Laura J. SpenceKing's College London | KCL · King's Business School
Laura J. Spence
PhD, European Business Ethics
About
122
Publications
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Introduction
Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences;
International Research Fellow, Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation;
Visiting Fellow, Kellogg College, University of Oxford;
Consulting Editor, Journal of Business Ethics
Additional affiliations
September 2008 - present
September 1999 - September 2008
April 1997 - August 1998
Publications
Publications (122)
This article critiques Porter and Kramer's concept of creating shared value. The strengths of the idea are highlighted in terms of its popularity among practitioner and academic audiences, its connecting of strategy and social goals, and its systematizing of some previously underdeveloped, disconnected areas of research and practice. However, the c...
This paper seeks to expand business and society research in a number of ways. Its primary purpose is to redraw two core CSR theories (stakeholder theory and Carroll’s CSR pyramid), enhancing their relevance for small business. This is done by the application of the ethic of care, informed by the value of feminist perspectives and the extant empiric...
This paper examines how the introduction of sustainability accounting has been used by an organization as a means to seek to govern social, economic and environmental issues relating to suppliers. The concept of governmentality and four analytics of government are proposed as a means to examine systematic ways of exercising power and authority. Thi...
Based on the findings of a qualitative empirical study of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Swiss
MNCs and SMEs, we suggest that smaller firms are not necessarily less advanced in organizing CSR than large firms. Results according to theoretically derived assessment frameworks illustrate the actual implementation status of CSR in organizatio...
Business ethics is the study of the moral rules and perspectives in use in organizations, particularly market actors. With roots in both applied moral philosophy and the study of social issues in management and business, it is a diverse and interdisciplinary field offering rich perspectives on how, why, and whether businesses, other organizations,...
This introduction, and the special issue on 'Contesting social responsibilities of business: Experiences in context' it frames, addresses the neglected question of the experience of contestation in the terrain of the social responsibilities of business. It re-conceptualises the social responsibilities of business by advancing research grounded in a...
Recognizing the potential contributions businesses can make to address the grand challenge of global poverty, management scholars have increasingly turned research attention to poverty. We conducted an integrative review of poverty studies in the organizational literature spanning from 1985 to 2022. Based on the review, we clarify poverty as a sign...
While corporate social responsibility (CSR) research is now impressively broad, we identify fresh opportunities at the intersection of feminist and critical analysis to reframe this field as a force for good. We focus on the epistemological grounding of CSR in its potential to understand and change how managerial activity is interpreted and influen...
Business Ethics starts with a description and analysis of business ethics. The first part begins with an introduction to business ethics. Next, the text frames business ethics within the contexts of corporate responsibility, stakeholders, and citizenship. Business ethics is then evaluated using normative ethical theories. The text then looks at mak...
This chapter highlights the ethical issues arising in relation to firms' suppliers and competitors. It looks at the problems such as conflict of interest, bribery, and unfair competition, and moves on to discuss the global supply-chain and ethical sourcing. The chapter also narrates the ethical challenges of global business networks, including from...
This chapter presents an alternative way of addressing questions of ethical decision-making by looking at how decisions are actually made in business ethics, and by assessing the various descriptive theories in the literature. It specifies the characteristics of a decision with ethical content, and defines a basic ethical decision-making model. The...
This chapter talks about government and regulation. The government as a stakeholder, as the chapter defines it, is a very multifaceted group. The chapter unfolds the government at various levels, functions, and areas. It investigates problems such as corruption and corporate lobbying, and explores the shifting relationships between regulation, gove...
This chapter sets out the key normative ethical theories that can be applied to business ethics problems, in terms of both traditional and contemporary theoretical approaches. It addresses Western modernist ethical theories, i.e. utilitarianism, ethics of duty, rights and justice, and social contract theory. The array of ethical theories discussed...
This chapter sums up the role, meaning, and importance of business ethics, including emergent themes. It identifies the emerging themes of gender and other inequalities, alternative business models, and digitalization. The chapter also tackles the influence of globalization on business ethics and the value of the notion of sustainability. It then s...
This chapter sets out the rights and responsibilities of shareholders, emphasizing the ethical issues that arise in the area of corporate governance including insider trading, executive remuneration, and ethics of private equity. It focuses on the different corporate governance models across the globe, and the specific role played by shareholders i...
This chapter studies ethical issues in relation to employees and workers. Focusing on the specific role of employees and workers as a stakeholder, the chapter addresses the various rights and duties of this stakeholder group, and presents the global context of workers' rights. The chapter also discusses corporate citizenship and sustainability in r...
This chapter focuses on the ways of framing business ethics in the context of the corporation being part of a wider society. It investigates why corporations have social responsibilities, then explains corporate social responsibility in terms of its levels, strategies, and outcomes. The chapter also offers an overview of concepts such as stakeholde...
This chapter displays a critical examination of proposals for managing business ethics through specific tools, techniques, practices, and processes. It explores the nature, evolution, and scope of business ethics management. The chapter also investigates why firms manage their social expectations alongside employee ethical behaviour. It then consid...
This chapter looks at the ethical issues arising in the context of consumers. It analyzes the question of consumer rights, the ideal of consumer sovereignty, and the role of ethical consumption in shaping corporate responsibility. The chapter then shifts to review the impact of globalization on responsibilities towards consumers. It evaluates the a...
This chapter shows the relationships between businesses and civil society organizations (CSOs), addressing the changing patterns of relationships between these traditionally adversarial institutions. It looks at the role played by various types of CSOs as stakeholders of corporations, both directly and indirectly. The chapter also explores the ethi...
This chapter presents a basic introduction to the concept of business ethics and its importance both at an academic level and in terms of practical management in different types of organizations. It starts by describing the relationship between business ethics and the law, then distinguishes between ethics, morality, and ethical theory. The chapter...
This introductory textbook explores key issues and recent discussions within the field of corporate sustainability and social responsibility, through theoretical and practical perspectives. Written by an international team of experts, the chapters introduce the actors and corporate processes that shape firms' management of environmental, social and...
This chapter seeks to add greater nuance to discussion of the values of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), the most common type of client for accounting firms, by means of focusing on the plurality of SME values orientations. Through drawing on qualitative research in the South West of England, four case studies are presented which provide...
Worker hostels or dormitories are common in labour-intensive industries staffed largely by migrant labour and have long been associated with exploitative practices. More recently, hostels have come under scrutiny due to accusations that they are used to restrict workers’ freedom in ways that are tantamount to modern slavery. Drawing on a qualitativ...
Research on socially responsible supply chains has tended to define suppliers over‐simplistically as either responsible or irresponsible. This paper illuminates the varied roles of broadly socially responsible small and medium sized enterprises by seeking to discern the differences and highlight the heterogeneity of the approaches taken. Distinguis...
Involvement is an important element of good research and a route to impact. In line with early organizational analysis, we advocate involvement with research stakeholders and investing in the necessary communication and rhetorical skills.
This paper investigates how and under what conditions polluting SMEs (small‐scale firms that produce or deal with environmentally sensitive goods such as plastics, hazardous chemicals, textiles, and rawhides) in developing countries address the environmental issues related to their activities—a broadly neglected and under‐studied research agenda. U...
In this paper we explore the environmental attitudes of polluting SMEs (small‐scale firms that produce or deal with environmentally sensitive goods) from the perspective of owner/managers in a low‐income developing country context. Utilising extensive qualitative data from SMEs operating in two of the most polluting industries in Bangladesh—leather...
Executive summary This report focuses on the South Indian garment industry clustered around Tirupur and specifically on the labour challenges faced by the industry. We conducted 135 interviews and engaged in a series of consultations with around 100 further participants (including business actors, workers, NGOs, unions, and government agencies) in...
This paper advances stakeholder salience theory from the viewpoint of small businesses. It is argued that the stakeholder salience process for small businesses is influenced by their local embeddedness, captured by the idea of social proximity, and characterised by multiple relationships that the owner-manager and stakeholders share beyond the busi...
Private organizations increasingly wield public authority, with substantial impact on the lives of individual persons. Such authority is often paired with enhanced public scrutiny and decreased trust in the relevant organization, leading to a loss of legitimacy. This paper uses sports governing bodies to contribute to the literature on governance b...
Businesses that promote corporate social responsibility (CSR) through their supply chains by requiring their suppliers to report on and otherwise communicate their CSR are doing a great thing, aren’t they? In this article, we challenge this assumption by focusing on the impact on small and medium sized enterprise (SME) suppliers when their large cu...
Small business social responsibility (SBSR) related research is rapidly increasing in quantity but is found in divergent literatures and disciplines. It is time to offer a comprehensive review that identifies, synthesises, and integrates previous research, and highlights the knowledge gaps and the way forward. Our methodical search of the literatur...
The purpose of this research is to analyze how governance is related to sustainability and innovation in mega-events over time by looking at the Olympic Games as a case study. Three main contributions are made to management research and practice. First, Foucauldian governmentality is built upon and enriched with a longitudinal perspective by follow...
Jump to sectionABSTRACTIntroductionUnderstanding work ethic and moral energy through LebensführungWork ethic literature within a Turkish contextMethodologyFindingsMoral energy: a rational and secular conceptMoral energy: a shared/communicated conceptMoral energy: an action-oriented conceptDiscussionConclusion
This paper explores the hitherto neglec...
Small businesses in developing countries, as part of global supply chains, are sometimes assumed to respond in a straightforward manner to institutional demands for improved working conditions. This article problematizes this perspective. Drawing upon extensive qualitative data from Tirupur’s knitwear export industry in India, we highlight owner-ma...
In this paper we address two interrelated research gaps in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) literature. The first results from a lack of understanding of different patterns of CSR engagement with respect to CSR talk (impression management and the creation of symbolic images and documentation) and CSR walk (substantive implementation of CSR...
the chapter presents current knowledge and concerns around metrics, data management and sustainable accounting for measuring resource efficiency across supply chain stages, making the case that more clarification is needed in the area of efficiency indicators both at government and industry level
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is steadily moving from the margins to the mainstream across the spectrum of private companies, NGOs and the public sector. It has grown from being a concept embraced by a small number of companies such as The Body Shop in the early 1990s to a widespread global movement. At its weakest level, it is represented...
In this paper we argue for the need to consider the gap between communication about, and implementation of, corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a political process and use Foucault’s concept of governmentality as a means to problematize such processes. We do this by (a) emphasizing the contested and conflictual aspects of CSR accountability, c...
Social capital has as its key element the value of social relationships to generate positive outcomes, both for the key parties involved and for wider society. Some authors have noted that social capital nevertheless has a dark side. There is a moral element to such a conceptualisation, yet there is scarce discussion of ethics within the social cap...
This editorial to the special issue addresses the often overlooked question of the ethical nature of social enterprises. The emerging social entrepreneurship literature has previously been dominated by enthusiasts who fail to critique the social enterprise, focusing instead on its distinction from economic entrepreneurship and potential in solving...
Shared value, the concept popularized by Porter and Kramer in the Harvard Business Review (Porter & Kramer, 2006, 2011), seeks explicitly to address the task of regaining trust and purpose for business and the broader institution of capitalism in the current age of crisis. “The capitalist system is under siege”, the authors contend, “…learning how...
This is chapter one from the textbook Corporate Social Responsibility: Readings and Cases in Global Context written by Crane, Matten and Spence. It presents a comprehensive introduction to corporate social responsibility, including its rise to prominence, definition, and manifestation in different organizational and national contexts. A framework o...
In this paper we address two research gaps in the extant Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) literature. The first gap results from a lack of understanding of different patterns of CSR engagement with respect to CSR communication and implementation. The second gap concerns limited knowledge about the influence of firm size on CSR engagement. We d...
This book is the first of its kind – a global overview of extant research on ethics in small and medium sized enterprises. While vast amounts of corporate money, government policy and media time are directed at the social and ethical activities of large corporations, small businesses don’t generally attract the spotlight. This is wildly inappropria...
The notion of stakeholder salience based on attributes (e.g., power, legitimacy, urgency) is applied in the family business setting. We argue that where principal institutions intersect (i.e., family and business); managerial perceptions of stakeholder salience will be different and more complex than where institutions are based on a single dominan...
In this paper we outline the status quo of ethics and social responsibility in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in
the European Union (EU). Social issues and SMEs is an established topic of research and subject of policy-making in Europe,
and thus in this paper we are able to draw on existing activities to summarise what we know about the...
This book is the first of its kind – a global overview of extant research on ethics in small and medium sized enterprises. While vast amounts of corporate money, government policy and media time are directed at the social and ethical activities of large corporations, small businesses don’t generally attract the spotlight. This is wildly inappropria...
In this chapter scope the relationship between entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Both entrepreneurship and CSR have attracted increased interest in the early 21st century and been positioned as offering solutions to economic, social and environmental challenges. Previous attempts to determine causal influence between the t...
Within the business ethics field, the presumption of the unit of analysis as a large firm has always been the norm. In recent
years, however, recognition that this narrow approach is inappropriate has been rising. Journal special issues on the topic
of smaller businesses and ethics can be found in both business, and ethics journals, but have been r...
Reciprocity is a theoretical framework that has a substantial pedigree, being a recurring concept in many religions and philosophical approaches. It is also an important aspect of organizational life. Inter-generational succession in family enterprises is the most critical determinant of their long-term survival (Morris et al., 1997). Reciprocal be...
Drawing on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, this article explores the relation
between practice and activity; between recruitment practice and the ordinary activities of
the job interview. Job interviews are recognizably and accountably different from other
interview-formats, such as broadcast news or academic research interviews. Such d...
Objectives: (1) To provide a constructive critique of the interface between the entrepreneurial growth dynamics research and social responsibility literatures; (2) to explore opportunities for making new connections between these literatures in order to address substantive ‘gaps’ in research and policy-making ; (3) to map the broader intellectual t...
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the evolution from corporate social responsibility to supply chain responsibility via the examination of Waitrose, a leading UK food retailer. These two concepts differ substantially and illustrate contrasting approaches in terms of social responsibility development and application.
Design/methodology/approac...
This paper focuses on the social dynamics of unilaterally determined social responsibility standards. These are put in the context of large customers in a supply chain determining company-specific standards, compliance with which is then a requirement for suppliers. We draw a brief comparison between multilaterally derived standards (such as those...
The paper investigates the evolution from corporate social responsibility to supply chain responsibility via the examination of a leading UK food retailer. These two concepts differ substantially and illustrate contrasting approaches in terms of social responsibility development and application. A qualitative case study methodology is used where ma...
Business Ethics Quarterly: Stakeholder Theory, Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility & Family Enterprise - Volume 18 Issue 4 - Bradley R. Agle, James J. Chrisman, Ronald K. Mitchell, Laura J. Spence
It is not a coincidence that every red rose is coloured. No rose can be red without being coloured. A red rose is coloured in virtue of its being red, its being coloured is metaphysically explained by its being red. This is, at least in part, underwritten by what it is for the rose to be coloured, by the nature – or essence – of its being coloured....
Computer mediated communication, in particular email, is of particular importance in the Higher Education sector. In this paper, research at one Higher Education Institution on the ethical use of email is presented. Focus groups were used to gather data on the impact of email, on current patterns of use, and on perceptions of ethical use. Using the...
"Social capital" can be considered to be the product of co-operationbetween various institutions, networks and business partners. It haspotential as a useful tool for business ethics. In this article weidentify categories pertinent to the measurement of social capital insmall and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). By drawing on three differentsectors...
"Social capital" can be considered to be the product of co-operationbetween various institutions, networks and business partners. It haspotential as a useful tool for business ethics. In this article weidentify categories pertinent to the measurement of social capital insmall and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). By drawing on three differentsectors...
Stakeholder theory is a necessary approach to managing successful firms in today's complex economic, social, ethical and environmental context.
Strategists wishing to apply stakeholder theory need to have a full understanding of the intricacies of this developing concept.
A thorough application of stakeholder management requires a culture of openne...
In this paper we report on empirical research which investigates social capital of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Bringing an international perspective to the work, we make a comparison between 30 firms located in West London and Munich in the sectors of food manufacturing/production, marketing services and garages. Here we present 6 ca...
Traditionally, the term "scholarship" has been narrowly defined as discovery-based research. Teaching in higher education, by contrast, is perceived as an intellectually inferior activity. However, the teaching-research divide is a crude distinction which fails to capture the richness of scholarly endeavour in all disciplines. Drawing on Boyer''s f...
In this editorial to a collection of papers on ethics in small firms, the case is made for greater use of high quality empirical research on business ethics. Sociological perspectives have much to offer to the field of business ethics that continues to be dominated by normative, moral philosophy. The second contribution of the paper is to argue for...
Questions
Questions (4)
I am concerned by the tendency to promote the business case for corporate social responsibility in a blinkered way. I wrote this blog for Copenhagen Business School's Business of Society Blog on Petrified Narratives of CSR - that is, how the obsession with the business case is blocking a more holistic and complex understanding of the social role of business. http://blog.cbs.dk/BOS/?p=268 This also relates to my critique with colleagues of Porter & Kramer's Creating Shared Value: Crane, A., Palazzo, G., Spence, L.J. and Matten, D. (2014) ‘Contesting the Value of ‘Creating Shared Value’. California Management Review, Winter/February, 56(2), 130-153 (Including response from Porter & Kramer and our counter-response).
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260383052_Contesting_the_Value_of_Creating_Shared_Value Comments are welcome!
Laura
I am writing about social entrepreneurship from an ethical perspective at the moment and am arguing that 'social does not necessarily equal ethical'. It is a kind of easy, superficial assumption to bundle social initiatives into an ethical approach, but most research on social enterprise does not address this directly. I think there is a case for much more ethically robust analysis of social enterprise (indeed I am working now on a special issue of Journal of Business Ethics on this topic, hence the question). I would welcome any thoughts on this.
'Creating Shared Value' (Porter & Kramer 2011) has been enormously successful in the literature. With colleagues I have been reflecting seriously on this concept, not least since its adoption in industry and scholarship has tended to be rather uncritical. Our work has just come out in the California Management Review, but we would really like to hear from colleagues and practitioners how they view CSV with a critical eye, both in the positive and the negative sense. The pre-print version is on my ResearchGate page. In CMR our article has a response from Porter & Kramer and a counter-response from us. If anyone is interested in the article see Crane, A., Palazzo, G., Spence, L.J. and Matten, D. (2014) ‘Contesting the Value of ‘Creating Shared Value’. California Management Review, Winter/February, 56(2), 130-153.
I ask because some of my business ethics students really get into the ethical theory and I want to give them the chance to learn more on theory but not redirect them to moral philosophy more generally, which would take them outside the realms of the course. What I need is a business ethics text with ethical theory, explained in a decent amount of detail, which is still applied to business. So I want more than just a summary chapter on ethical theory. I am also looking for something which is global in perspective, not focused on one country or region.
