CSR NEWS | csr-literature.net - the online bibliography in business ethics http://csr-news.net/literature/ (c) Wietse Balkema, Arthur van Bunningen, Hendri Hondorp, Dennis Reidsma The article reviews the book "The World Guide to CSR: A Country-by-Country Analysis of Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility," edited by Wayne Visser and Nick Tolhurst. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14643 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST An essay is presented related to the academic papers showcased at a conference on Collaborating for Sustainability: Learning from Failure and Success, which was held at Seattle University in Seattle, Washington in 2009. It says that the conference focused on collaboration and addressed ways to close the gap between demand and supply. Furthermore, the author relates his experience in the conference and discusses four papers that illustrate cross-sector collaboration. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14642 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Concerns of intellectual property infringement in China slow the dissemination of clean technology (Cleantech) innovation that could help bring the pace of global warming under control. We use the U.S. post-World War 2 policy decisions with respect to Japan and Europe (the Marshall Plan) to show how this problem can be addressed. To help Japan become a western style democracy and stem the tide of communism, the U.S. transferred much of its extant intellectual property to Japan with a promise to open US markets to Japanese goods. The United States did not require Japan to open its markets to U.S. goods. As a result, Japan became a staunch U.S. political ally in Asia, but also a serious economic competitor to the United States. While the Marshall Plan deployed different resources, the political outcomes were similar to Japan: Western Europe was a bulwark against communism. As global warming has become a major strategic issue, we argue that a comparable IPR initiative is required for China. This is not just a matter of doing the right thing as members of global commons, but is also matter of national security. We propose that by facilitating and managing the flow and sharing of U.S., EU, and Japanese Cleantech intellectual property with China-through a Cleantech Marshall Plan-a positive strategic relationship may be built while helping to bring global warming under control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Business & Society Review (00453609) is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14641 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Much of rural America has unique qualities that, when guided by the Eco-Municipality model, can strengthen local community and assist in the movement toward sustainability. The Eco-Municipality model, originating in Sweden and guided by ecological and social justice values and The Natural Step, is sweeping across the United States and has been adopted by many communities, ranging in size from 300 to 80,000. These communities have better positioned themselves for long-term, economic, social and environmental well-being by, for example, retaining sense of place, capitalizing on existing assets, diversifying the local economy, minimizing economic leaks-in part by nurturing local entrepreneurs-making improvements to the local inventory of housing and access to health care, and most importantly, establishing a consistent systems approach to community development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Business & Society Review (00453609) is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14640 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Environmental ethics research pays much attention to the rights of individuals, future generations, and nonhuman stakeholders to have a clean environment. Moral condemnation is directed at polluters for violation of stakeholder rights. However, little consideration is given in the research literature to those who are harmed by well-intended progressive environmental legislation. This article addresses the moral entitlements of small, remote resource-based communities not to be harmed by environmental legislation that results in the elimination of the major employer that economically sustains them. It is argued that these communities are morally entitled to the best attempt by a government to mitigate the harm or compensate for it. The article shows how a government can go beyond compensation to form collaborative public-private partnerships to promote strategically viable future directions for communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Business & Society Review (00453609) is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14639 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST An estimated 1.5 million people (mostly children) died in 2007 from waterborne illness. While this number is unacceptably high, it represents a 16 percent improvement over the previous three years. This paper discusses the challenges and solutions to delivering clean water in the developing world. It then discusses safe water projects for a children's dormitory in Mae Nam Khun, Thailand, and for a community in Chirundu, Zambia. Both projects were designed and implemented by the Seattle University student chapter of Engineers Without Borders (SU-EWB). These projects had technical challenges that are relatively easy to resolve in the developed world, but were particularly challenging in their contexts. This paper examines how these challenges were met through collaboration with several organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control in the United States and small businesses within the host countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Business & Society Review (00453609) is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14638 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST A major deficiency of traditional strategy-making is that most minds within the organisation are not brought into the process. As corporate citizenship becomes imperative, a variety of internal and external stakeholders will seek more involvement in deliberations on business strategy and policy. In this respect, this paper provides a corporate citizenship framework for understanding and designing processes for generating and implementing strategic change. Several generic principles of strategy formation that draws on corporate citizenship are defined: inclusiveness, ethic of reciprocity, psychological safety, ideation and simple rules. These dimensions are illustrated by way of two approaches that have been extensively tested in a variety of organisations: appreciative inquiry and circular organising. We summarise and compare these approaches. As such, a key design parameter appears to be whether the main interest is in 'conversations that matter' or 'decisions that matter'. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14637 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST This study was undertaken to observe factors affecting the process and impact of employee volunteer activities in three business enterprises in Thailand, using a Buddhist economic framework. Buddhist economics differs significantly from mainstream (neoclassical) economics in its ontological underpinning. This means that assumptions about human nature are different: the core values of mainstream economics are self-interest and competition in the pursuit of maximum welfare or utility, while in Buddhist economics, 'self ' includes oneself, society and nature, which are all simultaneously interconnected. The core values are compassion and cooperation through which well-being is achieved leading to higher wisdom (pañña). Employee volunteer programmes (EVPs) are regarded as one example of corporate citizenship activities. This paper explores the consequences of introducing EVPs using a Buddhist economic framework in three different companies in Thailand. When a Buddhist economic approach is adopted by EVPs, the programme can be embedded into business practices including human resource development and the organisational development process, which may lead to the cultivation of pañña. This may be of value to organisations in the West. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14636 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST The paper examines in detail the role played by Connect Ethiopia (CE), an Irish social entrepreneurship group, in building collaborative innovation across multi-stakeholders, including the Ethiopian Government at the highest levels and its officials, EU and Ethiopian Customs, Ethiopian exporters and EU importers and Trade Facilitate Ltd (TF), a European-base private company. Finally the paper reports on the extraordinary benefits accruing to the Ethiopian Government, its customs agency and its traders and to TF itself as significant efficiency and other positive outcomes flow from this initiative. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14635 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST The author reflects on the importance of stakeholder engagement towards effective corporate citizenship and shaping its sustainable future. He argues on the public and private partnerships which call for stakeholder analysis, mutual stakeholder action and broader stakeholder engagement. An overview of the generative theory of stakeholders is offered. The author notes that the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) succeeded in globalising businesses to play a positive role in the society. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14634 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Organisational decisions are often constrained and influenced by past organisational or industry practice, government regulation, perceived stakeholder expectation, or economic necessity, among other idiosyncratic considerations. Yet almost all organisational decisions include some degree of managerial discretion. Why do some organisational decision-makers choose behaviours that are generally described as socially responsible, while others choose behaviours perceived by many as socially irresponsible? This paper examines how organisational executives interpret and understand underlying economic and non-economic forces on their decision-making through the lens of sense-making and stakeholder management. An empirical case is offered as an illustrative example of inept organisational decision-making. This paper concludes that understanding how social, moral, political and emotional forces transform into economic forces is a sense-making translation that encourages corporate decision-makers to make decisions usually understood as socially responsible. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14633 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST An essay is presented on the possibility of failure by the UN Global Compact (UNGC). It sites the objectives of UNGC such as being a mainstream in the business activities around the world and catalysis actions in support of broader UN goals. The author states that UNGC has become the largest and responsible business and finance initiatives with 5,000 members. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14632 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST The article focuses on the launching of Vision 2050 by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). It mentions that Vision 2050 aims the well-being of a global population of 9 billion people with regards to education, mobility and food. Furthermore, it emphasizes on what the stakeholders can do to contribute the issues of the public interest and shaping the world for the benefit of all. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14631 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14630 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14629 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14628 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14627 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14626 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14625 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14624 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14623 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14622 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14621 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14620 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14619 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14618 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14617 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14616 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14615 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14614 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14613 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14612 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14611 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14610 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14609 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14608 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14607 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14606 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14605 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14604 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14603 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14602 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14601 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Widespread trade liberalization and economic integration characterize the current era of globalization. While this approach has resulted in significant job creation, improved living standards, and a wider variety of cheaper consumer goods and services, opponents question if globalization's benefits outweigh the dislocations and downsides that it causes. Protestors are intent on stalling or rolling back globalization's progression and our review of the history of globalization reveals that a backlash is not without precedent. The article carefully examines the myth and reality of these two opposing positions on four key areas of the globalization debate: jobs; inequality and poverty; national sovereignty and cultural diversity; and the natural environment. This information is then utilized to derive a broad set of feasible policy recommendations that could help bring about a more sustainable form of globalization. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14600 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST This article provides an insight into the changing role of businesses in dealing with the natural environment issues. From being regarded as poachers of the natural environment, many businesses have now started to position themselves as gamekeepers of the natural environment. This article traces the events and factors that have contributed toward this shift. The article starts with an introduction to the current state of the natural environment. It then discusses the role that businesses have traditionally played in contributing toward the rapid deterioration of the natural environment. The article then traces the events that have gradually resulted in businesses accepting that they have a responsibility to address environmental issues. This is followed by an overview of the business responses, to the risks and opportunities, posed by changes in the natural environment. The article then provides a brief overview of the various phase models that attempt to categorize business responses to environmental issue. The conclusion focuses on the challenges that lie ahead. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14599 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST The health-care reform promised by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of March 2010 continues our dependence on a central feature of the American health-care system: employer-sponsored insurance (ESI). In this article I will criticize the assumptions regarding market and welfare concerns on which this dependence is based and argue that efforts to mandate ESI ignore both the dynamics of the employment relation and the nature of health-care needs. A comparison between investing in employee education and investing in employee health will reveal the pragmatic challenges to ESI and the covert appeal to employer beneficence on which ESI rests. This paper argues that relying on ESI to guarantee appropriate care for a significant segment of the population is undesirable and unsustainable from both market and moral perspectives. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14598 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST In a world of glossy corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, the shallowness of the actual CSR results may well be its counterpart. We claim that the possible gaps between aspirations and implementations are due to the company's overrating abilities to deal with the irrational and complex moral world of business. Many academic approaches aim to lift business ethics up to a higher level by enhancing competences but will fail because they are too rationalistic and generalistic to match the pluralistic and situational practice constituted by the mosaic of values and set of constraints. This is demonstrated by describing and analyzing the CSR development of the multinational caterer Sodexo and in particular its Dutch branch. We explain what they do and why they are not successful. We present a new tool named Ethical Room for Maneuver that centers experiences and concrete situations in a playground of inquiry and experiment to enhance abilities to operate in themoral world and to meliorate business and society with more effectiveness. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14597 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST The main purpose of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of the conditions under which Business-nongovernmental organization (NGO) interactions lead to improvements in corporate social responsibility (CSR), by assessing the role that the stakeholder context of the firm plays in the processes. As a case study it takes an interaction process between one NGO and one company with both collaborative and confrontational traits, spanning eight years and two issue fields, palm oil and soy, which are characterized by varying stakeholder contexts. The analysis demonstrates that the business-NGO interaction induced a change from a direct to an indirect corporate responsibility, and clarifies how interdependencies between the company and other stakeholders than the NGO influenced the interaction. The stakeholder interdependencies vary per issue field: In some issue fields, the stakeholder context allows for effective, collaborative interaction between business and NGO, while in another issue field, characterized by different stakeholder interdependencies, collaborative, constructive interactionbetween the same business and the same NGO is not feasible and, in addition, less effective in terms of CSR than confrontational interaction. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14596 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST In a series of reports the United Nations Special Representative on the issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations has emphasized a tripartite framework regarding business and human rights that includes the state "duty to protect," the TNC "responsibility to respect," and "appropriate remedies" for human rights violations. This article examines the recent history of UN initiatives regarding business and human rights and places the tripartite framework in historical context. Three approaches to human rights are distinguished: moral, political, and legal. It is argued that the tripartite framework's grounding of the responsibility of TNCs to respect human rights is properly understood as moral and not merely as a political or legal duty. A moral account of the duty of TNCs to respect basic human rights is defended and contrasted with a merely strategic approach. The main conclusion of the article is that only a moral account of the basic human rights duties of TNCs provides a sufficiently deep justification of "the corporate responsibility to respect human rights" feature of the tripartite framework. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14595 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Although a research focus on the increasing involvement of corporations in shaping and maintaining the global rules of the game points out promising avenues for future research, it simultaneously makes clear how little currently established, mostly managerial conceptual frameworks have to offer in making sense of these developments. It is argued that we need to expand the rather restricted perspectives that these frameworks provide, in order to explore new conceptual foundations that will not only enable us to travel the con lines of the different disciplines involved with the study of the changing role of business in shaping the global rules of the game, but that can also systematically connect normative and positive research questions at the conceptual level. Three directions for this search for new foundations are briefly explored. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14594 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST