This paper describes how business students in Norway conceptualize responsibility and select objects of responsibilities. The empirical results presented are based upon comparisons between answers by 126 business students from two different schools and 33 participants attending a senior citizen college. The preliminary findings indicate that there are interesting

This study used The Foundation 1000 reference book for 1997-1998 in order to examine corporate philanthropy. The purpose was to identify patterns of foundation giving that might generalize to overall corporate giving (i.e., corporate direct giving as well as giving via foundations). Whereas foundations seem to follow norms about the types of activities supported and the proportion of foundation dollars that should be allocated to certain activities, there was considerable variation across industries in foundation expenditures aimed at customers.

This paper presents the findings of a national survey of corporate philanthropy conducted in 1998-1999 in the United States. The findings indicate that U.S. corporations practice philanthropy across a continuum of orientations and practices that are overall strategic in nature. The corporate giving managers are becoming more professional as giving practice becomes more strategic.

After presenting a local architectural environment as a metaphor, the concept of agencies in and for society is developed in relation to design, business and church. A society which sees behind its own facades and listens to the voices of agencies within itself in which agencies think and live before one another, is one to be worked towards.

This paper examines the sources of variation among firms’ strategies of social responsiveness. It presents a categorization scheme of four social responses adapted from the literature and suggests how both strategic slack and corporate governance combine to differentiate firms’ social response strategies. The paper establishes a theoretical basis for arguing that market conditions provide the context for management decision-making and thereby constrain the band of strategic choices that management has available to it. Within market-prescribed limits, differentiable responses to social issues are attributed to the social orientation of the governance structure monitoring firm performance.

Using an empirical study, we examine board composition, institutional ownership, and criteria used in CEO performance evaluation in an attempt to fill the gap in corporate governance literature on the stewardship role of outside directors and the use of qualitative criteria in performance assessment. The role of the board in terms of stakeholder management and the stewardship principle is discussed.

The considerable work in corporate social performance has borrowed and lent ideas from the long-standing practice of social investing. A sample of notable theoretical and empirical work from the CSP literature is reviewed and the interplay with social investing concepts is reviewed. Among the proposals; it may be time for social ratings to follow the more integrated systems suggested in the many theories, and the potential value of including "advocacy" forms of investing in CSP assessments.

Based on transaction cost economics and the dynamic capability approach, this paper proposes a theoretical perspective on Green Strategic Networks. Green Strategic Networks involve several types of partners (suppliers, competitors, regulators, green associations, and research institutions) with the objective of developing environmental technologies. Finns seem still reluctant to engage in Green Strategic Networks fearing exposure of their strategic assets to third parties that may involve high transaction costs resulting from opportunistic and antagonistic behavior. This paper shows the advantages of such networks to develop sustainable and innovative organizations. It demonstrates how trust building could decrease transaction costs according to the type of resources and capabilities allocated to the network as well as the type of governance structure at stake.

Well-governed companies should generate not only stronger financial performance than poorly governed ones, but also better overall corporate social performance (CSP), as well as treatment of their primary stakeholders. Using Business Week's "best and worst" governed companies for 1996 and 1997 we find significant and positive associations between governance quality and overall CSP. In addition, we find significant and positive association for community relations for the year 1997, and employee relations and diversity management for both years. Strongly positive relationships are also found for financial measures including return on equity, return on assets, and return on sales. The market measure, ten-year total relative return to shareholders, is also strongly positively associated with quality of governance. Overall, not only do better-governed companies perform better with respect to several important stakeholders, but they also outperform less well governed companies financially and therefore can.be assumed to be "treating" their owners better as well.

Recent research into environmental protection has begun to hint at organisational slack as an initiator and facilitator of the implementation of environmental initiatives. However, theoretical arguments can be posed to suggest that slack may or may not stimulate environmental initiatives. This paper explores these theoretical arguments, and provides an empirical test of the relationships between organisational slack and various types of environmental initiative. The paper concludes that organisational slack facilitates clean technology, and environmental initiatives based at the site or local level. Organisational slack does not stimulate waste reduction efforts or other initiatives undertaken as part of a proactive corporate environmental strategy.

This paper focuses on ways of measuring corporate environmental performance by examining the various databases that have become available during the 1990s. These include the Toxics Release Inventory and databases maintained by Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini, & Co., the Council on Economic Priorities, and the Investor Responsibility Research Center. We describe these databases and identify a number of improvements in measuring environmental performance that are becoming available.

The Ok Tedi Mining Ltd mine in a remote region of Papua New Ginea has caused major social and environmental change in its area of operations. It is argued that this traditionally exploitative company was able to mine as they liked for a long period because of media framing of the issue was conventionally commercial and the locals powerless and passive stakeholders. This changed after locals increased their level of activism, mainstream environmental groups gathered and published information and media reframed the issues as an environmental disaster.

One method of voluntary environmental regulation is registration under the international standards known as the ISO 14000 system. What are the determinants of registration under these standards, now in existence for nearly three years? Theoretical perspectives focused on the level of governmental units, industry, and the facility itself offer options to explain the registration phenomenon. We develop hypotheses that are consistent with these perspectives, and test them with a sample of electronics firms. We then analyze our results and identify areas ripe for research by scholars based in strategy, environmental management, and social issues in management.

The article points to the kinship of the fields of corporate management and corporate sustainability through a presentation and discussion of some characteristics of superior organizations vs. sustainable organizations. The work is theoretical, using both primary and secondary literature, providing a basis for dissolving the clear cut distinctions and temper the contradictions between these fields. The comparison addresses the ideals and values underlying the various organizational ideals and the core elements of these. By focusing on the kindredness of corporate management and sustainability the ground can be set for a mutual agenda for change - beneficiary to both sides.

Consideration of the natural environment gives rise to uncertainties for firms. These uncertainties are related to the state of the firms surroundings (business environment), to the impact of this inside the firm, and to the nature of response options available to the firm. These uncertainties have implications both for strategic decisions in firms and for the design of public policy.

The author analyses the process which has led to implementation of the euro, the single European currency. He highlights the possibility of reversibility if the convergence conditions are not respected. The practical problems of the euro are highlighted together with the risk of the system imploding. The role of the euro, as an international currency, parallel to that of the dollar, is examined.

Recent growth in international bade has raised concerns about differing business practices which can impede commerce and economic development. The purpose of this study was to develop and test a model that integrates various socio-economic factors, including corruption, economics, culture and public bureaucracy. The analysis revealed several relationships among these variables. The implications of the results for predicting and enhancing the effectiveness of international anti-corruption agreements are discussed.

It’s been 25 years since Mintzberg published his classic study on the nature of managerial work. Since then, the globalization of business and workforce diversity have dramatically changed the conditions under which todays' managers operate. Although almost every textbook, monograph, article or research work calls out for more international minded and cross-culturally efficient managers, we still don’t know exactly what international managers really do. This paper calls for a replication of Mintzberg’s classic work in order to find out.

Dorfman and Howell’s (1988) reformulation of Hofstede’s (1980) masculinity/feminimty scale was used to contrast gender-role typing attitudes among Japanese, Chinese, and U.S. respondents. The data indicated a relatively higher degree of gender-role typing among the Chinese, less so for the Japanese, and the least among the U.S. sample. Notably, women were found to be less willing to accept work roles based on gender than were men in each country.

This paper presents a pragmatic framework for understanding the dynamics and moral dimensions of business in a global environment, showing the need for and nature of a true global community.