This paper explores the growing array of initiatives aimed at creating corporate accountability with the goal of attempting to uncover the foundation principles that underlie them and create a ‘floor’ below which practices are ethically questionable. Using the Global Compact’s nine principles and the work of Transparency International as guides, we find that foundational principles seem to exist in the areas of human rights, labor standards, environment, and anti-corruption initiatives.

In recent years, the multiple pressures on companies to behave more responsibly have resulted in the emergence of systems for managing their stakeholder and environmental responsibilities. This paper will explore how one company, Sainsbury's, has responded to the dilemmas posed by the competing pressures from the international social and competitive environments by developing explicit systems for managing its stakeholder responsibilities. We term such responses total responsibility management or TRM approaches, finding similarities with such approaches across numerous companies studied. Analogous in many respects to total quality management approaches, TRM approaches represent companies’ mostly voluntary initiatives to meet the criticisms they have received from activists, labor unions, social investors, and anti-corruption agitators.

Corporate governance and the relationships between the board of directors and top management have become mainstream topics since the collapse of Enron. Prior corporate governance research examines the affect of top management and the board on firm performance: however, we suggest that the research on corporate governance be expanded to include the role of the board audit committee, internal audit, and external audit. The primary theoretical base for our propositions is agency theory, which explains the divergence of interests that can occur between the manager/agent and owners/principal. Our basic proposition is that the more the interests of each group are aligned with those of the shareholders, the better the firm will perform. Furthermore, we propose a systems perspective is necessary to analyze the interdependence and interactions of these groups. Control mechanisms such as incentive alignment, monitoring, and transparency can be used to minimize agency costs and improve corporate governance effectiveness.

This paper reports evidence from a field study in Australia aimed at testing a theoretical model of corporate social responsiveness that describes organizations enacting stakeholder relationships through their social responsibility orientation and their public relations orientation. The study demonstrates how an organizational orientation to social responsibility contributes to performance by using public relations, it its broadest sense, to reduce conflict with stakeholders.

This paper explores the Kinder, Lyndenberg & Domini Company Profiles database to detect underlying dimensionality and taxonomy. A factor analysis finds 3 key social performance dimensions and a cluster analysis detects 3 distinct CSP orientations that firms adopt.

This paper analyzes the choice of the form of organization within which UK companies manage their charitable donations. An econometric model of the choice of organizational form is estimated which emphasizes the role of stakeholder pressure, Firm characteristics and industry conditions. Stakeholder pressure is found to significantly affect the choice of location of control of charitable giving within the firm.

Mental models shape and frame our expectations of the role of management organizations within society. Mental models provide abstractions of reality and justifications for behaviors. This paper links mental models and various definitions of corporate social responsibility (CSR), ultimately suggesting the need for an agreed upon mental model before CSR may be fully defined and for modifications of CSR teaching.

Williams (1985) stated that directors cannot determine when CEOs will be opportunistic and that it is prudent to exercise strong control over that threat. Stewardship theory serves as an alternative to agency theory based schemes of corporate governance and proposes that not all managers not act opportunistically and that empowerment may instead be appropriate. Stewardship theory proposes that some mangers may possess intrinsic motivations that make him/her community-service rather than selfinterested oriented and that psychological and situational variables account for the exhibiting of stewardship behaviors by a company’s CEO. In a matched-pair study of 102 CEOs and directors we found that three of eight independent variables were statistically significant predictors of stewardship.

This paper suggests a new way to address Corporate Social Performance's theory-building issues, based on organizational learning theories. After a review of the limits of CSP models and an analysis of CSP from a dynamic perspective, a model of “Corporate Social Learning” is proposed. This model is finally evaluated in terms of its potential contribution to Business and Society research.

The debate over corporate social responsibility and social involvement has raged for over 30 years. This paper argues that corporate social responsibility and the ensuing Corporate Citizenship activities of the firm add value to shareholders by providing “insurance-like" protection to the firm’s idiosyncratic base.

This paper considers the conditions under which strategic forms of corporate social strategy will have a positive impact on firm performance, using the tools of game theory. We develop models of CSR investment using prisoner’s dilemma, ad hoc, Bertrand, and Cournot models of competition. We find that profitability may be possible in Cournot-type markets.

Multiple regression models were used to identify the predictors of pledged donations to September 11 charities as well as the predictors of “regular” annual corporate philanthropy (CP) in the prior year for the same firms. The best predictors of September 11 pledges were firm size and slack resources (cash flow), size and slack being closely associated with “regular” CP according to the conventional wisdom. One type of “regular” CP—cash donated either to corporate-sponsored foundations or directly to charities—could not be successfully predicted for the prior year; i.e., the conventional wisdom did not work. The best predictors of another type of “regular” CP—the donations that charities actually receive in the form of direct cash, cash passed through corporate-sponsored foundations, and in-kind donations—for the prior year were slack resources and, somewhat unexpectedly, product differentiation and previous profitability (ROA lagged one year).

The goal of our paper is to explore whether it is possible to develop an investment policy on the basis of Jewish legal and ethical principles. After discussing the Jewish approach to ethics and investing, the paper will explore whether a Jew has any legal or ethical obligations with respect to his or her corporate investments and, if so, which Jewish principles should guide investing activity. Finally, the paper will discuss the challenges that may arise in the efforts to establish a Jewish ethical investment model.

This paper proposes a framework for analysing corporate philanthropy along the dimensions of business/ society interest and internal/ external stakeholder focus. The utility of the framework is then tested in order to understand business involvement with the Arts in the UKThe framework identifies three broad types of involvement - advertisers, legitimises and stakeholder management - the last group with the potential to be regarded as corporate citizens.

The aim of this research is to investigate consumer perceptions of environmental labeling on fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) across EU countries. The four countries that were selected in order to begin this research are UK, France, Greece and Sweden. Findings suggest that there is a lot of suspicion and confusion amongst consumers about the different kind of labeling schemes manufacturers use. However consumers welcome environmental declarations and information by companies only if that information is backed up by concrete actions and therefore is verifiable.

This paper utilizes examples of ecotourism to stimulate research and discussion on the need for regulation in corporate environmental change. Management literature on corporate environmental change is examined and the limitations of voluntary change are highlighted using the example of ecotourism. It is argued in this paper that voluntary environmental change is not necessarily the most effective alternative and that the lack of regulation in the ecotourism industry has lead to the misuse of the term.

Differences in assumptions concerning what voluntary initiatives are and what they do influence the evaluation of their potential role as instruments of public policy and corporate strategy. Three distinct models - self regulation, private regulation, and civil regulation - have emerged in the literature on voluntary environmental initiatives. In practice, voluntary environmental initiatives exhibit characteristics of all three of these perspectives. Recognizing the contributions from each model may lead to the design of voluntary environmental initiatives that are significantly more effective than existing policy tools.

This paper begins with a brief summary of the different approaches that have previously been taken in recycling research. It goes on to suggest a re-framing of the problem of how to increase public participation in recycling schemes aimed at household waste. A description of a study aimed at unpacking the domestic nature of recycling follows. The paper concludes with a presentation of preliminary results and a discussion of the further analysis and research questions suggested by these results.