企业社会责任履行的动力机制研究

近年来,随着食品安全、社会环境和道德伦理问题的日益严重,企业社会责任已经受到企业管理者与学术研究者的普遍关注。从企业的外部压力和自我认知视角分析企业社会责任履行的主要影响因素包括利益相关者压力、制度压力和伦理领导。实证结果表明,利益相关者压力和制度压力对企业社会责任履行均具有显著的正向影响。在伦理领导方面,变革型领导对社会责任履行具有显著的正向影响,而事务型领导对社会责任履行并不具有显著影响,企业规模调节了利益相关者压力和制度压力对企业社会责任履行的影响作用。     

Stakeholding: Confusion or Utopia? Mapping the Conceptual Terrain

The paper has three main objectives. The first aim is to examine and clarify the burgeoning stakeholder literature that currently seeks to inform management practice, corporate governance and public policy with particular emphasis on the UK. We do this by continuing the process of clarification started by Donaldson and Preston (1995), focusing mainly on the political and practitioner literature generated within the UK. We begin this task by setting out a critique of stakeholding and develop this by using four key themes of enquiry. First, we examine stakeholding’s conceptual confusion; second, we outline and develop criticism of its underlying pluralist assumptions; third, we consider the problems of implementation; and finally, we assess some of the key arguments concerning its potential impact on business performance and competitiveness. The second aim is to develop and examine the central criticisms of stakeholding from both the neo‐liberal and Marxist/radical perspectives. By so doing we identify the key theoretical and practical issues which stakeholder proponents must address if they are to convince sceptics of the model’s validity. The third aim is to develop a conceptual framework capable of illustrating the different stakeholder perspectives and assumptions on which they are based. This consists of five continuums: the first locates authors on a left–right political continuum; the second distinguishes between those authors who use stakeholding primarily for analysis and those who use it to formulate and prescribe specific courses of action; the third differentiates between intrinsic (good in itself) and instrumental (means to an end) motives; the fourth identifies the various levels of proposed intervention; and the fifth illustrates the different degrees of enforcement advocated. We believe that this framework provides a clear illustration of our arguments and serves as a useful instrument for clarifying the stakeholder concept. In addition, it is used to position or map the work of key authors within the stakeholder debate and we believe it may provide a more coherent basis for future research and debate.     

Corporate Social Responsibility: Three Key Approaches

abstract    Corporate social responsibility remains an embryonic and contestable concept. This paper assesses three key approaches and offers a perspective gauging little prospect of theoretical synthesis. Ethical responsibility theory advocates strong corporate self-restraint and altruism duties and expansive public policy strengthening stakeholder rights. Economic responsibility theory advocates market wealth creation subject only to minimalist public policy and perhaps customary business ethics. These two viewpoints embed competing moral frameworks and political philosophies. Any theoretical synthesis must discover some subset of ethical principles yielding corporate competitive advantage. Corporate citizenship language invokes a political metaphor providing neither true intermediate positioning nor theoretical synthesis. Two conflicting interpretations abandon responsibility language without adopting the economic viewpoint. An instrumental citizenship interpretation expands philanthropy as a strategic lever for increasing corporate reputation and market opportunities while retaining managerial discretion. An ideal citizenship interpretation restates ethical responsibility into voluntarism language intended to influence managerial discretion concerning universal human rights.     

Commitment Strategies for Sustainability: How Business Firms Can Transform Trade‐Offs Into Win–Win Outcomes

This paper addresses a fundamental problem in corporate sustainability: How can corporations transform trade‐offs through win–win‐oriented governance strategies aimed at creating value? Drawing on new strands of research in business ethics, we employ an ‘ordonomic’ perspective and proceed in four steps. First, we sketch how sustainability semantics has evolved historically from a societal searchlight to a heuristics for business practice. Second, we discuss how business firms can make strategic use of moral commitments as governance contributions by deploying individual or collective self‐commitments as well as commitment services in their stakeholder relations. Third, we combine these four governance strategies with the three ESG (‘ecological, social and governance’) criteria of sustainability. We derive and illustrate with real‐life examples a 12‐box matrix as a tool for the strategic management of corporate sustainability. Fourth, we discuss the specific contribution of our ordonomic approach to the literature. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

The impact of stakeholder orientation on sustainability and cost prevalence in supplier selection decisions

The stakeholder approach has taken a prominent role in the discussion of sustainability measures at varying strategic levels and corporate functions. Literature on sustainability suggests that firms have to cope with enhanced pressure from different stakeholder groups regarding their upstream supply management practices. At the same time purchasing managers face the trade-off between sustainability and cost prevalence in selecting new suppliers. Thus, it is of major concern for companies in general and purchasing organizations in particular to know and understand how purchasing managers react to the influence of specific stakeholder groups when it comes to supplier selection decisions. Following this notion we formulate six sets of hypotheses linking the adoption of ethical business culture to the prevalence of sustainability and cost criteria in supplier selection decisions to be tested in a path analytical model.Based on the results of an empirical study conducted with purchasing managers from multi-national firms located in Germany, this paper makes two major contributions: first, it sheds light on direct effects of shareholder, public, and customer orientation on the evaluation of the outlined-trade off; second, it investigates the indirect effects by introducing the formalization of ethical culture as a mediating variable to assess the impact of the three kinds of shareholder orientation on the propensity to select suppliers based on their performance in terms of social and environmental criteria as well as cost performance.     

The Governance of Accounting Academia: Issues for a Debate

Abstract

Philosophy and sociology of science have devoted significant attention to processes which define what counts as valid scientific knowledge thus making the producers of such knowledge legitimate academics at the expense of those who do not conform to the cliché. In accounting, too, a vibrant debate has augmented our understanding of the conditions which make certain kinds of accounting knowledge more acceptable than others. The debate included, but was not limited to, issues such as, the institutional arrangements of accounting academic associations and doctoral training regimes and how these shape journals' editorial boards and the selection of published articles. This introduction aims to reopen that debate on the two realms of institutions and practices. In terms of institutional arrangements, we note relevant changes in the forces which contribute to define the quality and relevance of accounting knowledge. We discuss the institutional space towards which accounting departments and scholars are increasingly migrating, that is, business schools. These are often separated from universities and operate under pressures which are sometimes only marginally academic in nature. In terms of practices, we observe changes in academic training regimes which favour the proliferation of opportunistic behaviours. These changes call for a debate on the governance of accounting academia, if academia is to be a knowledge and ethical, and not simply rather a business enterprise.     

Stakeholder management in sustainable supply chains: A case study of the bioenergy industry

Engaging with stakeholders and managing their issues when striving for a sustainable supply chain (SC) is a significant challenge. Although most studies on sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) consider stakeholder management necessary, little is known about related stakeholder management practices in SSCM. Thus, this paper seeks to enrich the theoretical debate on stakeholder management practices in SSCM through a case study approach to bioenergy SCs in Chile. Based on 28 interviews with SC actors and representatives from the surrounding stakeholder environment, the deductive–inductive analysis reveals that stakeholder management combines different practices to discuss stakeholder concerns, address them, and evaluate the process at the SC's external and internal levels. We propose structuring these practices based on two dimensions: “practices to address stakeholder requirements” and “practices whereby stakeholders are integrated.” The analysis' results indicate that although two-way communication with stakeholders can be seen as the core of stakeholder management, a certain willingness to learn and transform SC design is a prerequisite for true orientation toward stakeholder management in SSCM. Additionally, linkage development and local anchoring are practices used to obtain further legitimacy at the external level. Building on these findings, this study can guide practitioners in engaging with stakeholders and managing their issues across the SC.     

Corporate Responsibility and Identity: from a Stakeholder to an Awareness Approach

Firms are encouraged to manage their corporate responsibility and identity in accordance with the popular stakeholder theory. Managers are, however, confronted with the complexity of the praxis and related ethical dilemmas, as the expectations of their external stakeholders may be myriad, ambiguous and self‐contradictory, or even non‐existent in the global and dynamic business contexts. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to (a) review and critically discuss the stakeholder approach in striving for a responsible identity and (b) introduce an alternative approach that can address its inadequacies and shortcomings. The study outlines an alternative theorem, the awareness approach to responsible identity. In the conclusions, the article proposes how firms can adopt a responsible identity that leads to a desired image and reputation, and maps out further research opportunities. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Seizing the Ethical High Ground: Ethical Reputation Building in Corrupt Environments

We study how ethical behaviour by firms leads to ethical reputation building. Based on our in‐depth studies of two firms in India and Zimbabwe that resisted corruption and survived for extended time periods, we propose that in addition to behaving ethically, firms need to elicit favourable responses from a critical mass of stakeholders from both strong and weak tie networks in order for their ethical reputations to diffuse quickly and widely. We find that the strength of stakeholder responses to ethical behaviour is moderated by firm level and contextual factors: high status affiliations, industry characteristics, the nature of corruption resisted, the presence of a plural press, the potential for collective action, and the presence of an independent judiciary. These antecedents also influence the pattern of stakeholder resource commitments that firms are able to enjoy as a result of having built ethical reputations.     

Adding ethical consideration to the decision‐making process: A leadership challenge

Stakeholder analysis offers a well‐established framework for understanding organizational context and environment. Stakeholder analysis also offers a lens through which ethical considerations can be consciously evaluated and included in organizational decision making. In this article, the author offers a brief overview of the ethics literature and then examines the decision‐making process to identify how and when opportunities arise to include ethical considerations into the decision‐making process. He concludes by offering suggestions on how leaders might improve their ethical decision‐making by using a more macro and strategic stakeholder lens.     

Facilitating sustainable development decisions: measuring stakeholder reactions

Sustainable development is an issue of increasing importance, in which organizations must engage multiple stakeholders and consider their objectives when deciding on organizational actions, but research provides little guidance regarding how managers can measure stakeholder reactions and use information to facilitate decision‐making. The broad objective of this study is to provide insights useful for decision‐making. In this study, we investigate in its natural and complex environment a real‐world sustainable development conflict – whether to expand energy development in Wyoming. The primary issue is the impact that expanding energy development will have on wildlife and the environment. We collect data from both the local community and a broader national population for use in a quantitative analysis. We use contingent valuation methods to capture the social impact ascribed by the stakeholders. We conclude with a discussion of how this information can be used ex ante to inform decision‐making for sustainable development. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Environmentally Sustainable Development through Stakeholder Engagement in Developed and Emerging Countries

This cross‐country study investigates the antecedents and outcomes of corporate environmental responsibility (CER) practices in developed and emerging countries. Based on stakeholder and institutional theory, we conducted an empirical study among firms in Germany, USA, India and China. We found support for a significant positive relationship between regulatory, market and social stakeholder influences, CER practices and business outcomes in the total and individual country samples. Regarding country differences, our data reveal significant similarities and differences between developed and emerging countries. Market stakeholder influences are stronger in developed countries, whereas regulatory and social stakeholder influences do not differ significantly between the two country groups. The relationship between CER practices and positive business outcomes is stronger in emerging than in developed countries. Implications for institutional theory and organizations are outlined. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Leveraging the employee voice: a multi-level social learning perspective of ethical leadership

Extending social learning theory to a multi-level perspective, this study proposes a theoretical model that investigates both individual and team-level mechanisms that mediate the effect of ethical leadership on employee voice. Specifically, in terms of an individual-level social learning perspective, we suggest that an ethical leader acts as a prototype of a moral person (i.e. an ethical role model). From a team-level social learning perspective, we propose that, as a moral manager, team ethical leadership will foster an ethical climate within the team which will create a moral context that impacts employees’ behaviors. In both instances, employee voice behaviors will be enhanced through these mechanisms. Evidencing the importance of the interaction between leader behaviors and context for leader effectiveness, we also show that employees are more likely to regard their ethical leaders as ethical role models in a team that highly values ethical conduct (i.e. high in ethical climate). Results obtained from 47 managers and 211 subordinates in China support our theoretical model. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are also discussed.     

Stakeholder engagement and environmental strategy – the case of climate change

Many management studies analyze stakeholder pressures and corresponding corporate strategies in the context of the natural environment. This study investigates the role of the sources of stakeholder pressures and additional contextual factors for choosing an environmental strategy. By focusing on climate change as an important ecological challenge, four general response strategies to greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction pressures are empirically derived and discussed. The analysis is based on a global survey that includes 141 companies across eight different GHG emission‐intensive industries. It is found that organizations' response strategies do not relate to individual stakeholder groups, but rather the organization's level of pollution measured as its GHG intensity is identified to have an influence on the environmental strategy. We discuss important implications for stakeholder theory as well as policy makers and suggest areas for future research. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

What makes businesses commit to nature conservation?

To halt the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, various actors including companies need to engage, but it is not yet clear what drives voluntary business commitments. We explore leverage points that might increase corporate action for conservation. We apply a structural equation model based on the theory of planned behaviour to analyse data from 618 German companies, collected through an online-survey in 2019. We show that a favourable attitude, driven by perceived business relevance and benefit prospects, fosters engagement. Perceived difficulties, such as lacking finances and knowledge, hinder the engagement. Customers, employees and the general public are presently the only stakeholder groups that drive corporate conservation engagement. Nevertheless, the expectation levels of virtually all stakeholders were found to be quite low and as such inadequate for the ecological crisis we face. We discuss how political will and goal setting can encourage more widespread business support for the natural environment.     

The constancy of ethics amidst the changing world of work

The dramatic changes of the past 25 years in the nature and conditions of work, including the globalization of organizations and the introduction of a strategic as opposed to employee-centered conception of HR have impacted the ways in which moral problems are manifested. But the paradigmatic forms taken by those problems, the character traits and motives needed to recognize them as such, the ethical reasoning used to address them, as well as the substance of the ethical principles on which such reasoning is based are all essentially unaffected and still pertain. Also discussed are distinctions among the variety of behaviors constituting the moral domain (incivility, intentional anti-organizational acts, and ethical failings); micro-versus macro-conceptualizations of “business ethics”; and formalistic versus principled mechanisms for promoting ethical organizational behavior. Viewed as critical is moral leadership from senior executives in creating salient ethical organizational cultures and climates.     

企业社会责任特征对员工绿色行为的影响:基于道德决策的机制模型

员工绿色行为作为提升组织环保绩效、促进企业可持续发展的关键因素,越来越多的学者对其进行了深入探讨。然而,现有研究大多从态度、动机和领导者行为等方面考察员工绿色行为的形成过程,忽视了组织特征因素,以及员工内在的道德认知和道德情绪因素的共同作用。本文基于道德决策理论,从理性道德认知和非理性道德情绪出发,建构企业社会责任特征与员工绿色行为的关系模型,并分析员工的道德认知与道德情绪交互作用对员工绿色行为的即时影响。研究结果将从道德决策视角拓展员工绿色行为的理论版图;实践上为培育员工的生态素养、激发员工绿色行为寻求道德动力,为组织环保实践和绿色可持续发展提供管理依据和策略。     

The economic and non-economic dimensions of social entreprises’ moral discourse: an issue of axiological and philosophical coherence

This paper focuses on the ethical frameworks of social enterprises, out of two basic organizational documents which are unveiling the corporate moral discourse (codes of ethics and values statements). Three types of well-known social entreprises have been chosen : (1) charitable clubs and associations ; (2) cooperatives and mutuals ; (3) conventional private sector foundations. The main contribution of the article is to present the basic connections between social enterprises’moral discourses and some philosophical schools of thought. The paper show how the moral discourse of social entreprises is more or less philosophically coherent. Rational coherence could be applied to values (axiological coherence), or to the philosophical grounds of the discourse (philosophical coherence). The ethical framework of social entreprises is conveying business concerns as well as socially-focused and philosophically-rooted concerns. It is both enhancing economic (business-focused) and non-economic (social) aims. The philosophical challenge of social entreprises is to build up sense of collective identity, without having an ambiguous moral discourse. The moral discourse of social entreprises should have an inner coherence : the various documents (such as the code of ethics and the values statement) should enhance the same set of values. Moreover, if social entrepreneurs are unable to provide a basic philosophical orientation to their corporate moral discourse, then they will not contribute to any social change, since their moral discourse will not be trusted by anyone who is carefully reading the main organizational sources of corporate moral discourse.