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This paper explores how corporate social responsibility (CSR) is used as a political strategy. Drawing on social exchange theory and using data from firms operating in Ghana, the findings reveal that when CSR is politicized, it involves the design and implementation of politically charged CSR initiatives that entail firm–polity negotiated exchanges. Firms exchange social interventions for political influence in ways that allow politicians to take the credit to boost their re‐election. To do this, the choice of target politician hinges on political vulnerability, the selection of CSR initiatives is based on CSR orientation and CSR benefit personalization, the location of CSR is linked to politicians' electoral constituencies and the timing of CSR is affected by election cycles. Overall, this paper provides new insights into how CSR is used in indirect social exchanges in political markets, shows that CSR can be CPA and thus extends nonmarket strategy integration from its focus on CSR's complementarity with CPA to its instrumentality in CPA. The findings have important theoretical and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the literature on political corporate social responsibility (PCSR) by considering the forward‐looking, political responsibilities of corporations in relation to structural injustice, based on a critical engagement with Iris Marion Young's Social Connection Model (SCM) of responsibility. Although Young's SCM serves as a key reference point in the PCSR literature, engagement with her work tends to be superficial and lacks critical engagement. By offering a more developed engagement with Young's SCM, this paper addresses several themes that have been highlighted as being insufficiently developed in the PCSR literature. In particular, this paper considers (i) the grounds for corporate political responsibility in relation to structural injustice rather than globalization; (ii) the scope of corporate political responsibilities vis‐à‐vis other actors; and (iii) the role of power in relation to deliberative processes and in relation to scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porter and Kramer's "creating shared value" (CSV) proposal has achieved significant penetration into both the academic and corporate communities. Building on other critiques of CSV, this paper assesses whether the CSV framework, notwithstanding its popularity, currently possesses an appropriate and adequate theoretical foundation to represent an overarching normative framework for the entire business and society field. The analysis does so by comparing CSV with a series of other dominant business and society approaches including corporate social responsibility, business ethics, stakeholder management, sustainability, and corporate citizenship. The analysis finds that while CSV does address the fundamental business and society normative requirement that business activities should contribute to sustainable net societal value, it currently fails to adequately incorporate the equally important notions of (i) appropriately balancing stakeholder interests with those of the corporation's shareholders, as well as (ii) demonstrating sufficient accountability (i.e., taking responsibility) by properly reporting on and addressing any negative impacts resulting from the firm's activities. The paper concludes with a revised and expanded restatement of the CSV concept, which attempts to take into account and address its current theoretical limitations in order to enhance its appeal as an overarching business and society normative paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is the decision of firms to pursue social interest and promote social progress philanthropic or motivated by strategic reasons? Using a simple Spence–Dixit entry model game with homogeneous goods, this paper studies the possible anticompetitive effect of the adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the form of "consumer friendliness" (i.e., firms' attention to the welfare of consumers). It is shown that, when the market becomes contestable, the incumbent can select to adopt CSR to hamper to a greater extent the potential entrant, regardless of its choice to engage in CSR activities. In other words, CSR can become a strategic barrier to entry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a large body of literature that examines different dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Africa, with many focusing on the false promises of these corporate initiatives. Contrary to simplistic claims of CSR being merely window‐dressing, however, this paper reveals that although several rhetorical proclamations underpin the idea, such statements are often given instrumental meaning through diverse mechanisms (e.g., interpretation of cues toward the proactive (re)construction of identity, (inter)subjective discourses on social legitimacy, and acts of "issue selling") that help to enact particular characteristics of the corporation. The paper specifically employs the organizational concepts of sensemaking and sensegiving to explain how, through CSR activities, hydrocarbon companies in Ghana construct and (re)affirm a particular reality for its stakeholders. The findings suggest that by having significant leverage over the (re)construction of its identity and claims around social legitimacy and performance, the corporation gives sense to and further sustains its authority over societal norms and expectations around what social responsibility entails. The evidence presented contributes to scholarship that considers the corporation as a complex nexus of multiple relations, contested narratives, and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on corporate crises has yielded numerous, partly overlapping crisis concepts from the corporate perspective without adequately addressing the stakeholder perspective and sustainability and corporate social responsibility characteristics. This conceptual paper aims to develop a stakeholder‐oriented typology of corporate sustainability crises. For this purpose, conceptual gaps and requirements are identified, and a theoretical framework is developed from which stakeholder‐related typology criteria are derived. The typology developed differentiates between eight crisis types that are interrelated and can also develop dynamically over time. By including and delimiting various crises concepts within a uniform framework, this paper contributes to the further development of knowledge in this still underdeveloped research field. As a result, insights into the early identification and further development of crises can be gained, which is especially important for crisis managers. In addition, public policymakers and actors of nonstate governance are supported in assessing the prerequisites and potentials of companies and stakeholders as actors of nonstate governance in dealing with various types of corporate sustainability crises, thereby contributing to achieving sustainability goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a bibliometric and Scientometric analysis of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) in banking sector. Our study analyzes 551 articles from the Scopus database to find out the relationship between CSR and banking. A bibliometric method was used to visualize the results using R‐studio and VOS viewer software. The Scientometric analysis was conducted to determine the findings and mappings of the research themes, directions of current and future research, impact, co‐occurrence, co‐citations and impact and collaboration trends. We explore how CSR literature has evolved over the years in the banking sector between 1993 and 2021. We find that publication in the CSR and banking domain has increased significantly during 2017 and 2021. Social aspects, board of directors, CSR, environment, competitions, Islamic banking, sustainability, disclosure, ethics, legitimacy theory, sustainable banking, loyalty, and brand equity are the popular research trends and collaboration trends identified. We also provide further scope of the study based on the extensive review of the past literature. Our findings may provide help to future researchers, bankers, and regulators in understanding the current trends and future research progression in the CSR and banking sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Papers in this special issue focus on sustainable corporate governance measures in the aftermath of the financial crisis, and a background environment of increased scepticism over executive pay and corporate behaviour more generally. The authors provide an overview of recent corporate governance reforms, including 'say‐on‐pay' and gender‐pay‐gap transparency, and explain how the research papers in the special issue contribute to understanding of corporate governance research and practice in the areas of boards of directors, corporate governance reform and corporate culture and risk‐taking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Climate change studies have been gaining increasing importance in the academic debate, and also in the field of organizations and management. Scholars have contributed to this field by borrowing approaches from sustainable business research. However, some authors have raised unanswered questions about the contribution of these studies to the management theories. According to them, climate change studies have failed to provide theoretical insights and too often they have adopted a descriptive and practical approach. Our review describes the theoretical contribution of the climate change papers, identifying the most often used management theories. The analysis results for 28 different management theories indicate that, while some theories such as the institutional and stakeholder theories have been widely debated, the relation between business climate change strategies and other organization theories still appears to be unexplored. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There was a growing realization that Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are overarching, ambitious, complex, and less impactful. Consequently, the 193 member countries of the United Nations (UN) came out with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a well‐thought‐out global development agenda in the year 2015. By involving the private sectors in the designing of SDGs, UN has rightly identified their potentials in offering solutions to the most relevant sustainability challenges. SDGs came into force in January 2016 across the globe when corporate social responsibility (CSR) was already legalized in India. There has been a whooping investment of approximately Rs. 15,000 crores by nearly 20,000 companies every year under CSR in the country. However, it is argued that the contributions to SDGs are not substantial. Based on review of relevant literature, the current paper makes a modest attempt to explore the connections between CSR and SDGs in contemporary India. Further, it critically examines how CSR in India contributes to SDGs. The paper also analyses the underlying reasons for the inadequate engagement of CSR with SDGs. Despite CSR practices in India having linkage with the SDGs, the outcomes are not as per the expectation as a number of firms operate with less involvement and strategic efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant issue that is increasingly affecting the operations of companies is the policies of governments with regard to the natural environment and the activities of nongovernmental organizations in promoting codes of practice and other forms of nonlegal regulation. The onset of new regulations and codes of conduct is placing significant operational burdens on firms to merely comply with new requirements and changed circumstances. Furthermore, there is a need in strategic terms to anticipate and to plan for environmental concerns and to incorporate this thinking into corporate strategy. Thus a new subfield of strategic management is beginning to emerge: that dealing with the natural environment as it affects corporate strategy. Alan Rugman and Alain Verbeke in their paper corporate strategies and environmental regulations' organize the literature on environmental regulations and corporate strategy into a new managerial framework They go on to develop a resource-based view of the interaction between the firm's key resources (core competences) and environmental regulations including the implications for the development of 'green' capabilities. Finally, they analyze the deployment of 'green' capabilities within a standard international business model and explore hypotheses on the relationships between environmental regulations, competitiveness, and corporate strategy. The question about how firms should respond to environmental regulations can be seen in broad terms as part of the debate on corporate social responsibility. A fundamental problem in this area has been that there are no definitions of corporate social responsibility or corporate social responsiveness that provide a framework or a model for consistent systematic collection, organization, and analysis of corporate data relating to these important concepts (Clarkson, 1995). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brexit has caused a seismic shift in the British socio‐economic and political landscapes, creating widespread uncertainties, while simultaneously giving hope and national pride to millions. The decision by a number of organizations to reshore their production has opened a new era for business management that challenges the axiomatic assumption of the benefits of offshored production. Although reshoring predates Brexit, the link between the two in the British context is not just serendipitous and they are argued to have reasonable interlinkages. However, there is inadequate empirical evidence to suggest that British consumers' attitude towards Brexit has any effect on their intention to purchase reshored brands. Through a mixed‐methods study comprising a survey of 415 respondents and 20 in‐depth interviews, this paper addresses this research gap. Findings suggest that corporate social responsibility (CSR) and consumer reshoring sentiment (CRS) have positive effects on consumers' attitude towards reshored brands. Despite CRS's positive influence on attitude towards Brexit, the latter does not have any significant effects on the intention to purchase a reshored brand, which is positively influenced by the attitude towards the same brand. As such, companies should enhance the image of their brands and CSR in order to harness the benefits of reshoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the supply chain context requires companies to consider complex issues embedded in their supply chains, one of which is the complexity caused by unstable suppliers. However, prior studies have focused primarily on how supplier instability affects a firm's operational or financial performance. Grounded in social systems theory, we aim to enrich this body of literature by investigating the impact of supplier instability on CSR performance throughout the firm lifecycle. Using a large panel dataset of Chinese manufacturing firms from 2008 to 2018, we find that the relationship between supplier instability and CSR performance varies throughout a firm's lifecycle. At the growth and maturity stages, supplier instability can negatively affect a firm's external and internal CSR performance, respectively. At the decline stage, this negative relationship is insignificant. Further, we unravel the moderating effects of different complexity reduction practices. This paper has significant implications for both research and practice in the increasingly important domain of CSR management in supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of the Shanghai–Hong Kong Stock Connect (SHSC) scheme on voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in China. Using a difference‐in‐differences (DiD) design, we find that companies that participate in the SHSC scheme are more inclined to voluntarily issue CSR reports. This effect is more pronounced for companies that have limited access to international markets and those with weak corporate governance. Additional analyses show that SHSC‐connected firms also produce higher quality CSR reports and achieve a better CSR performance. Our findings imply that capital market liberalisation promotes voluntary corporate disclosure for investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, corporate firms have globally increasingly adopted corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices; however, so far less is known about how productivity change in the presence of socially responsible and undesirable output can be evaluated. This paper develops a framework that integrates CSR in a dynamic by‐production technology which captures the transformation of multiple inputs into marketed outputs, socially responsible and undesirable outputs, while accounting for adjustment costs in quasi‐fixed inputs. The paper illustrates the method using a sample of European food and beverage manufacturing firms. The results of the empirical application show that there is a decline in dynamic Luenberger productivity indicators mainly due to technical inefficiency change. Hence, firms should devise strategies to enhance utilization of resources and reduce technical inefficiency. The regression of productivity change indicators on firm‐specific factors showed that more indebted firms experienced a lower growth of the productivity of undesirable output, whereas more profitable firms have a lower productivity growth of variable inputs and a higher growth of the productivity of investments. [EconLit Citations: C02, C14, C6, D24] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present an institutionally grounded account of CSR decoupling in developing countries. Businesses in developing countries face institutional conditions significantly different to that in developed countries. As a result of these differences, there is an increasing demand on organizations in developing countries to comply with what are observed to be diffuse CSR standards—to which they thereby engage by decoupling. These observations result in the need to re‐examine the classic argument of decoupling and produce a more effective understanding of why and how CSR decoupling exists in such contexts. Little is known about the consequences of decoupling for organizations and society at large. We provide examples of decoupling in the developing world and present a comprehensive agenda for future research that explains why decoupling is pervasive and rapid change is, sadly, unlikely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to construct a comprehensive corporate environmental responsibility (CER) engagement measurement to examine the relationship between CER engagement and firm value as well as explore the mediating effect of corporate innovation on this relationship based on a sample of 496 China's A‐share listed companies from 2008 to 2016. The results show that when firms start to adopt environmental regulations, CER would have a negative effect on firm value; however, at a specific level, CER would start to enhance firm value positively. In addition to this, corporate innovation plays a mediating role in the relationship between CER and firm value. Corporate innovation promotes firm value of firms with CER more than firms without CER. Overall, the findings of this paper are extremely relevant for the government, investors, and firm's managers and can be utilized for policy and investment decision making. Also, the findings encourage firms to enhance their sense of environmental responsibility in order to enhance their competitive advantages, enhance corporate innovation capabilities, and thus enhance firm value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate to what extent organisations disclose on accountability for biodiversity and species extinction (B/E). We present some examples of what disclosure looks like from forward‐thinking companies that have been engaging in tremendous efforts to protect and preserve nature. Our justification for this paper is to provide guidance and encourage other companies to disclose transparently. We believe that B/E accountability is essential in post Covid‐19 reporting as the lack of valuing, promoting and investing in biodiversity is considered to be one of the main drivers of the Covid‐19 pandemic. The study's sample is the Top 200 companies from the Fortune Global with the years 2012, 2014 and 2016 and companies' websites in 2019. We believe that our paper is providing some guidance on how to repair nature and eliminate biodiversity loss. This is because organisations are reliant on natural capital resources for survival. Also, biodiversity loss and extinction can significantly affect social, economic and financial viability for survival. Our results have some implications for practitioners, policymakers and academics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we assume that the domestic public firm competes in the market with a foreign private firm that cares about consumer surplus and the domestic government imposes tariffs on foreign firm. We aim to analyze the influence of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) level of foreign firm on privatization and tariff policy. It shows that if the government implements a privatization policy for the domestic public firm, the optimal degree of privatization decreases in the CSR level of foreign firm. Under the optimal privatization policy, if the product differentiation is relatively small, the equilibrium tariff increases in the CSR level; if the product differentiation is relatively large, the equilibrium tariff decreases in the CSR level; if the product differentiation is moderate, the relationship between the equilibrium tariff and CSR level is an inverted U‐shape. We further consider the policy implications under sequential moves of firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation represents one of the most important drivers in the business context. Drawing upon the research on corporate social responsibility (CSR), shared value, and innovation, this paper aims to analyze the relationship between Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG, a form of CSR) sustainability policies and corporate financial performance (CFP) by investigating the mediating role of Innovation (i.e., investment in research and development, R&D). Our sample comprises 148 European companies belonging to the Euro Stoxx index in the period 2009–2014. For high‐innovation companies (HICs), we find positive relationships between some Social (S) issues and CFP and weaker linkages between Environmental (E) indicators and CFP. In contrast, Governance (G) issues (i.e., issues related to board structure and board function) negatively influence CFP. In contrast, for medium‐innovation companies (MICs), these relationships are absent and low‐innovation companies (LICs) show negative relationships. Adopting reporting frameworks or guidelines affects CFP only in HIC. We introduce an original interpretative model, which identifies innovation (R&D) as the main driver in corporate sustainability, particularly in light of Social issues related to the production of a good or service. In terms of managerial implications, we identify three key factors for effectively embedding ESG in organizations' policies: investment in product innovation, compliance with environmental regulations, and corporate choices on brands and channels of external communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploiting a quasi‐natural experiment which mandates a subset of Chinese listed firms to report corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, this paper examines how mandatory CSR disclosure affects suppliers' willingness to extend trade credit. We document that mandatory CSR disclosure firms suffer a significant shrinking in the volume of trade credit, which is driven by the supply side instead of the demand side. Further mechanism analyses reveal that both financial condition deterioration and interest conflicts contribute to adverse policy effects. These two factors negatively impact the credit quality of mandatory firms and then weaken credit quality after the mandate subsequently undermines suppliers' willingness to lend. Additionally, the negative association between mandatory CSR disclosure and trade credit is mainly concentrated on highly policy‐exposed corporates, that is, state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) and high‐polluting firms. Our work innovatively evaluates CSR effects from the perspective of suppliers, which provides a new insight into CSR management along the supply chain for academics and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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COVID‐19 has severely constricted global economic activities. This paper examines the joint effect of capital structure and corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on firm risk during the COVID‐19 pandemic. We find that firms having excessive debt beyond the optimal level experienced high firm risk during the pandemic and the effect is more prevalent among firms with poor CSR performance. In contrast, firms with a debt level below the optimum are self‐protected regardless of their CSR practices. Our study provides businesses with insights on post‐pandemic directions of capital structure and CSR policies to build up sustainability and resilience in a volatile market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an examination of the joint impact of board structural elements at firm level and financial analysts as market‐level corporate governance (CG) on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Our study contributes to the CG–CSR literature by adopting the bundling approach, a perspective that has recently attracted researchers' attention as an answer to any heterogeneity and fragmentation in existing findings. It is based on an extensive sample consisting of 7,739 firm‐year observations of US firms for the 2006–2015 period. The findings suggest that financial analysts complement the corporate board with more independence, gender diversity and a specialized CSR committee to realize a certain level of CSR performance of a firm. The findings also indicate that analysts substitute for those internal governance factors that are associated with weaker boards – larger sizes and dual‐role CEOs. We also draw implications for research and practice from our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether and how employee quality affects corporate social responsibility (CSR). We find that firms with a high‐quality workforce are associated with more CSR engagement. We use an exogenous shock of household registration reform in China to employee mobility to support a causal inference. The main effect is more pronounced among firms whose human capital has more value‐added (e.g., firms in high‐tech industries, firms with more R&D investment, and patent filings). Further, we show that employees' bargaining power and monitoring role are potential channels through which employee quality affects CSR. Finally, our results also demonstrate that the employee quality effect is economically sizeable and generates positive externalities on future financial performance and firm value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporations are under increasing pressure to provide information about their corporate social responsibility activities. However, there is limited work on how firms measure the value of their philanthropic giving. The value of a philanthropic act can be difficult to ascertain as it often relates to unique goods that do not have a market value. The paper examines the processes a sample of (mainly family‐run) private corporations follow to value their donations to a not‐for‐profit cultural festival. The findings suggest that while giving to the festival is seen as a contribution to the local community, there are additional motivations for donating. Moreover, the firms do not attempt to formally assess the value of their act, which they believe is hard (if not impossible) to measure. Our case highlights a more complex system influencing philanthropic acts of private firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to explore how chief executive officer (CEO) ability influences the economic impact of corporate social responsibility strategic decisions. Currently, the evidence on the impact of corporate social responsibility on the value of the company is mixed; in this paper, we aim to observe the moderate role played by this particularity of the CEO in the relationship between socially responsible commitment and financial performance. Our results identify that the most able CEOs make investments in social and environmental practices that lead to greater financial performance; in contrast, the less able CEOs can overinvest or underinvest in an opportunistic way for personal benefit at shareholders' expense. In addition, the role that CEO ability plays in social and environmental strategies is particularly pertinent in munificent environments that foment managerial discretion; in these contexts, high managerial ability leads to investment in socially responsible performance, which benefits shareholders by alleviating moral hazard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to provide a valuable study about the development of literature on corruption prevention during the last decade suggesting the way for the future agenda. We collected documents with the aims to develop a structured literature review (SLR). We collected 113 documents adopting a not grey analysis. Our results shows two main research areas: (i) the corruption prevention understanding its features and using accounting and ethical activities in the business and government procurement and (ii) anticorruption measures, disclosure and behaviours as renewed tools to increase corporate governance sustainability and corporate social responsibility. This is the first time for proposing the SLR on corporate corruption preventions and renewed models directed to build an updated background and emerging issues. This paper is original because proposes for the first time the literature collection of corporate corruption prevention's models providing valuable insights, critique and definition for the future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how director career concerns affect the relation between board interlocks and corporate social responsibility (CSR). We first document that firms with central or well‐connected boards of directors tend to invest more in CSR. We then show that the positive relation between board connectedness and CSR is significantly more pronounced for firms whose directors' future careers would benefit more from CSR, such as those with better corporate governance, firms with larger investments in research and development or firms with high product market threats. Our findings suggest that director career concerns play an important role in the board of directors' decision on CSR investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to propose a new dashboard in which we consider all indicators related to the sustainable supply chain (SSC) under circular economy (CE) constraints. As small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) represent 99% of all businesses in the European Union (EU), this study mainly focuses on surveys of French textile and clothing SMEs. It aims to propose a practical and agile tool to help SC managers cope with sustainability challenges and assess the performance of CE implementation in the SC of the textile and clothing industries. To achieve this objective and to develop a relevant questionnaire enabling us to prepare and conduct surveys, we first identified 63 relevant indicators through an extensive exploratory study based on a leading group in luxury and fashion and a pioneer in corporate social responsibility (CSR). Second, we conducted a survey of 46 textile and clothing companies based in France. Finally, we proposed a new comprehensive SC manager dashboard under CE constraints. From the results, we found that there are several barriers to implementing the CE concept in the textile and clothing industry, such as a lack of sustainability performance, a lack of regulation, and a lack of mandatory responsibilities of SC actors. Hence, to cope with these barriers, the SC must be circular and sustainable by highlighting more circular practices such as recycling, eco‐design, compliance with regulations, reducing waste, minimizing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy, and water consumption. The results revealed that our new proposed dashboard highlights all these concepts that enable us to support textile and clothing SMEs to achieve high sustainable development goals. It can also be used as a decision‐making tool to help SMEs' managers, practitioners, and researchers make better sustainability decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability research is vast and complex, making it difficult to grasp the big picture. To help researchers understand the field better, we created a comprehensive knowledge map of sustainability in management literature by utilising citation‐based clustering and text mining techniques to analyse 25,737 sustainability‐related papers across 22 academic disciplines, as categorised by the Chartered Association of Business Schools (ABS)'s Academic Journal Guide. We identify 23 research streams, with the top three being corporate social responsibility, operations & supply chain and tourism. Each research stream has varying degrees of definition coverage, levels of analysis, levels of interdisciplinarity and connections to the 17 United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Goals #9, #10, #12 and #13 receive more attention than Goals #3, #14 and #15. Our findings suggest a need for more interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers, and we propose four research directions to achieve this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we address the impact of the introduction of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting scheme on corporate carbon reporting, and subsequently identify factors that influence the level of voluntary carbon reporting. A review of the literature demonstrates a large number of potential factors have been previously deployed to explain voluntary reporting practices; however, the analytical and empirical methods widely used in the literature have limiting statistical assumptions and confine analysis to a small number of explanatory factors. To address this limitation in prior research we apply advanced machine learning methods, such as gradient boosting machines and random forests, to identify predictive variables through analytical means. We compare the performance of machine learning methods with traditional methods such as logistic regression. We find that machine learning methods significantly outperform logistic regression and provide fundamentally different interpretations of the role and influence of different predictive variables on voluntary carbon reporting. While most variables were not statistically significant in the logit results, a number of key proxies for financial performance, corporate governance, and corporate social responsibility have out‐of‐sample predictive power of the level of voluntary carbon reporting in the machine learning analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of management responsibility in corporate shock events on shareholders' wealth and the types and frequency of repair actions taken to mitigate reputational losses. Information theory and market psychology suggest that shock events resulting from management faults signal ineffective firm management that reduces market participants' trust in a firm's operations. We utilize a sample of corporate shock events with attributed-firm responsibility ranging from weak to strong and test the above-stated objectives. Our results show that attributed-firm responsibility in shock events has a significant negative effect on shareholders' value. The results also highlight positive relationships between firms' levels of responsibility for events and both the number of types and repair actions that firms pursue. In addition, firms announcing reputation-repair actions were able to rebound a significant portion (41%) of their reputational losses. These findings extend academic research into the cause and consequences of shock events and the repair actions pursued by firms. For practitioners, the results signal the significant negative consequences of shock events and suggest that management should strengthen controls to avoid shock events; but if one was to occur, management should pursue reputation-repair actions to rebuild market participants' trust and rebound shareholders' losses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local governments and enterprises are two important actors in China's environmental governance system. A better understanding of the interaction between corporate environmental responsibility (CER) and governmental environmental responsibility (GER) will help to enhance the collaboration between corporations and the government, craft a good environmental governance system, and achieve coordinated development of economic development and environmental protection. This paper divides GER into three types: policymaking responsibility, implementation responsibility, and supervisory responsibility. Based on panel data on Chinese manufacturing companies listed during the period 2012–2017, this paper analyzes the relationship between GER and CER and explores the impact of the collaboration between the two on regional environmental pollution. The research results show the following: (1) in China, policymaking responsibility significantly promotes CER, whereas implementation responsibility has a significant negative impact on CER, and supervisory responsibility has no significant influence. (2) The collaboration between GER and CER effectively reduces solid waste discharge in a region but does not significantly reduce SO2 emissions or wastewater discharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally, there is growing awareness of the environmental and social impacts of the business activities of organizations. This awareness was heightened by the 1987 report Our Common Future by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987). In order to address the concerns raised, companies have increasingly reported the social and environmental impacts of their business activities to secure their right to operate from society. This paper argues for the importance of an integrated reporting framework that provides information on economic performance via intellectual capital (IC) information and non-economic performance, including that used in the management of performance across social and environmental impacts. This paper briefly reviews three extended reporting approaches, namely IC, balanced scorecard (BSC) and social and environmental reporting. The paper demonstrates that the emphases of these reporting approaches, while diverse, could be complementary to one another and be integrated into an extended performance reporting framework (EPRF), which would provide a more complete account of the management and performance of an organization. The EPRF could empower stakeholders and facilitate change in the way organizations conduct their activities. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: In 1992, I sent Milton Friedman a draft of my 1993 paper “Friedman's Theory of Corporate Social Responsibility.” He and I corresponded at length. My 1993 paper argues that Friedman's published formulations of his theory are not equivalent and that they prescribe different courses of action in many possible cases. In our correspondence, Friedman conceded that his two formulations of his theory are inconsistent and, at my suggestion, he endorsed a modified version of the view he presented in Capitalism and Freedom as the preferred version of his theory. This modified theory is an important formulation of his position. In one of his letters to me, Friedman writes: “I agree that corporate executives might have duties to the general public which sometimes outweigh their duties to the shareholders.” I argue that this creates major problems for his theory. I also answer Friedman's published response to one of my criticisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a special issue of the British Journal of Management on social and political strategies in the non-market environment. On the one hand, it reviews the extant research on the possible forms of interaction between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies and Corporate Political Activity (CPA): CSR-CPA complementarity, CSR-CPA substitution and mutual exclusion between CPA and CSR. On the other hand, the paper provides an overview of the recent contributions of non-business disciplines - psychology, sociology, economics, politics and history - to nonmarket scholarship and, above all, the potential future scholarly contributions of these disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainability of Fair Trade ultimately relies on consumers choosing fair‐traded products. To date, research has tended to study consumer and producer engagement, and reactions to Fair Trade separately. These areas do, however, interconnect systematically through supply chains. In this paper, we introduce a self‐catalyzing model of Fair Trade which acknowledges those interconnections, traces them along supply chains from producer to consumer and addresses different international development priorities articulated in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Its conceptual elements span (a) product quality, in this case, taste experience influenced by organoleptic properties and moral satisfaction; (b) organizational morality via corporate social responsibility and living wages; and (c) strategic management of slack farming resources—each catalyzed by, and catalyzing, positive emotions. Contingencies at each point in the model alter the likelihood that produce will be and feel fair and taste better to consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While academic research has made remarkable progress in understanding corporate social responsibility (CSR), we have scant understanding of corporate social irresponsibility (CSiR). This paper adopts a stakeholder‐agency perspective towards CSiR to ask two related questions: (1) What board‐level structures can monitor management to reduce CSiR? and (2) What are the conditions that render board monitoring more effective? Employing a unique objective measure of CSiR and a sophisticated system generalized method of moments with dynamic panel model on a sample of publicly listed firms in the USA between 2002 and 2015, this paper demonstrates how firms with a specific board‐level governance bundle (i.e. a large, more independent board, with a board CSR committee, a higher proportion of women within boards with frequent director activity) are better equipped to reduce irresponsible behaviours, both in terms of number of irresponsible incidents as well as in terms of their economic costs to the firm. Moreover, the effectiveness of this governance bundle sustains under conditions of high institutional ownership and high board remuneration. This paper has implications for CSR and corporate governance literatures, as well as for managers and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a 20‐year dataset collected from the Web of Science database, this study aims to present a comprehensive knowledge map of the intellectual structure of the field of study of sustainability and financial performances in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). A bibliometric analysis and a systematic literature review method were employed by analyzing articles published between 1999 and 2018, using the VOSViewer software. The study provides an overview of articles, authors, the most influential journals, and themes of research. The results reveal the existence of three themes in research: the role of innovation and entrepreneurship and their impact on sustainability in SMEs (cluster 1), corporate social responsibility in the context of SMEs (cluster 2), and green management and environmental issues for SMEs (cluster 3). In sum, this paper discusses prominent insights from the research analyses and recommends future research directions for the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The volume of work published by accounting scholars on corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting is impressive. As a community we have explored ongoing developments in the field, including the accuracy of the accounts and their economic impact for various actors. We have also asked broader questions about the effect of CSR reporting on corporate accountability and responsibility. However, as it currently stands, our interests are separated because of specific epistemological approaches, and these have divided our efforts. Drawing inspiration from Donaldson and Preston (1995), we identify three streams of CSR reporting research, that is, descriptive, instrumental, and normative. Descriptive research asks: what is CSR reporting? It explores the content of reports and the effect of various contexts on the practice and quality of reporting. Instrumental research asks whether CSR pays, and explores the commercial and economic benefits of CSR for firms and the information value of disclosures for investors. Normative research examines the significance of CSR reporting at a societal level, asking whether these practices have improved organizations' accountability to their stakeholders. While the main purpose of our paper is to review the CSR reporting literature (245 articles), we also map some of the positive impacts that may result from greater epistemological engagement between streams. We identify specific aspects of each stream that might benefit a cross‐pollination of ideas, findings, and insights. We argue that future CSR reporting will be enriched by conversations that extend beyond epistemological divides, which are more likely to mirror the complex reality of CSR in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a tractable model to study the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on real decisions (i.e., production and disclosure decisions) of a firm which can learn from the stock price. Firms with high CSR disclose more precise information, improving the stock liquidity and price efficiency, which also benefit liquidity traders and consumers. Interventions by regulators in firms' disclosure decisions, such as mandatory disclosure, can improve social welfare, but their effectiveness depends on the degree of CSR. We also discuss the implications of learning from the price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A voluntary climate initiative that has emerged over the past two decades as an institutional arrangement for corporations around the globe to signal and demonstrate their proactive climate leadership is the CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project). Unlike the extant literature that has emphasized stakeholder and regulatory pressures, this paper argues that voluntary carbon disclosure is both beneficial and costly for corporations with respect to the existence of supportive management structures, explicit CSR practices, and the existence of complementary assets. Moreover, there is variation between European firms and other global businesses because of Europe's distinctive national business systems framework in conjunction with global supply chain imperatives. Empirically, this study employs a novel discrete‐continuous modeling approach to distinguish between a corporation's decision to disclose and the linked but subsequent decision of how much to disclose climate change information. Results indicate that the main drivers of participation in voluntary carbon disclosure by the Global 500 firms is the existence of senior managers and executive‐level officers and the adoption of ESG principles by global businesses. Conditional on participation, European Union‐based and other global businesses that articulate a corporate vision for environmental sustainability, adopt ESG principles, and invest in complementary assets disclose climate change strategies and emissions at higher levels than companies without these internal firm capabilities. This study has implications for national climate policy and global climate change governance more generally, both of which increasingly focus on concrete climate solutions by corporations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the corporate social responsibility performance of the acquirer firm, measured with the environmental, social and governance score, is related to postmerger operating performance, by analysing 796 merger operations that took place between 2011 and 2018. The analysis was carried out by first considering the full sample and then dividing the sample into three subsamples: acquirer companies with an environmental, social and governance score below the median, acquirer companies with a rating above the median and finally those companies considered to have a very high score (over 80). To support the results obtained from this analysis, a machine learning technique was subsequently applied to the data. The results obtained from the analysis demonstrated that acquiring companies with a high environmental, social and governance rating manage to generate a significant improvement in operating performance postdeal after the merger, whereas this is not the case for companies with a low score or for companies with a score of above 80. These results seem to demonstrate that although a high environmental, social and governance score can have a positive impact on postmerger operating performance, this only true up to a point. A possible explanation for this could be that the costs involved in integrating and aligning the culture of the two merging companies increase when there is the need to maintain a high score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether environmental responsibility can promote corporate performance has always been a focus of debate in theory and practice. We address the dispute regarding the effect of environmental responsibility by focusing on small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in China. Furthermore, based on team faultline theory, we argue that top management team (TMT) faultlines and bankruptcy threat combine to affect the relationship between environmental responsibility and long‐term performance in SMEs. Using data from 410 Chinese companies listed on the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) during 2011–2020, we find that SMEs that engage in more environmental responsibility tend to have worse long‐term performance. Additionally, this relationship varies depending on the conditions of TMT composition (i.e., faultlines) and situation (i.e., bankruptcy threat). Specifically, when the bankruptcy threat is high, TMT faultlines negatively affect the relationship between environmental responsibility and long‐term firm performance. However, TMT faultlines positively affect this relationship when the bankruptcy threat is low. This paper sheds new light on corporate environmental responsibility by adopting a theoretical perspective of TMT faultlines and identifying the specific situations in which TMT faultlines act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A higher greenness of firms is crucial for the mitigation of climate change and other environmental pollution problems. This paper analyses the drivers of a greening of firms from a theoretical and empirical perspective. Three theoretical concepts—the stakeholder theory, the institutional theory and the resource‐based view—contribute to identifying the determinants of firms' greenness. In our empirical analysis based on recent World Bank data, greenness is measured by different environmentally related measures firms adopted over the preceding 3 years, such as more climate‐friendly energy generation, waste minimisation and the improvement of lighting systems. The results of probit and negative binomial regressions show that a high affectedness by environmental regulation triggers firms' greenness. In addition to this 'forced greenness', the results demonstrate that innovative firms are more likely to realise environmentally related measures. This finding also holds for firms affected by extreme weather events. A highly competitive environment is negatively connected with greenness. The corporate social responsibility of family‐owned firms seems to be higher than non‐family‐owned firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature seeking to explain why firms conduct environmental, social and governance (ESG) activity is substantial and growing but remains underdeveloped. This paper offers a holistic and multi‐disciplinary theoretical framework to situate ESG activity as integral to firm performance. Drawing on established theories of the firm, these theories together assist the firm identify salient stakeholders, and how their contributions and claims may be integrated into firm activity. This approach places ESG considerations as an important element of firm activity in terms of developing and maintaining a firm's social licence, the way it manages risks, and building competitive advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though corporate stakeholder orientation is connected with corporate social performance practices, there is a dearth of knowledge on the theorized assertion that background characteristics influence stakeholders' salience and attitude towards social performance practices of firms. The aim of this paper is to measure and examine this hypothesis. To test this claim, this research uses the Surat Resource Region in Queensland, Australia, as the case study. Based on the bivariate test, age, gender, occupation type and educational status have varying statistically significant effects on stakeholders' attitude towards corporate social practices. The multinomial logistic findings showed that only education retained a net effect on a stakeholder's attitude to participation in corporate social practices, where those with a higher level of education are 1.388 times more likely to perceive stakeholder engagement practices as relevant, 2.864 times more likely for social impact assessment practices and 1.430 times more likely for practices aimed at rights of indigenous communities. Findings imply the need for awareness programs to be incorporated into corporate social practices, which can help promote the success of stakeholder-oriented policies. The paper further makes suggestions that have both business strategy and policy planning implications. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We start from the proposition that organizations' social and environmental policies and practices are influenced as much by stakeholders as by organizational management. Various types of organization–stakeholder relationship are outlined, from market-based (e.g. ethical consumerism) to participative (e.g. consultation and coalition). This organization–stakeholder network constitutes the problematic system of concern. The concept of responsibility and its attribution is critically considered, as is the likelihood of value-conflicts between members of this wider system. The tendency for ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) to be managed hierarchically within organizations, characterized by an over-reliance on enforced codes of conduct is critiqued on ethical and practical grounds. It is argued that individuals require a capacity for moral judgement in applying codes and, more generally, when resolving conflict and dilemmas within the wider system of organization–stakeholder relations. An appropriate approach from ethical theory is therefore offered. The paper concludes with a summary of aspects of CSR to which the systems discipline could usefully contribute. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]