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Corporate Social Responsibility Definitions and Practice in Emerging Economies Corporate Social Responsibility Definitions and Practice in Emerging Economies

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  • Rivers State University
  • ProLeap Consulting
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Abstract

This chapter looks at the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), specifically in terms of the diverse definitions and perspectives of it that currently exist within emerging economies. This is explored from its foundation and the interaction between business and society across different emerging economies. This discourse is linked to the interplay between corporate governance and corporate social responsibility across emerging economies. This is hinged on the influences of both the academia and industry, as the definitions of the former does contribute to the practical application of the concept by practitioners and vice versa. The chapter is divided into three sections, which are definitions, perspectives, and case studies, with each of these focusing on the issues as they affect the theme of the chapter.

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... The implication of these practices to organizations is that it not only allows them create economic value for themselves but also strengthen business-society interdependency, and creates healthy ecosystems. Lebura and Okoroba (2021) have argued that there are different perspectives to the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility especially in the emerging economies. These perspectives are CSR as philanthropy, CSR as a vehicle for filling institutional voids, CSR as public relations, CSR as a transactional relationship and CSR as a business strategy. ...
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The book gives companies a "how to" guide for addressing the twin problems of maintaining political legitimacy, and promoting sustainable development. The text presents a typology of stakeholder networks that helps managers and community leaders identify and improve the social capital patterns in their own networks. Once they know these patterns, they can move their networks towards those that foster sustainable community development. The book describes vivid cases in which managers and community stakeholders have used the authors' approach successfully, and in addition provides managers with handy tools for predicting and avoiding community-level socio-political risk around stakeholder issues. With its proven and practical approach, Stakeholder Politics promises to be a valuable guide for managers and academics who are invested in sustainable development worldwide and stakeholder issues alike.
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A Planetary Bargain to Promote Social and Economic Development as We Move into the Next Millennium Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) now matters and has taken root at an even faster pace than envisaged when the hardback version of this book was written some four years ago. Encroaching on CSR are other concepts such as corporate sustainability, corporate citizenship as well as the older concerns with business ethics and the ethical corporation. I devote sections of the book explaining the main differences and similarities between these concepts. This significantly revised version of the earlier book updates the material with some of the most important developments since that time and also reflects the author’s new ideas since these have also evolved with time. It also reflects the change from 'CSR comes of age', the sub-title of the earlier book, to a broader concern with 'CSR matters '. As unemployment remains stubbornly high in most of the richest nations of the world, poverty persists in the developing nations, globalisation protests are more and more directed at large transnational corporations, and many are wondering where it will all end. The social protection gained for people in Europe over the fifty years since the end of World War II is under continual threat as costs rise. And the richest nation in the world, the US, struggles to keep its more meagre than Europe, social protection provisions. Will it all end with the world’s production going to the lowest com-mon denominator, that is the country with the lowest social costs, the most paltry wages, the poorest working conditions, and those with the lowest pensions for the old? The trend seems to be heading this way as inequalities deepen, yet this is in no-one’s interest. Poor consumers in developing countries would very much like higher living standards, and the sorts of social protection accorded to workers in Germany (say). Transnational cor¬porations need customers for their goods, something not helped by the rising unemployment associated with downsizing or impoverishment in developing countries. To reverse these negative tendencies, the book’s main thesis is that there is a need for a worldwide compact, or planetary bargain, between the private and public sectors. In this bargain, the public sector will help private organisms to operate with clear ground-rules, and the private sector will pay more attention to longer-term social development issues than ever before. What such a bargain could include, why it is necessary and who should be involved are the themes that run throughout the book. NOTE: This was the first time anyone had mentioned a worldwide compact...I was the first through this book to do so and as you know, it was the forerunner for the UN Global Compact. I am pleased that Kofi Annan acknowledged my work as the first to suggest a Global Compact, that Kofi Annan announced himself in the year 2000. A planetary bargain will mean more socially responsible enterprises (SREs). In time, it will not be possible to conduct business without being socially responsible. This is inevitable, so, contrary to conventional wisdom, the book does not propose a new set of rules for businesses to adhere to, as, for instance, is argued by those pushing for more corporate social accountability or social audits. The book will argue that new rules or corporate laws in this area may well be unnecessary, because cor¬porations will see for themselves, and many have seen this already, the need to behave more responsibly in the social area. The book does argue for a 'level playing field' in which a minimum set of rules for corporate behaviour is required. However, it does not argue for new sets of complex rules simply because these would make it even more difficult for corporations to operate and, in turn, would encourage further hopping from one advant¬ageous country to another. If the same rules could be applied universally many corporations would accept corporate social responsibility since a level playing field would apply for all. But, despite halting steps in this direction by such bodies as the EU and countries such as France, an agreed set of rules for CSR activities is unlikely and hence a world consciousness of stakeholders such as consumers, employees, local communities etc. will be better placed to create this level playing field. Can the private sector do more other than just be good at business? It is the underlying thesis of this book that being a socially responsible enterprise is not only good for business; it is actually better for business in terms of long-term profits and stability. It will not be my job here to suggest areas where the private sector can make profits through helping social development directly – they are their own masters at this. For instance, the private sector has been helpful in housing projects for low- income groups, providing credit through the banking system, promot¬ing education through private educational institutions and so on. But corporate social responsibility is not just about corporate philanthropy, as the book argues, it is about a new management and strategic philosophy for companies large, medium and small. The field of corporate social responsibility, of which this book forms a part, has a burgeoning literature in published form in books, articles, newsprint and increasingly on the Internet. Where possible I have indicated the Internet web pages that I have used, as well as suggesting others that provide useful reference points. There have been few attempts at quantification of what is meant by corporate social responsibility in the literature, and what does exist, mainly through the social screens of ethical investment companies, is largely subjective. When I started research in this area, I had intended to rank the Fortune 500 companies from 1 to 500 on a HDI index (human development index following the United Nations Development Programme’s work). This task proved beyond my resources but launched me, nevertheless, some eight years ago into this field. This book captures my efforts at determining a conceptual framework for these indicators and then examines how I calibrated them for the UK. There, I was fortunate to be able to use the good services of the Univer¬sities of York and London through my friendship with Professor Roy Carr-Hill to collect the necessary information for the 100 largest com¬panies in the UK – here I only report on the top 25 to keep the book a reasonable length. But I could not present indicators without first looking at what others have done in the field of corporate social responsibility – and there is a lot. So I have critically reviewed this in the first seven chapters. In these, I also develop the elements of an economic theory of socially responsible enterprises when I show, mainly through case studies and anecdotal examples, that social responsibility not only has strong philanthropic undertones, but, as important if not more so, it has sound economic reasons too. By this, I mean that it is increasingly in the economic inter¬est of business, and consequently of societies, to engage in socially responsible activities. If it is not in the fabric of companies today then these companies, more than likely, will not exist tomorrow. This is why, in the book, I argue the need for a planetary bargain.
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PART I: STRATEGY AND THE NONMARKET ENVIRONMENT Chapter 1: Market and Nonmarket Environments Chapter 2: Integrated Strategy Chapter 3: The News Media and Nonmarket Issues Chapter 4: Private Politics Chapter 5: Crisis Management PART II PUBLIC POLITICS AND NONMARKET STRATEGY Chapter 6: Nonmarket Analysis for Business Chapter 7: Nonmarket Strategies for Government Arenas Chapter 8: Implementing Nonmarket Strategies in Government Arenas PART III: GOVERNMENT AND MARKETS Chapter 9: Antitrust: Economics, Law, and Politics Chapter 10: Regulation: Law, Economics, and Politics Chapter 11: Financial Markets and Their Regulation Chapter 12: Environmental Management and Sustainability Chapter 13: The Investor's Perspective: Renewable Energy Chapter 14: Law and Markets PART IV GLOBAL NONMARKET STRATEGY Chapter 15: The Political Economy of the European Union Chapter 16: China: History, Culture, and Political Economy Chapter 17: Emerging Markets Chapter 18: The Political Economy of India Chapter 19: The Political Economy of International Trade Policy PART V: ETHICS AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Chapter 20: Corporate Social Responsibility Chapter 21: Ethics Systems: Utilitarianism Chapter 22: Ethics Systems: Rights and Justice Chapter 23: Behavioral Ethics, Individuals, and Management Chapter 24: Ethics Issues in International Business
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Increasingly, "Social Responsibility of Business" in the years to come will no longer mean "Doing Good" or "Not Doing Harm." It will have to come to mean converting social problems into opportunities for profitable business.
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This article examines three concepts—business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and corporate social responsiveness—that have been used to evaluate corporate social performance. It explores the similarities and differences among them. It then introduces a fourth concept, the corporate social policy process, which integrates the key elements of the three concepts. The corporate social policy process represents a system of individual and collective moral reflection and choice within the corporation. It is not an ad hoc system, but an institutionalized one that can help improve the way in which the corporation operates in a rapidly changing social environment with value pluralism.
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The concept of corporate social responsibility has been widely discussed in academia in the past decades. Most often, however, this debate has taken place in the traditional hierarchical and structural boundaries of global economy, limiting it to certain contradictory perspectives, swaying between a business-management and a critical-normative approach. This article argues that there is an urgent need of studying the concept from a different angle. Using a power perspective and basing it on authors such as Michel Foucault, David Harvey and others, it discusses the hypothesis that the current theoretical framework of the concept ‘corporate social responsibility’ is subject to a strong imbalance and a structural misalignment and is – despite its allegedly benevolent intentions – perfectly blending into the hegemonic construction of our global economy with its dominant axis between the ‘West and the Rest’. The article concludes with propositions for further research on the topic.
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1 Senior Research Associate at the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College's Carroll School of Management. He has worked with numerous multinational companies and held senior Corporate Social Responsibility-related positions with the British government and the Ethical Trading Initiative. His publications include, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility: the failing discipline and why it matters for International Relations’ (International Relations, July 2005) and ‘Going global: how to identify and manage society expectations in supply chains (and the consequences of failure)’ (Corporate Governance, June 2005). His current interests are the leadership roles of business in contemporary society and alternative approaches to the relationship between business and wider society.
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While many studies of the motivations behind the corporate social responsibility reporting (CSRR) practices of large corporations have been reported internationally, few have focussed on multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries. Most importantly, we still do not know how host country institutional norms, or parent corporation policies, influence MNC subsidiaries embarking upon CSRR. By integrating legitimacy theory (LT) and neo-institutional theory (NIT) explanations, this paper offers a theoretical framework for investigating the CSRR practices of MNC subsidiaries in general, and provides empirical evidence on the nature and motivations of subsidiaries’ CSRR practices in Bangladesh, a developing country. Employing a case study method and using qualitative data, the study finds that CSRR practice in Bangladeshi MNC subsidiaries is limited, consisting mainly of employee information. This observation mirrors the overall CSRR trend in Bangladesh. A desire for internal legitimacy emerges as the primary motivation for CSRR practice in MNC subsidiaries. In particular, the external host country environment of the Bangladeshi subsidiaries seems to be a major limitation in the development of CSRR.
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Corporate social responsibility is defined as the serious attempt to solve social problems caused wholly or in part by the corporation. The problem concept is operationally defined, and social problems are distinguished from non-social problems. A method of social problem solution, based on the principles of applied behavior analysis, is demonstrated using an industrial accident reduction example.
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Both business executives and management scholars have, in recent years, focused a great deal of attention on the theme of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Calls for business leaders to expend resources on behalf of social good tend to downplay, if not ignore, what is fundamentally an ideological question: just what is a good society and who defines goodness? The ideological underpinnings of social responsibility and its relationship to the good society can be explored through an historical perspective. The roots of the CSR movement trace back to the early years of the Cold War. Led by Donald K David, Dean of the Harvard Business School and supported by other academics and executives given voice on the pages of the Harvard Business Review, advocates urged expanded business social responsibility as a means of aligning business interests with the defense of free-market capitalism against what was depicted as the clear-and-present danger of Soviet Communism. Today's enthusiastic calls for business to do well by doing good could benefit from a similar critical analysis not just of the goals of CSR but also the ideological assumptions, often unacknowledged, that underlie those goals.
Article
The question has been asked severally: Can Africa's moral economy, that is, Africa's present economic situation, support large scale capital accumulation that can create wealth and economic prosperity? The answer to this question has never been simple, nor direct, nor without ambiguity. In the past, the established position is that African development within its own cultural and historical antecedents is a mission impossible. Africa can develop so far as it is willing to adopt modernization which is inherently self - alienating. But the new thesis advanced by Mkandawire and Soludo (1999) challenges this pessimism and argues that market capitalism is possible in Africa despite its moral economy. This paper exposes this debate to new light by taking an insightful look at the present realities of the moral economy in Africa, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. This offers the basis for re-considering the prospects of capitalist accumulation within the moral economy. Given the interest the moral economy is recently generating, we deem it necessary to question whether it is possible for this economy to support capital accumulation, which of course, is the sine qua non for economic development or is the moral economy just the refuge of the poor? In the light of these, we will attempt to reconsider the role of International Financial Institutions, such as the World Bank and IMF, in providing assistance to this economy to overcome the obstacles to development.
Article
Drawing empirical evidence from indigenous firms, this study explores the meaning and practice of CSR in Nigeria. It was found that indigenous firms perceive and practise CSR as corporate philanthropy aimed at addressing socio-economic development challenges in Nigeria. This finding confirms that CSR is a localised and socially embedded construct, as the 'waves', 'issues' and 'modes' of CSR practices identified amongst indigenous firms in Nigeria reflect the firms' responses to their socio-economic context. It is anticipated that this paper will add to the body of knowledge on CSR, especially as it relates to Africa, which has a relatively dearth of literature on CSR; and provide some insights to multinational firms operating in Nigeria.
Article
Using the example of multinational oil companies, this article suggests that there are fundamental problems surrounding the capacity of private firms to deliver development and the aspiration of achieving development through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) may be fundamentally flawed. The article is based on an extensive twelve-month research project on the Gulf of Guinea region funded by the Nuffield Foundation. This research identified a number of constraints to a developmental role for CSR: the subservience of CSR schemes to corporate objectives; country- and context-specific issues; the failure to involve the beneficiaries of CSR; the lack of human resources; technical/managerial approaches of company staff and the lack of CSR's integration into larger development plans. But even if private companies were able to overcome practical problems, it argues that the current CSR agenda fails to address the crucial issues of governance and the negative macro-level effects that multinational companies cause in host countries. The article concludes by suggesting that a focus on CSR may divert attention from broader political, economic and social solutions for developmental problems.
Book
Corporate governance has become a major issue in business over the last decade. Adrian Cadbury has played a central role in developing policies, good practice, and our understanding of the complex issues involved. In 1992 he chaired the committee, sponsored by the Bank of England, whose Report on the Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance (commonly known as the 'Cadbury Report') put issues of corporate governance on the map. Ten years on, Cadbury now reflects on issues of corporate governance and chairmanship drawing on his own business and policy-making experience. In the book, he discusses and explains the central issuse of corporate governance; provides practical advice to chairmen and directors on their roles and responsibilities; and surveys the major codes of practice that have been developed in the last decade. He also considers the implications of the current review of company law and speculates on the implications of electronic developments for shareholders' voice and voting, the extent of a company's social responsibility, and the changing relationship between boards, managers, and investors. This book is both an informed commentary and a practical guide. Cadbury's insights will prove essential reading for anybody taking on senior roles in companies and other public organizations, and will provide well-grounded analysis for management academics, students, and advisers. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/management/9780199252008/toc.html
Chapter
In 1950, two events occurred that, though given little public attention, may well have been harbingers of major ideological changes in the world of corporate America. The first was an action by the New Jersey Legislature, which in 1950 declared it to be part of public policy that “corporations organized under the laws of this state should be specifically empowered to contribute such monies as, in a judgment of the governing boards, will conduce to the betterment of social and economic conditions, thereby permitting such corporations, as creations of this State, to discharge their obligations to society while, at the same time, reaping the benefits which essentially accrue to them through public recognition of their existence within the economic, social, as well as within the legal, structure of society.”
Chapter
When I hear businessmen speak eloquently about the “social responsibilities of business in a free-enterprise system”, I am reminded of the wonderful line about the Frenchman who discovered at the age of 70 that he had been speaking prose all his life. The businessmen believe that they are defending free enterprise when they declaim that business is not concerned “merely” with profit but also with promoting desirable “social” ends; that business has a “social conscience” and takes seriously its responsibilities for providing employment, eliminating discrimination, avoiding pollution and whatever else may be the catchwords of the contemporary crop of reformers. In fact they are — or would be if they or anyone else took them seriously -preaching pure and unadulterated socialism. Businessmen who talk this way are unwitting puppets of the intellectual forces that have been undermining the basis of a free society these past decades.
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It is generally believed that no matter how benevolent, a government alone cannot provide all the needs of its citizenry. The development of the economy of any nation is therefore perceived as the joint responsibility of the government, the citizenry, and corporate entities operating within its boundaries. This paper examines the corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of corporate entities in Nigeria, with specific focus on six key sectors of the economy that operate principally for profit (oil and gas; food, beverages, and tobacco; banking; telecommunications; construction; and conglomerates) and two other sectors that are not-for-profit (churches and charitable organizations).
Article
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become indispensable in modern business discourse; yet identifying and defining what CSR means is open to contest. Although such contestation is not uncommon with concepts found in the social sciences, for CSR it presents some difficulty for theoretical and empirical analysis, especially with regards to verifying that diverse application of the concept is consistent or concomitant. On the other hand, it seems unfeasible that the diversity of issues addressed under the CSR umbrella would yield to a singular universal definition. Gallie, an eminent philosophical scholar, proposed the essentially contested concepts (ECC) theory in 1956 to address concepts that by their very nature engender perpetual disputes. He pointed out that there are certain concepts which by their very nature are inevitably contested and prescribed seven criteria for evaluating such concepts. This article examines these criteria to discover if CSR is an essentially contested concept and in that case, to construe if such a change in perception will resolve the definitional crisis. The analysis suggests that CSR is an ECC and this explains the potential for several conceptions of CSR, however, it does not totally obviate the need for a definition of its core or common reference point, if only to ensure that the contestants are dealing with an identical subject matter.
Article
Although it is now widely recognised by business leaders that their companies need to accept a broader responsibility than short-term profits, recent research suggests that as corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social reporting become more widespread, there is little empirical evidence of the range of stakeholders addressed through their CSR programmes and how such programmes are reported. Through a CSR framework which was developed in an exploratory study, we explore the nature of stakeholder relationships reported across leading FTSE companies and the importance they attach to communicating both social and business outcomes. It is evident from the hypotheses tested that the bigger FTSE companies, particularly extraction companies and telecoms, are more adept at identifying and prioritising their stakeholders, and linking CSR programmes to business and social outcomes. However, we draw the general conclusion that building stronger stakeholder relationships through CSR programmes – other than with customers – is not currently a priority for most companies. We also conclude that a limited sophistication in managing multiple stakeholders may compromise the impact of CSR upon business and social results. Finally, the managerial implications and the contribution of our study are discussed before closing with an acknowledgement of the limitations of this work and suggestions for further research.
Article
Governments, activists, and the media have become adept at holding companies to account for the social consequences of their actions. In response, corporate social responsibility has emerged as an inescapable priority for business leaders in every country. Frequently, though, CSR efforts are counterproductive, for two reasons. First, they pit business against society, when in reality the two are interdependent. Second, they pressure companies to think of corporate social responsibility in generic ways instead of in the way most appropriate to their individual strategies. The fact is, the prevailing approaches to CSR are so disconnected from strategy as to obscure many great opportunities for companies to benefit society. What a terrible waste. If corporations were to analyze their opportunities for social responsibility using the same frameworks that guide their core business choices, they would discover, as Whole Foods Market, Toyota, and Volvo have done, that CSR can be much more than a cost, a constraint, or a charitable deed--it can be a potent source of innovation and competitive advantage. In this article, Michael Porter and Mark Kramer propose a fundamentally new way to look at the relationship between business and society that does not treat corporate growth and social welfare as a zero-sum game. They introduce a framework that individual companies can use to identify the social consequences of their actions; to discover opportunities to benefit society and themselves by strengthening the competitive context in which they operate; to determine which CSR initiatives they should address; and to find the most effective ways of doing so. Perceiving social responsibility as an opportunity rather than as damage control or a PR campaign requires dramatically different thinking--a mind-set, the authors warn, that will become increasingly important to competitive success.
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