Stakeholder Theory Just Keeps Getting More and More Important
There is a lot more work to be done in refining what stakeholder theory is, what it does, and what it doesn’t do. They are also evidence of the increasing importance of the stakeholder approach to management – firms that don’t get on board now are going to be left behind.
The powerful and the weak: balancing stakeholder interests in organizations
When managers fail to successfully consider the interests of all stakeholders, for example, in the event of corporate misconduct, they are often portrayed as the key culprits. We argue, however, that powerful stakeholders are also in part responsible when companies harm weaker stakeholders and society.
Pressure or commitment – What is driving companies to take environmental efforts to the next level?
This research considers how manufacturing companies in the United Kingdom respond to competitive pressures to address environmental concerns and what role this particular pressure source plays in determining their level of response. The research then considers the role played by internal company commitment towards addressing environmental concerns in determining the level of response.
Prioritising new wealth creation over wealth transfer
We seek to better explain the mechanisms that control the unaccountable transfer of wealth, through a re-imagination of the accounting concepts of capital maintenance—which references “the amount [of capital] an individual [or firm] can consume and expect to be as well off at the end of the [period] as at the beginning”—and profit.
Stakeholder Theory Unleashed
In 2015, a group of influential strategic management scholars convened a workshop in Utah to discuss and debate stakeholder theory. One outcome of this meeting was a list of supposed tensions emerging from that group’s understanding of stakeholder theory and its relationship to mainstream strategic management. Our piece is a reaction to this list of tensions.
Corporate social responsibility: How to create the conditions of responsible decision making processes
I highlight the constitutive dimension of communication and its implications for CSR matters.
Making managerial CSR visions matter – From aspirations to agonism
By Michael Etter, Peter Winkler, & Itziar Castello In order to tackle the grand challenges of our time, it is crucial that firms consider their corporate social responsibilities (CSR) regarding their environmental and societal impact. When business leaders proclaim their CSR visions, many employees are listening. Yet, even when top-managers’ intentions are genuine, the reactions […]
The taboos and ambiguities of CSR narratives
By Aurélien Feix and Déborah Philippe Narratives about the emergence, spread and impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices, generated by organizations such as the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) are fraught with ambiguity as they avoid addressing problematic matters. Specifically, these are the win-lose situations between the profit interests of companies and the demands […]
Let’s t(w)alk! When it comes to corporate social responsibility, talking is action
By Andrew Crane, Mette Morsing, and Dennis Schoeneborn Companies are often criticised for failing to “walk-the-talk”, that is, spending too much time telling us about the socially responsible deeds they are going to do, but not enough time actually doing them. While undoubtedly true in some cases, this type of criticism can prevent us from […]
Most Cited: A new look at the CSR-Financial Performance link
One of the most cited articles in the last 3 years at Business & Society is a meta-analysis of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance (CFP). The article, by Qian Wang, Junsheng Dou, and Shenghua Jia, looks at how a few different contextual factors moderate this oft-examined relationship. Prior meta-analysis examining the CSR-CFP […]