In the last 20 years, multinational corporations have played a pivotal role in defining markets and influencing the behaviour of many producers and consumers. The volume deals in business environment with broader perspective of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) while highlighting the concept, definition and practices undertaken by the companies. It also highlights the six responsibilities such as customers, employees, business partners, environment, communities, and charity. This book highlights the business principles and their relationship with CSR while also portraying the concept of various countries, with special emphasis on India. Finally, the volume discusses the rules of law, transparency, responsiveness, consensus oriented, equity and inclusiveness, reporting mechanisms, efficiency and accountability. The volume also exhibits various cases and instances of successful businesses where CSR has enabled them to achieve sustainable targets.

Analyzes how increases in international trade, finance, and production have altered voter decisions, political party positions, and the issues that parties focus on in postindustrial democracies.

Over the last decade the question of the relationship between organisations and society has been subject to much debate, often of a critical nature. The decade has seen protests concerning the actions of organisations, exposures of corporate exploitation and unfolding accounting scandals. At the same time ethical behaviour and a concern for the environment have been shown to have a positive correlation with corporate performance. The nature of corporate social responsibility is therefore a topical one for businesses and academics. There are however many different perspectives upon what is meant by corporate social responsibility and how this might be applied within organisations. This book explores some of these different perspectives based upon the experiences of different people in different parts of the world. There has been much written about globalisation â " some of it positive and much of it negative. It is a subject which arouses definite opinions. Despite the fact that the word globalisation is part of the title of this book it is not our intention to contribute to this debate. Instead we use the word globalisation in its original sense to represent the ubiquity of the concern for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) which is the subject matter of this book. Specifically we are concerned with the social contract between an organisation and its stakeholders. It is apparent that any actions which an organisation undertakes will have an effect not just upon itself but also upon the external environment within which that organisation resides. In considering the effect of the organisation upon its external environment it must be recognised that this environment includes both the business environment in which the firm is operating, the local societal environment in which the organisation is located and the wider global environment. Effectively therefore there is a social contract between organizations and their stakeholders. Recognition of the rights of all stakeholders and the duty of a business to be accountable in this wider context therefore has been largely a relatively recent phenomenon. The economic view of accountability only to owners has only recently been subject to debate to any considerable extent. In the current environment there is a need to debate this issue and its implications. This book therefore recognises the international scope of the interest in corporate social responsibility both through the contributions made by the authors of the respective chapters, who come from various parts of the world, and also through the international importance of the perspectives offered by these contributors. In doing so the various authors demonstrate that corporations are a part of society just as much as each of us is as a individual. Furthermore they demonstrate that the issues and concerns are not local ones but are international is scope and concern us all. The contributions to this book provide a representation of the range of concern for this relationship and the range of topics which fall within the subject matter of CSR. Among the authors who have contributed to this book are representatives from every continent and from a wide range of disciplines. The topics which are considered in the various chapters are equally diverse.

The current economic situation has highlighted deficiencies in corporate governance while also showing the importance of stakeholder relations. It has also raised the profile of the debates regarding corporate social responsibility and shown the inter-relationship with governance. And the two together are essential for sustainable business. The social and environmental contexts of business are generally considered to be as significant as the economic and financial contexts and good governance will address all of these aspects. The combination of these aspects offers long term benefits for a firm, such as reducing risk and attracting new investors, shareholders and more equity as well as sustainable performance. Written by experts from all over the world, A Handbook of Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility is the most authoritative single-volume guide to the relationship between good governance and social responsibility and the reality of managing both. In addition to the theory and practice of governance and CSR, the book includes case studies from large and small organizations and NGOs to highlight examples of good and bad practice, and to show international and cultural similarities and differences while at the same time furthering the debate regarding the relationship between good governance and social responsibility.

Over the past decade, a virtual cottage industry has arisen to produce books and articles describing the nature, origins, and impact of globalization. Largely and surprisingly absent from this literature, however, has been extensive discussion of how globalization is affecting the United States itself. Indeed, it is rarely even acknowledged that while the United States may be providing a crucial impetus to globalization, the process of globalization — once set in motion — has become a force unto itself. Thus globalization has its own logic and demands that are having a profound impact within the United States, often in ways that are unanticipated. This set offers the first in-depth, systematic effort at assessing the United States not as a globalizing force but as a nation being transformed by globalization. Among the topics studied are globalization in the form of intensified international linkages; globalization as a universalizing and/or Westernizing force; globalization in the form of liberalized flows of trade, capital, and labor; and globalization as a force for the creation of transnational and superterritorial entities and allegiances. These volumes examine how each of these facets of globalization affects American government, law, business, economy, society, and culture.

The Handbook of Political Representation in Liberal Democracies offers a state-of-the-art assessment of the functioning of political representation in liberal democracies. In 34 chapters the world's leading scholars on the various aspects of political representation address eight broad themes: The concept and theories of political representation, its history and the main requisites for its development; elite orientations and behavior; descriptive representation; party government and representation; non-electoral forms of political participation and how they relate to political representation; the challenges to representative democracy originating from the growing importance of non-majoritarian institutions and social media; the rise of populism and its consequences for the functioning of representative democracy; the challenge caused by economic and political globlization: what does it mean for the functioning of political representation at the national leval and is it possible to develop institutions of representative democracy at a level above the state that meet the normative criteria of representative democracy and are supported by the people? The various chapters offer a comprehensive review of the literature on the various aspects of political representation. The main organizing principle of the Handbook is the chain of political representation, the chain connecting the interests and policy preferences of the people to public policy via political parties, parliament, and government. Most of the chapters assessing the functioning of the chain of political representation and its various links are based on original comparative political research. Comparative research on political representation and its various subfields has developed dramatically over the last decades so that even ten years ago a Handbook like this would have looked totally different.

This volume explores the interaction of globalization among economic, social, politics, cultural era. With its global implications, this book will be invaluable for students scholars from all disciplines who are concerned with the impact and dimension globalization. This volume “Dimension and Impact of Globalization” of series will make sense of globalization by conveying its complexity, importance, and contentiousness from diverse vantage points. With its broad coverage of political, economic, cultural, social and individual dimensions, this volume provides readers with a comprehensive introduction to globalization. Also this book will aim to provide relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research ndings in the area. It will be written for professionals who want to improve their understanding of the globalization dimension such as; economical, political, cultural, social etc.

Exploring the links between health and globalization, this title considers important issues such as the global spread of pandemics (such as swine flu and bird flu), effects of migration, and health care systems across the world.

This volume frames the question of responsibility as a problem of agency in relation to the systems and structures of globalization. According to Ricoeur responsibility is a “shattered concept” when considered too narrowly as a problem of act, agency and individual freedom. To examine this Esther Reed develops a short genealogy of modern liberal and post-liberal concepts of responsibility in order to understand better the relationship dominant modern framings of the meanings of responsibility. Reed engages with writings by major modern (Schleiermacher, Hegel, Marx, Weber) and post-liberal (Buber, Levinas, Derrida, Badiou, Butler, Young, Critchley) theorists to illustrate the shift from an ethnic responsibility built on notions of accountability and attributions to an ethic responsibility that starts variously from the 'other'. Reed sees Dietrich Bonhoeffer as the most promising partner of this theological dialogue, as his learning of responsibility from the risen Christ present now in the (global) church is a welcome provocation to new thinking about the meaning of responsibility learned from land, distant neighbour, (global) church and the bible. Bonhoeffer's reflections on the centre, boundaries and limits of responsibility remain helpful to Christian people struggling with an increasingly exhausted concept of accountability.

Over the past two decades, the percentage of the world’s population living on less than a dollar a day has been cut in half. How much of that improvement is because of—or in spite of—globalization? While anti-globalization activists mount loud critiques and the media report breathlessly on globalization’s perils and promises, economists have largely remained silent, in part because of an entrenched institutional divide between those who study poverty and those who study trade and finance. Globalization and Poverty bridges that gap, bringing together experts on both international trade and poverty to provide a detailed view of the effects of globalization on the poor in developing nations, answering such questions as: Do lower import tariffs improve the lives of the poor? Has increased financial integration led to more or less poverty? How have the poor fared during various currency crises? Does food aid hurt or help the poor? Poverty, the contributors show here, has been used as a popular and convenient catchphrase by parties on both sides of the globalization debate to further their respective arguments. Globalization and Poverty provides the more nuanced understanding necessary to move that debate beyond the slogans.