This paper considers the relationship between corporations and global human rights. This relationship lies at the heart of the 2010 conference theme “Business and the Sustainable Commons.” A human or natural right is one that is inherent, and thus universal, in being human. It is typical to distinguish between civil and political rights as a category (thus supposing constitutional democracy in some form); and economic, social, and cultural rights (thus implying minimum conditions such as food, work, education, culture, and so forth). A right for one person implies a duty (not necessarily binding) for some other person or entity. The paper assesses the duty on corporations imposed by definition of global human rights. Such rights also involve considerations of enforcement and funding (or compensation).

This paper reports a preliminary sketch of a framework for integrating perspectives on economics, ethics, strategy, and stakeholders (Jones, 1995). It may notbe desirable in management practice to separate such considerations (Harris & Freeman, 2008). There are three general types of collective choice institutions: governments, markets, and voluntary associations. There are four general types of moral theory: moral rules (Kantianism), consequentialism (utilitarianism), virtuousness (bundling virtue theory, religion, and moral intuitionism), and social contract. There are three general positions concerning social responsibilities of individuals and corporations (i.e., a licensed group of individuals). One position asserts zero social responsibility beyond compliance with laws. The polar-opposite position asserts significant social responsibilities by moral obligation. An intermediate position asserts social responsibility by agent cost-benefit analysis. The framework seeks to map these types of institutions, moral theories, and social responsibility conceptions relative to one another. The purpose is to see whether insight can be obtained concerning certain key developing debates. The paper explores implications of the work of Ostrom and Williamson (winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences) for this framework. That work addresses choice institutions—to which moral theories and social responsibility theories can be added.

The paper explores how the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business ethics are perceived by business managers and business school professors/administrators in China, using interviews. The findings suggest that the perceptions of both concepts are tinged with cultural nuances. The study has implications for further developing business ethics research programs in the Chinese context and for crosscultural communications and management.

One third of all materials extracted from the Earth is used in the furniture industry. Of these, timber counts for 25%: the furniture industry is key to save one of the most important commons – our forest. Starting from the assumption that a better knowledge of consumers’ attitude and behaviour towards sustainable furniture is essential to spur the industry all along the chain to take action towards more sustainable operations, this study explores the actual offer of sustainable furniture in the Netherlands and consumers’ attitude towards it in order to determine opportunities for the furniture sector to take a more sustainable stance.

In this paper complexity theory and complex adaptive systems are examined as a conceptual and empirical framework for sustainability and the sustainable commons. In contrast to traditional reductionist approaches, complexity theory provides a view in which nested and intertwined social, environmental, economic and cultural systems are in continual flux and coevolutionary development, and where change is emergent, the result of ongoing multidirectional contact and feedback among networks of agents of many types. The implications of this ontology are that sustainability is defined more in terms of processes rather than performance measures or final goals, and inquiry focuses on the contexts, patterns, networks, and relational aspects and mechanisms of micro and macro sustainability processes. The paper presents an overview of complexity theory, situates and examines sustainability in a complexity ‘mindset’ (Richardson, 2008), and discusses three important research tools for a complexity analysis of sustainability—social construction, identity work, and social network analysis.

A largely ignored area of Business & Society scholarship is the role of political ideology in driving the norms and attitudes of business people and stakeholders toward corporate social responsibility (CSR). It seems intuitive that individuals with a more leftwing ideology would support regulation of, and responsibilities, for business (eg a stakeholder view) and those of a more right-wing persuasion would support more economic freedom (eg a shareholder view), but these relationships are unclear. Little is understood about how ideology influences the dynamism and flux that characterises CSR theory and practice.

As Oil Sands operators face increasing criticism within the global environmental debate, companies are using a range of global, regional and industry-basedmeasurement frameworks as a means of accounting for environmental impacts and responding to stakeholder pressure. Through examination of an Oil Sands study group, this preliminary study considers the practical role of measurement frameworks in demonstrating sustainability accountability, and ultimately as sources of legitimacy. But responsiveness to stakeholders is not even across frameworks. Those most tied to the economic performance and investor audiences have momentum. While frameworks based on investor demand may have significant power in swaying compliance, their selfreported measures contain little oversight and do little to move disclosures out of the PR suite.

This study explored employee perceptions of participation in a corporate sponsored volunteer initiative. Drawing on both questionnaire and focus group data ourstudy re-affirms the importance of altruistic concerns as a key driver for employee involvement in corporate sponsored volunteering. Characteristics of the volunteering activity also emerged as important determinants of employee’s initial engagement and ongoing motivation for involvement in corporate sponsored volunteering. In the same way that models of work design point to the value of enriched jobs we see that there is scope to consider how corporate sponsored volunteer programmes can be enriched so that employees have satisfying experiences and are more likely to participate. Enhancing perceptions of task significance and meaningfulness and incorporating relational elements into the volunteer activity seem to be especially critical in this regard.

This paper is discusses the preliminary research ideas in our attempt to address the development of the resources that an organization needs towards its sustainability performance by investigating two important categories of variables: values and motivators. The paper discusses the preliminary literature review and inputs to the research idea as presented at IABS 2010.

This purely theoretical paper examines the relationship between the pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunity and environmental impact. Specifically, we attempt to more effectively define environmentally-relevant entrepreneurship through comparisons of different extant definitions in the literature, and to extend Schumpeterian theory through the inclusion of environmental entrepreneurship within his framework. By doing so, we contribute to the entrepreneurship literature through a more encompassing and specified definition of environmental entrepreneurship, and by incorporating environmental entrepreneurship into Schumpeter’s (1934) theoretical framework. We propose that (1) Waste-Equals-Food, (2) Public Goods, and (3) Externalities each demonstrate thatenvironmental entrepreneurship is the act of creating future goods and services with positive environmental consequences. Finally, we assert that Schumpeter would likely characterize the pursuit of any such opportunity as “opening up a new source of supply.”

This study sets out to evaluate the role and emerging salience of environmental managers in a longitudinal perspective through a series of interviews with UK based environmental managers. Our results suggest that coercive isomorphic pressures are particularly important in driving the increased salience of the environmental management role and that stakeholder pressures overall have increased since 2006 which has further contributed to the environmental management function emerging as central to the business organisation. Views on the impact of the financial crisis were divided.

Sustainability is an issue for the global food industry. The production of more protein as incomes rise, the use of food for energy, and government subsidization of the industry are challenges to both developed and less developed economies. This paper discusses the paradoxes of food and the challenges to its sustainability in the global economy.