Corporations and Citizenship Arenas in the Age of Social Media

Little attention has been paid to the importance of social media in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature. This deficit is redressed in the present paper through utilizing the notion of ‘citizenship arenas’ to identify three dynamics in social media-augmented corporate–society relations. First, we note that social media-augmented ‘corporate arenas of citizenship’ are constructed by individual corporations in an effort to address CSR issues of specific importance thereto, and are populated by individual citizens as well as (functional/formally organized) stakeholders. Second, we highlight that, within social media-augmented ‘public arenas of citizenship’, individual citizens are empowered, relative to corporations and their (functional/formally organized) stakeholders, when it comes to creating, debating, and publicizing, CSR-relevant issues. Third, we posit that information and communication technology corporations possess specific, and potentially very important, capacities, when it comes to creating, or helping construct, public arenas of citizenship from within which individual citizens can influence their broader political–economic environment. Following this, we discuss how social media can contribute to ‘dysfunctions’ as well as ‘progressions’ in corporate–society relations, and conclude with a number of suggestions for future research.     

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.     

Discovering the entrepreneurial micro‐ecosystem: The case of a corporate accelerator

Faced with a proliferation of initiatives like corporate accelerators, entrepreneurial ecosystems see emerge new spaces that we can call entrepreneurial micro‐ecosystems. A micro‐ecosystem is a local open system interacting with the entrepreneurial ecosystem and driven by an actor or group of actors capable of fostering dynamics of innovation and entrepreneurship. The literature has tended to focus on the macro and meso levels leaving behind the microlevel and the strategies implemented by the actors that could lead to the creation of micro‐ecosystems. In this study, we consider corporate accelerators, still little studied, as entrepreneurial micro‐ecosystems. We propose to take a structural and strategic approach in order to better understand the attributes and the strategies put in place by these actors from a multilevel approach. A qualitative study was conducted on a corporate accelerator and the results reveal the importance of strategic attributes in terms of legitimacy, coopetition, and business model.     

Cross‐sector alliances in the global refugee crisis: An institutional theory approach

The global refugee crisis has posed severe challenges to social stability and sustainable development around the world. While the business sector is expected to shoulder social responsibility in crisis relief efforts, our initial assessment shows that refugee‐related corporate social responsibility (CSR) significantly diverged across the Global Fortune 500 corporations. To advance scholars and managers' understanding of this complex CSR issue, this study draws upon National Business System Theory to explore how country‐level factors influence the multinational corporations' CSR communication about the refugee issue. Specifically, the study focuses on the strategic cross‐sector alliances between corporations, NGOs, and IGOs. The analysis shows that in this controversial global crisis, the following factors of corporations' countries‐of‐origin can significantly affect the level of cross‐sector CSR alliances: democracy levels, economic inequality levels, and unemployment rates. Findings of this study provide practical guidelines that can help managers to anticipate societal expectations when dealing with controversial social issues in an international setting. Our findings could also assist policymakers, NGOs, and IGOs to better design strategies to mobilize the corporate resources.     

All animals are equal,but …: management perceptions of stakeholder relationships and societal responsibilities in multinational corporations

The stakeholder approach has become a popular perspective in mainstream management and the corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature. However, it remains an open question as to how real‐life managers actually view stakeholders and what rationales and logics are used for explaining the relationship between the firm and its constituencies. This article examines whom managers in multinational corporations (MNCs) consider to be their important stakeholders, and how they describe the societal responsibilities towards these groups and individuals. It is concluded that managers still tend to hold a rather narrow (managerial) view of the firm and generally give priority to stakeholder groups who are directly involved in the firm's core transformation system. The conclusions are derived from interview and survey data from 647 managers in four MNCs. The paper is based on data collected as part of project RESPONSE: a European Union‐ and corporate‐funded initiative on CSR.     

Happiness as a predictor of service quality and commitment for utilitarian and hedonic services

In services research, little attention has been devoted to long‐term intrinsic personality traits. Long‐term personality traits predict short‐term affective states and thus understanding them is important from a service standpoint. Further, identifying long‐term personality traits facilitates the targeting of customers who are predisposed to evaluate services in a positive manner. This study focuses on one long‐term affective trait, happiness, and examines its impact on service evaluation and commitment, as it has been shown that the level of happiness affects whether people perceive life events, both great and small, in a positive or negative manner. Three studies were conducted to research the issue. The first study shows that customers who are happier evaluate service quality in utilitarian services in a more positive manner than do customers who are less happy. The second study shows that for hedonic services, involvement serves as an antecedent to perceived service quality; happier customers are also more involved in hedonic services, and thus perceive service quality in a more positive manner. Study 3 examines the link between happiness and commitment and shows that customers who are happier are also more prone to be committed to hedonic services. These results contribute to the marketing literature by showing that customers are predisposed to evaluate service quality in line with their level of happiness in the case of both utilitarian and hedonic services. Thus, marketing scholars and practitioners ought to recognize that service quality and commitment are partially predetermined by the personality of the customer and that some customers are more difficult to please than others. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Parrèsiastic Stakeholders: A Different Approach to Ethical Institutions

Are we really in need of (new) ethical institutions that regulate and control the ethical quality of corporate behavior? The various scandals (Enron, WorldOnline, Ahold) prove that ethical institutions, as well as deontological codes, public social commitments, social annual reports directly linked to financial overviews, are not enough to prevent fraud, corruption or bribery. Does the existence of those institutions partly provoke and legitimize the unbridled and immense power of organizational and CEO-(non-ethical) behavior and window-dressing? Do we need more separate ethical institutions? Is it possible to outsource the competence of an ethical corporate and personal moral responsibility to another, separate institution? Do people and corporations still feel the confrontation with moral dilemmas with the institutionalizing of a part of that responsibility to an anonymous body? And won't this ethical control lead to a further alienation of the micro level personal responsibility to the macro performance of the market and organizations? This article focuses on the counterpart of the institution: tomorrow's stakeholder. The stakeholder of tomorrow (the manager, the CEO, the consumer, the employee, the civil servant...) embodies the complexity of the multi-paradigmatic business ethics debate. Two aspects of tomorrow's stakeholders' presence will be discussed: their moral attitude and emancipative communication.     

New approaches in transportation planning: happiness and transport economics

The measurement of social and psychological phenomena has been advanced by recent progress in the fields of behavioural economics and hedonic psychology. In addition, the increased interest in understanding how individuals perceive their own quality of life, has led to investigating the relations between various macro and individual level variables, generically subsumed as happiness. For many “happiness is considered to be an ultimate goal in life” and it plays an important role in the way people perceive the overall society they live in. Therefore, social scientists and behavioural economists are now stressing the importance of well-being measures, related to people’s evaluations of their quality of life in addition to economic indicators. In the transport sector, project evaluation is mainly based on cost–benefit analyses using economic indicators. However, any provided transportation project/service impacts the quality of the travel experience, the well-being of travellers and their travel behaviour. Competitiveness of modes may be also affected by the promotion of derived or experienced travellers’ well-being. Thus, existing behavioural travel choice models should be enhanced with regards to their behavioural validity incorporating the impacts of travelling happiness/ satisfaction. This study aims to understand and model the impact of stated (anticipated) happiness in the decision choice between a private transport mode—car, and a public transport mode—metro.     

Coca‐Cola and the Fight against the Global Obesity Epidemic

Coca‐Cola, the century‐old iconic brand associated with bringing happiness and harmony, is facing an ethical and financial dilemma as it attempts to balance its corporate needs with those of society. The soft drink industry as a whole, and Coke in particular, has received harsh criticism for contributing to the global obesity epidemic. Rising health concerns among consumers have resulted in a continuous decline in soda consumption in some key international markets. Considered one of the leading global brands and among the most admired corporations, Coca‐Cola claims it supports the fight against obesity, sponsoring campaigns, research, and initiatives to promote physical activities. However, critics assert the company has used deception and undue influence to dismiss the harmful effects of soda, similar to the tactics of the tobacco industry. Forced to respond to mounting criticism, Coca‐Cola must navigate between meeting shareholder demands and maintaining its reputation as a socially responsible organization. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Effect of Cross‐Border Mergers and Acquisitions on Earnings Quality: Evidence from China

Despite the fruitful research on the motives and outcomes of cross‐border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) of Chinese multinational corporations (MNCs), there has been scant research on the impact of cross‐border M&As on corporate governance. In this article, we fill the research gap by exploring whether cross‐border M&As may lead to an improvement in corporate governance of Chinese acquirers. In particular, we examine the impact of cross‐border M&As on earnings quality of Chinese MNCs. We find that the acquisition of a target firm from a developed country leads to a significant improvement on the acquirer's earnings quality. In comparison, the acquisition of a target from an emerging market does not have such an impact. Our results are robust to various corporate governance measures, alternative econometric methods, and controls of relevant firm characteristics and macroeconomic variables. Finally, we show that the effect of cross‐border M&As on earnings quality is more pronounced in non‐state‐owned enterprises (non‐SOEs) that have conducted large M&A deals. Our article offers new insight to the international business literature on latecomer perspective and liability of foreignness. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

企业生态系统社会责任互动的涵蕴与管理变革

传统的单向度、一元价值创造的企业社会责任研究范式需要向多向度、多元价值创造的企业社会责任研究范式演进和发展。文章在企业生态系统与企业社会责任的理论契合的基础上,提出和探究了企业生态系统社会责任互动的涵蕴与合理性表征,并提出企业生态系统社会责任互动的管理变革思路。企业生态系统社会责任互动的合理性表征为系统关联、复杂非线性、超系统的构建,其影响效应体现在缓解共生伙伴间的个体差异性冲突、降低信息不对称风险、更好地创造顾客价值、共创系统价值。互动视角下的企业生态系统社会责任研究会带来一场企业社会责任的管理变革,主要体现在生态共生、交互控制、价值拓展、互惠共赢、价值合一这五个方面。文章研究了拓展企业社会责任理论的研究领域和层面,有助于企业经营管理者摆脱战略近视,引导企业自觉地以生态学观点为指导去处理同其他企业与环境的社会责任关系,提升适应环境和改造环境的能力并实现企业可持续发展。     

To stay or to leave: The moral dilemma of divestment of South African assets

The question of U.S. divestment of South African assets can be segmented into two major issues: (1) corporate behavior in a general sense and (2) nature of the product produced. The first issue has four sub-issues: (1) Is apartheid immoral? (2) Do corporations have any social responsibility? (3) Do the rights of South African blacks concerning the issue of apartheid outweigh those of the corporations to do business freely? (4) Are the benefits to blacks greater with divestment than without? The term “benefits” is then defined in both macro and micro dimensions. A “NO” answer to any one of the several questions would lead to the conclusion that there is no moral obligation for U.S. firms presently in South Africa to divest. The analysis presented will conclude that the answer to the first three questions is “yes”. Further, the answer to the first half of the fourth question (macro benefits) will be determined to be “no”. The micro benefit issue, namely, the nature of the product produced, will then be evaluated using a model based on which group benefits most from the item produced. Assuming corporations are successfully meeting their moral obligations under questions # 2 and # 3, then the general conclusion will be reached that firms producing items of direct benefit to the black community should stay; firms producing items of direct benefit to the government should divest; and no generalized model for analysis can be assumed for firms producing items which benefit both groups equally. Finally, a brief discussion is presented of the issue of obligation for positive action against apartheid, both political and economic, on the part of U.S. corporations.     

The Benefit Corporation and Corporate Social Responsibility

In the wake of the most recent financial crisis, corporations have been criticized as being self-interested and unmindful of their relationship to society. Indeed, the blame is sometimes placed on the corporate legal form, which can exacerbate the tension between duties to shareholders and interests of stakeholders. In comparison, the Benefit Corporation (BC) is a new legal business entity that is obligated to pursue public benefit in addition to the responsibility to return profits to shareholders. It is legally a for-profit, socially obligated, corporate form of business, with all the traditional corporate characteristics combined with societal responsibilities. Considering the history and perception of shareholder primacy in United States law, it is argued that this new business structure is an ethical step toward empowering socially committed commercial entities. The contribution of this research is to provide a fundamental base of knowledge about the new legal form of business, the BC, upon which further study may rely. First, the legal history of the corporation is briefly reviewed in order to provide context to the relationship of the corporate form to society, including exploration of the premise that shareholder wealth maximization is its best and only purpose. Second, the BC is described in detail, and state statutes are compared. Third, the BC is placed within the context of corporate social responsibility. Finally, opportunities for future research are discussed.     

The Framing of Corporate Social Responsibility and the Globalization of National Business Systems: A Longitudinal Case Study

The globalization movement in recent decades has meant rapid growth in trade, financial transactions, and cross-country ownership of economic assets. In this article, we examine how the globalization of national business systems has influenced the framing of corporate social responsibility (CSR). This is done using text analysis of CEO letters appearing in the annual reports of 15 major corporations in Sweden during a period of transformational change. The results show that the discourse about CSR in the annual reports has changed from a national and communitarian view of social responsibility (cf. a negotiated view of CSR) toward an international and individualistic view of social responsibility (cf. a self-regulating view of CSR). The article contributes theoretically (1) by adding a national–global dimension to previous conceptualizations of CSR and (2) by showing that the rise of CSR discourse and activities in the last 10 years does not have to imply an increased commitment and interest in corporate responsibility per se, only that there are increased societal expectations that corporations should develop the capability to act more independently as moral agents.     

Assessment of attitudes toward corporate social accountability in Britain

Few issues seem to have more long-term impact upon the relations between business and society than those of corporate attitudes toward greater public accountability, corporate behaviours in response to such attitudes, and societal reaction to those behaviours. Nevertheless, there has been relatively little rigorous behavioural research of managerial attitudes toward corporate social accountability. This empirical study researches the attitudes of management in Britain toward corporate social accountability. It assesses the corporate concern for social responsibility during the peak period of such concern by all interested parties (1974–1979). Vassilios P. Filios, B.B.A. (Athens), M. Soc. Sc. (Southampton), Ph.D. (Birmingham), has been a Research Associate of London Graduate Business School (1979–80) and a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Accounting at the University of Birmingham (1978–80). During the last years he has been teaching at the Greek Productivity Centre and the Greek Management Association, management accounting to middle and top managers of Greek enterprises. He has also been involved in organizational consultative work. He has contributed with more than fifty articles to the Greek accounting and management journals. He is the author of three books, one in Socio-Economic Accounting, one on Cost Accounting Data for Management Decisions and the third on Public Sector Accounting. Articles of Dr. Filios have also appeared in Accounting and Business Research,in the Accounting Historians Journal,the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting,the Rivista Internationale di Scienze Economiche e Commerciali,the Journal of Business Ethics, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences Journal,etc. His research interests lie in the areas of Continental accounting evolution, E.E.C. accounting developments, and on socio-economic aspects of accounting.     

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.     

Making the invisible,visible: Overcoming barriers to ESG performance with an ESG mindset

Improving corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance starts with recognizing that not every dollar of earnings is created equally, as some profit may be earned at the cost of damaging the environment or of harming stakeholder relationships. These costs are often invisible to corporate employees, as they are not recorded. To earn corporate profits that are environmentally and socially responsible, boards and CEOs must overcome two barriers: (1) the ESG issue-assessment barrier, which reflects an organization’s inability to fairly assess, prioritize, scope, and plan ESG initiatives that address the invisible environmental and social damage corporations cause, and (2) the shareholder-value barrier, which recognizes that corporate employees may resist implementing ESG initiatives owing to their entrenched belief that corporations must maximize shareholder returns. To overcome these two barriers, we propose an ESG mindset model that highlights the pitfalls relating to ESG issue assessment and to the common belief in maximizing shareholder value and then suggests tactics to overcome them. The benefits to corporations that successfully overcome the barriers and improve their corporate ESG performance are threefold: They (1) will be perceived as positively contributing to environmental and societal issues, and thereby (2) avoid accusations of greenwashing and (3) improve their standing with stakeholders.     

The effectiveness of corporate communicative responses to accusations of unethical behavior

When corporations are accused of unethical behaviour by external actors, executives from those organizations are usually compelled to offer communicative responses to defend their corporate image. To demonstrate the effect that corporate executives' communicative responses have on third parties' perception of corporate image, we present the Corporate Communicative Response Model in this paper. Of the five potential communicative responses contained in this model (no response, denial, excuse, justification, and concession), results from our empirical test demonstrate that a concession is the most effective and robust communicative option.Jeffrey L. Bradford is an Assistant Professor in the Marketing Department at Bowling Green State University. His primary research interests are in the areas of marketing ethics and public policy. His previous research has been published inJournal of Business Ethics, andJournal of Business Strategies.Dennis E. Garrett is an Associate Professor in the Marketing Department at Marquette University. His primary research interests are in the areas of marketing ethics and consumer complaints. His previous research has been published inJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Communication Monographs, andBusiness and Society Review. He is also a co-author ofMarketing Theory: Evolution and Evaluation (1988, John Wiley & Sons).     

Trickle Effects of Cross-Sector Social Partnerships

Cross-sector social partnerships are often studied from a macro and meso perspective, also in an attempt to assess effectiveness and societal impact. This article pays specific attention to the micro perspective, i.e. individual interactions between and within organizations related to partnerships that address the ‘social good’. By focusing on the potential effects and mechanisms at the level of individuals and the organization(s) with which they interact, it aims to help fill a gap in research on partnerships, including more insight into the process of interaction. We conceptually explore micro level interactions, and how partnership effects may ‘trickle down’ (e.g. from management to employees), or ‘trickle up’ (from employees to management) or ‘trickle round’ (e.g. between employees). Based on the literature from various disciplines, we discuss how more generic theories on social exchange and contagion, social learning and attraction-selection-attrition can help shed light on micro level interactions in a partnership, considering in particular transmission mechanisms via employees, top and middle management, and customers. In this way, partnerships can have wider benefits, as individuals have multiple roles and effects at the micro level can spread to the meso and macro levels as well. Implications for research and practice are outlined.     

Imperfect markets: Business ethics as an easy virtue

This paper marks a radical diversion from the large body of prevailing literature in business ethics which primarily views the issue in individual-personal terms, i.e., corporate executive and employee, and suggests that making corporations more ethical would primarily come through changes in executive behavior. While this approach has strong intellectual roots in moral philosophy and religion, it fails in explaining the persistence of unethical and illegal behavior among corporations of all sizes, financial health, competitive market conditions, and, level of individual executive compensation. This paper argues for a fundamentally different approach to understanding ethical behavior, or lack thereof, among corporations and their executives. It is asserted that an overwhelmingly large rationale and/or inducement for proactive ethical business behavior is rooted in competitive aspects of particular markets, and industry structures prevailing in those markets. Furthermore, while highly competitive markets may promote efficiency, they do not guarantee ethical behavior and may indeed provide greater opportunities and incentives for unethical business behavior. Thus, by following the current prognosis, we could be wasting enormous resources in terms of teaching business ethics, and creating and imposing corporate codes of conduct. We assert that these approaches would at best make a marginal improvement in the ethical performance of corporations while at the same time exacerbate the problem by ignoring more fundamental, structural issues. Imperfect markets, with their above-market profits, are a necessary but insufficient condition for corporations to behave ethically. It is only under conditions of imperfect markets that individual executives can play an important role in guiding their corporations toward greater ethical norms. These are undertaken for a variety of reasons, including, protecting a corporation's good name, public expectations, competitive norms, and, corporate culture and individual executive's predilections, to name a few.S. Prakash Sethi is Professor and Acting Director, Center for Management, Baruch College, The City University of New York. He has widely published in the areas of corporate social responsibility, international business, business ethics, and corporate strategy and public policy. His most recent publication isMultinational Corporations and the Impact of Public Advocacy on Corporate Strategy: Nestle and the Infant Formula Controversy (Kluwer, 1994).