Consumer Trust,Social Marketing and Ethics of Welfare Exchange

The global corporate scandals such as Enron, Worldcom and Global Crossing have raised fundamental issues of business ethics as well as economic, social and anthropological questions concerning the nature of business competition and global capitalism. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to introduce the concept of “welfare exchange” to the existing notions of economic, social and anthropological notions of business and exchange in markets and society in the 21st century. Global competition and business success in the 21st century continue to raise the nature of economic value and the interaction among diverse actors in international markets, institutions and society. We believe that the nature of such exchange between consumers and organizations, which can also be termed social marketing, need to increasingly take into account a welfare and ethical component. In this paper, we introduce our concept of welfare exchange to emphasize the importance of such welfare and ethical issues in the global business environment of the 21st century.     

Supporting Social Enterprises to Support Vulnerable Consumers: The Example of Community Development Finance Institutions and Financial Exclusion

This article examines the role of social enterprises in providing fair services to vulnerable consumers, focusing on the vulnerability of low-income consumers to high-cost exploitative credit as a result of a lack of access to mainstream financial services. It will be argued that both the state and the corporate sector have a role to play in providing the means with which vulnerable consumers can overcome financial exclusion, through access to fair services. However, this cannot and should not be achieved through increased welfare provision or through reliance on corporate social responsibility initiatives alone. In rejecting solutions focused on increased welfare or voluntary corporate social responsibility initiatives, this article suggests that regulatory support for the development and growth of social enterprises, such as community development finance institutions, will most effectively give rise to a social framework in which vulnerability and unequal opportunity with respect to financial services is addressed.     

Investigating the direct and indirect effects of corporate hypocrisy and perceived corporate reputation on consumers’ attitudes toward the company

Consumers are placing increasing importance on the social responsibility of firms when making purchase decisions. Nonetheless, corporate irresponsibility has become more prevalent in the corporate world. Through corporate social responsibility (CSR), companies can showcase their virtues and appear as good citizens while ignoring many internal standards. Hence, the primary purpose of this study was to explore the impact of corporate hypocrisy on CSR belief, corporate reputation, and consumers’ attitudes toward a company that may have a bad reputation. Second, we investigated the mediating effect of CSR belief and perceived corporate reputation on the relationships between corporate hypocrisy and consumers’ attitudes toward the company. We asked a sample of respondents in Australia (n =518) to respond to a real CSR campaign launched by a beer company. The results showed that CSR belief mediates the relationship between corporate hypocrisy and consumers’ attitudes toward the company. The results indicated a perception that companies may use CSR to try to shift the blame from producers to users. The results of this study provide guidelines for managers, social marketers, and public policy makers on how to create and evaluate companies’ CSR campaigns. The results of this study contribute to the debate on how consumers respond to various CSR campaigns as well as the intended or unintended consequences of CSR in directing consumers’ attention away from the negative impacts businesses have on society.     

Selective Engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility: A Stakeholder Perspective

This paper attempts to understand selective engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR involves various issues that can meet demands from multiple stakeholders. A firm can focus on certain CSR issues to satisfy a particular stakeholder while ignoring the demands from other stakeholders, or it can take a more balanced approach to CSR by addressing a wider range of social issues. In this paper, I investigate how stakeholder pressures from three types of primary stakeholders (customer, supplier, and employee) shape selective engagement in CSR. The empirical results based on a representative sample of more than 1,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the early 2000s suggest that firms prioritize their stakeholders based on instrumental considerations. Those stakeholders who have greater power over the focal firm will exert a larger impact on a firm’s CSR engagement. Constrained by limited managerial resources, firms accord attention to a limited range of issues most relevant to salient stakeholders. Specifically, MNCs as major customers pressure the focal firm to assume more responsibility for product quality, as well as on a wider range of social issues; SOEs as both major customers and major suppliers pressure the focal firm to assume more responsibility for employee welfare; employees with higher education pressure the focal firm to assume more responsibility for employee welfare, and for a wider range of social issues. This study contributes to stakeholder theory and research on the CSR of SMEs, and has important implications for CSR practitioners.     

Principles of Advertising & IMC, 2nd edn.

Community involvement is recognized as part of an organization's attempts to build good will in the local community and as such can be thought of as part of corporate social responsibility. The argument has been made that there is a need for more examination of the content of CSR activities, in particular for firms operating in diverse domestic and foreign contexts (Gardberg and Fombrun, 2004, Academy of Management Review, 31(2), pp. 329–346). This paper explores some of these issues by presenting an in‐depth look at McDonald's community involvement initiative in Norway, where the attempts to build a Ronald McDonald House met much resistance and many barriers, many of them from political parties, doctors and academics.     

社会责任、信誉资本与企业价值创造

信誉资本作为企业的一种无形资源,在社会责任与企业价值创造关系中发挥了价值传导的中介作用。社会责任通过信誉资本对企业价值的影响方向并不是单一的,而是一个相互影响、相互促进的循环和协同作用过程。企业承担社会责任对企业价值创造和财务绩效具有正向影响,而财务绩效的优化使企业具有更多的资源和能力进行信誉资本投资,反过来又可以推进企业社会责任活动的开展。     

Corporate social responsibility: Another view

Numerous individuals, discussing the topic of corporate social responsibility, have exhorted the business community to demonstrate increased concern for social welfare. However, some observers [1,8,12] believe that executives have become less interested in social responsibilities and more disillusioned by the results of the social-responsibility era.The apparent change in executives' attitudes leads to several questions that need answering: Has corporate experimentation with social programs convinced managers that the pursuit of social responsibility is basically inimical to the quest for profits? Is the business community's commitment to the philosophy of corporate social responsibility moribund? Is the idea destined to die of benign neglect? Conclusions pertaining to these questions are developed in this article. The analysis includes the formulation of a theoretical basis for evaluating and resolving the central issues which confound executive decision making as it relates to corporate social responsibility.     

企业社会责任与财务绩效关系研究综述

20世纪90年代起,企业社会责任与利益相关者在理论与实证检验方面呈现出相互整合的趋势。本文通过探析企业社会责任与利益相关者缘何走向理论结合,分别基于利益相关者整体视角与利益相关者分维度视角,对国内外企业社会责任与财务绩效关系的实证研究进行回顾与总结,并在此基础上提出了未来的研究方向。     

Understanding Corporate Social Responsibility and Product Perceptions in Consumer Markets: A Cross-cultural Evaluation

The concept of corporate social responsibility is becoming integral to effective corporate brand management. This study adopts a multidimensional and cross-country perspective of the concept and analyses consumer perceptions of behaviour of four leading consumer products manufacturers. Data was collected from consumers in two countries – Spain and the UK. The study analyses consumers’ degree of interest in corporate responsibility and its impact on their perception about the company. The findings here suggest a weak impact of company-specific communication on consumers’ perception. The implications of this study are relevant to companies for strengthening their social responsibility associations with the consumers. Dr. Jaywant Singh is Senior Lecturer at Kingston University, London where he teaches consumer behaviour and international marketing. His research interests include customer loyalty, product variants, new brands, corporate social responsibility, and consumer panel data. He received his PhD in marketing in 2004. Dr. Maria de Mar Garcia de los Salmones is Lecturer at University of Cantabria (Spain). Her current research interests include corporate social responsibility, brand image and consumer behaviour. She received her PhD in business administration in 2002. Dr. Ignacio Rodriguez de Bosque is Professor of Marketing at the University of Cantabria (Spain). His current research interests include Business Communication, relationship marketing and distribution channels. He has published in several international journals such as Tourism, Management, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services and Industrial Marketing Management.     

Online communication of Corporate Environmental Citizenship: A study of New Zealand's electricity and gas retailers

This paper presents a study of how companies in New Zealand's electricity and gas retail sector communicate their Corporate Environmental Citizenship (CEC) on the World Wide Web. The natural environment is the focal issue for analyzing the way these companies present their commitment to the community and society in general, for two reasons. First, concern for and management of the natural environment is one of the most important social issues facing corporations. Second, prior empirical studies of corporate communication of social responsibility initiatives have investigated the extent and content of these messages without focusing on a particular issue. A content analysis of the web pages of 18 companies in an environmentally sensitive industry was chosen to investigate which environmental issues and stakeholder groups are given priority and how companies' attitudes to stakeholders and relationships with them are described. The results demonstrate an instrumental reformist moral position underlying their online communications. This philosophy was present in the environmental issues most frequently mentioned and in the principles motivating their Corporate Environmental Citizenship activities. While the majority of companies presented their environmental initiatives on their web sites, most did not employ interactive features to encourage dialogue with stakeholders and enhance these relationships.     

Corporate Social Responsibility in the Blogosphere

This paper uses social network analysis to examine the interaction between corporate blogs devoted to sustainability issues and the blogosphere, a clustered online network of collaborative actors. By analyzing the structural embeddedness of a prototypical blog in a virtual community, we show the potential of online platforms to document corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and to engage with an increasingly socially and ecologically aware stakeholder base. The results of this study show that stakeholder involvement via sustainability blogs is a valuable new practice for CSR communications and stakeholder engagement. It also opens new horizons for communicating CSR issues to key constituencies online.     

Political and Economic Arguments for Corporate Social Responsibility: Analysis and a Proposition Regarding the CSR Agenda

Different perspectives on corporate social responsibility (CSR) exist, each with their own agenda. Some emphasise management responsibilities towards stakeholders, others argue that companies should actively contribute to social goals, and yet others reject a social responsibility of business beyond legal compliance. In addition, CSR initiatives relate to different issues, such as labour standards and corruption. This article analyses what types of CSR initiatives are supported by political and economic arguments. The distinction between different CSR perspectives and CSR issues on the one hand and between political and economic arguments on the other could help to advance the debate on the justification and welfare impact of CSR. It is argued that ordinary boundary conditions for business behaviour in a market economy provide support for some, but not all, CSR initiatives. This has implications for policy priorities. Building on the analysis, it is proposed that more attention should be paid to the behaviour of large multinational enterprises in their normal business operations and to CSR issues with a potentially large impact on market functioning.     

THE ROLE OF PURCHASING IN CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: A STRUCTURAL EQUATION ANALYSIS

Researchers in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have examined a broad array of activities including environmental management, ethical issues, the advancement of a diverse workplace, safety, human rights, philanthropic donations, and community involvement. Yet despite over 30 years of inquiry in this field, there has been no holistic, empirical investigation of the particular dimensions or sets of activities that are encompassed by CSR and the relationship between ethics and CSR. In the purchasing and supply management literature, similar sets of activities have been investigated, but generally as separate, standalone streams of research with little recognition of their potential inter‐relatedness. The current study empirically identified the dimensions of purchasing's involvement in CSR and applied the label purchasing social responsibility (PSR).     

Corporate Social Responsibility and Farmer Suicides: A Case for Benign Paternalism?

Although arguments are a good way of exploring the limitations and complexities of a concept or a theory we may find ourselves faced with a real phenomenon that challenges the existing formulations of a concept or a theory so strongly and reveals its limitations to us so starkly that we are forced to break away from the current discussion and start anew. Such is the challenge posed by the phenomenon of farmer suicides on our existing theories of corporate social responsibility. Contemporary discussions in corporate ethics are replete with many theories of corporate social responsibility which in one way or the other rely on the concept of the social contract. For the most part these theories have gone unchallenged and no fundamental limitations have been revealed. However, the phenomenon of farmer suicides in central India poses a serious challenge to them. This article attempts to show how the phenomenon of farmer suicides in central India starkly exposes some of the fundamental limitations of the contractarian formulations of corporate social responsibility.     

浅论公司社会责任的地位

公司社会责任理论的产生是对传统公司囿于其营利性所导致的弊端进行反思的结果。对于对公司社会责任是否应当就其整体赋予独立的法律地位,学理上有不同的观点。我国公司社会责任的地位主要应当体现在学理和道德层面,而不应概括的反映在公司法律中。此外,相对于公司的营利性目标,它应当是补充和辅助性的。     

Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility Among Indonesian College Students

Ethical consumption studies in developed countries suggest consumers are becoming more ethically minded, as manifested in the shift toward purchasing ethical products. However, little is known about ethical consumption in developing countries, which is problematic because these countries host the greatest share of the world’s youth population. In this study, the authors examine the perceptions and motivations of Indonesian college student consumers toward corporate social responsibility (CSR). The authors find that despite the country-based differences, Indonesian college students express perceptions of CSR similar to those of consumers in developed countries. Furthermore, female consumers have stronger intentions to support ethical products than their male counterparts.     

The Nature and Management of Ethical Corporate Identity: A Commentary on Corporate Identity,Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics

In this paper we open up the topic of ethical corporate identity: what we believe to be a new, as well as highly salient, field of inquiry for scholarship in ethics and corporate social responsibility. Taking as our starting point Balmer’s (in Balmer and Greyser, 2002) AC²ID test model of corporate identity – a pragmatic tool of identity management – we explore the specificities of an ethical form of corporate identity. We draw key insights from conceptualizations of corporate social responsibility and stakeholder theory. We argue ethical identity potentially takes us beyond the personification of the corporation. Instead, ethical identity is seen to be formed relationally, between parties, within a community of business and social exchange. Extending the AC²ID test model, we suggest the management of ethical identity requires a more socially, dialogically embedded kind of corporate practice and greater levels of critical reflexivity. John M. T. Balmer is Professor of Corporate Brand/Identity Management at Bradford University School of Management. His research focuses on a range of corporate-level marketing issues and has a particular interest in the management of corporate brands and identities. His work has been published in leading journals such as California Management Review and Long Range Planning. With Stephen Greyser he co-authored Revealing the Corporation (Routledge, 2003). Kyoko Fukukawa is a lecturer in marketing at Bradford University School of Management and holds a Ph.D. from University of Nottingham, UK. Her research interests include ethical decision-making in consumption and business practices; corporate social responsibility (CSR) of MNCs concerning their policies and strategic communication; and CSR and corporate branding. Her publications appear in Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Corporate Citizenship and others. Edmund R. Gray is Professor and Chair in the Department of Management at Loyola Marymount University. He is author or co-author of five textbooks and numerous scholarly articles. He holds a Ph.D. from UCLA. His research interests centre around issues of corporate identity, corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability. Currently, he is conducting research on entrepreneurial firms with environmental/social goals that are an integral part of their mission.     

Risk Management,Real Options,Corporate Social Responsibility

The relationship of corporate social responsibility to risk management has been treated sporadically in the business society literature. Using real options theory, I develop the notion of corporate social responsibility as a real option its implications for risk management. Real options theory allows for a strategic view of corporate social responsibility. Specifically, real options theory suggests that corporate social responsibility should be negatively related to the firm’s ex ante downside business risk.     

企业的社会责任

本文认为,企业的社会责任应从三个方面来认识。第一,企业最重要的社会责任是为社会提供优质的产品、优质的服务,出人才、出经验。如果企业能够给社会提供优质的产品,我们的产品就能走向全世界;能够提供优质的服务,我们就能吸引各国的客户到这里来;能够出人才,我们的企业管理人才就将通过自己的企业培养出来;能够出经验,我们这个经验就能够为其他企业所用。第二,企业必须重视经济增长的质量。在经济增长的同时,至少把自己的废水、废气、废渣处理了,减少企业所在地区的污染,改善环境。第三,企业要为社会的和谐作出贡献。不但要关心自己企业的职工,还要关心所在的社区。互助、互爱、互信,社会才能取得和谐。     

Loyalty to Social Ventures in Social Media: The Role of Social Cause Involvement,Identification, and Commitment

Recently, more social organizations are engaging in market transactions to achieve financial self-reliance. In today’s highly competitive market, it is imperative for such social ventures to bolster long-term support from their consumers through every possible point of access, such as social media. Given the importance of social media in enhancing customer relationships, this study examines factors that promote consumers’ loyalty toward social ventures, focusing on intentions to participate in cause-related activities and opinion-sharing behavior via social media. Data obtained from 304 US consumers confirmed that consumer involvement, identification, and commitment were key determinants of consumer loyalty in social media. The results also showed that the effect of involvement was mediated by identification and commitment. The findings suggest that social ventures should not only attract interested segments through social media, but also engage and enhance their sense of belonging and commitment.