Stephen Brammer

University of Bath | UB · Faculty of Management

Supporting neurodivergent‐inclusive workplaces is an increasingly important consideration in Human Resource Management (HRM). While a strengths‐based approach to neurodivergence has been advocated, empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of HRM practices that support high‐quality employment outcomes for neurodivergent people is lacking. Draw...

Purpose Drawing on paradox theory and the category of the “performing-organizing” paradox, the study investigates the tensions firms experience in the context of organizing the processes involved in managing their indirect GHG emissions. Design/methodology/approach The authors develop hypotheses to explain why the paradox elements of supply chain...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is among society’s most pernicious and impactful social issues, causing substantial harm to health and wellbeing, and impacting women’s employability, work performance, and career opportunity. Organizations play a vital role in addressing IPV, yet, in contrast to other employee- and gender-related social issues, very...

Research interest in extreme contexts was growing before the COVID‐19 pandemic and has intensified since. The climate crisis, significant geo‐political conflict, political polarization and upheaval, and economic/financial crises that present existential challenges to organizations have all contributed to rising interest in extreme‐context research....

Corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) can occur in the multinational enterprise's (MNE) domestic and international markets, thereby risking corporate reputation. However, are corporate reputations differentially influenced by the location of CSI events? Drawing on the ethnocentric bias perspective, we examine how CSI affects corporate reputations...

Whilst it is assumed that stakeholders penalize and deter corporate social irresponsibility (CSI), instances of CSI persist. Correspondingly, the literature on social regulation—which describes how non‐governmental stakeholders exert their regulatory influence on organizations—remains fragmented. To act as a springboard for future studies, this rev...

Business & Society’ s 60th anniversary affords an opportunity to reflect on the journal’s achievements in the context of the wider field. We analyze editorial commentaries to map the evolving mission of the journal, assess the achievement of the journal’s mission through a thematic analysis of published articles, and examine Business & Society’ s d...

Numerous studies have investigated the factors that drive or curb greenwashing activities, but few have discussed the other side of the coin, brownwashing, the underreporting of environmental achievements, another form of corporate decoupling that is harmful for stakeholders. Using a sample of 5459 firm–year observations over the period 2007–2017,...

This study examines the role played by Australian human resource (HR) managers in shaping organizational responses to the Covid‐19 pandemic from the perspective of paradox theory. We argue that the Covid‐19 crisis triggered a ‘societal paradox’ – protecting lives and the economy – that cascaded to organizations of all types. While studies suggest p...

Purpose This paper introduces the second part of a AAAJ special issue on accounting, accountability and management during the COVID-19 emergency. The authors analyse the themes that emerge from the second part of the special issue, which allows us to identify the diverse accounting and accountability practices across different geographical and orga...

Family firms have been associated with an enhanced propensity for corporate social responsibility (CSR), but does this imply that family firms have a reduced propensity for corporate social irresponsibility (CSI)? Drawing on the behavioural agency model (BAM) and socio‐emotional wealth (SEW) perspectives, our study explores the ‘dark side’ of famil...

Submission deadline: October 31st, 2022 CFPs at https://www.springer.com/journal/10551/updates/19656826

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the themes emerging from the first studies exploring accounting, accountability and management practices during the COVID-19 pandemic and coming from a diversity of experiences, across countries, organizations and individuals. In so doing, the paper gives an overview of the most recent findings about...

Purpose This paper aims to put forward a definition of corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) which is relevant to the study of complex organizations and in particular, the multinational enterprise (MNE). This paper then offers a framework as a foundation to discuss the institutional complexity of CSI to aid international business (IB) scholars, p...

The conversation around the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) of firms has flourished—yet perhaps surprisingly, outside of the international business (IB) strategy discipline. This chapter introduces CSR/CSI as a “grand challenge” with potential to advance the IB strategy agenda. The chapter proposes...

Purpose Drawing on Wendt’s (1995, 1999) thin constructivist approach to international relations this paper aims to critically examine how the measures taken by the Australian Government to protect the country from coronavirus (COVID-19) have prompted politicians and opinion-makers to mobilize globalizing and de-globalizing discourses towards diverg...

Despite the growth in the severity and incidence of mental health conditions (MHCs) in wider society and within workplaces, relatively little research has focused on how organizations accommodate employees’ MHCs, and how different approaches to accommodating MHCs contribute to their stigmatization. Drawing on in-depth interviews with HR managers fr...

CEOs’ social and environmental activism attracts significant public and research interest. Positioned as an expression of personal morality, such activism is potentially highly influential because of CEOs’ public visibility and associated positional and resource-based power. This paper questions the assumption that CEO activism can only be explaine...

Demographic change, improvements in medical screening and treatment, evolving patterns of work, and eroding social security systems are contributing to greater numbers of seriously and chronically ill employees within the workforce. This study builds upon research in Corporate Social Responsibility and return to work (RTW) to conceptualize responsi...

COVID-19 is profoundly affecting almost all aspects of economic and social life globally. Governments have closed borders, banned mass gatherings, and enforced social distancing, generating a new normal for businesses and individual citizens. Measures taken to protect public health have threatened the global economy, necessitating economic stimulus...

Management scholarship is increasingly paying attention to “grand challenges” such as climate and demographic changes, sociopolitical uncertainty, poverty alleviation, and global health improvement. Drawing upon a review of grand challenges research, we highlight the lack of a coherent conceptualization of a “grand challenge” and examine the divers...

Addressing climate change is among the most challenging ethical issues facing contemporary business and society. Unsustainable business activities are causing significant distributional and procedural injustices in areas such as public health and vulnerability to extreme weather events, primarily because of a distinction between primary emitters an...

This study examines the relationship between corporate irresponsibility, corporate social performance and changes in organizational reputation. By combining attribution theory with expectancy violations theory, we provide the first systematic analysis of how organizational reputations are influenced by attributions of corporate irresponsibility in...

Research on social sustainability in multi-tier supply chains is limited. Specifically, we know very little about a) the micro-processes involved in the way in which sub-suppliers (i.e., first-tier suppliers or sourcing agents) respond to the sustainability requirements imposed by their intermediaries; and b) the micro-level antecedents that condit...

We expand on the emergent research of an ethic of care (EoC) to theorize why and how an organizational EoC fosters employee involvement in sustainability-related behaviors at work. Across two studies, we explore the socio-psychological mechanisms that link an EoC and involvement in sustainability-related behaviors. The results of Study 1, in which...

In this paper we explore the role that managerial incentives play in improving corporate environmental performance, finding that greater inclusiveness of incentive beneficiaries and greater variety of incentive types are important factors in firms' incentive schemes. Drawing on a large dataset of multinational enterprises, our results suggest that...

Whereas there has been considerable interest in the concept of political corporate social responsibility (CSR), trade unions have been largely omitted from such scholarly discussion. This article explores the potential of trade unions as the other in political CSR and the contribution of trade unions to deliberative democracy with the firm. We disc...

For Aristotle, virtues are neither transcendent nor universal, but socially interdependent; they need to be understood chronologically and with respect to character and context. This paper uses an Aristotelian lens to analyse an especially interesting context in which to study virtue - the state's response when social order breaks down. During such...

This paper addresses the topic of this special symposium issue: how to enhance the impact of cross-sector partnerships. The paper takes stock of two related discussions: the discourse in cross-sector partnership research on how to assess impact and the discourse in impact assessment research on how to deal with more complex organizations and projec...

How do a country’s basic institutions enable or hinder women’s rise to the boards of public companies? The study evaluates this question with reference to the five basic institutions that research suggests are common across all countries: family, education, economy, government, and religion. The study draws on a sample, which consists of 23 countri...

In spite of the growth in the salience of climate change and environmental degradation, progress within companies in relation to reducing environmental impacts is limited and patchy. While there is growing evidence of the role of some firm and industry-level antecedents of corporate environmental performance, relatively little attention has so far...

Recent research in institutional theory has given prominence to actors' agency in strategically responding to institutional pressures, and shaping institutions themselves. Nevertheless, very little attention has been paid to how resource-deprived actors cope with institutional demands. In this study, we make a major contribution to advancing theory...

The turn of the new millennium saw considerable anticipation of improved business engagement with social and environmental responsibility. In this paper, we unearth key themes within the discourse of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as seen in the academic literature and among leading business practitioners and contrast these with the findings...

This study investigates the role of corporate social performance (CSP) within the psychological contract to better illuminate the micro-processes through which CSP promotes improved firm-stakeholder relationships. It extends the study of psychological contract breach beyond the dyadic relationship between the organization and the employee through a...

A growing body of research examines whether and how corporate social responsibility (CSR) leads to positive employee attitudes and work behaviors. While previous research suggests that CSR improves employee loyalty, motivation, satisfaction, and commitment, little research examines how CSR affects employee creativity. In addition, considerable skep...

In England, governing bodies continue to be responsible for the conduct of publicly funded schools. This article compares the governing of publicly funded primary schools (for 5–11 year olds) and secondary schools (for 11–18 year olds). The research analysed policy documents and the governing of 16 primary and 14 secondary schools. The main governa...

At the 2013 Annual Symposium of the Oxford University Centre of Corporate Reputation, a roundtable was convened to discuss the reputational dynamics surrounding corporations engaged in ethical 'grey areas', where actions are likely to be deemed as being socially irresponsible and often later result in public scandal. The presenters wrote up their c...

At the 2013 Annual Symposium of the Oxford University Centre of Corporate Reputation , a roundtable was convened to discuss the reputational dynamics surrounding corporations engaged in ethical 'grey areas', where actions are likely to be deemed as being socially irresponsible and often later result in public scandal. The presenters wrote up their...

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing corporate organisations. In this paper we study the linkages between corporate governance and environmental performance drawing on US firms' greenhouse gas emissions data from the Carbon Disclosure Project. Conceptually, our research aims to capture the complexity of the decision environment...

The governing bodies of publicly funded schools in England are currently facing a number of substantive challenges of various kinds. Many of the challenges are long-standing, while others relate to the current context for governing wrought by recent education policy developments initiated by central government. A number of the challenges are immedi...

Purpose This paper aims to explore the effect of business strategy on socially responsible supply chain management (SR‐SCM). Design/methodology/approach This study draws on data from 178 UK‐based companies, and 340 buyer‐supplier relationships. A novel data collection approach is used, which minimizes social desirability and common methods bias, t...

Environmental management represents a significant challenge for small businesses, and prior research has shown that they are typically less engaged with environmental issues than their larger counterparts. At the same time, prior research has seldom explored engagement among small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) with the wide variety of practices...

This study examines the relationship between sustainable procurement and e-procurement, two recent initiatives in public procurement in many countries. A survey of sustainable procurement and e-procurement adoption was conducted with a sample of over 280 public procurement practitioners from 20 countries and with collective responsibility for expen...

This paper seeks evidence of implicit regulation of executive pay. The implicit regulation hypothesis suggests highly visible companies will constrain their behavior to avoid potential reprisals from constituents, politicians and potential regulators. We extend this literature using a measure of corporate visibility based on the number of news stor...

What does it mean to have a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ reputation? How does it create or destroy value, or shape chances to pursue particular opportunities? Where do reputations come from? How do we measure them? How do we build and manage them? Over the last twenty years the answers to these questions have become increasingly important – and increasingly pro...

The research reported here analysed the role of the chair of the school governing body in England, drawing on a national survey of governors and the study of governing in 30 schools. The role encompassed: being a governor; appointing and working with the head teacher; acting as a change agent; active participation in the school; organising the gove...

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a pervasive topic in the business literature, but has largely neglected the role of institutions. This introductory article to the Special Issue of Socio-Economic Review examines the potential contributions of institutional theory to understanding CSR as a mode of governance. This perspective suggest...

This article reports research into the nature and functioning of school governing bodies in different socio-economic and performance contexts. The research analysed 5000 responses from a national questionnaire-based survey and undertook 30 case studies of school governing. The research confirmed that school governing in England is a complex and one...

This article reports research into the nature and functioning of school governing bodies in different socioeconomic and performance contexts. The research analysed 5000 responses from a national questionnaire-based survey and undertook 30 case studies of school governing. The research confirmed that school governing in England is a complex and oner...

While the societal salience of environmental issues appears to have risen substantially in recent years, relatively little is known regarding how environmental responsiveness has evolved over time within business in general, or within particular private sector organizations. In this study we seek to address this deficit by exploring the evolving pa...

Purpose – Public bodies are being encouraged to procure sustainably, to reduce their social and environmental footprint and in order to stimulate sustainability in the private sector. However, little is known about how public sector organisations internationally are responding to this encouragement or of the conditions that are most conducive to su...

Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: How are national institutional systems related to the proportion of women found on corporate boards of directors of companies listed in particular countries? Which particular types of national institutions play the most important role? We explore cross-country variation in the pattern of female re...

This essay attempts to provide a useful research agenda for researchers in both strategic management and business ethics. We motivate this agenda by suggesting that the two fields started with similar interests, diverged, and are beginning to converge again. We then identify several streams that hold particular promise for developing our understand...

The article presents management science research on stockholder activism, examining the response of corporations to stockholder resolutions seeking company policies aimed at contributing to social change. It is hypothesized that corporate reaction to such resolutions is largely determined by institutional influences with a business enterprise's par...

Purpose This study aims to investigate sustainable procurement in the UK public sector. Design/methodology/approach Sustainable procurement is investigated using a questionnaire that draws on established scales for “purchasing social responsibility”. The survey was administered across the UK public sector, and 106 responses were received from proc...

In this paper, we investigate the determinants of corporate reputation, derived from the assessments of managers and market analysts, of a sample of large UK firms. Along with the influences of a variety of firm attributes, we find a reputational effect associated with a female presence at board level. This effect varies across sectors and demonstr...

This study explores the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) within the context of a specific component of CSP: corporate charitable giving. A model of the determinants of the extent of corporate charitable giving is estimated and used as the basis of a classification that groups firms ac...

Over the past 20 years, the English school system has changed substantially and the work of schools is now more complicated and demanding. These changes have important implications for school governing and are likely to further complicate the management of schools in the future. A study of school governing is therefore timely and appropriate.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a snapshot of environmental management practices in the UK and discuss managerial responses to environmental issues in comparison with earlier research. Design/methodology/approach A telephone interview survey approach is adopted encompassing both quantitative and qualitative open‐ended questions wit...