CSR 2.0 and the new era of corporate citizenship

Abstract

Responsible behaviors are increasingly being embedded into new business models and strategies that are designed to meet environmental, societal and governance deficits. Therefore, the notion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become very popular among academia as this concept has continuously been challenged by those who want corporations to move beyond transparency, business ethics and stakeholder engagement. Back in 1979, Archie B. Carroll affirmed that business have economic responsibilities to provide a decent return on investment to owners and shareholders; by creating jobs and fair pay for workers; discovering new resources; promoting technological advancement, innovation, and the creation of new products and services along with other objectives. Lately, there is a similar discourse in many international fora, conferences, seminars and colloquia about corporate sustainability and responsible behaviors. However, the discussions are usually characterized by the presentation of theories that define the concepts, rather than by being practical workshops (which involve the businesses themselves). In this light, this book clearly identifies the business case for CSR. It attempts to trigger active participation in corporate suites. Inevitably, it contends that there are still some challenging opportunities facing businesses, which will have to be addressed in the foreseeable future; including Stakeholder Relations and Collaborations, Government Regulation for CSR Compliance and the role of Strategic CSR in Education and Training. In this light, this book’s theoretical underpinnings and empirical studies suggest that businesses can do well by doing good. It builds on the previous theoretical underpinnings of the CSR agenda, including Business Ethics (Crane and Matten, 2004); Stakeholder Engagement (Freeman, 1984); Corporate Citizenship (Carroll, 1998; Waddock, 2004; Matten and Crane, 2005), Creating Shared Value (Porter and Kramer, 2011; 2006; Crane, Palazzo, Spence & Matten, 2014), as it presents the latest Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility (CSR2.0) perspective (Visser, 2011,2014; Camilleri, 2017). This promising notion is being recognized as a concept that offers new ways of thinking and behaving. It has potential to deliver significant benefits to both business and society as it is an easy term that may appeal to business practitioners. CSR2.0 is linked to improvements in economic performance, operational efficiency, higher quality, innovation and competitiveness. At the same time, it raises awareness on responsible behaviors. Therefore, CSR2.0 can be considered as strategic in its intent and purposes, as businesses are capable of being socially and environmentally responsible ‘citizens’ whilst pursuing their profit-making activities. This latter perspective suggests that responsible behavioral practices may be re-conceived to confer competitive advantage over rival firms. Therefore, this contribution makes reference to laudable investments that could unleash value to business and society. It implies that CSR2.0 demands business to build adaptive approaches with stakeholders for the benefit of the firm and for societal advancement. Chapter 1 presents a thorough literature review on corporate social responsibility and its other related constructs, including corporate citizenship, stakeholder engagement and business ethics. Hence, this chapter reported on how CSR has evolved to reflect the societal realities. Chapter 2 reviews the different definitions of the corporate responsibility paradigms and draws comparisons between related concepts. The author contends that organization studies; economic, institutional, cultural and cognitive perspectives are shaping the corporate responsibility agenda. She cleverly presents the benefits of integrating multiple perspectives and discusses about the possible research avenues in the realms of corporate responsibility. Chapter 3 suggests that the field of CSR is ushering a new era in the relationship between business and society: in the CSR 2.0 era. The author puts forward a Total Responsibility Management (TRM) approach that may be useful for business practitioners who intend adopting CSR behaviors. This chapter posits that CSR strategies including managing relationship with stakeholders will contribute to the companies´ success and will also bring community welfare. Chapter 4 focuses on the national governments’ regulatory role of raising awareness on CSR behaviors among businesses. The author suggests that there is scope for the state agencies to promote CSR as a business case for companies. She provides an outline of the current state of “supranational regulative policies on public procurement” within the European Union context. Chapter 5 uses a stakeholder perspective to encapsulate the CSR concept. The authors investigated social value cocreation (SVCC) through a qualitative study among different stakeholders (customers, employees, and managers). They implied that businesses ought to clarify their motives, by opening channels of communication with stakeholders. This way, there will be a higher level of SVCC with increased (stakeholder) loyalty toward the firms. Chapter 6 sheds light on Porter and Kramer’s (2011) shared value proposition. The author explains how collaborative stakeholder interactions could lead to significant improvements in the supply chain. Chapter 7 involved a longitudinal study that investigated how four different State Owned Enterprises communicated with Māori communities between 2008 and 2013. This study contributes to the extant research on the legitimacy theory and CSR communication with ethnic minorities in the Aotearoa (New Zealand) context. Chapter 8 links the CSR paradigm with risk management. The author suggests that Serbian businesses ought to adopt corporate sustainable and responsible approaches in terms of their disaster risk reduction prior to environmental emergencies. Chapter 9 involved a quantitative analysis that explored the CSR practices within the hospitality industry. The authors suggested that there were distinct social and environmentally responsible behaviors in different geographical areas. They argued that institutions can take their results into account when drawing up policies that are aimed at fostering responsible tourism practices. Chapter 10 examined how CSR communication of self-serving motives can lead to more trust and credibility among stakeholders as well as corporate reputation. The authors implied that the marketers should be aware of how the public perceive CSR behaviors. Chapter 11 reports that corporate or organizational storytelling, is increasingly being used as a promotional tool to communicate CSR information to stakeholders. The authors present four companies that have used storytelling with the aims of transmitting values, fostering collaboration, leading change and sharing knowledge on responsible practices. Chapter 12 relates corporate sustainability to the construct of emotional capital. The authors maintain that emotional capital enables businesses to attract and retain talent. They maintain that there are significant improvements to the firms’ bottom lines If they invest in responsible human resources management. Chapter13 suggests that the transition from the CSR to CSR 2.0 requires the adoption of five new principles - creativity, scalability, responsiveness, glocality and circularity. The authors posit that these principles ought to be embedded within the organizations’ management values and culture. The authors propose a new framework that can be used to manage the processes of socially responsible organizations. Chapter 14 investigated the banks’ behaviors during the economic crisis in Turkey. The authors reported on the bank’s CSR strategies as they supported small and medium sized enterprises, as well as local communities during the financial turmoil. Chapter 15 offers insights on sustainable tourism as the authors investigated the constraints that explain why an attitude–behavior gap exists in responsible tourists’ behaviors. Chapter 16 examines three leading networks that are intended to promote corporate sustainability and responsibility. The author explores their growing influence as he reviews their objectives, organizational structures, types of activities, practices and impacts. References Camilleri, M.A. (2017) Corporate Sustainability, Social Responsibility and Environmental Management: An Introduction to Theory and Practice with Case Studies. Springer, Heidelberg, Germany. http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319468488 Carroll, A. B. (1979). A three-dimensional conceptual model of corporate performance. Academy of management review, 4(4), 497-505. Carroll, A. B. (1998). The four faces of corporate citizenship. Business and society review, 100(1), 1-7. Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2004). Questioning the domain of the business ethics curriculum. Journal of Business Ethics, 54(4), 357-369. Crane, A., Palazzo, G., Spence, L. J., & Matten, D. (2014). Contesting the value of “creating shared value”. 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