Value Priorities as Combining Core Factors Between CSR and Reputation – A Qualitative Study

This article explores the nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate reputation using qualitative research approach. Specifically, the relationship between CSR and corporate reputation is examined from the viewpoint of value theory. This paper brings up for discussion the various value priorities lying in the background of CSR actions. The aim is to form categories of value priorities around CSR and reputation, based on qualitative research approach. The main concepts in this paper – CSR, reputation and value – are also defined. This paper further discusses the theory of value structure and content, which identifies certain principal values among different cultures. The data consist of eight interviews with employees of a newspaper company. The results suggest that value priorities play an influential role in CSR actions, influencing to the essence of certain reputation stories in the corporate context.     

In defense of social responsibility

Recent journalistic criticism of the concept of corporate social responsibility rests on the assertion that social responsibility adds nothing to corporate profits. Hence, inclusion of the motion in the business vocabulary amounts to nothing more than “double talk.”The author of an influential 1953 book on the topic took another look at social responsibility twenty-five years later and found “few gains in the quality of business stewardship over that time.” The idea “remains peripheral to the mainstream of economic thought.”Corporate social responsibility involves more than simply being a law-abiding corporate citizen. It reaches into these decision-making areas where perfectly legal choices may have harmful social consequences. As evidence of social harm amounts, society has to define and defend the ground on which it requires an appropriate response from the business corporation. Society will get the response it demands.     

Individual Executive Characteristics: Explaining the Divergence Between Perceptual and Financial Measures in Nonprofit Organizations

Significant research has found that corporations have a social responsibility beyond maximizing shareholders' value. This study examines the effect of high-profile corporate bankruptcies on perception of corporate social responsibility. Undergraduate and graduate business students rated the importance of corporate social responsibility on profitability, long-term success and short-term success, before and after high-profile bankruptcies. The results indicated that students in general perceived corporate social responsibility to be more important to profitability and long-term success of the firm and less important to short-term success after media publicity of corporate scandals. Several demographic factors such as gender, age and college major played a role in this perception. These findings have important implications for business education, especially as it relates to corporate social responsibility.     

Drivers of CSR anchoring in transition economies: Evidence from Poland

We examine the drivers of corporate social responsibility anchoring in Poland, a country that has undergone a profound transition from a command economy to a free market system. We use a fine-grained theoretical framework to understand the influence of the interactions between regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive aspects of institutions with firm organizational factors on the diffusion of corporate social responsibility. We show that, in Poland, companies use their slack resources to adopt corporate social responsibility only when facing strong normative or regulative institutional pressures in their organizational fields. When such pressures are absent, companies prefer value-enhancing functions of their resources other than investing in corporate social responsibility. We propose a multilevel approach for studying drivers of corporate social responsibility and show how the importance of organizational-level drivers emerges clearly only if the interactions with institutional-level features are considered. The main policy implication of our study is that corporate social responsibility may establish in Poland, as well as in other Eastern Europe countries, provided that designed and formalized institutional processes reach relevant organizational fields. Furthermore, we find that, for business managers, employing financial slack for social responsibility projects may be perceived as institutionally legitimate or not depending on the type of institutional pressures prevailing in each organizational field.     

企业社会责任与企业财务绩效关联性分析——基于浙江纺织企业的调查数据

企业社会责任与企业财务绩效的关联性决定企业的社会责任态度和行为。通过对浙江纺织行业样本企业数据的计量分析发现,前期企业财务绩效和后期企业的社会责任状况显著正相关;而前期企业社会责任和后期企业财务绩效之间、同期企业社会责任和企业财务绩效之间呈负相关趋势,但统计不显著。出现这种结果的原因可能在于当前中国社会责任市场缺乏,企业社会责任行为的推动力是行政力量而非市场力量,企业社会责任不能顺利转化或提升企业绩效。构建社会责任市场以实现企业和社会的双赢,将有效改善中国企业社会责任状况并促使持久的企业社会责任行为。     

Public relations and corporate social responsibility: Some issues arising

The paper questions current assumptions about the benefits of corporate social responsibility and the claims that corporations make on behalf of their corporate social responsibility programmes. In particular, the paper suggests that the use of corporate social responsibility for public relations ends raises moral problems over the motivation of corporations. The paper cautions that the justifications which corporations employ may either be immoral or inaccurate with regard to the empirical evidence gained from a small-scale qualitative study carried out in the UK at a time when the practice of corporate social responsibility was expanding quickly (1989). It is noticeable, in retrospect, that great emphasis is placed upon environmental rather than social responsibility. This implies that organisations are primarily reactive in their development of corporate social responsibility programmes and that they respond to external pressures rather than working out the nature of their corporate responsibilities. It might suggest that corporations only take such actions when they feel compelled to do so by consumerist and environmentalist lobbies. The paper argues that corporations do need to find moral justifications for their moral activities and to ensure that corporate social responsibility practice lives up to the claims made by public relations practitioners. The paper explores the nature of public relations and illustrates how its responsibility for corporate social responsibility extends beyond truthfulness in publicity.Jacquie L'Etang has postgraduate degrees in history, public relations, and social justice. She is a lecturer in public relations at the University of Stirling, Scotland, teaching on the M.Sc. in Public Relations full-time and distance learning courses. She teaches design and editorial management, communications, and business ethics. Her research interests are in corporate social responsibility and the history of public relations.     

The interplay of corporate social responsibility and corporate political activity in emerging markets: The role of strategic flexibility in non‐market strategies

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate political activities are complementary, and the coordinated management of corporate social responsibility and corporate political activities may lead to better firm performance. However, corporate social responsibility and corporate political activities should be aligned carefully to utilize this complementarity. Strategic flexibility, which is the ability of a firm to adapt to changes in the external environment and make necessary organizational modifications quickly, can help firms to align their corporate social responsibility and corporate political activities. This paper empirically investigates the political dimension and the interactive dimension which describes interactions between corporate social responsibility and corporate political activities together with strategic flexibility and their effects on firm performance through a study of 142 firms in Turkey using moderated multiple regression methods. The results show that, while the political dimension had an inverted U‐shaped effect on firm performance, indicating that only a moderate level of corporate political activities may improve financial performance, the interactive dimension had positive but limited implications for performance. Finally, it was found strategic flexibility plays a positive moderating role on the relationships between the interactive dimension and firm performance. It is concluded that complementarity between corporate social responsibility and corporate political activities which may result in better performance is contingent on strategic flexibility.     

Corporate Environmental Responsibility in Polluting Industries: Does Religion Matter?

Using a sample of Chinese listed firms in polluting industries for the period of 2008–2010, we empirically investigate whether and how Buddhism, China’s most influential religion, affects corporate environmental responsibility (CER). In this study, we measure Buddhist variables as the number of Buddhist monasteries within a certain radius around Chinese listed firms’ registered addresses. In addition, we hand-collect corporate environmental disclosure scores based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sustainability reporting guidelines. Using hand-collected Buddhism data and corporate environmental disclosure scores, we provide strong and robust evidence that Buddhism is significantly positively associated with CER. This finding is consistent with the following view: Buddhism can serve as social norms to evoke the consciousness of social responsibility, and thereof strengthen CER. Our findings also reveal that the positive association between Buddhism and CER is attenuated for firms with higher law enforcement index. The results are robust to various measures of Buddhism and a variety of sensitivity tests.     

基于企业社会责任理论的危机管理策略研究

面对日益复杂的市场竞争态势,有效的危机管理对于企业的生存和发展至关重要。实践与研究表明,企业社会责任是有效危机管理的核心。本文从企业社会责任的理论角度出发,探讨企业社会责任和危机管理之间的关系,并结合企业社会责任管理和危机管理,给出基于社会责任的危机管理策略。     

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Influence Customer Loyalty in the Taiwan Insurance Sector? The role of Corporate Image and Customer Satisfaction

This study aims to investigate the impact of corporate social responsibility on customer loyalty, and examines the role of corporate image and customer satisfaction. The empirical results indicate a positive effect of economic and legal corporate social responsibility on customer loyalty, as well as a partial mediating effect of customer satisfaction between corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty. Moreover, this study identifies the moderating effect of corporate image between corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty. The results of this study are useful to the life insurance sector for enhancing their customer loyalty and service marketing strategy.     

Do negative investor attitudes drive corporate social responsibility? Evidence from China

This study explores the association between negative investor attitudes and corporate social responsibility. We conjecture that negative investor attitudes may drive firms to engage more actively in corporate social responsibility to improve shareholder perceptions. Consistent with this expectation, we find that firms facing negative investor attitudes exhibit better CSR performance, and this association is more pronounced in firms that receive more attention from investors and attach more importance to investor relationships. Overall, this study highlights the influence of investor attitudes on corporate social responsibility and contributes to the literature on the determinants of corporate social responsibility.     

企业社会责任信息披露与股票价格关系研究——沪市民营企业的经验证据

文章以2009年沪市A股222家民营上市公司为研究样本实证检验了民营企业社会责任信息披露与股票价格的关系,结果表明,民营企业社会责任信息披露与股票价格负相关。结合企业社会责任实践及其信息披露现状、投资者基于企业社会责任的投资理念以及资本市场有效性,从作用机制视角分析了形成民营企业社会责任信息披露与股票价格关系的深层原因,并由此就改进企业社会责任及信息披露实践和促进资本市场健康发展为上市民营企业、资本市场投资者和监管者带来启示。     

平台经济视阈下社会责任消费行为意向驱动因素研究

平台经济的快速发展使得平台型社会责任消费问题日益被关注。立足平台经济情境下社会责任消费行为的“利他”属性，基于弱关系理论和消费者—企业认同理论，从社会互动视角对计划行为理论进行重塑,在问卷调查基础上通过统计分析方法研究社会责任消费行为意向驱动因素。实证显示：行为态度、社会规范、感知行为控制及平台企业社会责任认同对社会责任消费行为意向的生态消费、善因消费和诚信消费三个维度均有不同程度的正向影响，其中社会规范是最大的影响变量；行为态度在社会规范、感知行为控制、平台企业社会责任认同与社会责任消费行为意向之间起中介作用。修正后的计划行为理论实现了个人与社会、理性逻辑和情感逻辑的有机统一，能对平台经济视阈下社会责任消费行为意向进行有效的解释与预测,从而为平台社会责任生态化治理提供一定启示。     

Visualizing CSR: A visual framing analysis of US multinational companies

The aim of this research study is to investigate how different levels of corporate social responsibility are visually framed through corporate publications used in marketing communications. Photographs used as visual marketing communication tools in the annual and sustainability reports of top American multinational companies that practice and promote measures of corporate social responsibility were analyzed. Findings indicate the corporations overall emphasize environmental sustainability efforts and visually communicate their practices through depictions of employees while other social responsibility efforts are often communicated through depictions of consumers. A discussion on the patterns of visual frames that communicate corporate social responsibility and the impact of visuals on organizational identity, brand image, and reputation are offered.     

区域企业社会责任：内涵、实现机制与作用机理

区域企业社会责任建设与区域竞争力的保持和提升密切相关,区域内的政策环境、企业社会责任和社会组织三个方面的相互作用将综合形成区域竞争优势,因此研究区域企业社会责任对于区域经济、社会和环境协调发展具有十分重要的意义。基于现有文献成果,运用系统分析的思路和方法,探讨区域企业社会责任内涵,剖析区域企业社会责任实现机制的基本要素、系统结构和功能,以及实现机制的作用机理,以此构建区域企业社会责任概念模型。     

欧盟企业并购制度在中国国企海外并购案中的实践逻辑——“最坏情形”下“单一经济体”的认定

欧盟作为中国国企海外直接投资的重要阵地,其企业并购制度一直是学术界和实业界的关注焦点。虽然实践中欧委会对涉及中国国企的并购申报几乎都通过了,但是在认定“单一经济体”过程中,除了确认能源行业的所有国企被视为单一经济体之外,对于其他行业,欧委会采用回避态度,以“最坏情形”方式判断,其结论均对国企不利,给国企在欧盟投资的前景投下了阴影。另外,对于特别敏感和具有战略意义的交易,还可能会遭到欧委会基于公众利益和其他政治因素的投资审查。因此,国企应充分准备好实质性证据,证明其在商业决策中有足够的自主权,来反驳在合并评估中可能遭受的反不正当竞争的质疑,应对欧委会对中国国企参与并购交易的系统性歧视。     

Institutional Conditions of Corporate Citizenship

Exploring the concept of citizenship from the history of political philosophy provides suggestions about what corporate citizenship could mean. The metaphor of corporate citizenship suggests an institutional approach to corporate social responsibility. Citizenship is a social role, characterized by an orientation towards the social contract, collective and active responsibility, as well as a positive attitude towards the juridical state. By analogy, corporate citizenship is a social role, characterized by the social contract of business, a participatory ethics of business, the precautionary principle and the promotion of just international institutions. It is considered that corporate citizenship depends on a number of interacting institutional conditions that hold society partly responsible for the social performance of their companies. Finally, the problem of the dissolution of corporate social responsibility is reviewed in an institutional environment where everyone is considered responsible.     

“More than words”: Expanding the taxonomy of greenwashing after the Volkswagen scandal

This study explores a new type of greenwashing behaviour, through the lenses of the “communicative constitution of organizations” (CCO), which challenges the dominant view in corporate social responsibility (CSR) studies. A theory-building case study was carried out by analysing the Volkswagen scandal. Both qualitative and quantitative data were obtained via a content analysis of both 2012–2014 CSR reports of the Volkswagen Group and a sample of 1151 U.S. newspaper headlines concerning Dieselgate, together with semi-structured interviews with former managers from Volkswagen. From a theoretical perspective, the study extends the greenwashing taxonomy by identifying a new type of irresponsible behaviour, namely “deceptive manipulation”. This reinforces the CCO perspective according to which sustainability communication acts as a constitutive force. In terms of managerial implications, the study suggests some approaches to prevent this specific type of greenwashing.     

What’s Worse in Times of Product-Harm Crisis? Negative Corporate Ability or Negative CSR Reputation?

This study examines the dimensional consequences of (a) having positive prior corporate associations and (b) negative prior corporate associations in times of product-harm crisis by applying two dimensions of corporate associations (corporate ability vs. corporate social responsibility). The findings indicate that the disadvantages of having negative prior corporate ability (CA) associations are bigger than having negative corporate social responsibility (CSR) associations in times of product-harm crisis, whereas the advantages of having positive prior CSR associations are bigger than having positive CA associations. This study also provides directions for how to manage reputational strengths and weaknesses prior to a crisis as part of reputation and crisis management.     

企业社会责任的战略选择与民营企业的可持续发展

本文介绍了一种在国际市场上正逐渐被认可的标准体系———SA8000,即企业社会责任认证体系,对比分析了我国国有企业、三资企业和民营企业履行企业社会责任的现状差别及其原因。在对企业社会责任战略形式进行了分类之后,指出影响企业社会责任战略选择的因素和可能的后果,提出了企业社会责任战略变化的五阶段模型。认为民营企业应该把企业社会责任看成是企业可持续发展的机会和动力,选择企业社会责任战略才是其可持续发展的必要条件和保证。