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There have long been conflicting expectations of the nature of companies’ responsibilities to society. However, for those businesses that do undertake what might be termed “corporate social responsibility”, what is actually socially responsible behaviour as opposed to management of corporate image management or other activity aimed predominantly at business benefits? This article reviews definitions of corporate social responsibility from both practice and the literature and looks at theories to explain why such behaviour takes place. The literature has strong divides between normative or ethical actions and instrumental activities. The article concludes by posing the question of when instrumental activities become business activities rather than largely social responsibility.

In 1998, executives at US‐based fruit and vegetable producer Chiquita Brands Inc. were horrified to see their company splashed all over the newspapers after an under cover investigation into “dangerous and illegal business practices” throughout its Latin American operations. The Financial Times explains how the investigations shocked the company into a dramatic review of its entire business. Chiquita’s CEO declared his commitment to breaking new ground in responsible management and pledged that the company would do much more than merely repair the damage brought about by the media. Four years on and despite a change at the helm, Chiquita’s corporate social responsibility policy is in full flight.

The past twenty years have seen a significant increase in the use of derivative financial instruments by companies throughout the world (Berkman and Bradbury 1996; Berkman, Bradbury and Magan, 1997a; Berkman, Bradbury, Hancock and Innes, 1997b; Bodnar, Hayt, Marston and Smithson, 1995; Bodnar, Hayt and Marston, 1996; 1998; Collier and Davis, 1985). This paper examines the impact of Financial Reporting Standard 13: Derivatives and Other Financial Instruments, Implementation and Disclosures, on treasury department activities. In particular, the researchers conducted interviews with UK treasury department staff to assess their general attitudes to, and the perceived impact of, FRS 13. In general, the treasurers responded favourably to the standard, and considered the narrative disclosures to be particularly useful. The numerical disclosures were considered to be very detailed and specialised; interviewees thought that users might have difficulty in understanding them. However, the implementation of IAS 39, that becomes mandatory for all EC countries from 2005, was causing treasurers far more concern.

The purpose of this article is to provide a detailed review of how to design and test a framework for assessing the impact of corporate responsibility on firm value.

Building on an earlier conceptual framework, this paper describes the testing of the framework on three cases within EDF over a period of some six months. The results of the workshops on the cases are then taken to show how to build on the earlier conceptual framework.

Much of the difficulty of trading off corporate responsibility with financial performance is due to a lack of detailed understanding of how corporate responsibility issues can affect drivers of value. The framework was validated but to be effective it requires detailed understanding of both corporate responsibility and financial management.

The cases were undertaken within one company and so the results need to be tested in other contexts. Equally the model is too complex at this stage to be rolled out across the group.

Nevertheless the framework is designed to be used in business and indeed EDF have taken the results into their processes.

The paper sets out a detailed approach to linking corporate responsibility and business value in a practical way. The issue now is for businesses to find ways to apply the framework.

The purpose of this paper is to describe Microsoft's activities in encouraging employability and to show how these activities provide strategic advantage

Two of Microsoft's corporate responsibility initiatives linked to the development of employment in Europe are described and it is shown how these activities have created sustainable competitive advantage for Microsoft through an analysis of industrial organisation economics and the resource‐based view of the firm. Reflects on the characteristics of these involvements and points to aspects which may have wider applicability.

Involvement in societal projects can contribute intangible assets to the firm whilst delivering social value. However these projects are part of wider coordinated activities with other organisations and with government.

These are reflections on participation in business and hence the conclusions are not representative and the analysis is unstructured.

These case studies will show other businesses how to think about their corporate social responsibility activities from a strategic viewpoint and will allow academics to see how business develops such strategies.

These are rare descriptions of such projects, which are becoming more common in business.

The pressure on companies to position themselves as responsible corporate citizens has been identified as a key driver of the increase in collaborative relationships between corporations and non‐profit organizations, with innovation and learning recognized as benefits to the firms from such relationships. This paper attempts to identify factors that can foster (or impede) the identification and development of firm‐related innovations that result from engagement with non‐profit stakeholders.

The paper reviews literature within the stakeholder, cross‐sector collaboration, and innovation genres, to examine business‐non‐profit relations specifically in the context of innovation generation.

The outcome of the literature review is a conceptual process model of cross‐sector‐collaboration. This identifies firm motivations, engagement conditions and intra‐firm factors that would appear to influence innovation outcome, and which would benefit from empirical exploration.

The paper begins to develop a framework for considering business‐non‐profit relations in the context of innovation generation and aims to further one's understanding of factors in the engagement process that can influence an innovative outcome.

The Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research has been running Summer Schools since 1992, when the first was arranged as part of the British Accounting Association’s Summer School programme to encourage new researchers to embark on a research career. Whilst the programme has developed over the ten schools so far held, the ethos has remained the same ‐ encouragement and stimulation in a co‐operative, academic environment. The summer schools have given new and experienced researchers the opportunity to present their ideas ‐ whether as completed papers or as some form of work in progress ‐ to a sympathetic audience in tune with the general themes presented. Mostly, the research forms part of the more general critical approach to accounting research, and participants are more comfortable both with presenting and critiquing ideas using a critical framework. This involves exposing ’conventional’ accounting wisdom and using different frameworks with which to examine what transformations may take place if other perspectives are applied. Having said that, there is a place to air research carried out from a managerialist outlook too, so that a reformist position may also be taken.