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This paper aims to analyze the potential and limitations of donor-financed management tools that seek to promote corporate social responsibility (CSR) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries. Drawing on key insights from three streams of literature relating to institutional theory, critical perspectives on CSR in developing countries and the literature on CSR and SMEs in the developing world, the potential and limits of donor-financed management tools aimed at promoting CSR in developing country SMEs are analyzed.

Using official UN and Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development lists of all multilateral and bilateral donor agencies, 38 donors that might have produced such CSR tools were identified. The authors contacted them via e-mail and/or telephone, and conducted an extensive Internet search with the aim of identifying whether they had developed management tools aimed at promoting CSR in SMEs in developing countries. The authors then scrutinized the contents of the 11 tools identified and examined the extent to which these tools accord attention to contextual differences and specific peculiarities of institutional environments in developing countries; the extent to which these tools account for the silent or sunken aspects of CSR which have been prominently highlighted in the SME – CSR literature; and the extent to which these tools accord attention to the paramount concern for poverty alleviation in developing countries.

Overall, the analysis testifies to the continued predominant orientation of these tools to the context of larger firms in developed countries, with insufficient tailoring or customization to the specific realities of SMEs in the South.

In-depth interviews with aid agency personnel, SMEs, workers or community members were not conducted. Hence, this study should be seen as an initial, exploratory desk study of the potential and limits of management tools aimed at promoting CSR in SMEs in the developing world.

It is suggested that donor agencies could develop such tools in a bottom-up fashion by first mapping the silent CSR practices of SMEs in developing countries and then use this as a basis for strengthening existing CSR activities in SMEs instead of trying to impose new priorities from the outside. This might enhance the local relevance and applicability of these management tools.

The study is likely to be the first analysis of the potential and limits of management tools that are developed by donor agencies with the aim of promoting CSR in SMEs in developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to understand what the determinants for integrated corporate social responsibility (CSR) are and how they lead to different means of integration.

In this study, a research methodology based on the multiple case analysis was chosen. The selection of case studies was based on the combined application of literal and theoretical replication. Within the technique of theoretical replication, maximum variation and criterion methods were used. In order to increase the reliability of the results, a research protocol for data collection was defined by combining two different techniques: semi-structured interviews and content analysis of documents and websites.

The integration of CSR depends on three factors: the macro-environment, the competitive context and the management philosophy. In particular, management philosophy is the internal variable on which the type of strategic or operational integration depends.

The main managerial implications arising from the empirical analysis can be summarized as follows: first, external conditions influence the CSR management, but the company’s success is tied to the management philosophy; second, innovative business ideas are related to a proactive management approach to CSR; and third the consistency between the management philosophy and the means for managing CSR is fundamental to integrate CSR into strategic management.

The analysis allows to fill the literature gap related to the strategic integration of CSR (driving factors and means of integration).

The purpose of this paper is to build a framework that intends to help organizations define, implement and control their corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies. Based on the stakeholder perspective, this paper proposes a sustainability management control system (SMCS) specifically made for the definition and implementation of CSR strategy, by linking the firm’s material topics to its key stakeholders, thus, allowing our model to be dynamic to different business environments.

In this paper, the authors constructed their model based on a review of selective relevant studies about CSR and SMCSs. This paper also went through different practical concepts from leading sustainability guidelines and stakeholder’s engagement manuals, discussing the stakeholder identification and prioritization, to re-center the debate to the strategic importance of the stakeholder perspective in defining and implementing CSR strategy, as well as its importance in how organizations can define proxies to assess the performance of their CSR initiatives.

Adopting the stakeholder theory as a key lens to re-frame, organize and guide the debate over the performance consequences of CSR has the potential to overcome the simplistic and (eventual) misleading conceptions of CSR strategy implementation, thus fostering the move toward more effective and efficient CSR strategies, by developing management control system (MCS) typical for CSR issues.

The full process of the model outlined in this paper aims to provide a comprehensive and forward-looking tool for CSR and sustainability strategy implementation and assessment. Our model could help companies to gain an overview and an understanding of the relative importance of the material topics of their business activities that should be addressed and how they are related to the key stakeholders, thus, eventually leading to more equitable and sustainable social development by giving those who have a right to be heard the opportunity to be considered in the sustainability decision-making and strategy processes, in the aim of making valuable contributions to social, economic and environmental spheres.

The paper answers the call for research for developing novel theoretical foundations to design MCSs for CSR implementation. Therefore, the paper suggests an innovative model of SMCS for CSR strategy definition, development and implementation and helping organizations to define and develop key sustainability indicators specific to their business environment. The model also presents an opportunity to rethink and advance the understanding of how managers can prioritize competing stakeholders’ claims, which are constrained by the company’s business activities impacts.

This study aims to identify which actors play leadership and brokerage roles in voluntary environmental collaborations and how the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of actors is associated with such voluntary networking behaviours in Cambodia.

To achieve these purposes, this study mainly uses social network analysis to capture the properties of networking behaviours in the voluntary collaborative activities underlying three main environmental issues: waste disposal, energy and water pollution. The study focusses on the collaborative efforts undertaken by actors across multiple sectors: governmental organizations, for-profits and civil society organizations.

The results show that the government plays the leading role in voluntary environmental collaborations across environmental issues; however, the actual implementation is expanded to be undertaken by non-state actors. Moreover, CSR has positive associations with networking and brokerage roles; therefore, this study reveals the utility of various voluntary policy instruments.

This study demonstrates the role of governmental initiation and its influence on non-state actors, even for voluntary environmental tools. The CSR initiatives of private actors can also be supported and encouraged by the government, which will promote participation by private actors in voluntary collaborative networks and their leading role as network facilitators.

By understanding the positions and roles of each actor in the environmental collaborative networks, environmental policymakers can better understand the possibilities and the capabilities of each actor both to improve policy design and learning and to respond to policy changes effectively.

Voluntary collaboration and CSR are non-regulated policy tools; however, they can be promoted and introduced into society by governmental organizations, and they affect each other.

This paper aims to explore the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on shareholder value using the stock market reactions to a terrorist attack. This paper exploits the September 11 terrorist attack as an unanticipated exogenous shock that reduced shareholder wealth suddenly and unexpectedly. Based on the risk-mitigation hypothesis, the argument is that more socially responsible firms should suffer less negative market reactions.

This paper uses the standard event study methodology to estimate the stock market reactions to the 9/11 terrorist attack. Then, the study executes a cross-section analysis to determine whether CSR offers any protection in the presence of a sudden negative shock. Additional analysis includes propensity score matching, instrumental-variable analysis and using Oster’s (2019) method for testing coefficient stability.

The results show that the negative stock market reactions to the shock are significantly alleviated for firms with strong social responsibility. A rise in CSR by one standard deviation improves the market reactions by 22.56% of the average decline. This is consistent with the prediction of the risk mitigation hypothesis, where CSR spawns moral capital or goodwill that functions as an insurance-like defense in case of an adverse event.

The study focuses on short-term market reactions because this method is more likely to show a causal effect. Future research may investigate long-term effects.

While prior research has investigated the effect of CSR on firm value, it has been challenging to establish causality. The approach is more likely to show causality as it is based on a sudden and unanticipated negative shock. This paper also uses several methods to reduce endogeneity, making it more likely that the results show causality, rather than merely an association.

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a crisis that has hit the European economy and the currently existing systems. To cope with the crisis, Europe has started an investment aiming the energy transition and crisis. Portugal, Spain and Greece have received the approval of their National Recovery Plans from the European Commission, with a definition of spending up to 2026 through the European Union (EU) Next Generation Found. The study investigates whether the Green Deal policies are relaunched by the plans financed and whether the pandemic has changed and conditioned the priorities of the energy transaction. The study uses the lens of corporate social responsability (CSR) and relapse measurable across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Green Deal policies supported by new European investments in the three countries were analyzed through a content analysis (CA) technique to investigate the associated practical and theoretical elements.

The energy theme has a relevance compared to other issues in the investment plans envisaged in Greece, Portugal and Spain. The analysis highlights energy efficiency, sustainable energy and reduction of consumption among the main themes. Energetically, sustainable building plays a central role. The study highlights the relationship between Green Deal policies, CSR, SDGs and management tools adopted.

The study strengthens the relationship between the Green Deal, CSR and SDGs by identifying policies that have already been implemented and theoretical and practical gaps on which politicians and scholars will have to investigate and support in the process of development and continuity of the identified pillars.

The purpose of this paper is to note the remarkable expansion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. Taking this as point of departure, it aims to discuss the potential for aligning CSR‐oriented industrial self‐regulation with public governance to fill some of the governance gap in the global economy.

The paper provides a conceptual discussion, empirically underpinned by three case studies.

The paper finds that it is plausible, and empirically supported by the case studies, to conceive of a considerable role for CSR based self‐regulation in the global economy. A central precondition is the ability of civil society organizations to establish “moral rights” as credible voices for “just causes” in a media‐driven communicative society, and thereby put pressure on brand sensitive industry. The paper finds that corporate self‐regulation may fill a larger part of the governance gap if public policy is oriented to engage with industry in a partnered mode.

The paper establishes a conceptual base for exploring the governance implications of CSR, casuistically underpinned by three case studies. Further studies are needed, however, to explore the scale and scope of partnered governance in the global economy.

The paper provides insights into an approach to increase governability of the global economy.

The originality of the paper lies in exploring the implications of CSR for governance, and for highlighting how the governance potential may be enhanced by reorientation of public policy.

The purpose of this paper is to concentrate on environmental, social and governance performance (ESGP) in total and divided in each component and evaluate their impact on financial performance (FINP).

The study covers a sample selection of companies listed on the German Prime Standard (DAX30, TecDAX, MDAX) for the business years 2010-2014 (412 firm-year observations). A correlation and regression analysis was carried out to evaluate possible links between ESGP as determined by the Asset4 database of Thomson Reuters and accounting and market-based measures of FINP (Return on Assets [ROA] and Tobin’s Q).

ESGP has a positive impact on ROA but no impact on Tobin’s Q. Furthermore, by analyzing the three different components of ESGP, governance performance has the strongest impact on FINP in comparison to environmental and social performance.

The analysis makes a key contribution to the empirical corporate social responsibility (CSR) research as the author breaks down ESGP into their three components and include both accounting-based and market-based FINP measures for the German setting for the first time. Not only companies but also regulators and researchers are affected by the notion that CSR and FINP are close together and should be lead to a successful stakeholder management.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the precursors of corporate reputation (CR) and their impacts on brand equity (BE), and to analyse the moderating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) perceptions.

This study proposes a theoretical model which is tested using structural equation modelling. In total, 464 valid questionnaires were collected from a sample of customers of the biggest union of dairy cooperatives of the Iberian Peninsula.

Results show that the better the reputation, the higher the BE; however, these findings are more robust among customers with higher perceptions of CSR.

This study is based on cross-sectional data from a single company.

The results may help managers build a better reputation and therefore increase their BE. CSR practices are essential to reinforcing this relationship.

This paper contributes to the competitiveness of a type of organisation which is closely associated to the social structure of the rural population.

The results may help cooperatives’ managers to increase CR and BE. The emphasis is on the need to adopt CSR practices.

O objectivo desta investigação é compreender os antecedentes da reputação corporativa (CR) e seus impactos sobre o valor da marca (BE) e analisar o papel moderador das percepções da responsabilidade social das empresas (RSE).

Este estudo propõe testar um modelo teórico utilizando a modelagem de equações estruturais. Quatrocentos e sessenta e quatro questionários válidos foram recolhidos de uma amostra de clientes da maior organização corporativa de lacticínios da Península Ibérica.

Os resultados mostram que uma melhor reputação faz aumentar o valor da marca (BE). No entanto, estes resultados são mais robustos entre os clientes com percepções mais altas de Responsabilidade Social Corporativa.

Esta pesquisa é baseada nos dados transversais de uma empresa.

Os resultados podem ajudar os gestores a construírem uma reputação melhor e portanto, aumentarem o valor da marca, sabendo que as práticas de RSE são essenciais para fortalecer esse relacionamento.

Este trabalho contribui para a competitividade de um tipo de organização que está associada à estrutura social da população rural.

Os resultados podem ajudar os gestores das cooperativas a potenciarem a melhoraria da reputação corporativa e do valor da marca. A ênfase é sobre a necessidade de adoptar práticas de RSE.