debate on the relationship between CSR and sustainable development. CSR is arguably a dynamic concept that promotes sustainable development irrespective of the motivations and approaches of business organizations. The CSR components implemented by companies should lead to high levels of moral sustainability. The productivity scope of manufacturers and producers in the Nigerian plastics and packaging industry has been limited to economic growth and profit maximization, neglecting product life cycle management. This negligence has resulted in the indiscriminate dumping of empty plastic waste on the streets, leading to environmental degradation. However, it is important to explore how the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable development can enable the reduction of plastic waste. The aim of this review paper is to link the concepts of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development to advance the management of plastic waste. The paper is important because it addresses the issues of corporate social responsibility, sustainable development and social well-being of the environment.

An Empirical Study on the Impact of Corporate Greenwashing Behaviours on Financial Performance

In the context of sustainable development, governments, consumers and other external institutions have become increasingly concerned about corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues. The behavior of companies attempting to improve their corporate image with social responsibility investment, but not actually implementing or exaggerating the effect is called greenwashing. Such behavior is extremely harmful to consumers, companies and the development of green markets. This paper explores the relationship between corporate greenwashing and financial performance. In this paper, the degree of corporate greenwashing is measured by the company's peer-relative greenwashing score. Based on this, we examined the negative relationship between corporate greenwashing behaviors and financial performance using a sample of 349 A-share listed companies in China from 2017 to 2020, and made suggestions to enterprises, government departments and regulators to reduce the occurrence of corporate greenwashing.

Социальная ответственность российских компаний в нефинансовых отчетах

Issues of social responsibility and partnership have long been the daily practice of companies both in Russia and abroad. Russian practice is presented in non-financial reports of companies that are included in the National Register of Corporate Non-Financial Reports of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. This article is the result of a meaningful and quantitative analysis of a number of published non-financial reports of companies. The content of social policy reflected in all reports includes the most significant aspects of the quality of life of personnel: ensuring safety, health, remuneration, development, social security of personnel. The differences between the companies are manifested both in the structure of the directions and in the completeness of the reflection of the requirements of the standards. There is an obvious lack of attention from most companies to such low-budget areas as mentoring, recognition system, moral encouragement, socio-psychological side of the production environment, working conditions, staff research. The reports are characterized by the absence of some of the criteria information from the point of view of the GRI management and the AA1000 standard, which lowers the level of their reliability. Employees of companies are not satisfied with the lack of information about all aspects of social partnership, weak empowerment, but note the presence of positive dynamics in compliance with the terms of collective agreements.

Ethical Guidance in Human Paleogenomics: New and Ongoing Perspectives.

Over the past two decades, the study of ancient genomes from Ancestral humans, or human paleogenomic research, has expanded rapidly in both scale and scope. Ethical discourse has subsequently emerged to address issues of social responsibility and scientific robusticity in conducting research. Here, we highlight and contextualize the primary sources of professional ethical guidance aimed at paleogenomic researchers. We describe the tension among existing guidelines, while addressing core issues such as consent, destructive research methods, and data access and management. Currently, there is a dissonance between guidelines that focus on scientific outcomes and those that hold scientists accountable to stakeholder communities,such as descendants. Thus, we provide additional tools to navigate the complexities of ancient DNA research while centering engagement with stakeholder communities in the scientific process.

Application of ISO 26000 in digital education during COVID-19

Digital education in schools through artificial intelligence, big data and other technologies is conducive to improving teaching efficiency and promoting teaching progress. Unfortunately, many schools lack a sense of social responsibility when applying digital education. Students are online more than ever before. There are the potential for increased exposure to risks such as exposure to harmful content, cyberbullying, age-inappropriate advertising and data misuse, which affect students’ well-being and undermine their right to privacy. Schools should bear the overall social moral level of social responsibility. This paper focuses on the social responsibility of schools under the new crown epidemic and holds that implanting social responsibility into the value system of the current digital education reform, which can promote the sustainable development of education. This is also a relatively neglected problem in the practice of educational reform. European standard: ISO26000 is adopted as a CEN-standard. 21 October 2020 the stakeholder consultation process in the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) decided that ISO 26000 is approved as a CEN-standard. For businesses and organizations committed to operating in a socially responsible way, there’s ISO 26000. It provides guidance to those who recognize that respect for society and environment is a critical success factor. This paper highlights the school how to take social responsibility by using ISO 26000. Based on the seven subjects of ISO 26000, this paper constructs the social responsibility of digital education frame, focuses on analyzing the main content and core issues of social responsibility of digital education, puts forward some improved strategies and suggestions for the more prominent problems at this stage through the examination and reflection of reality.

Issues of corporate social responsibility in the mining industry: The case of China

Socially responsible production and consumption have become a hot debate in recent years with the introduction of sustainable development goals. Regardless of sectors, each company needs to be more focused on integrating such responsible activities into their activities. This intention is supported by several stakeholders (including shareholders, media, customers, authorities, etc.), who bring the sensitive sectors (which are more prone to society) to be more focused than ever on such responsible activities. Due to this pressure, in recent years there may be more evidence to integrate corporate social responsibility (CSR) into such sensitive sectors, including mining. Mining sectors often come under pressure from criticism from various activists because of their operational nature. Several studies attempted to integrate the elements of CSR into the mining sector through different perspectives. In a row, this study focused on issues of CSR in the mining sector with evidence of the Chinese case context. DEMATEL has been used to analyze the relationship between the collected common CSR problems. The survey results revealed that '' Dangerous working conditions '' (C8) and '' Non-disclosure of confidential information '' (C11) are the main most influential issues with CSR, which need to be addressed first and foremost to achieve effective CSR integration in the Chinese mining sector. As a groundbreaking work, this study focused exclusively on the human dimensions of CSR, which could help industrial leaders with more focus on human-related responsible practices in their mining sectors.

Harvest Home. On the Social Responsibility Consciousness and Motivations of Family Business Wineries

Our research seeks to answer the question of what motivates a family business to fulfil ethical expectations of CSR. The stakeholder theory, the theory of socio-emotional wealth, and the theoretical framework of responsible ownership are relied upon to interpret the findings. The study covers two dimensions of CSR: the issues of social and environmental responsibility. The main contribution of the paper is that it provides an insight into the motivations behind different participant behaviours and the background of their decisions.

Critical analysis of corporate social responsibility projects developed by Brazilian companies: Providing new insights for debates

The purpose of this study is to carry out a critical analysis on Corporate Social Responsibility projects developed by Brazilian companies considering the perceptions of experienced professionals. Brazil is an emerging economy and this study can contribute to improving projects of Corporate Social Responsibility developed by companies in emerging countries. Using this information, a SWOT matrix was structured. The research strategies used were bibliographic research (to establish the theoretical foundation) and semi-structured interviews with 18 experienced professionals on Corporate Social Responsibility projects. Data analysis was performed using a content analysis approach and the findings were used to structure the SWOT matrix. Despite some “Strengths” practices mentioned by professionals, many “Weaknesses” were highlighted regarding Corporate Social Responsibility projects developed by Brazilian companies and they may be improved to obtain better results. Interesting “Opportunities” were mentioned, for example, new business possibilities when companies are recognized as socially responsible. Return of branding and marketing due to sustainable positioning of companies are other possible opportunities to be explored. Finally, related to “Threats”, professionals mentioned aspects that may lead to devaluation of Corporate Social Responsibility practices in the Brazilian context, such as prejudices and political polarization. Despite the exploratory nature of the study, the information presented here can greatly contribute to the expansion of debates on Corporate Social Responsibility practices developed by Brazilian companies. It may be used to address public policies and motivate future studies aligned with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Researchers can use the findings presented here as a starting point to develop studies on Corporate Social Responsibility issues. • A SWOT matrix was used to analyze CSR projects in Brazil. • CSR projects developed by Brazilian companies present several weaknesses. • Brazilians predisposition to volunteer may benefit CSR projects.

Total quality management and corporate social responsibility: a systematic review of the literature and implications of the COVID-19 pandemics

The issue of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received increasing attention from the literature in recent years. Systematic management of related objectives has become a priority for many companies. This trend has meant that research on CSR intersects with research on quality management. Several studies have analysed the implications of CSR for TQM and vice versa, to form a large and articulated body of knowledge. This body of knowledge, however, is still poorly organised. There are not many studies that systematically analyse it, trace its profile or lines of future development. To fill this gap, in this article, we present the results of a systematic review of the literature at the intersection of the themes of CSR and TQM. To take into account the impact of the COVID pandemic on this research area, a critical review was conducted on the papers published in recent years. The result of the analysis carried out is the identification of the main themes dealt with in the existing literature together with directions for future research.

NON-FINANCIAL REPORTING OF CHEMICAL COMPANIES IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

This paper focuses on the issue of non-financial corporate reporting by the Czech chemical companies. Based on the content analysis of the websites and disclosures, it analyses, compares and evaluates the level of web communication of the economic, environmental and social issues of corporate social responsibility of these companies. At first, it presents results of the research comparing the extent of non-financial web communication of selected Czech chemical companies with the Czech leaders in the Czech TOP 100 rankings. These results are then complemented by results of the quantitative research on environmental instruments used by all Czech chemical production companies, that use websites for communication of their activities. The number of companies in the Czech Republic processing non-financial reports is significantly lower than abroad, but it is still growing. Large enterprises pay more attention to non-financial reporting. Rather than including this information in a disclosure, a business website is used as a tool for this communication. The paper brings sectoral perspective into non-financial reporting literature, as attention is paid to the chemical production sector and also complements the knowledge of communication of companies that do not belong to the group of 100 most important companies within the country.

Analysis of the use of PR-technologies by domestic pharmaceutical enterprises in the implementation of socially oriented marketing in the conditions of the global COVID-19 pandemic

Today, leading foreign and domestic pharmaceutical companies are aware of the importance of using socially oriented tools of marketing communication to achieve economic stability, strengthen competitive positions and form a positive image at the pharmaceutical market. Aim. To study PR-technologies used by domestic pharmaceutical companies as part of the implementation of the concept of socially oriented marketing in the global COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods. The methods of logical and meaningful problem formation, desk marketing research, the content analysis of publications in scientific and practice-oriented medical and pharmaceutical literature were used in the work. Results and discussion. The issues of social responsibility of pharmaceutical industry enterprises as a key factor in the successful development of companies under the conditions of coronavirus infection have been highlighted. The specificityhas been considered, and the features of modern PR-tools of pharmaceutical companies have been determined. The Internet resources play an important role among them. The content analysis of the web-sites of the TOP-5 major manufacturers of drugs at the pharmaceutical market of Ukraine has been conducted; the social responsibility areas and the main PR-technologies have been analyzed. Conclusions. It has been found that the leading domestic pharmaceutical companies take an active public position and constantly implement various social programs aimed at supporting the society welfare, especially in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The information content of the sites of the enterprises under study fully reflects the activities of companies in the field of public relations on the principles of openness, relevance, reliability and social responsibility. Considerable attention is paid to the quality, safety and availability of pharmaceutical products and the provision ofappropriate assistance to healthcare institutions in the fight against COVID-19.

Religious Beliefs of World Boxing Champions as a Factor of Influence on Ukrainian Society in the Context of Social Responsibility

The issue regarding the influence of mass media on the public consciousness is one of the priorities in the times of the digitalization of the information space. Great sports such as professional boxing are world-famous and have a wide resonance in the media. As a result, scientists are paying attention to the study of factors of influence that arise during the information coverage of sporting events. Religious beliefs are a conditional plane of differentiation of different worldview systems, but in the 21st century, they are harmoniously integrated into the colors of different cultures, nationalities, and states. Celebrities’ religious beliefs can be influential factors that have certain results and consequences for society. This article considers the issue of social responsibility of world boxing champions for the public demonstration of their own religious beliefs as the example of the Ukrainian experience. The latter is relevant for the international community in the context of the rapid movement of Ukraine towards European integration and accession to NATO. The stated issues are considered in the example of media activity of Ukrainian world boxing champions, O. Usyk and V. Lomachenko. The problem is exacerbated against the background of the current Russian-Ukrainian hybrid war, where the plane of the religious worldview is actively used as a destructive factor of informational influence. In this context, this paper presents the data of the study of the coefficient of possibilities of informational influence of the Russian Federation on neighboring countries. The most resonant examples of media activity of Ukrainian world boxing champions on the topic of covering their own religious beliefs are demonstrated. Indicators of media potential of the influence of athletes' religious worldviews on society are analyzed.

Are investments in material corporate social responsibility issues a key driver of financial performance?

AbstractIn this study, we address a lesser‐studied aspect of corporate social responsibility (CSR): distinguishing between investments in material versus immaterial CSR issues. The financial performance of stock portfolios formed according to material and general CSR issues is examined over the period 2007 to 2018 in the European Union and the United States. We find that materiality is relevant to finding the best and worst firms both in terms of CSR and financial performance, more significantly in the EU than in the US market. However, general CSR scores, including material and immaterial issues, do not discriminate the best firms.

THE PERCEPTION OF POLISH AGRICULTURE BY FOOD CONSUMERS

The aim of the study was to determine the factors determining the perception of Polish agriculture by food consumers. With intensive changes in the methods of agricultural production, the progressive digitalization of agriculture, more and more frequent discussion of the issue of social responsibility of agriculture (in the context of caring about the condition of the natural environment or ensuring the welfare of farm animals), streams of much, often contradictory, information appearing in the media make some consumers unable to express their opinions on the condition of Polish agriculture unequivocally. The research has shown that factors such as trust, the state of knowledge or feeling of being properly informed about the course of agricultural production have a clear influence on the formation of a consumer’s positive or negative attitude towards Polish agriculture, as well as on the assessment of its modernity. The key in shaping respondent opinions turned out to be the possession of information and the inclination to obtain it.

The integration of sustainability in corporate governance systems: an innovative framework applied to the European systematically important banks

The growing interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues is the result of a cultural path that sees banks react to market changes and become protagonists of an increasingly sustainable future. Based on these considerations, this paper intends to investigate the level of integration of sustainability issues in banks’ corporate governance systems. We carry out an exploratory analysis on all European systematically important banks during the period 2015–2019. By adopting the content analysis approach, we develop a novel governance score based on a research model made up of 40 items. We name the score: “Bank’s governance ESG (Environmental Social Governance) integrated index”. The main results of our study reveal not only growing awareness of banks to integrate sustainability in their corporate governance, but also a strong heterogeneity in their corporate behaviours and large rooms for improvement. Indeed, we find that just over half of the surveyed banks pay really attention to the integration of sustainability issues in their business and governance processes. This contribution is especially driven by the banks’ boards of directors, whose size and composition contribute positively to overall sustainable performance. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study that investigates the level of integration of ESG factors in the banking sector, developing a quantitative score ranging from 0 to 100%. This study differs from previous studies in that it develops an “Bank’s governance ESG integrated index”, which considers the areas of corporate governance that have the greatest impact on the implementation of sustainable practices in banks. Our research is limited to investigating the level of integration of ESG factors for listed banks over a 5-year period. In fact, our time horizon is represented by the four-year period 2015–2019. This research has practical implications. First, investors more attentive on sustainability issues could identify and select the banks that best implement ESG criteria in their corporate governance systems. Second, our research model could be adopted by banks as a “diagnostic tool” to carry out a self-assessment process and identify possible room for improvement.

Methodology for researching corporate disclosure of business social responsibility: Information base and stages of implementation

This article continues a series of publications on the issues of accounting, analysis and assessment of the corporate social responsibility in a rapidly changing environment when society and business face new challenges. The authors provide methodological solutions to the problem of studying the social responsibility of Russian public companies based on the analysis of data disclosed in their financial and non-financial statements. The research uses abduction methods; logical analysis; logical content analysis of financial and non-financial reporting standards in terms of requirements for disclosure of social aspects; expert analysis of social reporting of Russian companies; linguistic analysis in order to identify the practice of using certain terms and concepts in the financial and non-financial reporting. The analysis of corporate reporting standards made it possible to propose a new model for analyzing disclosures in the field of corporate social responsibility. The authors reveal the most important issues of the corporate social responsibility by assessing the trends in the social sphere, identifying opportunities and threats for its further development connected with the evolution of society, economy and ecology, ongoing digitalization processes. Procedures of researching business social responsibility are developed and fully described. The documentary base of the research includes International Financial Reporting Standards, Sustainable Development Reporting Standards, Basic Performance Indicators of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) as well as financial and non-financial reports of Russian companies operating in production industries. The results of the research are the proposals to apply the multi-stage approach, which makes it possible to assess the social responsibility of certain economic entities through the prism of global tasks the country and the world community face with. The analysis of the complex problems of business and civilization allows us to identify five top problems in the light of which the social responsibility of large companies should be assessed, as well as to build a logical connection between these top problems and the key topics of disclosures in corporate reports.

Effect of Social Responsibility Components on Crisis Prevention: A Case Study of Crisis Management Organization

INTRODUCTION: This study was investigated to represent and measure the impact of social responsibility components on crisis prevention in a conceptual model. Therefore, according to the research model, this study proposed 17 hypotheses about the existence of social responsibility among the employees of organizations involved in helping the victims of natural and man-made disasters, which would lead to crisis prevention. METHODS: This applied research was performed based on the descriptive-survey research method with a correlational approach using field study to collect data. The statistical population of this study consisted of 250 managers and experts of the Crisis Management Organization and the general departments of crisis management of the provinces (subdivisions of the Provincial Governments). The samples were selected using the relative stratified random sampling method, and the final sample size was determined at 150 individuals using Cochran's formula. To collect information, a 17-item researcher-made questionnaire was employed consisting of three main components (i.e., macro environment, organizational factors, and individual factors) and items for each of these three components. The responses were rated on a 5-point Likert scale (from 1=very low to 5=very high). Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to check the normality of the distribution of variables. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 26 and the t-test and confirmatory factor analysis modeling was used in AMOS24 software FINDINGS: The results showed that the significance levels obtained for all factors, except technological and geographical factors, were less than 0.05; therefore, all these factors were different from the average of the community. On the other hand, since the mean differences were positive in all factors, all components of social responsibility, except technological and geographical factors, had an impact on crisis prevention. CONCLUSION: It can be said that the special attention of managers, authorities, and employees to the vital issue of social responsibility, especially in their daily activities, not only would help improve intra-organizational communication and increase employee motivation but also would lead to preventing crises.

Društvena odgovornost u osiguranju kao važan princip savremenog poslovanja

Društvena odgovornost je vrhunski princip u savremenom poslovanju. Preduzeća koja su uspešna u globalnim razmerama jesu i društveno odgovorna preduzeća. Društvena odgovornost preduzeća u osiguranju predstavlja jedan od stubova poslovne izvrsnosti. Pitanje društvene odgovornosti se definiše na globalnom nivou. Inicijative iz domena društvene odgovornosti preduzeća se primenjuju i u domaćim osiguravajućim društvima, ali ne u obimu i na način kako se primenjuju u razvijenim zemljama sveta. Primena društvene odgovornosti u domaćim osiguravajućim društvima je bitno zbog činjenice da globalno tržište zahteva stalno unapređenje kvaliteta i produktivnosti, unapređenje zadovoljstva korisnika i zadovoljenje zahteva svih interesnih grupa u okruženju. Princip društvene odgovornosti je utkan u same temelje delatnosti osiguranja, jer je ono zasnovano na srodnim principima uzajamnosti. Tržište osiguranja značajno utiče na razvoj ekonomije svake zemlje i važan je činilac stabilnosti finansijskog sektora. Rastuća složenost uslova poslovanja ubrzava povećanje brojnih interaktivnih veza i odnosa osiguravajućih društava i okruženja, menjajući uslove na tržištu što otežava njihovo ponašanje i funkcionisanje.