Much of the theoretical and practical approaches to corporate social responsibility strive to ‘discover’ the objective basis of corporate social responsibility, and find the means to ‘unlock’ cohesive business-society relations. This tends to result in integrated economic-social- environmental or principles-policies-practices models. Despite this, several long-standing issues remain. This paper illuminates alternative understandings of corporate social responsibility, revealed by corporate and stakeholder discourses.

Many commentators have pointed out obstacles to establishing a causal link between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and financial performance. Good Management Theory suggests CSR is necessary to maximizing financials, while other perspectives maintain that, realistically, less ethical means are necessary. In response, I propose OTRR, which holds that, while CSR contributes to financials when managed adaptively and intelligently, unfortunately, corporate social irresponsibility produces equally strong financials when it is managed adaptively and intelligently. OTRR implies greater personal responsibility for the executive, and suggests new research directions.

This study builds on a previous study of corporate philanthropy in the United States. That study found that, after controlling for firm size, corporate philanthropy in Fortune 1000 firms is positively related to slack resources and a firm's differentiation strategy and negatively related to the number of large-block owners.The authors concluded that the total amount a finn donates in a year depends mostly on the level of discretionary resources and managerial discretion in decision making (i.e., absence of intrusive large owners) at the time. They found that the total amount charities actually receive from a firm in a year depends mostly on the firm's discretionary resources and the degree of differentiation the firm is trying to achieve. Using a sample of firms donating to September 11 charities, this study finds little effect on firm giving from slack resources or number of large-block owners, but a strong positive relationship between giving to September 11 charities and differentiation. The current findings suggest that managers may believe that corporate philanthropy contributes to a differentiation advantage.

In the field of business and society, several complementary frameworks appear to be in competition for supremacy. Although debatable, the prime contenders appear to include: (1) corporate social responsibility; (2) business ethics; (3) stakeholder management; (4) sustainability; and (5) corporate citizenship. Despite the prevalence of the five frameworks, difficulties remain in understanding what each construct really means, or should mean, and how each might relate to the other. To address the confusion, we propose three core concepts (i.e., value, balance, and accountability) that might be used to better integrate the five frameworks and potentially provide the basis for further theoretical development of the business and society field.

This is an examination of business social responsibility as it is constituted and enacted in New Zealand. We report on a case study of Hubbard Foods Limited. Rhetorical analysis is used to analyze business texts related to the company, which is owned and managed by one of New Zealand’s key exponents of business social responsibility. The paper proposes a ‘definition’ of business social responsibility in New Zealand whereby it is characterized as a process of negotiation.

With increasing demands from society as well as other stakeholders, the board of directors is pressured to take on the strategic role in addition to the traditional monitoring and control roles. Introducing role theory to corporate governance, we argue that performance of both strategic and control roles lead to polarized dissensus and role conflict due to the incompatible nature of expectations involved. Inter role conflict is increased with greater commitment to these multiple roles. Role conflict leads to role strain, strategic inflexibility, subjectivity, strategic myopia, escalation of commitment, sunk “reputational” costs, and high exit barriers and ultimately results in ineffectual board functioning.

Debates centered on the merits of privatizing public services neglect a less visible and less well-understood privatization effort, that of the privatization of public policy implementation. This paper examines two types of public/private partnerships for environmental policy implementation: problem conversion and power sharing. Collaborations for problem conversion are examined in the context of state sponsored brownfields programs to remediate hazardous waste sites. Collaborations for power sharing are examined in the context of state supported environmental management system implementation. Implications for public values such as equity and public participation are considered.

Understanding and managing natural environments is a problem of biocomplexity that requires examining interactions between human and natural systems. This paper proposes a methodology for capturing the tacit knowledge and mental models of ecosystem experts to examine how they frame biocomplexity and perceive the relationship between humans and the natural environment in system-specific terms. This approach examines how managers’ values and knowledge relate to their knowledgesharing, collaborative ties, decision-making and actions that potentially effect environmental change. The results are expected to clarify how managers use scientific knowledge and circulate it among managers and across agencies, and show how knowledge relates to cooperative behavior across agencies.

A recent economic literature on corporate social responsibility treats CSR as purely a strategic variable: one dimension in an integrated strategic management directed strictly at wealth creation. That perspective arguably has some moral foundations in market utilitarianism and investors’ property rights, but since focused on strategy the economic literature barely touches on these foundations. Commitment to ethical conduct, beyond what is obliged by ill-defined law, is a philosophical choice by individuals about what matters. An axiomatic position of wealth maximization tends to obviate or erode moral judgment on specific issues and thus to undermine citizenship behaviors and ultimately social responsibility even though increasing economic wealth and consumption.

This paper explores a business model based on the concepts of sustainability and ecological economics as an alternative to the neoclassical economic model. It presents a case study of a manufacturing company that is committed to social, environmental and economic sustainability. The issues and challenges of moving to a sustainability-centered model are discussed and directions for future research are identified.

We analyzed two independent databases to predict the circumstances under which large, leading-edge corporations in industry sectors will commit to and/or implement proactive corporate environmental policies and when it is unlikely they will do so. We found that commitment to specific environmental policies does not vary greatly between industry sectors, however policy implementation does.

This paper explores the impact of innovative discourse on corporate actions and initiatives. Such initiatives as Shell’s application of the “triple-bottom-line”, the creation of the Valdez principles, and new initiatives taken by boards of directors to better monitor top-management teams will be examined for evidence of organizational change versus lip service to the management issue du jour. Livesey (2002) has argued that even hypocritical corporate positions can be useful to initiate change in corporations. This assertion will be examined against the backdrop critical issues in the media. The proposition that a new discourse can be created within an established corporate culture will be examined in three cases to produce evidence to support or reject that what might have begun as lip-service to vocal stakeholders creates internal organizational dissonance (Bacharach, Bamberger & Sonnenstuhl, 1996) and further builds external stakeholder expectation that forces a degree of organizational change.

The adverse effects of MNE's global strategy on a local community are discussed utilizing recent developments of a Finnish electronics manufacturing service firm as an illustrative case. The shortcomings of one of the most recognized global strategy frameworks, the integration-responsiveness framework from an ethical viewpoint are discussed, and an extended view of responsiveness in the global strategy context offered.

This paper explores the relationship between gift giving, guanxi and corruption through a study of the relationships between 49 UK manufacturing companies in China and their local component suppliers. The results suggest that gift giving is perceived to be a significant problem in UK owned companies in China. However the relationship between these payments and established understanding of gift giving within guanxi networks appears to be weak. Gift giving is associated with illicit payments and the pursuit of self-interest.

This discussion proposal examined the constitutional status—the rights, privileges, and duties—of the business corporation. In U S. corporation law, as settled by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 19th century, the business firm is fictionally an artificial person but not a corporate citizen much less a natural citizen. The constitutional status of the for-profit corporation has become again a topic of inquiry recently as a result of certain developments. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002 has now been reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court concerning political free speech issues. Nike agreed to a settlement concerning commercial free speech issues—leaving federal law not judicially finalized in this area. The federal government is attempting to regulate telemarketing over judicial objections. Spam is a large and growing proportion of email transmissions. A federal court lawsuit filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act alleges Unocal liability with respect to its role as minority investor in a pipeline built by a joint venture between the Myanmar (or Burma) government (a repressive military regime) and a French company Total.

In order to effectively manage corporate reputations we need a better understanding of how they form and are likely to change over time - the topic of this paper. The paper makes use of the social network paradigm to begin to understand the significance of word of mouth and related effects within stakeholder networks. The paper is a work-in-progress linking social contagion and reputation.

In this article we present an analysis of the massive delegitimation process which led to the demise of Arthur Andersen, once a most respected model among the “Big Five” accounting firms. Using a conceptual model developed in a previous study, we review the various elements of the firm's downfall, and conclude with a new model of organizational “de-legitimation”.

We propose an exploratory study of how the ethic of care stakeholder model is and can be realized in a corporate environment by focusing corporate environmental responsibility. The ethic of care stakeholder model counters the traditional approach that relies on “managing” stakeholders in priority order, turning instead to a cooperative coexistence with stakeholders in a shared, ecologically sustainable community founded on an ethic of care.