Providing a timely contribution to the ongoing questions surrounding topics which are by definition subject to varying stakeholder interpretations, this book addresses “the missing link” between theoretical CSR concepts and everyday management practice. It acts as a guide to awaken managers to the advantages of adopting a CSR “mindset” when developing sustainable business strategies. The book consists of three parts: 1) A theoretical realm which establishes the key concepts and rationale for the adoption of a sustainable CSR approach, 2) A practical realm which addresses putting CSR and sustainability into business practice, 3) An educational realm which proposes how to incorporate the concepts into teaching and training.

Examines the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the context of globalisation and its many challenges, focusing on different legal perspectives that arise.

Even though Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a widely accepted concept promoted by different stakeholders, business corporations' internal strategies, known as corporate self-regulation in most of the weak economies, respond poorly to this responsibility. Major laws relating to corporate regulation and responsibilities of these economies do not possess adequate ongoing influence to insist on corporate self-regulation to create a socially responsible corporate culture. This book describes how the laws relating to CSR could contribute to the inclusion of CSR principles at the core of the corporate self-regulation of these economies in general, without being intrusive in normal business practice. It formulates a meta-regulation approach to law, particularly by converging patterns of private ordering and state control in contemporary corporate law from the perspective of a weak economy. It proposes that this approach is suitable for alleviating regulators' limited access to information and expertise, inherent limitations of prescriptive rules, ensuring corporate commitment, and enhance the self-regulatory capacity of companies. This book describes various meta-regulation strategies for laws to link social values to economic incentives and disincentives, and to indirectly influence companies to incorporate CSR principles at the core of their self-regulation strategies. It investigates this phenomenon using Bangladesh as a case study.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) continues to grow as an area of interest in academia and business. Encompassing broad topics such as the relationship between business, society, and government, environmental issues, globalization, and the social and ethical dimensions of management and corporate operation, CSR has become an increasingly interdisciplinary subject relevant to areas of economics, sociology, and psychology, among others. New directions in CSR research include advanced 'micro' based investigations in organizational behaviour and human resource management, additional studies of environmental social responsibility and sustainability, further research on 'strategic' CSR, connections between social responsibility and entrepreneurship, and improvements in methods and data analysis as the field matures. Through authoritative contributions from international scholars across the social sciences, this Handbook provides a cohesive overview of this recent expansion. It introduces new perspectives, new methodologies, and new evidence from a range of disciplines to encourage and facilitate interdisciplinary research and global implementation of corporate social responsibility.

This introductory textbook explores the key issues in global business in corporate social responsibility.

This book addresses the dilemma that firms face in engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) while maintaining a financially sustainable business model in the era of digital transformation. Several strategies that firms have taken to integrate CSR within the business model are also highlighted. To explicate the problems involved, the book primarily focuses on entrepreneurial ventures, given their nascent business model that best illustrates how business leaders can embed the social mission in the firm at the beginning of organizational founding. In this age, sustainability is an innovation’s new frontier. For sustainable competitive advantage, the book argues for how companies can build more sustainable products, processes, and practices that benefit the firm and society through maintaining an entrepreneurial philosophy. The target readership consists of academics, students, and practitioners in the areas of entrepreneurship, organizational behavior, organizational theory, and strategic management. This book clarifies the critical practices of sustainability-oriented innovative firms and creative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Through a review of recent trends in CSR, the authors emphasize that CSR is no longer a “bolt-on” or some kind of window-dressing to satisfy public relations (PR) needs. Credible CSR is critical to business legitimacy and sustainability. Aware of the public’s increasing scrutiny, companies are increasingly ramping up their focus on social responsibility, whether by championing women's rights, protecting the environment, or attempting to obliterate poverty, on local, national, or global levels. Simultaneously, more firms face accusations of “greenwashing” – backlash due to consumer mistrust in the intentions behind their CSR practices. While numerous works have highlighted this dilemma and how companies fall short in their prosocial goals or financial objectives (or both), there is a lack of understanding of the ingredients and crucial processes required for the successful implementation of CSR in entrepreneurial enterprises. This book serves to fill that gap.

Corporate social responsibility now touches upon most aspects of the interaction between business and society. The approaches taken to research in this area are as varied as the topics that are researched; yet this is the first book to address the whole range of methods available. The book identifies the methods available, evaluates their use and discusses the circumstances in which they might be appropriate. It also includes forward-thinking guidance from experienced academics on the future directions of research in the area.

While the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities of small firms have been analysed to some extent, their engagement in international networks relating to CSR is less understood. Most of these networks primarily address the needs of multinational corporations. Surprisingly, however, the number of small firms participating in such institutions has substantially increased over recent years. But what is the reason for this new interest of SME in institutional forms of CSR? Based on a qualitative empirical study of German small firms’ participation in the most prominent CSR institution, the UN Global Compact, this book explores the drivers for small firm participation. The motivations are complex and do not follow the same hierarchical order associated with large business behaviour. Rather, reasons for institutional engagement suggest a heterarchical structure, where alignment is contingent upon factors such as individual CSR perception, self-conception or social environment. The book explains why small firms prefer to engage in sustainable development within institutionalised forms of CSR rather than act in isolation, and provides recommendations on how to support and thus increase SME participation in institutionalised forms of civic engagement.

This wide-ranging book examines the new dynamics of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the impact they have had on the transformation of business corporations. Written by an international group of distinguished experts in management and organization studies, economics and sociology, the book leads one to theoretically and practically rethink CSR, a movement that has developed into a strong and rich institutional domain since the mid 1990s. Through 14 chapters, the book shows the complexity, diversity and progression of the institutional work performed by a large number of individual and organizational actors in specialized networks to develop this strategic field. Central to this book are: the core issues associated with the field of CSR; recent advances in the development, dissemination and implementation of public and private standards of social responsibility; the pressing challenges of developing sustainable strategies of value creation in the face of global warming and underdevelopment; and finally, examples of how CSR has been implemented and institutionalized within business organizations with special attention to the role played by a variety of social actors in organizational change. Conceived as a movement, corporate social responsibility spearheads a transformation project challenging traditional and outmoded forms of corporate governance that frequently pose troublesome ethical issues. From this standpoint, Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Change will serve as a reference point for academics, researchers, managers and practitioners.

A valuable interdisciplinary resource examining the concept and effectiveness of CSR as a tool for sustainable development in emerging markets.